Day 5 – Wednesday 8th JANUARY
2020.
Another
leisurely start to another day in Paradise.
We slept In a little this morning, as we both had trouble getting to
sleep last night after our big afternoon nap.
Ian was up early this morning and found this little fellow out near our clothes line... Steve was convinced he had been poisoned as he was pretty docile. The island obviously has a problem with rats, because you see rat traps all over the island...
Steve cooked
breakfast (wonderful scrambled eggs full of organic vegetables grown on the
island) and we sat outside on our back deck enjoying the morning sunlight that
steams in watching the birdlife and wildlife whilst we enjoyed breakfast
together…
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| Steve cooked us an amazing breakfast this morning.. |
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| Lots of birdlife around our home on the Island.. |
We often use
this meal to plan our day. Today we have
decided to go back into town and get some museum passes to visit some of the
museums for Ian and Kathy to get a better picture of Norfolk and it’s
history. We also plan to wander around
the convict ruins this morning.
Before leaving for town this morning, Kathy and I went to pick some fresh flowers for our table. There are so many beautiful hibiscus, we just had to have a few photos taken with them as well...
We left home
a little after 10am and before we headed into Burnt Pine to the Baurnti Tours Office to
pick up our Museum Pass tickets, we stopped by one of the roadside stall to drop off some egg cartoons.
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| dropping off egg cartons at this roadside stall |
We then drop into town and bought our Museum passes. This
ticket gives us unlimited entry on any day for the duration of our stay on the
island to any of the four museums and also enables us to go on the Tag-a-long
tours down in Kingston Historical Precinct.
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| The Pier Store |
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| Kingston Pier |
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| The Boatshed |
It was a
good thing that we didn’t leave any earlier as the museums don’t often until
11am and then they are closed again by 3pm.
We had to go to the Pier Store down near Kingston Pier to trade our
voucher for tickets for us all, so therefore decided to start there at the
“Pier Store” as that is one of the five museums, we are able to access.
We started
downstairs reading all about the Mutiny on the Bounty and about the arrival of
the Pitcairn folk onto Norfolk Island.
The lady that was running the store then informed us that she would be
starting a video about “Norfolk Island” upstairs within 5 minutes, so we
thought we would head upstairs and watch this.
It probably went for a good half an hour or more, and also it was pretty
old we did pick up some useful information about the people and industries of
Norfolk Island.
Whilst we
were upstairs, we continued reading about the Life on Norfolk Island before
heading back downstairs. This wasn’t as
new for Steve and I as it was for Ian and Kathy. We had been here 15 years ago and had been
through the Museum then and had also been to a few different shows that were
running on the island at the time depicting the stories of how Norfolk Island
had been settled.
After
looking through this Museum, we headed outside to wander among the ruins of the
early settlement and visited the Crank Mill, the Civil Hospital, and the
original Government House. We are yet to
wander through the Convict Penal Settlement….
Firstly we had a good look at the Crankmill. The Crankmill served as a facility for convicts from 1837 to 1855.
Originally built as a store in 1827, the building changed its purpose
several times before it was consumed by fire in the late 19th century.
Today, you can see only the moss-covered walls and remnants of the old
whaling boat, which survived from the period when the building was used
as a boat shed. The remains of the crank mill mechanism are kept in the
Norfolk Island Museum.
As Norfolk has no harbours, the supplies are bought to shore by
traditional long boats, towed by motorised launches. There are 2
jetties, and depending on the sea conditions as to which one is used. A couple of these long boats are on display in the precinct in Kingston....
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| One of the long boats on the beach at Kingston.. |
We wandered up the hill a little to check out the site of the first Government house at Norfolk Island.
The first Government house was meant to be a temporary home
and it was completed in a little over a year and occupied by June 1789. With other
priorities, and a serviceable structure as his new abode, Phillip remained in
this house for the rest of his time in New South Wales and administered the
colony, wrestling with the daily problems thrown up by the developing
settlement and planning for its future.
When Phillip sailed for England in December 1792 his 'small
cottage' was the most substantial and grandest house in the settlement.
Phillip's grand town planning vision for a more impressive building had come to nothing. Instead, his 'temporary' house became the
heart of the home and office of the first nine governors of New South Wales.
Successive governors repaired, altered and extended the house, even as they
complained bitterly of its condition and unsuitability, and made plans for
other accommodation.
By this time the first Government House was no longer the dominant house
in the colony – architecturally or physically. It was inadequate both in
accommodation and prestige.
Despite the litany of complaints, and although several plans for a new
Government House were prepared and authorisation for its construction was given
in 1825, work was delayed due to other pressing demands. Indeed, work on the
foundations of the new house did not commence until 1837.
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| All that remains of the first Governor's House on Norfolk Island |
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| What is left of the well near the first Government House |
From Government House we wandered down to have a very quick look at the Civil Hospital. By this stage Ian and Kathy had wandered down to check out the Royal Engineer's office.
The history of the civil hospital is rather appalling with main deaths reported from dysentery because of the squalid living and working conditions in the penal settlement.
From here we wandered over to the Royal Engineer's Office which now houses a museum dedicated to the cows that wander the island... They also have quite a few books on Norfolk Island, both beautiful pictorial views of the Island, and also books on the history of Norfolk, both Penal Settlements and and the arrival of the Pitcairns.
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| The original Royal Engineer's Office |
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| Cow Hide from one of the Norfolk Island Beasts |
We had one last wander around Kingston, although we decided to leave exploring the prison section for another time, as from our previous experience you could spend all day there reading the information signs...
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| Main gates to the Prison.. |
There were quite few cattle roaming and grazing around Kingston this morning.... It feels like there are a lot of cattle just freely grazing around this part of the island than I remember form our last visit...
We were hungry, and it was after
1pm so we all decided to have some lunch at the Golf Club on Quality Row.
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| Driving along Quality Row heading to the Golf Club for lunch |
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| Tent City - the Pitcairn descendants have established a tent city here as they protest and fight for their democracy. |
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| Houses on Quality Row |
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| The Norfolk Flag |
We have had several people recommended the
Café there (The Olive Branch) and they all commented on the magnificent views
overlooking the club course and the ocean…
We were also told the food was good.
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| Our destination for lunch - The Golf Club, No. 1 Quality Row |
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| Golf Club |
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| Views of Government House from the Golf Club |
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| View from our table overlooking the Golf Course. |
The staff
were friendly and Ian and Kathy ordered the Balinese Beef Curry, whilst Steve
and I ordered the Salt and Pepper Calamari with chips and a beautiful
salad. Both meals were around the $16
mark and huge. We have been finding this
on the island, the one meal with comfortably feed two of us…
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| Our lunch destination today... |
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| We had lunch here - on the front verandah overlooking the Golf Course and the ocean |
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| Ian and Kathy shared this lunch |
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| Steve and I shared this one for lunch |
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| my share |
The meal was
beautiful, cooked perfectly and full of flavour, the views were stunning. We enjoyed watching the golfers play and
applauded them as they putted their balls into the holes…
There were
lots of very green grass patches on the golf course, including one just in
front of where we were sitting… They
kept calling me to come sit on them and so after our meal, Kathy and I went and
sat and then lay on the beautifully green soft grass so that Steve could snap a
photo of us.
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| Checking to see if it was real grass or not |
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| The ground was a little moist... |
W
e were also
curious to see if the green where you finally putt your golf ball into the hole
was actually fake grass or real grass.
The boys were convinced that it was a fake kind of carpet grass, so
Kathy and I crawled over to it and were trying to pluck some to see if it was
real. It definitely was as we were able
to pluck little pieces into our hand. Obviously, it is a special sort of short
leaf grass that they grow especially for golf courses and bowling greens, as we
had noticed it at the Bowling club on the first night we arrived on the island
also.
After lunch
we went for a drive up Rooty Hill Road to the Queen Elizabeth Lookout which
gave us some amazing views over Kingston and the islands.
There are so
many beautiful lookouts on this island, all with fantastic views of the
ocean. We probably spent half an hour up
here admiring the views. It certainly
gave you great views of the house on Quality Row also as you looked down on
them.
There were
falcons flying above us and it was beautiful just watching them glide and dive
through the sky.
We left here
to head to Ball Bay, but as we got to Martian’s Road (which leads you into Ball
Bay, the road was closed, so we ended up going to check out Two Chimney’s
Reserve instead.
You literally stand
right on the edge of the cliff and look down into the ocean below. No safety fences here…. We had been here last
time but had not noticed another walk which took you downhill onto a headland
that had amazing views of the rocks to one side and the rock formations on the
other side that looked a little like a chimney stack.
There was even a seat for you to sit and
admire the views. (which we did). It is so peaceful here, in fact there are so
many wonderful spots on this island that are peaceful and where you can just
sit and watch the waves crash onto the
rocks or shore below. No wonder we love
coming here…..
From here we
just finishing driving to the end of Stockyard’s Road checking out the houses,
views and animals.
On our way back we
turned onto Martian’s Road which also leads into Bay Ball. We saw a mother hen and all her little
chicken’s crossing the road but were not fast enough to snap it with the
camera.
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| Nesting Tern Birds |
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| Cattle grazing on a steep slop on the land.... |
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| Flash houses around Ball Bay |
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| Looking down onto Ball Bay |
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| Ball Bay - Norfolk Island |
There seems
to be a lot of new homes built in here since we were last on the island. New homes with the most stunning views out
over the bay. It was hard to get a good
view of the bay from this road, although on our way back out we noticed an area
called Ball Bay Reserve, so Steve parked in there and we were able to wander
down a hill side which then gave us phonemical view of the Bay.
Steve even went further down along a ridge
which offered even better views than we had from up top. He got a couple of great panoramic photos.
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| The long road home ( full of pot holes too) |
By now it
was after 5pm, and we were feeling a little weary from being out in the fresh
air for most of the day, so we decided to head home for a cuppa and to put our
feet up.
Steve cooked
us another feed of fish for dinner tonight from the fish that he had caught the
previous day.
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| Table Centre piece |
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| Table Centre piece |
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| Dinner tonight - more fresh fish |
We enjoyed a feed of King
fish tonight and it almost melted in your mouth. So tasty and this was accompanied by fresh
organic salad grown locally on the island.
Even the beetroot was home grown and pickled by the locals…. Thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, as good as any
meal we have had here.
Tonight we
just all chilled out, Kathy read the book that she had bought today about
Norfolk Island and shared titbits with us,
Ian was engrossed in the book he was reading, Steve sent messages to our kids, and I edited
photos and wrote up a journal entry of our day’ outing.
Ian and Kathy retired early, and Steve and I
were in bed before 11pm. Another perfect
day in paradise…
You literally stand
right on the edge of the cliff and look down into the ocean below. No safety fences here…. We had been here last
time but had not noticed another walk which took you downhill onto a headland
that had amazing views of the rocks to one side and the rock formations on the
other side that looked a little like a chimney stack. 
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