Matt has hijacked the blog to write this entry! Enjoy! Laurs xx
 
I'll apologise now for the length of this entry but it seems there was a lot to write about . 
 
Finally the day had come when we were jetting off to Norfolk, just not the Norfolk we know so well. Although they have some similarities, this one is pronounced Nor-folk, has lovely blue sea and actually gets sunshine!! That was pretty much all we knew about the island as we'd made our mind up to visit based on a drunken promise Gareth made 7 years ago and 12 photos we were shown on a calendar! Josh, our friend we stayed with in Sydney, grew up on the island so he's very passionate about the place. He was very keen to show us photos and sell the island to us and, after all, it was called Norfolk, so it would be rude not to go! Josh had also arranged for us to stay with his mum (Megan) whilst we were there and she was more than happy for us to stay. 
 
We had an early start as we had to be at the airport for 7am with our flight at 9am. As we went through the airport we didn't really know what to expect from the next week: we were excited about going but also a bit concerned after hearing there wasn't much to do there and that only "newly weds or nearly deads" go there! Also, we had checked the weather forecast and to our dismay it was expected to rain and be stormy the whole time we were there so we had our fingers tightly crossed this was wrong! Our fears were backed up when we arrived in the departure lounge and quickly noticed how we were pretty much the only people under 60!! This made us chuckle as we'd certainly found the "nearly deads" already! The flight was only 2 and a half hours long but went extremely quickly as every seat had a personal computer with TV shows and games on, all except for Gareth who's wasn't working! What was even more amusing was that Air New Zealand have Bear Grylls starring in the flight safety video which was a bit of a surprise but was certainly unique!
 
As we approached the landing strip, we could instantly see how small the island is (it's only 13 .3miles squared!). So as you can imagine, it looks quite strange as such a big aeroplane tries to land on an island which is only 7 miles long! Straight away you can see how picturesque it is with its blue waters, lush green hilly land and the Norfolk pine trees everywhere. We landed safely and Josh had warned us to expect quite a welcome, but even I was shocked as I was first off the plane out of the 3 of us and i looked over to the neat little airport to see a whole group of people start waving! It was as if half the village had come to meet us. This didn't help at all as we had never met Josh's mum Megan before so we didn't really know what she looked like and she didn't us except she had been told we were the young ones on the flight, so we couldn't be missed! It seemed very strange seeing a small wooden sign saying " Welcome to Norfolk" but felt very exciting. After getting through customs with no problems, except the guard finding it very intriguing that we were from Norfolk in England, we made our way to find Megan . 
 
Although we didn't really know who to look for, it soon became clear who she was and we said our hellos. Never before have I seen a complete stranger be so excited to see us or be so welcoming. She seemed so happy to have us visit and it made us feel as ease straight away. She quickly gave us a little run down on the island and how there's lots for us to do. Megan has lived here for 35 years now and is an 8th generation descendent of Fletcher Christian, so her roots go right back to the mutiny on the Bounty and the British people who lived on Pitcairn Island. If you're not sure what all that means, it will all get explained as you continue reading as it took us a while to get our heads round it all. 
 
After taking us to her house to drop our bags off, she gave us a quick drive round the island, showing us where the Main Street was with the shops and cafes on and down to Kingston which is one of the main tourist areas as it has all the old ruins, the beach and the reef for snorkelling. We dropped her back off at work and went exploring ourselves as she had let us have her car for the time we were here . We were assured that you can't get lost because it's such a small place so you will always end up back on the Main Street somehow if you drive around long enough. As we were diving round, Megan had pointed out that the cows on the island have right of way??? This seemed strange until we discovered that most of the cows here have free range of the whole island and if you hit one you get a massive fine. There is quite a lot of them about too in all shapes and sizes and they're not bothered at all by oncoming cars so they literally do take priority, especially as some of them are absolutely huge!
 
After a quick drive round, we decided to check out the town and the mall. It soon became clear that this is a small community with the bumpy patched up roads, neat little family run shops and businesses and the mall not being like a mall you would normally expect but a small town looking one with just a newsagents, chemist, butchers, bakery, photo gallery and a supermarket inside. But this was all that was needed, as there is only a population of 1200 people . You instantly notice how happy and friendly the locals are as everyone either says hello or waves at you as you drive past so it made us feel very welcome. We had also been told that we didn't need to ever lock the car or the house. This took a little while to feel comfortable with but we went along with it. Especially after I almost got told off for having the car keys in the house instead of leaving them in the ignition. Another funny thing we discovered was that because everyone on the island shares the same few surnames, the phone book is actually written using nicknames, also the mobile numbers aren't 11 numbers long like ours, they are only 5 long so it's really easy to remember people's numbers! Still a little worried that there wouldn't be very much to do here, we popped into the Visitor Information Centre for some inspiration! Amazingly, they have devised a list of the top 101 things to do on the island, so we went from having nothing to do to having way too much! This visit also showed us just how close knit the community is here as, apparently moments after we left, the lady working there (Duss), phoned Megan to tell her she had just met us! It seemed like we had become celebrities!
 
Megan's house is called Ocean View and it is right on the main road except for a long paddock you have to drive down to get back to the road . It's a lovely old looking bungalow with verandas all the way round and very open on the inside. It's a very homely home with lots of nice decorations and old family pictures on the wall and even a home made height chart drawn all the way up the door frame in the kitchen. It wasn't long before we met Megan's 15 year old twin daughters Paige and Zanaida! They had just finished school but were now going out riding on their motorbikes around the paddock and surrounding fields. They have a 125cc bike each but they aren't allowed on the roads yet as they're not old enough but they are allowed to practice on the paddocks until they get their licences. Just as we sat relaxing waiting for Megan to finish work, we got to meet Luke and Amanda who popped over to introduce themselves. Luke is Paige and Zanaida's brother and Amanda is his Canadian girlfriend, they're just over on holiday at the moment but Luke grew up here and they were very pleased to have new young people to spend some time with!
 
Once Megan had finished work, we all got to chat properly and get to know each other better . Megan's partner Tony came over as well so we all sat on the veranda eating nibbles and drinking wine as we chatted all night. it was a lovely way to start our visit. There was also a party on down at the golf club as a fundraiser for a lady who recently broke her hip so once it got to 11ish, we decided, along with Luke & Amanda, to give that a look. It was quite amusing as we got to meet a few more of the locals but most of them were pretty drunk by now as it was quite late. We only had time for 1 drink as the bar then shut so we all headed home.
 
To get us straight into our visit Megan had us booked on the convict tour which involved us getting up 8am. We were looking forward to this as we really didn't know much about the history of the island's convicts and Megan had assured us that our guide Puss Anderson knew everything there was to know. Puss has lived on the island his entire life (70 years) and he is a 6th generation descendant of the Bounty mutineers, he is fascinated by the island's history so he had spent years researching it all . He drove us down to the Kingston area where the jail ruins and government houses are to begin the tour. It was very interesting but quite shocking as we discovered that this beautiful island actually used to be possibly the worst place a convict could ever be sent. With only 2nd offence criminals being sent here from Britain they all had life sentences, some people for very minor offences such being homeless and stealing small amounts of food. The prison had several different commandants with each one being more cruel and tyrant like than the last, this made the prison a living hell with no means of escape. This drove the prisoners to hold weekly games of suicide Russian roulette as they would rather be dead than serve their sentences. There have been countless deaths, hangings, murders and suicides in this small little area and, as a result, most of the locals have experienced or seen ghostly things so a lot of them won't come down here after dark. There are many ghostly tales, including a house which is called 'The Duplex' which was featured on the TV show, 'Australia's Most Haunted' . This was after a mother killed her daughter by throwing her down the well in the property's garden. Just up the road is the graveyard which isn't much better as it hosts the oldest gravestones in the whole of Australia so as you can imagine lots went on back here when the jail was open. Just behind the graveyard is a large lump in the grass, this is a mass grave which they call 'Murderers' Mound'! The name being self explanatory as they threw the murderers' bodies here. We learnt so much and it seemed like we could have been there all day with Puss struggling to tell us everything he could as we were running out of time. Once the tour had finished, around 1pm, we decided to head straight back down to the area to take some pictures as it was a lovely sunny day and we didn't have a chance to take any during the tour. After getting lots of pictures, we had a little drive up the coast to explore a bit but then quickly headed home as we were going for a BBQ down at Anson Bay. Much to our surprise we had all gotten quite sunburnt whilst being on the tour without it actually being that hot, so Lauraine and Gareth were both now sporting lovely red faces and chests! Once back at the house, we quickly helped Megan pack the picnic box and we all headed to Anson Bay where Tony was waiting with his 2 daughters: Mercedes and Eloise . We had a lovely time eating as the sun went down and Lauraine enjoyed learning how to make flowers by weaving flax.
 
We were all to meet up again in the morning, except for Paige and Zanaida who had their Sunday horse riding club. This time we were meeting to go on a trek called the 'Bridle Walk'. This is 40 minute trek which Tony usually does as a tour when he takes out groups of old people so it's not a very challenging walk but it is very scenic as it starts in heavy woodlands and ends up on the cliff tops of the coast leading to Captain Cook lookout. This marks the place where Captain Cook first landed on the island in 1774. It's such a beautiful lookout as it looks down the coastline at the cliffs and lovely blue sea, it also has a very relaxing picnic area with lush green grass surrounded by Norfolk pine trees. We sat and ate snacks in the warm sunshine for a while before heading back to get the car. Mercedes had come up with the brilliant idea that we should go and try the mini golf so we headed straight there . This is a bit of a legendary mini golf as the lady has been running it for as long as Megan can remember and it's always been free. It's a very nicely kept course which started with a volcano that actually smoked. We were very surprised to find out that the 9 holes actually tell the historical story of the island in a very basic way even kids would understand, so as we played each hole the history actually started to make sense to us. We had such fun playing especially as Gareth's first shot went flying right off the course! For us mini golf novices, it was actually quite challenging at times but we laughed and enjoyed it so much we went round the course again. I had won the first 9 holes and even got a hole in 1 but the next 9 was to be Gareth's turn. He won by about 3 shots and I came last but surprisingly as we added up all 18 holes it turned out Lauraine had actually won overall by 2 shots!!! Another case of the tortoise beating the hare! It had been such a lovely day we decided to go and see the sunset at Anson Bay again as it was too cloudy the night before . It wasn't perfect but it was still good enough to get some lovely pictures. After sun set we had decided on going back down to Kingston for a little ghost hunt. Gareth and I headed into the graveyard and went down to Murderers Mound as we'd been told that if you take pictures in the dark you can quite often catch orbs or spirits on camera, although it felt rather spooky we got nothing on our pictures, as you might of guessed. During, all of this, Lauraine decided to stay in the car!!! It was still reasonably early when we got back to the house and with the girls sleeping at their Dad's house and Megan staying at Tony's, we decided to watch a film, Taken 2, before heading to bed.
 
To give you a bit of a history lesson this is what we learnt from the mini golf. The island was originally a volcano which erupted 3 million years ago. The first people to settle on the island were the Polynesians in the 14th and 15th centuries. After occupying the island for several generations, they mysteriously all left never to return with no one still knowing why . 
 
Captain Cook then discovered the island in 1774 during his second expedition to the South Pacific. He named the island Norfolk after the Duchess of Norfolk, not knowing she had passed away a few months earlier. He believed the huge pine trees and the abundance of flax would be useful for the British Navy, so sent a message back to the King that the island should be claimed and colonised. Britain agreed to the colonisation, mainly because they had become aware that the French intended to try and claim the island, and ordered the convict vessel headed for Botany Bay to drop some convicts there and transport the rest to Norfolk Island. The colonisation began in 1788 but only lasted until 1814 when the settlement was abandoned. 
 
The British returned in 1825 to try again, this time transporting the worst possible convicts imaginable to occupy the prison. By 1852, the prison was closed again due to the shocking treatment of the prisoners and they had all been relocated by 1856. At the same time Queen Victoria had taken pity on the inhabitants of the small island of Pitcairn due to the stories sent back to England . This tiny island had become overcrowded and the Pitcairn Islanders were struggling to survive. With Norfolk Island uninhabited and still under threat from the French, she offered the Pitcairn Islanders, Norfolk as their new home. Another reason for her generosity was that many of the Pitcairn Islanders were in fact from British descent as they were the mutineers from The Bounty along with their Tahitian wives and families. In June 1856, the 194 new residents of Norfolk Island arrived and the island was transferred to them. This is where Megan, Puss and many of the other current islanders find their link to the island as they are descendants from the original people of the last colonisation. Which in terms of this island is quite a special thing. I hope that makes some sense, it was the short version after all!
 
On Monday, after popping to see Megan at work we set off on another busy day. It was Gareth's 26th birthday so we wanted to make it special and pack in as many activities as possible! First off we went back down the cemetery to get some pictures of the old gravestones and to pay our respects to Roxy, Megan's daughter who sadly lost her life in a car accident 9 years ago . She has a beautiful headstone and Megan keeps it looking immaculate. It's a fitting tribute to a girl who was very much loved. We then decided to go past Murderer's mound and onto the beach, we soon noticed lots of large black rounded rocks so we started playing around balancing them on top of each other making decorative rock piles, Lauraine also had fun writing in the sand and taking arty photos of her engagement ring. Once we'd finished we headed straight for Mount Pitt as it was a nice clear sunny day so it would be perfect to view the island from there. It's a short drive across the island and up a steep slope to get to the top, it's only 318m high so its not exactly a big mountain but its perfect for such a small island. It's still high enough to get a wonderful view of the land and the neighbouring islands Nepean and Phillip island. Being up here really gives you the perspective of just how small Norfolk Island is, as you can see all over and straight down onto the runway of the air port which looks like it takes up such a large section of the land . After chatting to a few local workmen we walked over to Mount Bates. It's only a 20 minute walk from peak to peak along a board walk and through the trees. Mount Bates is actually the higher of the 2 but only by 1 metre. You actually get a totally different view from here as it looks in the other direction to Mount Pitt. It's a much steeper drop and looks down on a lovely big house sat on a cliff edge surrounded by trees looking out over the blue water. We had lots of fun taking some lovely pictures sitting and messing about together on the bench or stood on the fence. Then came the genius idea to roll back down the hill we'd walked up to get to the lookout. We all almost cried with laughter as each of us had a go rolling down with our different styles. Gareth trying an army roll and Lauraine and I going for the more standard pencil roll. Needless to say I'm not good with spinning so it took me quite a while to actually stand up again after my go as my head was still spinning. We dusted ourselves off and headed back to the car for our next stop the South Pacific museum . This museum sounded interesting in the brochure but that's about as exciting as it got. The museum obviously hasn't been touched for years and doesn't get many visitors so we quickly made our way round and then had some bible related leaflets thrust upon us before we made a quick exit. We quickly looked in the toy shop and sneakily bought Gareth some balloons and candles for his birthday meal later. Megan had cooked up a leg of lamb and vegetables and to say it tasted absolutely amazing is an understatement, she's really proved how much of a good cook she is to the point we now daren't cook her our usual backpacker meal of chicken pasta!! We all got to sing for Gareth as Tony came over and Megan's friend had baked a lovely chocolate birthday cake especially for Gareth earlier that day. 
 
Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day and, without doubt, the hottest so far so we quickly went to take advantage of this. We headed back to Kingston to take a few more pictures from the lookouts and the area before going for a swim in the amazing waters of Emily Bay . The water is such an incredible colour so we'd been looking forward to a swim since we'd got here and it was lovely to finally get our chance. A little while later, we had a phone call from Luke and Amanda as they were heading to the Crystal Pools as it was so sunny and asked whether we fancied going as well. This was perfect as we'd actually had the same thought earlier so we quickly dried off, grabbed lunch and headed over. To get down to the Crystal Pools, you have to climb down the cliff edge. It's a bit of a steep climb but is okay apart from one section which you need to use a rope to hold on to and ease yourself down. Thongs are not very useful in times like this so we all ended up going bare foot. As we reached the bottom, Luke led the way across all the rocks to where the pools were. It's a beautiful area with such dark black rocks looking back on the lush green cliff faces and pine trees. The pool itself is breathtakingly clear, it's no wonder its called the Crystal Pools, in fact it's so clear you can see the coral on the bottom without even getting in! This makes it look quite shallow but it's actually about 4 metres deep so its safe to jump in . We all had a little swim and snorkel looking at the colourful coral and few fish that are trapped in the pool until high tide frees them. Luke had brought some fishing rods so he got them set up off the rocks where we could see turtles swimming nearby. He didn't seem to be catching much but Gareth soon rubbed salt into the wound by catching a fish almost as soon as his first cast hit the water. That happened to be his only catch so I had a little go, I wasn't anywhere near as quick as Gareth but on my first cast I thought I caught a rock, but after a few pulls to free my line it turned out it was actually a fish as well. I'd never caught a fish before in my life so it felt heavier than expected but it turned out to be a nice sized colourful fish with rather large sharp looking teeth. Luke had to be very careful getting the hook out of its mouth as it would have given him a nasty bite if it got the chance. Even though it wasn't that big I was still pleased with my first ever catch. Luke came up with the idea of going for a bonfire on the beach at Anson Bay and cooking some fish so we got packed up and scaled back up the cliff . After a quick shower, we headed over, it's about a 15 minute walk down a zig zagged walkway to get from the cliff top to the beach so we quickly did this before sunset to get the fire started. Luke's friend Jamie and his dog were already there as had they both just been swimming. It was such a lovely evening as we all chatted and Jamie being a trained chef cooked some amazing trumpeter fish with couscous, guacamole along with the crisps, bread and marshmallows we'd brought. It was all delicious especially the fish as we'd never even heard of it and as we're not mad keen on fish were a little concerned about trying. After several hours we decided to head back up to the cars but of course by now it was pitch black and no one had remembered to bring torches, this was going to be problematic because we couldn't even see the path back let alone walk it, along with the big night spiders they have here and the rats. Luckily a few of us had torches and battery on our phones so we had to share them and stick in groups to slowly make our way back up the winding track . Luckily we all made it without any encounters with the spiders or rats!
 
If we thought our days had been busy already, Megan wasn't letting it ease up, we were booked in for 3 tours today! A 'Discovery' tour with Her friend Liz, straight into a snorkelling tour of the reef at Emily Bay and Slaughter Bay with a lady named Karlene, followed up by a night in the theatre for a show named 'The Trial of the 15'. We probably should have done the Discovery tour as soon as we got here as it shows you all around the island and explains about the areas and buildings. Although we had seen a lot of the areas ourselves during our own exploring, we still learnt which roads go where and obviously we enjoyed Liz's expert knowledge of the area and its history. Liz is a historian who has lived on the island for most of her life. English is actually her 2nd language as, until she was about 11, she only spoke Norfolk. Norfolk is a language made up between the Tahitians and the British sailors on Pitcairn Island and is still used on Norfolk today . Some words we learnt during our stay include: 'morla' which means 'tomorrow', 'yorli' which means 'everyone' and 'sullen' which means 'people'. The tour was going well, until the man from the only other couple on the tour with us, decided he was more interested in the birds on the island than what Liz was saying. He was obviously a keen birdwatcher but as he only arrived yesterday, he hadn't actually seen any. It ended up with Liz getting irritated by his questions and him getting annoyed with her answers. It was quite amusing but they both kept their cool. 
 
We finished the tour in good time to get down to Emily Bay and meet up with Karlene for our snorkelling. Karlene is another lady who has lived here most of her life, she used to run the scuba diving school but just does snorkelling tours now as there isn't really the market for diving given the average age of visitors to the island. She gave us a brilliant, hour long tour of the reefs where we saw lots of different fish and she kept feeding them so they all came close, it was brilliant . To our surprise she swam down and picked some seaweed off the coral at the bottom, once she got back to the surface she told us it's seaweed you can eat as she put it in her mouth, much to my disgust. She then handed it over to us for a try! Rather puzzeled, intrigued, and slightly concerned, we all tried it and it surprisingly it actually tasted pretty nice. Just before the end of the tour we got to see a lovely puffer fish and what look like some rubbish in the water which was actually something in a shell spawning its eggs, we were very lucky and really enjoyed the tour. 
 
We went for showers and quickly got changed before meeting Megan for the theatre. During the day, Lauraine and I had been winding Gareth up that we were all going to have speaking parts in this play, knowing how quiet he is we knew this would get him worried. As we pretended to be worried ourselves, we even got Megan and Luke in on the joke so we knew he'd definitely be panicking by the time we got there. It was very funny! The joke was kind of spoilt though when we arrived and we got handed programmes with the cast in but I don't think he totally relaxed until the play had actually started!
 
By Thursday, we were starting to panic that we were running out of days, so we decided to cram in as much as possible! There were a couple of art displays we were keen to visit and with the weather being a little overcast it seemed like a good day to do them! First up was the Cyclorama which is a 360 degree painting, depicting the history of the Mutiny on the Bounty . The painting is absolutely incredible, we were amazed by the detail! Music and sound effects are triggered as you walk around the room which really supports and enhances the experience. We've been to a few art galleries before and I personally don't see what the fuss is about usually but this is possibly the most impressive painting I've ever seen. We learnt so much about the history here and everything seemed to fall into place for us! Just like it did at the mini golf. Next up was the World of Norfolk gallery, which is a photography exhibit showcasing images captured by local photographer, Rob Nisbet. I had already been inspired by his photos after seeing some of his prints for sale in the shopping mall. I had just taken my own version of some of his photos during our adventures on the island! Rob is obviously quite famous on the island for his photos as they are incredible, so it is quite hilarious how I now have almost identical copies of some of his photos just by working out where he stood and using my iphone and Instagram . Rob charges $130 for a small print and hundreds more for larger ones but if you look on my Facebook or just on here you can have mine for free!!! They look lovely in frames! Trust me, I've seen Robs! =)
 
Megan had us booked on a 'Farm and Industry' tour with islander, Boc (real name Brian!) at 1pm, so we made our way to her office in time for our pick up. This isn't usually something that would interest any of us but as Megan had recommended it, we went along with open minds and it was much more interesting than we had anticipated. We were greeted by an entire coach load of smiling old people who were very pleased we were going to be on the tour with them. We all secretly laughed to each other as we couldn't believe we were now going to be sat with an old peoples group for the next 3 hours. The first stop was at a company who export Kentia palm seeds. At one time, selling the bushells of these palms was an extremely lucrative business as they were worth $10,000 each bucket load, many people tried to used it as a 'get rich quick' scheme but unfortunately, as more and more people got involved, sourcing the seeds became easier and, as a result, the price dropped . Now they are only worth about $50 each. Next, we visited Farmer Lou, who grows lots of vegetables as well as owning a piggery! It was interesting to hear about Lou's work but it was sad seeing the pigs in their little cages with cuts on their noses from trying to push their way out! This part of the tour took longer than expected as all the old people got into deep conversations about vegetables and it became clear one of the man obviously has a bit of a fetish for bananas, although not in the way you are probably thinking! (Dirty gits) We stopped for high tea at Bedrock, which is Byron's (Megan's ex husband and Luke, Paige & Zanaida's dad) house. While Boc was getting the food and drink ready, we went to explore and could not believe the views of the bay from his garden, it was breathtaking as his house is high up on a cliff top looking straight down at the sea and the coast line! It was nice to see Byron again and meet his huge dog. The next stop on our tour took us to Puss' house. It turns out not only is he an expert on the history of the island but he is a keen gardener who knows everything there is to know about growing vegetables! This knowledge was put to the test by the man who loved bananas?! He kept pressing Puss on the types of banana he grows and it all became pretty animated when the other couples got in on the act talking about tomatoes, potatoes and pumpkins! We found it very difficult to keep a straight face as we have never met such a passionate bunch (excuse the pun!) before! It got to the point where poor Puss looked like he wanted to just scream as he really didn't know what to do, but everyone followed along nicely in the end . Thankfully, our last stop was at the island's liqueur factory for a tasting session! After spending the afternoon with the lovely but slightly crazy group on our tour, a few shots of liqueur were definitely very welcome! Lauraine's not normally a big fan of liqueurs so she picked out some of the more fruity sounding ones from the list while Gareth and I were a little braver and tried pretty much all of them! Its not very often I've been sober and having shots of sambucca mid afternoon but they sure warmed us up inside and made our eyes water. Maybe there best kept to when I'm drunk. Lauraine decided to buy a bottle of 'Convict's Curse' for her mum as she loves whiskey and it would be a special treat from Norfolk! After tasting all the liqueurs, we had a taste for alcohol and decided it was about time we gave something back to the island: Woo Woos!!! We stopped off at the bottle shop to pick up some vodka and peach schnapps then went in search of cranberry juice. Unbelievably, the island had entirely run out of cranberry juice and wouldn't be getting any more until the next boat came in! Feeling a little disappointed, we set about thinking up alternatives! In the end the best we could do was dark grape juice and fruit pash juice! We returned home, where Megan had cooked another delicious meal and set about making our adapted woo woos for everyone to try! Amazingly, both variations worked really well and everyone loved them, to the point we had 3 each! I have a feeling woo woos will become a regular feature at Megan's dinner parties from now on!
 
On Friday, Lauraine got a sudden early morning phone call asking if she'd like to go into the school to have a look around . She was very keen to but it was still early and it meant getting out of bed so it was a difficult decision for her to make! Within 40 minutes, she was up showered and in the car as I quickly drove her there. With Lauraine out of the way, Gareth and I went trekking as we'd been wanting to for a while and as Lauraine wasn't so keen this was a perfect opportunity. The main reason she wasn't so keen was because the trek we were wanting to do was the hardest on the island, the Bird Rock track. It's not a particularly long trek but its got quite a steep angle to it and we'd been warned to take sticks to bat away all the spiders' webs. It turned out all the stories were true!, yep there were spiders' webs and yep it was pretty bloody steep! By the time we got back, we were both rather sweaty and I felt like I was on the brink of a cramp in my calf and my knee was hurting. Definitely a good job Lauraine hadn't come along as well, we actually did it in a good time so decided to go along to the Palm Glen track. This wasn't as challenging but it led us through the trees up to Mount Bates and gave us a nice viewpoint over the island again . On our way back we spotted a young fluffy chick sat on a log, it was quite surreal as it didn't seem bothered by us getting close to take photos at all. Lauraine then rang saying she'd already finished so she was waiting with Megan in her office. She'd been shown round, met some teachers and some kids but was allowed to leave because it was the last day of term and the kids were all up to fun stuff instead of things she could observe. After a chat about our mornings, we headed off on a photography tour as we still had things we needed to get pictures of. Most notably, I had some more of Rob's pictures to copy: one of an old wooden boat and another of a rusted steam engine, not only that but we wanted our own pictures of the town, Simon's water look out, 100 acre reserve, a famous headstone which, as legend claims, remembers the lives of 3 soldiers who drowned during a fishing trip after having a curse put upon them by a convict named Barney Duffey who they found living in a tree after 7 years on the run and Bloody Bridge . Bloody Bridge got its name because back when the prison was pretty horrific, some prisoners were building the bridge and killed the commanding officer, they decided to chop up his body and put it in the brickwork of the bridge. It had been a perfect crime until it started raining and the blood seeped out of the bricks and the body was found. Gareth and I had to jump the stream to get a decent angle of the bridge. Gareth made it across safely but as I jumped, I landed with 1 foot on dry grass and 1 foot in wet boggy mud this meaning my leg was now sunk in sloppy mud half way up my shin, lovely, so after going back to the beach to wash we continued. We had a quick walk round the 'Walk in the Wild' tour which explains the history of the island's trees and birdlife before getting an ice cream and going to the island's bowls club. Ever since we arrived, I had been keen to have a game of bowls and I had finally managed to convince Lauraine and Gareth it would be fun! We hit a problem straight away though as none of us had ever played before and therefore had no clue what we needed to do or how to play! Luckily, the people in the clubhouse and the other people playing spotted that we looked a bit lost and were really friendly and very keen to help us out, once again the fact we were young and English played to our advantage! After being kitted out with the right size balls, we made our way out onto the green . Someone explained how the balls are weighted so, depending on which way round you hold them, they will curve in different directions! They also gave us a few pointers about how to stand and where to aim. All of this was totally wasted on us though as we went for the tactic of hurl it at the white ball and see what happens!!! Miraculously, we did actually manage to have a few good shots but some went incredibly wrong with one of Lauraine's actually going straight across the lane next to us, thankfully the couple playing there had just finished their game and packed up! Megan had come down to see us and she had cracked up laughing. In the end, I won 3 games with lauraine and gareth winning a game each. We had all really enjoyed ourselves but I don't think we will be asked to join a league any time soon! Once we had finished our game, Lauraine went to meet Megan at the office while Gareth & I went home to get showered before we all went to the fish fry to see Paige and her friends dance. 2 or 3 times a week Megan's tour company put on a fish fry for tourists to try local fish and Paige, along with her friends Ruby and Millie all perform Tahitian dancing as entertainment . Lauraine was especially excited about this as she was keen to see the dancing and learn what was involved with it. The girls were doing brilliantly, dancing away and dodging cow pats at the same time and we were all enjoying it until they announced they wanted some volunteers to learn the dance moves. Yep you guessed it, suddenly, along with a few pensioners, Lauraine, Gareth and I were whisked onto centre stage in front of over 100 people. I think with the audience just being all old people and Megan laughing her head off at the back it made it feel not quite as embarrassing as it should have been, but it was actually really funny as they taught us all a quick routine. 
 
To celebrate our new found dancing skills, we decided to get drunk and do some more dancing! Only one thing for it: Woo Woos! After dropping the girls off at Byron's and having a drink with him, we made our way back home for a few sneaky cocktails then headed to the RSL for some delicious food. It wasn't very busy but we got to meet the first person we had found who is actually from near home . His name was Derrick and he comes from Reedham. We found this hilarious because after 7 months of travelling, he was the only person we'd met from remotely near Great Yarmouth and of all the places to meet him but Norfolk!! He was a lovely man who spends 6 months a year in England and 6 months in Sydney with his friend. After experiencing some pretty bad old people dancing, we decided to head off to the brewery that Liz (from the Discovery tour) runs. We spent the rest of the night in there catching up with lots of people we had already met and meeting lots we hadn't, including a guy called Blocka! Blocka is an old friend of Josh's and it was clear he was pretty drunk as he was very overly friendly as soon as we arrived. It soon became obvious why he was being so friendly as he was practically drooling over Lauraine, he wasn't trying to hide it either as he just kept coming over! When he tried dancing with her, it wasn't his most attractive moment as he had Lauraine on one arm and he was pulling up his shorts with the other!! Just so you can picture the scene, Blocka is about my height but much fatter, dark skinned and has dreadlocks so it was quite amusing as he tried to carry her out of the door but nearly banging her head on a post in the process . In any other world, this would have been really annoying me but I could hardly cause any trouble in a place like this and Megan and Liz were quick to tell him to reign it in a bit. I found a guy who apparently looks like me because when I walked in a few people said happy birthday only to realise I wasn't the right person. I personally don't think we do look alike but we found it pretty funny when we were drunk. We had such a fun night and we all got pretty drunk but the funniest thing about the pubs here is that when you arrive the car park is full, everyone is drinking all night and at closing time suddenly the car park empties. The main reason for this is that everyone is home in minutes anyway and the police don't even own a breathaliser test kit!!! So unless you actually crash or drive like a complete idiot you won't actually get in trouble.
 
The next morning, we all had a lay in and slept off the effects of the alcohol! We had planned on going out for breakfast but this got moved to lunch as Megan received a phone call to say that one of the tour groups couldn't have their brunch as scheduled because of the bad weather conditions at the normal venue . Megan suggested they all came to her house instead so we helped her entertain a coach load of visitors before making our way to the Olive cafe for toasties and omelettes! Paige had a dance rehearsal so, after dropping her and Ruby off there, we drove with Megan and Zanaida to the top of Mount Pitt to watch the plane land. It was an amazing vantage point to see it come in and stop on the short runway. While we were there, we picked some flax then headed home for a nap before getting to work making flower table decorations out of flax for the tour group's dinner at Number 9 (a spooky old house in Kingston!). With all the decorations made, we met Megan and Zanaida at Number 9 where we helped set the tables and made sure everything looked perfect! We all then dashed back to get ready for dinner as we were heading out to the Norfolk Blue, an award winning restaurant famed for its steaks. Luke and Amanda were already there when we arrived so, having already checked out the menu and chosen, we quickly ordered! The Norfolk Blue certainly lived up to its reputation; the food was incredible! 
 
Unfortunately, we woke up to heavy rain and strong winds on our last full day on the island . It was almost as if a cyclone had hit, this was possibly the worst weather we had experienced since we had been away, including the storms in Sydney. The rain was relentless, even the poor chickens were getting a good washing and being blown around the garden! After we'd had some lunch, Paige and Zanaida came up with the random idea of going grass sliding! I thought this was a brilliant idea but I didn't think we would actually do it. Next thing I knew, Paige had got a spare tarpaulin sheet from outside and Megan was cutting it up. So we all put on swimmers or spare clothes and stupidly headed out into the rain. Lauraine, Gareth and Megan very quickly made themselves the photographers as they didn't want to take part but whatever happened they were gonna get soaked still. The original idea was to use the tarpaulin as mats but we quickly found out running along with them and then basically diving down the hill on them and sliding wasn't working as we didn't slide very far, instead we laid them out in a long line covered them and ourselves in washing up liquid then ran and slid along all of them! This worked a treat and we slid fast enough to keep going down the hill on the grass, Zanaida was going much further than anyone somehow!!!! As the weather was so awful, a stream had formed at the bottom of the valley so there was only one thing for it, sliding into the stream of course!! If there had of been more tarp I wouldn't be surprised if the 3 of us had broken bones by now because the hill was perfect for a super long slide from the house to the stream, it would have been wicked but definitely very dangerous, It's definitely an idea for the future . We finally gave into the rain as we were all drenched, there was only one thing for it: an afternoon of woo woos! Trent, the island's musician, came over to help Paige transfer some music to CD and before he knew it he was being wowed by the amazing flavour of our woo woos. Later in the evening, we headed out to famous singer/songwriter Helen Reddy's (no, we had never heard of her either!!!) house for a fish fry! This time we got to try some of the fish! The only problem with this is that none of us like fish... Except fish cooked on Norfolk Island it would seem, as it was delicious!!! There were several different fish based dishes, including fish curry, deep fried fish, fish fried rice and Tahitian fish which we were most nervous of as you don't actually cook it! Instead it cooks itself because of the ingredients added to it during the preparation! Very strange but actually very tasty! Paige, Ruby and Millie performed their Tahitian dancing again but this time, due to a lack of space, they did more solos with just one group routine and didn't ask for audience participation, thankfully as we'd been warned we'd get picked again! Annoyingly, because of the humidity, the CD kept skipping but the girls were true professionals and carried on so I doubt most of the audience even realised! After the tour group left, Lauraine got roped into entertaining the younger half of the group, teaching them some Irish and Scottish dancing, while the older half cleaned up! Then we went back to the house where Paige made Lauraine's night by teaching her one of the Tahitian dance routines and letting her dress up in her spare costume for a performance! Paige was amazed how Lauraine learnt a routine almost instantly when she'd taken ages to memorise it . We were all feeling a little sad as we made our way to bed as we knew this was to be our last night on the island!
 
We had really good intentions of getting up at 6am and going swimming in Emily Bay (Megan's idea) on our last morning but with the wind and rain waking us up on and off throughout the night, none of us were too keen and when the alarms went off it turned out everyone woke up except Megan so we all kept quiet as we were secretly relieved when she finally woke up late and there wasn't time to go before she had to leave for work! Instead, we spent the morning finishing our packing before heading to the Olive cafe for breakfast and popping to the bottle shop to buy some spirits for Megan using our duty free tickets! We popped along to the airport to check in and drop off our bags then went to meet Luke and Amanda at the garage where Luke has been working on his jeep so we could say goodbye to them. This is the first place I have ever been where you can check in, drop your luggage and then head back out for a few hours before catching your flight but I guess the island is so small, it's not as though you can go too far! We had arranged to meet Megan at the house as she was going to come to the airport to see us off and collect some new arrivals! Tony came along to see us and Paige, Zanaida and their friends walked down too, so we had quite a crowd there to wave us off! It was horrible saying goodbye and there were quite a few tears from Lauraine and Megan! It really felt sad leaving as we weren't ready to leave at all. Eventually, after a few final photos, the time came for us to board the plane and as we walked out onto the Tarmac, we saw all our new friends standing outside waving and shouting goodbye! This was definitely the saddest we have been when leaving somewhere and it's partly because Norfolk Island really had won us over, after originally worrying about what we'd do all week we now found ourselves wishing we had another week as we'd quickly run out of time - in fact we only managed 68 of the 101 things in the 'to do' list! It is an absolutely beautiful island but the stand out thing is the wonderful people we met who welcomed us wholeheartedly into their families and lives. We loved every moment of our time here and will miss everyone and the island terribly. We've promised to spread to the world as most people don't even know it exists but it's a place that really will stick in our hearts but it never would have been anywhere near as special as it was without Josh introducing us to his family. We can't actually thank Megan enough for making our Norfolk experience so magical, we can't wait to see you again. Xx