Lord Howe Island, a mere blip of rock sitting approximately half way between Port Macquarie on the East Coast of New South Wales and New Zealand, is a unique destination - for many great reasons. As a photographer I love the place for its amazing colours - its pristine ocean, beautiful and unique flora, unique birdlife and, even though it is a 'tourist destination' - I love its seclusion. Only 400 visitors are allowed on the island at any time so expect deserted beaches, relaxing walks, intimate dining and a lot of quiet relaxation. But this tiny 14 square kilometre island has many more attractions which include: yoga, surfing, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, fishing - even mountain climbing.
We recently spent six days on Lord Howe staying in an amazing beach house located almost on the lagoon beach itself. In fact, I'm told that the Blue Peter Beach House (managed by the exclusive Arajilla Resort) was originally a cafe so the 'room' we booked, which included a king-sized bed, two bathrooms, two wardrobes, a large kitchen, huge deck, TV area, and bar-b-q area was impressive! The front deck, stretching the entire width of the building, was surrounded by palm trees and ferns. We even had a resident pair of woodhens, a bantam-sized, flightless bird that, thanks to a recent rat eradication program, has been bred in captivity and rescued from certain extinction. You'll hear woodhens calling all over the lowland parts of the island. Its call is a bit like a squeaky bicycle - very discordant and it seemed that they'd call at all hours of the day and night. Its other vocalisation - used to communicate between pairs of woodhens - sounded very like a big cat purring while the birds were hidden somewhere among the shrubbery. A bit creepy the first time you hear it.
It took me an hour to slog up the rough and slippery track to the summit of Malabar Hill (only 200m above sea level - it felt a lot more) but nevertheless, it afforded a magnificent view of the island including the marvellous Ned's Beach (left) a popular spot for fish feeding. Grab a $3 cup of fish food from the tiny kiosk on the beach, wander into the shallows and get surrounded by a staggering array of colourful reef fish - mullet, wrasse, garfish, silver drummer, spangled emperor and occasionally a (harmless) Galapagos shark. If that's not a close enough encounter, you can swim through the feeding frenzy to view these fish on the reef a few minutes paddle further into the bay.
Above: Lord Howe has quite a unique flora and fauna. It has over 240 species of indigenous plants, 207 species of bird and 1,600 species of insect, including the rarest of them all; the phasmid stick insect.
The first visitors to Lord Howe brought unwanted pests to the island, including rats that have threatened several endemic species including the flightless Woodhen (top and centre left). White Tern (top right) and, clockwise from centre left: Red-tailed Tropicbird, Lord Howe Silvereye, Sacred Kingfisher, juvenile Masked Booby, Buff-banded Rail and Whimbrel.
Towards the end of the 19th century Lord Howe began to profit from the export of its endemic Kentia palms (Howea forsteriana) to the USA and Europe. The Kentia palm was 'the parlour palm' everyone wanted in their homes and conservatories. Although cultivation has been a little spotty in the 20th century (in WW2 the island's arable areas was turned over to tomato production) palm cultivation and distribution is still active today - you can even visit the nursery on the island and buy one to take home with you.
Most of the lowlands are covered in dense forest - palms, fig trees and a range of other endemic species. When you look over the island from Malabar Hill you can see about 20 houses, if that, because the island has such dense foliage. The vegetation running up to the summit of the northern cliffs (including Malabar Hill) are also heavily forested - but with much lower trees that hug the contours of the ground. Above from left: This is the entranceway to our accommodation - the owners obviously had a love for Asian style with this timber Balinese entranceway and a range of eclectic furniture from South East Asia, most of which seemed to suit the property nicely. Strangler fig just off Thompson Road and, at right, more fig trees along the Stevens Reserve walking track.
Balls Pyramid (top left, 20km away, as seen from Malabar Hill) is a remnant sea stack - the remains of a long gone volcano. It's the highest volcanic plug in the world, at 1,877 feet and is located 20kms south of the main island. We took a 3.5 hour boat tour of Ball's Pyramid and Lord Howe Island with Reef and Beyond boat tours. It was interesting but, once out of the lagoon, the water was very rough and while the design of the boat prevented spray from soaking the passengers, it did nothing to prevent some passengers feeling green around the gills.
The Pyramid itself looks just like a black triangle from a distance but once up close it really is impressive - there's a range of vegetation hanging onto its almost sheer sides along with the recently discovered phasmid - a prehistoric looking stick insect. In 2001, a team of entomologists and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. They discovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect living in an area of 6 by 30 metres about 100 metres above the shoreline. The population was small - about 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to mainland Australia, and new populations have been successfully bred with the ultimate goal of reintroduction to Lord Howe Island (which should be a success now that the rats have been successfully eradicated.
The centre of town, just 10 mins from where we stayed, is little more than a few buildings: a meeting hall (where the locals congregate to decide on island matters), a post office, a couple of shops, three restaurants and a cracking view south across the lagoon to Mount Lidgbird.
There's no mobile coverage on the island - which the islanders told me was the way they liked it - but there is internet coverage in most resorts. There's also a doctor, a small hospital, a police station (with one officer on duty - that must be a tough posting!). There's also a brewery, a bakery, a liquor store, a post office and the island museum (recommended). Every two weeks the Island trader, a small coastal freighter, arrives at the jetty (tide permitting) bringing goodies to the locals. It arrived while we were there - the jetty area came alive with small fork lift trucks whizzing back and forth from the jetty directly to each customer's business or home address. Each package is carefully labelled and sealed to minimise the spread of bio hazards - especially rats. The day before the ship's arrival we noted a bunch of plastic-wrapped palettes waiting in the jetty carpark. This was the non-compostable rubbish waiting to be sent off the island - plastic bottles, glass, carpets, mattresses, furniture, etc, that has to be disposed of on the mainland. The whole unloading and loading process takes about two days, depending on the volume of freight and the tides. One of the locals told me that each time the ship docked, it was a bit like Christmas because, by the time their freight arrived, they'd often forgotten what was in the original order!
We bought some cheese and biscuits to have as pre-dinner snacks before dinner in a restaurant - they cost a bit over twice the price you'd pay on the mainland. Not surprising considering that a cubic metre of dry goods, or liquor, will cost you $620 to ship. Refrigerated goods cost more - $750 a cubic metre, and if you are used to just popping round to the local Bunnings store to pick up some building materials, a cubic metre of bricks will cost $617, the same for building or plumbing supplies - and cement at home, expect to pay an additional $430 per tonne to get it to the island.
Lord Howe Island airport (airstrip?) is serviced by regular Qantas flights from Sydney and Brisbane using Dash-8 200 turboprop planes, and directly from Port Macquarie on Eastern Airlines which uses small Piper aircraft. We, or rather the pilot, had no problems landing at LDH although a friend who arrived a couple of days after us told us that due to the wind conditions his flight had to circle twice before they could land safely. To get off the island the pilot stands on the brake pedal (do planes even have a brake pedal?) and runs the turboprops up to full power before releasing the brake to give the aircraft a jump start.
Thirty years ago I flew to Lord Howe with Seaview Airlines - a small plane that seemed to rattle a lot. On the flight back to Sydney we flew through a hailstorm in a vast thunderhead cloud. It sounded like someone was machine-gunning the fuselage. I was terrified. The very young pilot didn't seem to notice the racket. After 20 minutes of hammering we suddenly exited the cloud into clear air all the way to the ocean surface. It was a freaky experience. Sadly about a month later that same plane crashed into the ocean killing all on board. A padded seat was all that was found from the craft. Airline safety has improved a lot since then.
In 1931 Francis Chichester attempted to beat the record of flying from London to Sydney in a tiny Gipsy Moth biplane. I read that he missed breaking the record by a day (41 days in total). Once in Sydney he faced the problem of flying the aircraft back to New Zealand - essentially it was too far to travel on the fuel the plane could carry. Luckily he noticed two blips on his navigational map in-between Australia and New Zealand. This was Lord Howe Island and Norfolk island. He somehow acquired two floats that he then attached to the aircraft. His plan was to land in the lagoon, refuel and continue on his was. His plane was badly damaged in a storm when he arrived in Lord Howe Island - in fact it was the first plane ever to arrive on the island - and was about to scrap the attempt entirely when the islanders offered to help him rebuild the shattered plane. It took a couple of months before he could continue his trip to New Zealand via Norfolk Island, where he was again the first person to land a plane.
Although it is now perfectly safe to travel between the mainland and Lord Howe, it also has a few historical instances where something went wrong. In 1948 an RAAF Catalina flying boat crashed on the northern ridges above the lagoon. Sadly seven of the crew died but two survived. This plaque sits next to the trail leading up Malabar Hill. One of its propellers is on display at the car park on Hunter Bay.
Even in the dimly lit understory of the native forest you can find an incredible range of flora - including these fungi amongst the leaf litter - this is constantly being turned over by the woodhen population.
Thanks for sharing your story and wonderful pics. I found good weather in northern Vermont for our total solar eclipse on April 8: