Pandanus Apartments Lord Howe Island

... our trip thus far. Dean offers group climbs up Mount Gower a few times each week, but each is scheduled to take 8-9 hours.  He told us that the group climbs attract participants of all fitness levels, which means a bit of waiting around.  We organized a private trip in the mistaken (and hubristic) belief that we would run up and down the mountain, and be back at the hotel within 3-4 ...

... bikes. At Ned's beach, you can feed giant fish of all kinds, like kingfish, parrot fish, and even sharks (but not the dangerous great white ones). One of the good things about Lord Howe Island is that there is nothing dangerous - no snakes, no dangerous insects, no great whites, no predators (there were no mammals here at all when the first explorers arrived - the island was uninhabited, just like in Nim's Island.) The fish come right up ...

... island, 12kms by 3kms and it is situated a four hour flight east of Sydney. For such a tiny island there is heaps to do or not as the mood may take you but it boasts great potential. There are no nasties on this island, no snakes, spiders, you can't take your car, nothing offensive. With a population of only 300 permanent residents and only ever up to 300 visitors ever allowed at any time it is beautiful and unspoilt and never overcrowded. There are a ...

... was feeling its oats and kept trying to shoo us away, but everyone else just got on with their regular Monday morning chores - which seem to mostly consist of just floating around looking at one another. Nice life. G: After coffee we collected the snorkel gear and headed down to Ned's beach. We were there at exactly the right time, again. So, once we had managed to pull on the wetsuits, and flop about in the waves ...

... too small for the 18 passengers. However, we all fitted fine round the black walled box with the glass bottom. M: We had the full complement of eighteen including three kids (relatively well behaved - the oldest a bit precocious and inclined to lecture to the assembled multitudes while Mama smiled indulgently but at least she shut them up when the guide was talking!) and were all assembled on the beach by about 8 ...

... the cold a lot better than Gray did. I also tolerated having salt water up my nose and not being able to sniff or blow my nose or cough far better than I expected to - in fact it seemed to be very good for my cold. The wetsuits made us very buoyant - I felt as if I was floating with my bum and flippers right out of the water and had to consciously straighten my legs because I kept trying to make them ...

... incredible, dropping their plaited pillars over huge areas of forest so that you can't see any longer which is trunk and which is branch and which is aerial root. Such lovely shapes. G: We stopped off at the visitors centre for an egg and bacon brunch before spending some time in the museum. All rather interesting reading, we found that the island is, as we had surmised, the flank of a 5 million year old ...

... the trees. We stopped at a bench on the headland to admire the wonderful light on the sea and saw a waterspout! It only lasted a couple of minutes and we were just fiddling about deciding that it was much clearer through my polarised sunglasses when suddenly it just wasn't there anymore. It must have slurped itself up in a matter of seconds. G: We walked back up to Ebb Tide but stopped at the bench at the top of ...

... on yesterday's plane. Anyway I decided I'd take an Istanbul day if I could persuade Gray to go out and do something and not hang around me. So he first went down to Ned's Beach hoping to feed fish but couldn't find the feeding place and also said the beach was full of SES volunteers picking up jetsam after the storm that he felt bad about chucking more stuff into the sea! Then he went to chat to Julie about dinner and has ...

... fall off the other end. M: The airport has to have the best setting in the world, all surrounded by palmy jungle and with the mountains in the background. At the entrance to the waiting area - just a couple of sunny benches - we were greeted by a woman who asked where we were staying and then pointed us in the direction of Emma. She was dropping off her husband onto the return flight (going to the ...