Oct 12 Farewell Lord Howe Island!
Wednesday 12th October
This morning we had a few ‘chores’ on our to-do list: clean the BBQ, clean and return the car, scrub shoes that had been bush walking, and pack out the cottage. We managed to get all of this done in record time, and even had a chat with Gary the owner of Beachcomber Lodge. He is from one of the island families with cousins all over, but was not yet born when Mum was teaching here. However, his cousins and aunts and uncles etc were all people Mum knew. We had organised for Paul, one of the staff at Beachcomber, to drop us to the museum around 10, so that we could base ourselves there and make the most of our car-less morning. Having a couple of hours without the car really reinforced what an asset it had been - the accommodation providers are happy to drop people about to and from dinner etc, but we’d had the freedom to zip in and out all over the place. No-one was in the office at the Lodge where we had rented the car from - so we left a note, the key, and $10 for petrol on the office chair. It’s all pretty casual! We also didn’t have to worry about returning the key to our cottage, since we’d never had one while we were there!
From our museum base, we wandered over the road to the foreshore, and Mum and I walked along to the other end near the boatsheds and other main shopping area. The weather at that time was quite sunny and warm, but not long after our return it turned to rain and became much cooler, so we were lucky with the timing. We had one last look through the museum shop, had lunch and a few last chats with people we’d come to feel quite familiar with in just a few days. It’s easy to see how quickly you would become part of the community here if you lived here - with just one visit to church and a morning tea at the museum, we had suddenly become ‘regulars’, and kept bumping into people we ‘knew’.
Soon enough, Paul arrived to pick us up and deliver us to the airport. Back in the days of the flying boat, you had to go from the jetty by boat out to the plane. As you left, you would be given a lei (flower necklace) which you would throw into the lagoon before getting on the plane, to leave a connection back to the island to ensure you would come back. When Mum left at the end of 1961, she did just that, and it only took 61 years for the lei to work its magic!
The airport is not that interesting a place to hang out really, kind of like Whangarei airport but smaller, and less people. We were first to check in, and all we had to do was walk up to the counter with our bags, and they did all the rest, presenting us with boarding passes and everything. Sydney Airport could learn something here! The school principal’s husband works at the airport as the person who waves their arms about to help the pilots know where to go (as well as school cleaner 3 afternoons a week). We had a bit of a yarn with him for a bit, checked out the gift shop and toilets, and then just snoozed a tiny bit. A small child behind us asked his quota of 300 questions of his mother, followed by everyone else on the island’s quota as well. Thankfully we didn’t end up sitting anywhere near him on the plane.
The flight back to Sydney was pretty smooth, especially considering how windy it was on the island. Mum had the window seat on the left, and the pilot kindly did a left-turning circuit of the island before heading towards the mainland (nothing to do with the wind direction or weather conditions). We landed in Sydney, collected bags, picked up the car and were back at the Adina without any drama. We popped out to buy butter, milk and baked beans for the non-eating seniors among us, then Peter and I wandered down the road to “Curry Craze” for a slightly more interesting dinner. We are staying in a 2 bedroom unit this time and it is really spacious with two bathrooms and well-equipped kitchen. And 3 TVs.
Interesting reading about bluebottle jellyfish tonight. Apart from all the technical words, basically you need to wash off a sting really well with sea water first, because using fresh water shocks all the stinging particles on your skin to release all their venom straight away, making the sting worse. After you’ve washed it off with sea water, you then use hot water, as hot as you can bear, above 40 deg, as the heat destroys the protein in the venom. Who knew!? Handy tips for next time I’m on a beach with blue bottles.
In the morning Mum has organised morning tea at the Queen Victoria Building with several friends from school as well as her niece Alison. I’m sure this will be another lovely chance to wander down memory lane with friends.
Photos back to front again...
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