Oct 10 Island adventures

Monday 10th October

This morning we’d originally planned an island tour with a provider on the island, however after the tour yesterday afternoon with John we had decided that we didn’t need another one. With that tour cancelled, Mum had set her sights on doing some walks around the island. She looked at the 2-D map and had all these ‘great’ ideas about this walk or that, but when I looked them up online, she was eyeing up a Class 4 walk - according to her it wasn’t that hard (though as an indication, a class 5 walk was an 8-hour tramp requiring a guide). I managed to talk her down from that one, and had an idea in my head about a nice little Class 2 walk we could do.

When I got up this morning, Mum had already left on a walk, Dad wasn’t really sure where, and Mum returned about 9.30am having done the walk I had mentally set aside for us. Followed some further negotiations and we settled on the Transit Hill walk (and me thinking we could just do the first part and turn back). Dad walked the first flat part with us, but I managed to convince him to turn back when the track went into the bush and started climbing - it was a bit slippery underfoot and we thought the reverse trip might be a bit challenging. Mum and Peter’s original plan was to keep walking, slowly, and I would return Dad to the car and catch them up. Dad and I decided on a different plan, which was to drop him at the museum with a cup of tea, a toilet close by and enough internet to read the news, and then I went back. Mum and Peter had decided to wait so I was back with them soon enough. We did try very hard to cut the walk short but Mum was determined to make it to the top, especially since it was a walk she hadn’t done when living here. We passed a couple walking back down, and asked them for advice about the rest of the trip, hoping they would instinctively join our crusade to turn Mum off the walk. They said there was a bit to go and not easy - but then unfortunately added that the view was spectacular and definitely worth the effort… not what we needed to be said out loud. We did eventually make it to the top, and the view was indeed spectacular. By the time we got back down to the museum to collect Dad, he had gone and given himself a sugar high and was feeling a bit unwell. Talk about never leaving these two unsupervised! On the way out of the museum, Mum was stopped by the lovely older gentleman who had been on the Information Centre desk all day. Barney had heard that Mum was coming back to the island and had thought he might see her at the museum at some point. He had not been in her class, but was a senior student at the school when Mum taught there, and his younger sister had been in Mum’s class. Another lovely connection made.

We returned to the cottage for a light lunch and a rest for all. Peter had a chat with the accommodation manager, who said there had been a fault with the Qantas plane at the airport today so there were some 40-odd extra tourists unable to fly out and needing accommodation on the island. Evidently an engineer will fly out here tomorrow morning to check it out, and hopefully have everything sorted asap. He said, by way of encouragement (?) that it does happen quite regularly, so not a big deal. Not sure how encouraged I feel!

In the early evening we had a booking for a lecture “Lord Howe Island in a Nutshell” at the museum by Ian Hutton, who came to the island to study weather for two years … 42 years ago! His credentials make a long and impressive list, and he gave a fascinating talk about the island, its history (from millions of years ago) through to its earliest human inhabitants, its unique position and ecology and its many qualifications for being a UNESCO World Heritage site. The lecture was fascinating, bursting with facts and reflected a life dedicated to conservation ideals on the island. I couldn’t begin to describe or retell the content of the lecture, but would put it on the MUST DO list for any island visitor. It was interesting to see his take on the threats to the island’s flora and fauna over the years and the various natural and manmade solutions to these threats. A highly ambitious (and ultimately successful!) programme in the last decade to eradicate rats and mice on the island, which involved first catching and caring for in captivity all of the woodhens and currawong birds on the island, for a year, and then laying 20,000 bait stations, was quite unbelievable. I particularly enjoyed the creativity of whoever came up with the scientific name for rats = rattus rattus. Seriously think even I could have done better than that. Ian finished the lecture with some reflections of the changes he has seen over his career, in terms of climate change and pollution. Thought-provoking stuff.

We returned to the cottage for a late BBQ dinner.

We’ve started turning our thoughts towards the end of our time on the island and have made a list of things we need to get done tomorrow to make sure we’ve made the most of our time here.