Lord Howe Island, Australia Oct. 22-24. 2012

LORD HOWE ISLAND:  Paradise on Earth

At 7 am Sunday morning we flew 500 miles northeast from Sydney into the Tasman Sea.  Our destination is Lord Howe Island. We had never heard of Lord Howe Island but learned about it by following a link from The Southern Ocean Lodge where we will stay on Kangaroo Island in early November.  Lord Howe is on the World Heritage list.

About 20 minutes before we were to land the pilot announced that Lord Howe Island was socked in with clouds and that there was a strong chance that we would not be able to land.  He told us that they would make an attempt, and that if they could not see to land then they would go around once and try again, and if they could not land on the second attempt that they would return to Sydney.  I guess it is a treacherous approach strung between jagged peaks of the island.  The island is only 11 kilometers long and 3 kilometers wide with mountains on both ends.  The runway is 1 kilometer long.

From the plane.  The airport is below

Scott arrives at Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe marks the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.  It is the southern most coral reef in the world.  There is a mix of tropical warm water and cold water fish as a result of the collision of warm water and cold water currents.  The clown fish is usually yellow and white but at Lord Howe it is black and white.  There are many varieties of plants found only on Lord Howe.  The Doubleheader fish is only found around the reefs at Lord Howe.  There are many smaller islands surrounding Lord Howe that are all uninhabited and add to the pristine beauty.  

Beautiful Island

When we flew in we couldn't see the mountain at the end of the island.  It was too foggy.

 The clouds thinned out and we were able to land and it is a beautiful day.  Since our room was not ready we changed into our swim suits and were outfitted for our bicycles which will be our mode of transportation during our stay.

Remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!

We rode past the 9 hole golf course.

Breathtaking beauty.  It's hard to watch the road.

Scott

 We rode to the far end of the island to begin a hike.  The hike will loop past the turtle beach (where we can see turtles swimming in shallow water) and up steep slopes to a ridge with beautiful views along the coastline and back across Lord Howe and far out to sea.

Views along the way

Scott along the way

Beautiful views

What a pretty Island

Watch your step!

It feels great to get some exercise.

The views are magnificent. 

At the end of the hike we walked through cow fields.

Views at the end of the hike

We comment that the beauty of this island is idyllic.  With its beautiful beaches, lush tropical plants and trees, and the beautiful water and sand and mountains, we agree that it is prettier than Bora Bora.  We stayed a week on Bora Bora more than 25 years ago when there were only 2 small hotels on that island.

There are 350 full time residents on Lord Howe.  Most are 6th generation children of the original settlers.  Kids don’t wear shoes to school.  Locals drive without their drivers’ licenses.  Only 400 tourists are allowed on the island at any one time. 

Amazing scenery

We rode our bikes past the golf course.  Put $40 into and envelope, take a bag of clubs and play as many holes as you want.

Views from every hole

Barb at hole #1

Everything is on the honor system.  Just put money in the pot, grab some clubs and a couple of balls and go play.

 We ride past deserted beautiful beaches.  Put $4 in a wooden box and take a boogie board out into the surf or put $6 in the box and take a wet suit.  Wet suits are a good idea.  The water is 18.5 degrees C (65 degrees F).  I think this is a little warmer than San Diego water.  Akumal water is about 82 degrees F.

Beautiful beaches

Amazing colors

 We ride past the airport.

You can park your bike anywhere and not worry about it.

 We start our hike up to the ridges in order to look at this beautiful island from above.

Start of the hike

Views from above

Scott near Kim's lookout

Arch at neighboring island

View of Ned's Beach

There are few cars on the island.  Everyone rides a bike.  The maximum speed limit for cars and bikes is 25 kilometers per hour (17 miles per hour).  Surfers carry their surfboards on their bikes.

People wave and smile at each other.  “Hello Mate”.

We met a local man who was feeding the turtles by throwing strips of raw fish to them.  These Green Turtles would swim right up to shore and take food out of his hand.  I think he is nuts to get his fingers close to those powerful jaws.

Feeding turtles

Turtles swimming in the bay

Scott better watch his toes!

We went to Ned’s Beach and Barb fed the fish some pellets.  She created quite a commotion.  We saw a dorsal fin so there is at least one shark.  The fish guide tacked on the wall of a shed shows that Galapagos sharks are present.  They don’t look scary but we hope they are well fed.

Barb feeds the fish

They know where they can get fed.

We took a quick swim (the first minute makes you gasp for air) and then lay down on the beach.  Soon we were both asleep in the sunshine.

Scott going out for a swim

Go for a swim

Taking a nap on  the beach

We woke up and rode our bikes back to our hotel.

Riding back to the hotel

 What a beautiful day on Lord Howe.

The weather forecast for the next day calls for rain.  We heard rain during the night but the morning breaks mostly sunny.  We ate breakfast, loaded up snorkel gear, beach towels and a picnic lunch and jumped on our bikes and headed to Blinky Beach.  It is a major beach on Lord Howe and there is no one here.  We laid around for a while and took walks down the beach to look at the nesting birds.

Scott on Blinky Beach

Not too busy at the beach

Nesting birds

This one is protecting the eggs

Barb at the beach

When it started to sprinkle we took cover in the forest under the canopy of trees and branches. We spread out our towels and lounged around for an hour reading the local newspaper that we bought.  There is a moratorium on building and each rental home must have a license for the permitted number of beds so that total tourists don’t exceed 400.

Self portrait again

Wood Hen endemic to the island.  They will actually walk towards you when you make noise or whistle.

Pretty flowers

Wood Hens

A towel for the rain

 After the sun came out again we had our picnic on the beach on an old wooden bench overlooking Blinky Beach.  What a beautiful spot.

Where we had our picnic

After lunch we wanted to hire a boat to take us to the best snorkel holes around the island so we could see the “Double Header Fish” which is only found around this island.   But they need 4 persons and we didn’t want to pay the extra money.  They told us that you could see Double Header fish over at Ned’s Beach so we rode our bikes over, rented wet suits for $12 and jumped in.  

Cold Water

We put our money in the pot, grabbed some wet suits and snorkel gear and went looking for the double headed fish.

Scott self portrait

It was cold!

Picture of the Double header fish we saw.

The water is so beautiful

 The coral gardens were lush and were covered with green fan type plants.  We saw a small Green Turtle, 2 Double Header Fish, the Wrasse Fish (banana fish), the Dusky Butterfly Fish, the King Fish (I had one for dinner the night before), and many other bright and colorful fish.  Reef fish are always bright but come in different varieties all over the world.  Red Sea fish are different than Palancar Reef fish, which are different than Cayman Island fish, which are different than Tahiti fish.  Lord Howe fish are also very different.  I had never seen a Double Header Fish or an Elegant Wrasse fish before.

We stayed in the water for 25 minutes and we were cold when we got out.  We rode our bikes back to our Lodge and got into the hot tub but were still cold so we got in our shower and stayed for 30 minutes.

Getting back on the bikes

Bike back to the lodge

Bad weather is now bringing rain down in sheets with wind gusts so strong that we think it is going to blow our patio furniture away.  Wind and rain wake us up at various times during the night.  We are wondering out loud whether a plane can fly in and land to pick us up for our scheduled flight at 1 pm tomorrow.

When we go in for breakfast we get the news:  Quantas  Airlines will not attempt to land on Lord Howe today.  Our flight has been cancelled and they will try again in 24 hours. 

WE ARE STUCK ON ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLANDS IN THE WORLD !

After breakfast, and even though its raining, we take the golf cart with full plastic rain coverings and we explore every road on Lord Howe Island.  Most of the roads dead end in the tropical forest at either a small lodge or a private home.

Golf cart with our rain protection

The weather is colder

Last minute photos

We check out the lodges in case some one in the family or our friends want to visit Lord Howe.  Only Capella Lodge has a view of the ocean.  All other lodges are hidden in the trees.  I suppose this kind of zoning makes the island more attractive for all.  Our favorite is Capella but it is not practical for families.  All other apartments seem to have been built in the 1960s.  The Ocean View Apartments are nice for families but there is no ocean view.  But all lodges are a 3 minute bike ride to a beach.

 Here are some photos of Capella Lodge where we stayed.

Entrance to Capella Lodge.  It is the only hotel that has any kind of view of the beaches.

There are a total of 8 rooms at Capella

Our bedroom

Bedroom sitting area

Dining area

Our patio

View from the dining area

One of the locals is hosting a slide show on birds and airplanes for a $5 admission charge.  We stop in and learn about the unique bird life on the island and we also learn about the history of aviation.  There have been lots of airplane crashes on and near Lord Howe.  All scheduled aircraft were amphibious (“flying boats”) until they built the runway on Lord Howe in the 1970s.  Many of those flying boats came to a bad end when they would stay overnight in the bay when a storm would come up and smash the airplanes into the shore.

After a day of goofing around in a waterproof golf cart in the rain we are beginning to wonder if we will ever get off this island.

Goofing around

The storm looks like it is calming down

View from one of the holes on the golf course

During the night the winds were howling.  Our deck furniture was being blown back and forth.  We learned the next morning that wind gusts were recorded at 107 kilometers per hour.  This is around 70 MPH.  At breakfast we expected to learn that Quantas Airlines was refusing to attempt a landing on Lord Howe but no one had notice of the cancelled flight yet.  As the day progressed the winds abated but it was still gusting.  At noon we went to the airport to check in for our 1 pm flight.  The attendant checked us in and we waited with about 30 other people hoping we would hear or see the propeller plane that was coming from Sydney to pick us up.  At 1pm it landed and refueled and by 2 pm we were happy to get away from Lord Howe Island.  Our next stop is Lizard Island and it is in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef at the north end and there is clear warm weather and warm water and we are excited to get there. 

As a result of being stranded on Lord Howe Island we missed a night in Sydney and missed the Opera Solome by Richard Strauss at the Sydney Opera House.  We also missed one night at the Lizard Island Resort.  Oh well, plans are made to be modified.

Off to Lizard Island......