Norfork Island 2023

On a bit of whim we booked a trip to Norfork Island from Sunday Jan 29 - Sunday Feb 5, 2023.

Sunday Jan 29

We left Sydney some 2 hours late due to “issues at the airport” (we noticed while waiting in the Qantas lounge than many flights were delayed). We were the only passengers in business class on our flight which was about 2/3 full. We finally arrived at 3:30pm (local time which is +1 hour from Sydney) and were met by Kelly who had our hire car all set to go - we followed her to our “luxury” villa only about 7 k’s away but about 10-15 drive due to the condition of the roads. The final approach to our villa was a dirt goat track - which I image would be a quagmire in heavy rain. As an aside the “welcome” by the customs officials was quite unfriendly - geez it’s still Australia but they need to protect their bio-sphere - which is fine but don’t treat visitors as suspected drug smugglers.

We quickly got the villa intro from Kelly then jumped into our car to do some grocery shopping before the only supermarket closed. The pickings were very slim indeed (as warned by various travel blogs) - prices were, again as expected sky high. Some examples - fresh milk $12 / liter, 4-pack of diet coke $8, 1.5 liter bottle of water $8, …. yoghurt - twice the price of Sydney. There was no fresh fruit at all, a few shrivelled carrots, and a few black bananas. We settled for yoghurt to accompany the cereal we brought from Sydney for breakfast.

Back at our villa - we just had sufficient time to unload our meagre supplies and head off for dinner at Hilli’s - one of the higher ranked restaurants on the island. We arrived at about 6:40pm for our 6:30pm booking and the place was already in full swing. On being offered an inside table we asked about an outside (on the verandah) table and were told it was booked - when pressed they gave us the outside table when we explained we had booked a week ago and requested an outside table. Dinner was fine - a salad for Dieter and Norfork Island goat’s cheese soufflé for me - we both had the local fish (trumpeter aka sweet lips, red emperor, ….) - the salad was better than expected, the soufflé just OK, and the fish very good - the pile of mashed potatoes and a few soggy veggies did not enhance the dish. Then it was back to our villa to watch the final of the OZ Open tennis (Djokovic vs Tsitsipas) which was 3 sets to 0 for Doko.

Monday Jan 30

We had to get up early (6am NI time - 5am Sydney time - jet-lag !!!) as we had been pre-booked by our accommodation provider on a free island tour at 8:30am. So we had a leisurely breakfast of coffee (I brought my own filter but there's also a Nespresso machine) and cereal and yoghurt then off to town.

To our surprise the tour not only left on time but was full and fortunately only lasted 2 hours not the 3 hours advertised - but we did skip the post tour morning tea. 

After the tour we went to the best butcher in town to check out what they had - we brought some bread, cheese and prosciutto which we later had for lunch. We went back after lunch as they were waiting on new provisions - so we bought local pork chops, mushrooms, potatoes and broccolini (for an eye watering $9 a bunch). 

We spent the afternoon doing a walk in the wonderful botanical gardens rain forest then driving up Mt Pitt lookout.

Back at our villa we showered and relaxed - unfortunately the villa gets the full sun all morning and as a result it’s hotter than Hades and, in spite of the living area having many windows, it does not seem to cool off in the afternoons. It has been quite hot and humid since we arrived - 25C but seems much hotter due to the 90% humidity. 

We stayed home for pork chops etc, probably our only dinner at home. 

Tuesday Jan 31

I got up early as my mozzie bytes were driving me crazy - lots of coffee and cereal, yoghurt and frozen blueberries for breakfast. We took the Colleen McCullough house tour departing at 9:30am so it was a relatively early start to the day.  The tour was very interesting - of course you can read the facts on the internet - but it makes quite an impression walking through her house with the tour guilded by her former and still current house keeper.

After a quick lunch at our villa we checked out the various historical museums then went snorkelling at Emily Bay lagoon - where the water was warm, the sand soft and coral OK. We saw lots of fish.

Back at our villa - we cleaned up all our gear then went out for dinner at Bounty - which was OK.

Wednesday Feb 1

I got early again but had a pretty good sleep - after brekkie we joined one of the “tag along” museum tours leaving from Kingston. The tour was very informative and the guide quite a delight - an eight generation descendant of Fletcher Christian. After the tour we visited a couple more of the museum houses then headed down the road to the golf club hoping to have lunch at their bistro - but all we could get was a drink with the only food offering some sort of chicken schnitzel burger - so we headed back to the ranch to scrape the bottom of the barrel for lunch.

After a bit of a rest - we headed down to the pier to see if any fishermen were cleaning fish and throwing the guts to the large sharks which come in for a feed - but no such luck. We then drove to the 100 Acre reserve for a short bush walk - spotting various birds - we saw tropic birds, sooty terns and regular terns. After the walk we re-checked the jetty but still no sharks.

Back at the villa we showered, had short happy hour then went to Bailey’s for dinner - pretty good all round.

Thursday Feb 2

Another hot and humid day - we joined another tag-along history/museum tour - interesting but not as good as the previous day - some repetition of facts. 

We then checked out the jetty where a fishing boat had come in and they were cleaning fish and throwing off-cuts into the water - promptly chomped up by 3 circling bronze whalers - no snorkelling this side of the jetty !!

After lunch back at our villa we went snorkelling at Slaughter Bay - right beside Emily Bay - much better - more fish and coral.

After the usual post-snorklling cleanup we went for dinner at the Homestead, by far the best restaurant on the island - real fine dining. We sat on the verandah - the dinner took longer than usual as we ordered the deguestion menu (a bargain at $80 pp) - so it was dark by the time we finished and the mozzies moved in - I even got bites through my linen pants. On leaving, the area where the cars were parked was so dark we had difficulty finding ours - it doesn’t have a click-key lock system. The drive home was very dark indeed - best to finish dinner before total darkness.

Friday Feb 3

It started out very overcast, but we still headed over to the national forest for a couple of short bush walks - it was through pretty wet rain forest so I was very concerned about leeches - but we were fine.

We had lunch at home (same old/same old - proscuitto and cheese on bread). Later we went back to Sirius museum (which we had visited on one of the tag along tours) for a closer look. We finished off the afternoon with a stop for refreshments at the only brew pub on the island at Castaway resort.

We went back to the Homestead for dinner but it wasn’t as ‘amazing’ as our first visit - ordered a la carte - and were not 100% happy.

Saturday Feb 4

It was another one of those sort-of overcast days - clouds one minute, sun the next. We drove to the other side of the national park and did the Bridal Path walk from the Captain Cook lookout - the walk was quite spectacular - rugged costal views with many close rocky islands (a bit like the 12 Apostles in Victoria) - we saw many sea birds - including masked boobies (aka gannets) and some nesting frigate birds who are migratory and not often seen on NI and, as always, many terns.

We had our usual lunch at home - I then cleaned the hiking gear while Dieter went back to rental car company as our check-out information said the car had to be left at the airport at 11:40am yet our flight was not until 2:15pm so we would be sort of stranded for hours at the airport (which does not have Qantas lounge) - Dieter convinced the rental company that we could keep the car as long as we wished.

Later we drove to our ‘local’ beach/cove - Bomboras reserve - really nice - we just had a quick look then headed back to the brew pub.

We had dinner at Bailey’s again at Governors Lodge. All over the island we saw local sacred kingfishers (a naive sub-species) - we even saw one of the native Pacific (Scarlet) robins and an emerald dove and many California quails and 1000’s of feral chickens.

Sunday Feb 5

We had to check out of our villa at 10am but fortunately we were able to keep the car as long as we needed it. We went to Cyclorama which has a surround painting of the history of the Bounty - it was nicely done but only used up about an hour of our spare time. The day was sunny, very hot and very humid. We checked-in our bags at the airport as soon as check-in opened at 11:45 then went for lunch at the brew pub - we had planned to go to the bistro at Gouvenor’s Lodge but alas it was closed for renovations. 

After lunch - we headed back to the airport to catch our 2:15pm flight which left sort of on time. 

We walked in the door at home around 5pm - with 2 suitcases full of laundry -  I got started on the first load then we went to Ventuno’s for dinner figuring is was too late to go shopping.