DAY 1 : SUNDAY : ARRIVAL

It is a bleak wet morning in Sydney, and a good day to be leaving. There's a friendly NI lady at the check-in. Fruit and juice for breakfast at the airport, and then an easy transit through customs and immigration. We have to laugh at the assembly of passengers for the flight: it looks like the inhabitants of the local retirement home! I have a most enjoyable flight across – two and a half hours in a Boeing 737-200, but with no seat in front of me, and the seat head-rests have good side supports. Luxury! The airline supplies a tasty hot meal, and so to Norfolk Island - green, with lots of Norfolk pines! – small (8 km by 5 km) and enticing, with a population of 2000.

                                                                                                                     Flying in over Kingston

There is a neat little airport ...

... and we find the welcoming committee very friendly. A bus takes us to our accommodation at The Governor’s Lodge resort,

where we are in our own little villa (living – dining – kitchen, bedroom with king-size bed, and large bathroom.

All set in luxuriant sub-tropical plantings. There is a whole bed of colourful impatiens at the back,

and the front path winds in past palms with small fresh bananas.

Yum!

The Lodge has 55 little villas set in 12 acres of gardens

and there is a central facility of pool/ spa/ café/ reception/ laundry. The local cars have number plates from 1 to around 5500. People don't bother locking their cars: where would a thief take them? We enjoy a buffet dinner at The Lodge tonight – probably our one and only such extravaganza. Very nice, but no better than Adelaide fare. We have a smart LCD TV in the lounge with a dozen channels, but watching is complicated by the 90 minutes time difference with Australia. The villa is very smart: lots of lights, two TVs and plenty of space. There are signs about conserving water; there is only tank water here, but probably plenty of it. So to bed ... .