Rain overnight and windy today. We set off to complete the paperwork for the rental car (which we have been driving for 2 days!) They aren't open yet so we go down to Kingston and investigate the golf course and the cemetery where the names of the early settlers and mutineers families and Pitcairners predominate - Buffet, Evans, Christian, Christian, Quintal, McCoy. Some soldiers graves are also here - the soldiers from Norfolk Island fought with the NZ army.
 |
| The brass plaque has the silver fern on it as do the white soldiers graves behind. |
 |
| One of the oldest tombstones. |
 |
| The cemetery is well maintained and Norfolk Islanders are buried for free. |
 |
| These mark the spot of prisoner deaths |
 |
| The uprising at the second penal colony lead to quite a few deaths - either during the uprising or afterwards when the perpetrators were executed by hanging. |
 |
| They killed the cook! I hear the food was pretty bad. |
 |
| All graves face the sea and to the right is a scruffy piece of land where the prisoners who mutinied were buried. |
 |
| Close by is the Magistrate's House which is now where the clubrooms for the golf course are. |
 |
The kitchen area, which is an annexe, is now the professional's shop
|
We travel along Quality row (The golf course is No 1 Quality Row) to the dock which must be a very precarious place to land. Everything is bought ashore by lighter - even the buses which were bought ashore straddling two lighters yoked together
 |
| This is the rough side of the jetty - the boats land on the right side |
 |
| This lighter has seen better days. Captain Cook did a sketch of the Norfolk Pine that you can see in the background. |
 |
| Norfolk Pine Shingles - need replacing every 7-8 years |
 |
| This is where the prisoners hand turned the mill to make flour (often from corn not wheat.) |
 |
| View from the crankmill |
 |
| Phillip Island - about 6km off shore. |
 |
| Farmers pay about $300 to let their cattle graze on common land throughout the ialand. They are mustered twice a year for immunisations etc |
 |
| Look, no electric fence - just drivers doing 50kph max. |
 |
| We really liked their flag. |
 |
| Hands off Norfolk Island!!! |
 |
Opposition to the Australian take-over of governance. To me it seems like a whole lots of compliance costs for not much in tax and rates
|
Back through town, and we headed to the North-east of the island to Simon's water which had a more Polynesian flavour. In fact the roads degrade to tracks and we never got to see any water at Simon's water.
We checked out a vineyard - not open but will be tomorrow.
Headed back into town and went to Cyclorama which is a very large painting in a circular form from leaving Portsmouth on a breadfruit finding mission with Captain Bligh; to Tahiti;to Pitcairn; and then to Norfolk. It was an excellent summary of what we have seen so far, and we are familiar with a lot of the names mentioned from the cemetery.
Outside is a garden to commemorate Queen Victoria who gave the Pitcairners Norfolk Island (50 acres per family) when they outgrew Pitcairn Island
 |
| A statue called Archie and me in the Queen Victoria Gardens |
 |
Hibiscus were just starting to bloom.
|
Lunch, nap and a time to reorganise. After a bit of bookreading, we head off to our "Language Class" which shows the link between the Tahitian ladies and men who joined the mutineers from the Bounty. Gwen means going. It ties in very neatly with our visit to the cemetery and the cyclorama and sort of rounds out the day.
We had a lovely meal at the Hilli and headed home through the pitch black.
 |
| Duncan has steak. |
 |
| Gwen has chicken |
No comments:
Post a Comment