Another week on Norfolk Island
I’ve just returned from another four days of working on Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island on Google Maps.
Norfolk Island
The history of Norfolk Island is fascinating. You can find a lot to read about it on-line. In my opinion though, it’s helpful to speak with some of the local Norfolk Islanders and get their take on their history and their lived experience. Sometimes the spoken word history offers information you cannot find in books or websites.
Clean air
Travelling to Norfolk Island and spending the days outdoors speaking with people was much better than being in Canberra. Not only was it warm and humid, but the air was clean and the sky was mostly blue, apart from a few short cloudy periods when it rained.
Like many parts of the mainland, the island hasn’t had much rain and it’s looking parched.
Tuesday
Travelling to Norfolk Island
This time instead of flying via Sydney, I flew via Brisbane. On Tuesday, Air New Zealand offers a return service which I think does Wellington to Brisbane to Norfolk Island back to Brisbane and then on to Wellington. The nice thing about the Brisbane to Norfolk Island flight is the aircraft is Wi-Fi capable and the Wi-Fi is free courtesy of Air New Zealand.
Meals on flights to Norfolk Island
The meals on the flights to Norfolk Island including breakfast on the Qantas flight from Canberra to Brisbane were pretty good. I enjoyed the mango flavoured yoghurt and dried cranberries and then the chicken casserole and potato mash.
Pork and lemon curd at Hilli
We hit the ground running and started working immediately. The evening meal was much anticipated. It was at Hilli Restaurant & Café.
Check out the post on Yummy Lummy from yesterday which outlines a lot of the details of the places, the meals, and my opinion of the meals.
I had the pork belly and then the lemon curd tart with vanilla ice cream.
Wednesday
Wednesday was a longer day with lots of engagements to participate in.
Breakfast
Breakfast was Eggs Benedict with bacon from The Olive Café.
Lunch
Lunch was a sandwich from The Olive Café (no photograph).
Tea
We couldn’t get a reservation at the local Asian restaurant nor Dino’s so we dined again at Hilli Restaurant and Café.
This time I had three courses starting with a duck liver pâté for entrée, followed by a puff pastry encrusted slow cooked lamb shank with a pea purée for a main course, to be finished off with a hazelnut and Belgian chocolate tart for dessert.
Thursday
Breakfast
Thursday was a beautiful fine day. Breakfast was savoury mince and two poached eggs on toast from The Olive Café.
Quality Row Heritage
Lunch
For lunch we went to the Olive Branch at the Norfolk Island Golf Club. The Olive Branch is a branch of The Olive Café! The manager of the Olive Branch has a weekly theme which is posted on the café’s Facebook page. This week was gravy and for Norfolk Island, gravy means cream. Yea, I was confused too. I expect you need to be a local to understand exactly what all that means.
This is a gallery of two image files. Click on one and scroll to the other.
I had a Caesar salad with smoked fish.
Golf club views
This is a small gallery. Click on one and scroll through the photographs.
Captain Cook’s stones
In the afternoon we went for a short drive to show a couple of colleagues who weren’t part of the first delegation on December some of scenery. We went to see Captain Cook’s stones and the Mount Pitt lookout.
This is a small gallery of photographs of Captain Cook’s stones and the view from Mount Pitt outlook with a view of the Norfolk Island International Airport. Click on one photograph and scroll through the photographs in the gallery.
Tea
Dinner on Thursday was at a relatively new restaurant, viz., Bounty Bar & Grill.
The menus are hand written and each one is slightly different and according to the person who wrote them, she was imbibing while writing. This explains some of the interesting changes in grammar which can be found when comparing one menu with another. For example, I thought one of the sauces was a house butter Béarnaise sauce when really it was house butter or Béarnaise sauce. For dessert on one menu there was clearly written Trio of Ice Cream but on the menu I received which I assume was written late into the imbibing, was written Tnoof Ice Cream.
I enjoyed a local Norfolk Island rump steak with chips, honey carrots, a side salad, and a gravy boat of Béarnaise sauce. I asked for the steak to be cooked rare but it came out medium. It was tender though and tasty. The chips were okay. The sauce was good. I liked the salad because it had pitted black olives.
For dessert I did ask for the Tnoof ice cream and received a scoop of vanilla, a scoop of chocolate, and a scoop of white chocolate ice cream.
Avocado
In the grounds of the restaurant there was a large avocado tree. Avocado trees grow well on Norfolk Island. My work colleagues looked sceptical when I mentioned the etymological origin of the word Avocado.
These are two Hass avocados I purchased yesterday.
Friday
Breakfast
After eating out for three nights, I could feel my trousers were a little tighter in the thighs. I asked for Vegemite and toast at The Olive Café.
There was a lot of butter, and I’ve never written this before, but there was too much butter, even for me.
Headstone Point
Before lunch we went to check out a bit of work at Headstone. The water and rocks are gorgeous.
This is a small gallery of photographs. Click on one and then scroll through the images in the gallery.
Lunch
For lunch the delegation and the local team ate together at The Homestead. I went with a piece of Kingfish.
On the Air New Zealand flight between Norfolk Island and Sydney, I had a beef casserole and potato mash.
Yes, you counted correctly, two lunches. But for what it’s worth, I didn’t have tea on Friday night.
Canberra cooking
Back in Canberra I was happy to be in my kitchen and cooking some simple food to enjoy. I had brought back with me two extra kilograms of body fat. I need to try to lose this as quickly as possible.
It’s a pity I am yet to get my head around exercising again after last week’s run in with two would be muggers.
This is a small gallery of photographs of food. Please click on one photograph and then scroll through the others in the gallery.
Yummy Lummy
On Yummy Lummy yesterday I described what I ate on Norfolk Island. It’s a bit more detailed than what I’ve shared here. There are also maps so you can find the places I dined at.
Random Yummy
The Random Yummy will be back in full swing too now that I’m back. Check out the posts for the more regular updates of what I’m eating. Last night I did a sous vide pork cutlet.
What I’ve watched this week
I haven’t really watched anything this week. While I was on Norfolk Island I watched the ABC news because it was the best channel on the TV set in the motel room I was in.
What I’ve listened to this week
Again, because Norfolk Island only has a 2G network and Internet data costs $20 per Gigabyte, I didn’t download anything new while I was on island.
If I wasn’t working I was with my work colleagues eating and sharing stories.
Final thoughts
- Do you like reading the history of a place or speaking with the locals?
- When was the last time you had savoury mince on toast for breakfast?
- Do you like returning to your kitchen after being away and preparing your own meals?
I really enjoyed reading this post Gary. Always interesting what you eat and especially what you ate during the week (and how much ha ha) and loved the photos of Norfolk. I have never been there so it was lovely to see how nice it is from your photos.
Hehe, yea, I do like to balance quantity and quality 😃😃😃
Thanks Sue
I prefer reading about places and then going. I sometimes have trouble talking to people..not always, but sometimes!!! Most of the people I end up talking to are also visitors. (I did have an interesting conversation with a tourist in AK once. I was on a glacier cruise and said I’d hoped to see bears. A man near me was shocked and asked if we let them out this early..it was June and I don’t usually manage bears!) I was struck, when I was looking at your pictures, with Capt Cook’s travels. Your rocks are so different from the glacial erratics in the park named for Cook where I grew up. They seem softer..I wonder what HE thought?
As for kitchens. YES!!! I love the kitchen in this house I am in now. I miss it greatly when I’m gone.
I really miss cooking for myself when I’m away from my kitchen.