Walking the National Park

Our plan today was to find most of the caches in Norfolk Island National Park, which covers 14% of the island.

We started the day with a drive to the lookout at Mt Pitt, the second highest point on the island (1m lower than Mt Bates).

Mt Pitt was once a thriving nesting site for the Providence Petrel.  The entire population (some 170,000 birds) was exterminated during the First Penal Settlement when the colony fell on hard times, necessitating the slaughter of the birds for food.  The petrels never re-established themselves on Norfolk Island, but a small population now nests on Phillip Island.

Our walk began with an easy 20 minutes to Mt Bates, then 1.7km mostly downhill to Bird Rock Lookout.

The return journey was, unsurprisingly, mostly uphill... and took considerably longer (especially when we detoured 700m to grab another cache!)

We got back to the car in time for lunch, then a meandering drive across the north coast to Captain Cook Lookout (where he landed when claiming the island in 1774).

Our final stop was the picturesque Anson Bay, where the track to the beach is an 800m zig zagging pathway.

Dinner tonight was at the bowling club, a popular gathering point for locals and tourists alike.Read more