Norfolk Island

After a long day of travel starting last night I got into Norfolk Island about 3pm.
Getting here was interesting. As far as I can tell Norfolk Island is an Australian territory. I didn’t need my passport but was advised to bring it as my photo ID.
The flight to the island left from the Brisbane International Airport and I had to go through immigration to get airside.
The scanner didn’t accept my passport so I was directed to an officer. She was surprised to see someone going to Norfolk Island and mentioned they’d have to open the flight “already”. To be fair this was about 5:45am and the flight was scheduled for 11:40am.
I had a long wait in the Qantas lounge with a bit of a doze.
The flight here was around two hours. I sat next to a lady who had retired here from the Gold Coast. We had a nice chat about fostering cats and dogs and she told me a bit about her experience during covid in 2020 as they only moved here in 2019. They had around 150 cases towards the end of 2020.

I had to complete an immigration card and show my passport again.
I was met by the very friendly hire car representative.
The numbers plates are just numbers. Apparently there are some single digit plates around.
After literally driving across the road to my accommodation I went into the main st to get a SIM card as Australian carriers don’t work here, not even international roaming. Although I’d been told there were 4 places that sold the tourist sim there’s only one and it was closed.
I picked up some groceries and after dropping them off went for a drive. Without the internet Google maps wasn’t terribly accurate but I found the ocean and some Norfolk Island pines.
Decided to have dinner out in the hopes they’d have wifi. Which they do!
Early to bed tonight I think. I’ve not had nearly enough sleep over the last 24 hours.Lue lisää