THE PENAL COLONY
A scene of great brutality, the penal colony has been generally well restored. Following some pictures
The Governor's Home - the Governor's ranged from sadistic monsters to pragmatic rehabilitators
The outlet to the sea from the stream thru the Governor's garden - the legend (or reality) is that one of the more ogre like governors had the prisoners dig a new path through the solid limestone as he didn't like the shape of the natural course
The Crankhouse where prisoners walked a treadmill to grind their grain....occasionally the multi ton grind stones came loose and crushed a lot of bodies.
Of particular poignancy is the cemetary. Most of the prisoners were Irish (some as young as 11) caught stealing to feed their families during the potato famine. There were 3 mutinies and a multitude of tragic stories. Many of the headstones have been restored and they tell a sad tale of the time....and of the subsequent travails of the Bounty mutineer descendents
LIZ AND DICK GET RELIGION
We don't usually do churches, but St. Barnabas' on Norfolk touched us. It is relatively small, physically beautiful and charming.
The woodwork is inspiring. The roof is effectively an upturned boat with intricate joinery. The pews are New Zealand Kauri wood preserved with whale oil, and finished with inlays of mother of pearl. The stained glass was shipped from England as was the pipe organ - an interesting anecdote - the pipe organ made it all the way from England on a sail driven whaler with not a scratch, but was damaged by the local installers
One particularly charming feature is the individual hand needleworked pew cushions. One can only assume that sitting on another family's cushion is a major faux pas!
Following our religious lapse, Liz reverted to childhood and went for a swing
As always we visited the local botanical gardens and were rewarded with sightings of blue and red parrots and a rare tropical Robin Red Breast
Norfolk added to our collection of signs. The first is too cute to be real - we assume it's guy humour at our favourite butcher
Here Australia seems to assume some of the "local bully" perceived role that the US fills elsewhere resulting in the following
The local paper generated a series of fun want ads. We were especially fascinated by what "sales" job requires the unique combination of fishing knowledge, computer skills and the ability to drive a forklift
We close with a bit of Island colour.....in the small local phone book you can find subscribers listed not only by name and address, but also by nickname. Where else can you dial up "Diddles" or "Frenzie" on his mobile?
And some Island humour - one of the neighbours called his home "Hot Tin Roof" (most of the island homes have names) - other neighbours responded by naming their home in the "roofing" manner. The series of gateway signs in a favourite of tour guides and sightseers
We were enchanted by Norfolk Island - wished we had booked longer than 4 nights and we just might return one day!
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