Lord Howe Island

Off to Lord Howe Island on LynxAir or maybe Skylink. The flight left almost on time at 1pm – it was a fully loaded Dash-8. The flight attendant was super friendly after take-off there was a water service and that seemed to be it but shortly thereafter, he came around with a complimentary drinks service: beer, wine, soft drinks then a snack (packet of those sticky rice crisps).

We landed around 3:15pm and were met by Pinetrees' staff who whisked us off to the resort. We were all checked-in and unpacked by 4ish. Our room was actually a 1-bedroom villa with a porch front and back and a large (empty) mini-bar complete with Nespresso machine. We went for a walk along the waterfront checking our Pinetrees' ‘Boatshed’ which is a nice honesty bar and seating overlooking the lagoon and Mt Gower.
We walked along checking out the various tour huts – the final one being Reef ‘n Beyond where we had pre-booked a around island tour (including snorkelling) for the following day – however just before leaving home we received an e-mail advising us that Friday’s tour had been cancelled due to windy conditions – over the phone they advised that we had been re-booked for Sunday. Now Pinetrees has NO internet at all (by popular guest demand – haha who are they fooling) so further e-mails from Reef ‘n Beyond will not be possible unless we go to the local library where they do have WiFi.

Back at the Boatshed we had a happy hour (not so happy as you need to pay for your drinks) but it was lovely sitting overlook the lagoon as the sun started its decent. We returned to our room (1 minute’s walk away) and changed for dinner. Dinner was a la carte – up to 4 courses with a set entrée and 3 choices for mains. Dieter had beef cheeks and I had local trevally which of which were good but not excellent. We had a Chardonnay and a red (with carry-over to the next day) – funnily there is no wine by the glass, but the bottle prices are very reasonable. Note we later frond out that there is wine by glass (not on the wine list) with a daily white and red selected each day at the ultra cheap price of $10.

Lots of rain overnight; however, it cleared by about 7am but remained quite windy. We started the day with a Nespresso then went for breakfast – there was a very small buffet (a fruit bowl with whole pieces of fruit, tea and coffee and breads). Other items were a la carte: we started with a shared fruit plate (which was unimpressive, but Dieter had snagged a passionfruit and a kiwi fruit off the buffet which enhanced it), then Dieter ordered poached eggs which were very good; I ordered yoghurt which was inedible as it was warm.

We walked to the village stopping at the museum to connect our phones to WiFi so we could have a quick check of e-mail and the news. We also stopped at the various tour sheds along the beach and re-confirmed that our boat tour around Ball's Pyramid would go ahead on Sunday and got fitted for fins and wetsuits for the optional snorkelling.

We then walked over to Ned’s Beach exploring a few side tracks and stopping at the general store where we picked up some mineral water and diet cokes. We made it back to the lodge in time for lunch at 12:15 – 2pm. The 2 choices were chicken or Kingfish – we both opted for Kingfish. This format was repeated every day.

After a bit of a rest we hit the tennis court – we had brought our own balls and used the resort supplied rackets which were very cheap and nasty. A combination of these rackets and the poor court surface made for a very lacklustre game.

Now it was time for showers and happy hour at the "Boatshed" where canapés were to be served from 6pm. However it was so windy that canapés were moved to main restaurant area. Dinner was fine – Dieter had rack of lamb and I had Kingfish curry.

The wind was howling all night, so we got up early for a lovely Nespresso while we waited for breakfast to start at 7:30. It was pretty much the same fare as the previous day, so I won’t report on it again. Around 9am we started our hike of the day to Mulligan’s lookout – starting from Pinetrees over to Ned’s Beach then up the track which was steep at first then rough. The round trip took about 3 hours so we were back at the lodge in time for lunch.

After lunch and a bit of a rest, we walked over the Museum for a dose of WiFi – the museum was closed but you could access their internet from the porch with tables for the café.
From here we walked over to the island’s brew pub which is a bit off the beaten track – but the track is bordered by spectacular Banyan trees. As luck would have it, Saturday was one of the only 2 opening days of the week. Naturally we stopped for a drink – an island beer for Dieter and an Aperol Spritz for me (which they had on tap - very urban chic). The prices were also urban chic - $26 for 2 drinks. The brew pub also has some very large green houses where they grow various commercial crops for the locals.

Back at the ranch we showered and had happy hour at the Boatshed chatting to a couple from Sydney’s Northern Beaches whom we had met the previous day. Dinner was Kingfish for both of us – seems to be the only fish on the menu at present – but it’s fresh and local so who’s complaining. On the way back from dinner we collected our early morning breakfast – which was kind of pathetic – a pear, an apple, some Wheatbix some seedy muesli and 2 jars of plain yoghurt.

Off to bed – at 10pm the power went off but at this late in the evening it seemed like nothing to be concerned about.

We got up at 6am to get ready for our big day out – around the island boat tour with some snorkelling. Well, the power was still off so no Nespresso but we made a cold brekkie of the above mentioned ingredients.
At 7:45am we were all packed up and we headed off for the 25-minute walk to the jetty for our round the island tour. It was overcast with a bit of on-off drizzle and some breeze. On arrival at the jetty, we waited around with 10 other people – at about 8:25am one of the people noted he had received an e-mail at 6:35am stating the tour was cancelled!! It’s unclear why he had only just read it but again with no internet (except at some venues and other lodges) not everyone got the message. There was no one from the tour company at the jetty and on walking back to Pinetrees we stopped at their tour hut and it was locked up!!!

In a very disgruntled frame of mind, we arrived back at Pinetrees to find the power was still off – apparently it had come back on for a bit then went off again. The outage was impacting one whole section of the grid. We went back to our room to change, and the power was finally restored so at the time of writing this we were enjoying an Nespresso before walking back to the Museum to see what the tour company has advised us wrt re-booking or cancelling for a refund.

On checking our e-mail at the Museum, we found (naturally) that the tour was cancelled, and they were processing a refund. On their website Dieter found they had tentatively scheduled another tour for Thursday, but you had to call. So who knows – I was certainly not keen to re-book and have it cancelled again at 6am on the morning.

We did a short walk after lunch and otherwise dagged about until Happy Hour and dinner.

We started off with a stop at the Museum for some WiFi then did a 1+ hour walk to Middle Beach then onto Clear Point where we had a great view of Ball’s Pyramid. After a quick lunch we set off for our 2-hour Ultimate Snorkelling Tour – it was great, but we only stopped at 2 places due to strong currents – even though the water temperature was reported as 24C, we got pretty cold even with shorty wetsuits. While the snorkelling was excellent, the boat was not - they use a glass bottom boat which limits space on board - we had a very full house 14 adults and 4 children including a baby less than a year old - this posed some issues getting in and our of the boat.

Back at the lodge we had showers and did a quick load of laundry before Happy Hour. Dinner was the best of our stay here – venison for Dieter and salmon for me.

Off to Capella today. After brekkie we packed up and Pinetrees transferred us to Capella along with another couple (Chris and Janelle from Canberra) at 10:30am. Our welcome was excellent with drinks and snacks offered as well as friendly chatter from many of the staff (Bridie, the manager, and others – Madeline from Barcelona, Malcom from Sarnia, Ontario, ???
Chris and Janelle’s rooms was already ready so off they went while Dieter and I did a 2-hour walk, Intermediate Hill where you get a good view of Ball’s Pyramid. On our return we got into our room which is lovely with a fully stocked mini-bar and snack bar and a chilled bottle of French Champagne.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and generally settling in – including getting up to date on e-mails and news as WiFi is available. Not long after getting into our room it started to rain so luckily we had completed our walk. After showers we dipped into the Champagne and a few chips since we had not had lunch. Then is was time for happy hour with canapes followed by dinner.

We sat with Janell and Chris and another couple from the Northern Beaches (Terry and Lynn) and had a lovely time chatting during canapés, cocktails, or whatever you wished. Guests sit separately for dinner.
Dieter and I elected not to have the special dinner of the day (Asian fusion) and had a selection from the daily standard menu - soup of the day, fish of the day (Kingfish surprise!!), cheese and sorbet. Dieter declared he had had his fair share of Kingfish for this trip.

Off to Capella today. After brekkie we packed up and Pinetrees transferred us to Capella along with another couple (Chris and Janelle) at 10:30am. Our welcome was excellent with drinks and snacks offered as well as friendly chatter from many of the staff (Bridie, the manager, and others – Madeline from Barcelona, Malcom from Sarnia, Ontario, ???
Chris and Janelle’s rooms was already ready so off they went while Dieter and I headed off on a 2-hour walk, Intermediate Hill where you get a good view of Ball’s Pyramid. On our return we got into our room which is lovely with a fully stocked mini-bar and snack bar and a chilling bottle of French Champagne.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and generally settling in – including getting up to date on e-mails and news as WiFi is available. Not long after getting in to our room it started to rain so luckily we has completed our walk. After showers we dipped into the Champagne and a few chips since we had not had lunch. Then is was time for happy hour with canapes followed by dinner.

We did a couple of walks today including Mutton Bird lookout.
We later met our new friends (Chris & Janelle, and Terry & Lynn) for canapés and happy hour followed by dinner.

We started the day by collecting our push bike and cycling to Ned's Beach and back. After a rest we hired e-bikes from Capella ($25 per half day per bike) - we had a trial run then return to the lodge to collect our snorkelling gear. Then it was off to Ned's again, this time for a snorkel which was excellent. The water was warm enough but I opted to rent a wetsuit ($5); Dieter used his stinger suit. Chris, Janelle, Terry and Lynn were there so we caught up with them as well.
Turned out Terry and Lynn have the "presidential suite" so they invited us to pre-dinner happy hour along with Chris and Janelle. Then it was off to dinner - more food and wine.

A bit of a repeat - took regular bikes to Ned's beach for more afternoon snorkelling.
In the morning we found out from Terry and Lynn that their 11am flight back to Sydney had been cancelled and they had no information on what would happen next. As it turned out they finally contacted Skytrans, the totally tinpot airline which recently took over the route from Qanats, thet the best they could offer was a flight in 2 days time (Sunday). Capella said they could put them up for 1 night (at half-price) but were unsure about the following night. As it came to pass Skytrans did manage to schedule an additional flight on Saturday so they only got one bonus night.

Capella drove us to Old Settlement Beach which is the start of the Mt Eliza hike. However, first you have to hike to North Bay which is a very strenuous uphill slog then back downhill which only gets you to the start of the Mt Eliza track. By the time we reached North Bay (1.5 hours) I was totally stuffed so we hung around resting then returned to Old Settlement Beach - another 1.5 hours. From here we walked to town (about 15 minutes) where we had a late lunch at the Anchorage Pub; we then rang Capella from the free public phone booth to collect us.

It was around 3pm by the time we got back so we just rested before showers. This evening there was a talk about the island history from 6-7pm. The talk was presented by Ian Hatton a very long time resident of LHI and renowned naturalist. Naturally we finished off with another lovely dinner.

Today was out last day - so after breakfast and packing up we vacated our room at 10:30am as requested and went for a short walk along the beach. We had a light lunch at the lodge then departed for the airport at 2;15pm