Lord Howe Island is one of our sacred places. In celebration of 24 years living together, we decided to have a holiday on the island. It was George's thirteenth visit! Her first visit was at the age of 15 with a Girl Guides outing; they arrived by Sunderland Flying Boat and landed in the lagoon.
We flew in a small twin-prop plane direct from the Gold Coast.
We stayed in a small cottage called Lagoon Landing. On previous occasions we had stayed at the same place, then called Mary Challis. Private, comfortable and close to the centre of the village.
Lagoon Landing
Beach and cliff walks
Some amazing banyan trees
Sooty tern
We caught up with two locals whom we had met in the Louisiades in 2014. Rex and Louise kindly showed us around with walks and snorkelling experiences.
Rex at New Gulch with many noddies and sooty terns.
Louise
Reef N Beyond boat we took out to Ball's Pyramid. Too choppy for snorkelling, but spectacular.
Ball's Pyramid
An Orographic Lenticular cloud coming off Ball's Pyramid
Lord Howe Island woodhen. It was nearly extinct but the population has hugely recovered thanks to a major campaign to eradicate cats, rats and pigs on the island, and a careful breeding program. It is regarded as the most successful project to save a threatened species in the world.
Newly hatched red-tailed tropicbird chick in a nook on a cliff-top
The recently named continent of Zealandia is mostly underwater, with the major exceptions of New Zealand and New Caledonia. It split off from Australia when the Gondwanaland supercontinent broke up about 80 million years ago.
Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid are on the western edge of Zealandia, with the tectonic plates moving north over magma hotspots that have generated a series of volcanoes. The older ones are now largely submerged, such as Elizabeth and Middleton reefs.
Picture the three magma hotspots (Cosgrove, Tasmantid, and Lord Howe) as being stationary, while the tectonic plates under Australia and Zealandia move north over them at about 7 cm per year, generating a series of volcanoes, with the youngest ones at the southern ends of the three tracks.
Similar volcanoes occured on the eastern edge of Australia, such as Mount Warning and the Glasshouse mountains on the Sunshine Coast.
We flew home on 16th Feb, happily refreshed by the holiday. The pilot kindly let me sit in the co-pilot's seat of the Beechcraft King Air plane which brought back memories of my flying days.
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