Monday – Kingston and the Grey Lions are on the prowl

Watawieh? Welkam tu d’ Werl d’ Norf’k (‘Hello and how are you? Welcome to The World of Norfolk’)

The morning on Norf dawns bright and sunny and another great day begins. After stocking the larder yesterday we have breakfast on our verandah and take in more of the wonderful views of Ball Bay while sipping our morning beverage and munching on our toast.

Today we decide that we will do the half day tour and have a look around the island.   So we organize ourselves making sure to take the necessary cameras etc and off we go.

IT3 does a magnificent job of navigating up the driveway until we get to the top and realize that there is a rather steep bump before we get to the road. We all draw in our breath hoping it will make the car lighter (tourist idiots) and we manage to get the car over the bump and turn left all in one go without scraping her bottom.

Travelling into town we pass some of the native wildlife – cows. Cows have right of way here. You hit a cow – you can end up doing time! I kid you not. And beware of black cows in the night!

The guided tour takes in all the places of interest on Norf. So after getting our voucher from Pinetree Tours and with said voucher in hand we head off to meet Lisle. We park the car and see – a bus load of the grey brigade. These, we discover, are part of the Lions Club convention that is being held on our turf and we desperately hope that they are not part of our group.  Lisle is busy meeting and greeting, and then we get to the head of the queue, he welcomes us and shows us our bus – full of Grey Lions and I say – no way – no how.  I turn around and head back to the car with IT1 and IT3 in hot pursuit leaving Lisle discouraged and disappointed that he will not have the company of not only the three best looking gals around but the only ones who are actually not doddering. But I digress.

We think to ourselves this place is only small – this will not take much time seeing that the island is only about 35 sq km.  We can guide ourselves no probs so we set off.  Little did we know that every time we stopped to see something the ‘Grey Lions’ would not be far away.

Before we start though we decide our first stop will be morning tea at the Tropicana Café, see picture right.  This will give the Grey Lions time to ‘get out of town’ and on their way.

The Tropicana is to become a tradition for morning tea every day we are here. They serve the most amazing coconut and pineapple muffins and lime spiders – not to mention coffees and other delights.

We relax and watch the citizens and other tourists go about their business, wave goodbye to the Grey Lions and after being well fed and watered we set off on our own tour of discovery. Today we will just have a brief look at what is around, get our bearings and then we will return and spend lengthy visits. That’s a good plan.

Arriving at Queen Elizabeth Lookout we get a spectacular overall view of Kingston and Quality Row (more about that later in the trip), the convict ruins, the golf course and the historic cemetery.

 We stay for while and just look out to sea when I decide that I will try and get some really great pictures and promptly zap my butt on the electric fence which is to keep the cows from entering the car park and harassing the tourists. I feel as if I have had a heart attack!

Being zapped by this fence has provided a sense of unadulterated laughter to IT1 and IT3. This episode is the first of many to dissolve them into gales of laughter at my expense.  Above photo includes said guilty fence, so off we go down the road to Kingston for a close up look.  Remember this is our first visit to Kingston. This fact will become important in later days.

We also get to see the close islands of Nepean (in the front) and Phillip.  The greens of the land and the blues of the ocean are vibrant.  This certainly is a very picturesque place.

Arriving at the bottom of the hill so to speak – what a place of history. We take a short walk around the historic cemetery. Note that the Grey Lions did not actually walk around this place. They stayed up on the road in the bus far away – thinking they better not tempt fate I presume. After that stop we head to Kingston Wharf. The clouds have rolled in a bit and the wind is whipping the sea into a frenzy – but it’s great.

The old boatsheds and early buildings are very well looked after and it’s great to actually see the history. After walking around we are feeling like lunch so we think where would be the best place. The Golf Course should have a dining room so off we go. Yes, it did have a dining room. We walked in one door had a look and walked out the other. Option 2? What about back to the Tropicana? Good deal. So back into town where we have lunch and then walk around the shops to see what specials we can nab. The usual touristy shirts etc are bought for those at home.

We then decide to check out the Bond Store for some liquor purchases.  Being duty free we can also get a once only 10% discount if we show our passports/tickets so we get a trolley (I kid you not) and stock up.  Bottles of Amaretto, Jim Beam, Scotch, wine – just the usual – plus a new discovery ‘Sex on the Beach’. This is a delightful concoction of tropical tastes with the usual dollop of alcohol.

The lady at checkout is rather flabbergasted at the amount of booze, but we explain we are here for 10 days. This does not seem to make an impression so we load our ‘Grog Shop on Wheels’ into the boot of the car then it’s time to go back to The Bay for what will become the first of many Nanna Naps. Note that we travel really, really slow down the drive so that we don’t break the bottles.

Whilst being very, very careful to lock the front and verandah doors on our departure, we discover that we left the laundry / bathroom door open.  Just as well everyone on this Island is as honest as Dave.  Once again we dissolve into gales of laughter. After catching a few zzzz’s it’s dinner time.  Dinner consists of Honest Dave’s produce with cold meat on fresh bread rolls and some wine.

Once again we sit on the verandah and watch the sunset.  This is going to be holiday of eating, looking, eating, drinking, looking, drinking, looking, eating and drinking.  I can tell.

As IT1 is a smoker she has to go outside to light up. This is an island that has 1 street light and it is nowhere near us. So going outside means going out into pitch black except for the moon and the stars. Taking one look into the total blackness of the night has rather a frightening effect on her so IT3 volunteers to accompany her. I stay inside – I’m no fool.

The TV works but it gets shows from Brisbane which are about 2 hours behind us. We realize this when we settle in to watch a movie at 7.30 and by 9 it has still not come on. We do however, get to watch many ads for Pete’s Place which is the local hardware / electrical goods and whatever else store. There is a rather charming local family advertising the store with a son that is just as endearing. The catch phrase of the holiday becomes ‘At Pete’s Place’.

Highlight of the day : The look on Lisle’s face and waving goodbye to the Grey Lions