2020-02-24 – Full Island Tour

We had a full island tour that covered almost all of the 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) of roads on the island.  

And we got all the nitty gritty of life on the island.  In addition to history lessons we also hit waste processing facility where they recycle as much as possible and turn pretty much everything else into compost and mulch.  While there we saw 3 woodhens.  The Lord Howe Island woodhen is one of the rarest birds in the world  It is endemic to Lord Howe Island and is flightless.  It’s numbers had plummeted to about 30 birds because of rats, mice and feral cats, pigs and goats were destroying eggs and killing chicks.  It didn’t help that their numbers

In the early 80’s as many of the birds as possible were captured for a captive breeding program and to protect them while a massive campaign was launched to eradicate the introduced species.  The eradication program appears to have been a success and a number of the birds were reintroduced to the island.  There are now almost 300 of them in the wild.  (Some like to hang out at the waste treatment facility where they can find food.)  We saw 3.  Fully 1% of the entire wild population. 

Re cats, they are no longer allowed on the island as household pets.  The last one, Tasman, died a few years back.  He was so loved by the islanders, and particularly the children, that his send-off was the equivalent of a State Funeral. 

Dogs are allowed but you have to get permission and there are many rules regarding them…only one desexed dog per household, always on a leash, etc.

We also made a detour to the airport when Peter, our guide, saw a bright red bi-plane land.  It was apparently a rarity.  

While there we saw whimbrels.  These birds find a lot of their food by turning over small stones with their long beak.

We also saw some golden plovers. 

We headed down to the south end where we stopped at the nine-hole golf course.  It had great views of the ocean and mountains.

We stopped at Salmon Bay, which was the farthest south we could drive on the island.

We had great views of the north end of the island.  

On the way back north we stopped at Lagoon Beach...for more views.

We had a drive through the road works yard where they keep all of the maintenance vehicles, and found out about the school system (odd note:  kids must wear uniforms to school but the uniform code includes bare feet...what fun), the hospital, doctor, and police officer (who is also the harbor master and customs agent).  

We are staying in the north end of the island so we had seen much of this area so there wasn’t much new but the views of the beach and and the lagoon were beautiful as always.  Loved the tour.