this is why you should visit this island paradise

When mainlanders think of Norfolk Island, maybe they think of the fight by some of its locals to claim independence from Australia (they even took their quest to the United Nations). Or they think of its 18th- and 19th-century prison, the harshest in the British Empire. For decades, Norfolk Island was regarded as a place suitable only for the “newly wed or the nearly dead”.

Meanwhile, its neighbour, Lord Howe Island, has long been loved for its lagoon and the mountains that grow right out of the sea. But here’s the thing, learnt from 20 years of traipsing all over the island: Norfolk Island is just as beautiful.

However, it does require some exploration and a bit of asking around. There are hiking and mountain-bike trails through forests, for instance, but they’re not always marked. And on my second visit, 16 years ago, I scaled an old rope down a sheer cliff to a rock pool where dolphins swam beside me. I’ve been looking for it ever since.

On my first trip, in 2005, I took a sea kayak tour through some of the clearest water I’d ever seen to Norfolk Island’s very own 12 Apostles, the rock stacks along its rugged northern coastline, surfing my kayak through holes in the rocks to get there. But it wasn’t until recently that someone thought to run a kayak tour here again.

It’s the same with surfing: you can surf world-class breaks here when the swell comes in just right, and you’ll have the waves to yourself. It’s got to be the only place in the world where surfers leave their boards on the beach between surfs. And fishing? Well, there’s no commercial fishing within hundreds of kilometres. “The problem is that you catch so many fish your boat has to go home within about an hour,” a local once told me.

On my second visit, 16 years ago, I scaled an old rope down a sheer cliff to a rock pool where dolphins swam beside me. I’ve been looking for it ever since.

CRAIG TANSLEY

It’s easy to feel isolated here, but at the same time, you couldn’t find a safer place. The hire car company advises me to never lock my car (where’s a thief going to take it?). Accommodation often comes without keys. And while I’ve logged up plenty of hours exploring the old prison, I can find better history lessons just talking to the locals.

Norfolk Islanders speak one of the least practised languages on Earth: Norf’k, a combination of 18th-century English and Tahitian. Just about every local is either a descendant of the mutineers who stole Captain Bligh’s ship, the HMS Bounty, in 1789 off Tahiti, or they married one. They originally settled on Pitcairn Island, before Queen Victoria gifted Norfolk Island to them when Pitcairn became overcrowded in the mid-19th century.

Norfolk is quirky as hell, but that’s not a detraction – it’s the attraction. The locals are oddball and cows wander the roads at will. Hit one and the law states you have to pay the farmer what it’s worth in steak. When you drive, it’s mandatory to give a one finger wave as you pass another motorist.