Mooo!
“One thing that I have to tell you is that cows have right of way here” Tania tells us when we arrive at Norfolk Island. Good to know, after all I understand that communicating with a cow and arguing the merits of road signs might be a fruitless task.
Anson Bay
Norfolk Island is an island about a two hour flight out of Sydney and is actually considered an international destination so you do need your passport to get there. Norfolk Island, along with Pitcairn Island, are both sites of the famous “Mutiny on the Bounty” where Fletcher Christian started a mutiny against Captain Bligh and set him adrift on a boat with some of his men.
The language is sort of like English! See quote above.
Currently with a population of 1,700 people, the island is a very unique one. For starters, there is currently no income tax (although this is set to change in the future) and it also currently has no welfare system so that everyone on the island has to work to afford to live there. Also apart from seeing cows on the side of the road (270 cows on the roads, 1,700 cattle total on the island but bulls are thankfully penned) you may also see geese and feral chickens. Residents of Norfolk Island are allowed to own up to ten cows per person and twice a year there is a cattle muster at various points around the island where they are drenched and vaccinated.
There are quirky touches where a street called Cascade road has houses named after their rooves for example “blue roof”, “can’t see the roof” and “rusty roof.” Feral chickens roam around strutting proudly, everyone waves at each other when they pass each other on the road and no-one needs to lock car or house doors. Roads have names like Robbers Lane, Puppies Point, Cats Lane and Grassy Road and phone numbers are a mere five digits long.
O.K. we probably need to address the elephant in the room, yes mature travellers love Norfolk Island. They come in couples or large groups and are often repeat visitors coming once a year. When the Sydney customs officer saw that I was headed there he remarked that I would be the youngest person there and when I had a look at my fellow passengers on the flight, he had a certain point. I was determined to find out whether a) there is much of a food scene b) whether there was something for younger people to do and c) why mature travellers love it so much!
Bronze whaler shark
We start with a half day orientation tour with Norfolk Touring which takes you around all of the key points and ends with morning tea at the Christian house (descendants of Fletcher Christian) and a stop at the wharf where we see fishermen taking in and filleting a large catch of grouper caught using rod and reel and a bronze whaler shark swims up to the water to munch on the discarded heads and bones. Two crabs perform a mesmerising waltz each pincer clutching a piece of fish while they eat at the meat.
Two crabs and a piece of fish
This is a common sight as many go fishing to stock their deep freeze. There aren’t professional fishermen here on the island, most residents are recreational fishermen and they simply go out in their boats, fill up several tub’s worth of fish and bring them back to the island to cook them. They keep the fish for when the weather and conditions aren’t right to go out to sea to fish. Our tour guide John Christian tells us that there simply aren’t a lot of good fishing days a year so they need to make the most of it while they can. There isn’t a limit on the amount of fish you can catch nor do you need a license. They can catch anything from cod, grouper, kingfish, trevally, snapper and what seems to be the most common Norfolk Island fish, the red throated emporer or trumpeter fish as they call it.
The old whale cooker that could cook a 35-40 foot whale
St Barnabas Church
St Barnabas Church is left unlocked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for anyone to enter and the only rule is that you have to close the door. The pews are made out of Norfolk pine and NZ Kauri tree with incredible details like mother of pearl in lays.
So what is the food scene like here? Well tourism is the top industry which means that there are plenty of restaurants and accommodation and there are some gems within the area to be found. They do have to grow a lot of items here because importing items from Australia is expensive at a cost of $500 per cubic metre in or out. Because the produce is grown here, the food is very seasonal.
Norfolk Blue
Robyn Menghetti
“You know about paddock to plate? Here we do conception to plate” says Robyn Menghetti. Armed with a background in agriculture (but she notes, not livestock) and her husband a native Norfolk Islander they set about breeding Norfolk Blue cattle, an extremely hardy and tasty beef cattle found only on Norfolk Island. Thought to have originated from a “Blue Bull” called “Dr. Blue Suit” it inter bred over a hundred years with the British cattle breeds Hereford, Friesian, Red Devon, Murray Grey to produce a blue coloured cattle breed and Norfolk Island is the only place that you can taste this beef.
The restaurant was originally set up because Robyn and her husband wanted to showcase their beef as they found that it just wasn’t being displayed to its full advantage. The Norfolk Blue breed of cattle has a calm temperament and is extremely drought hardy. Robyn tells us that on Norfolk Island there were two severe droughts while they were farming cattle and within about 2 months their cows had bounced back while other breeds took as long as a year.
Now after five years of breeding and their first attempt at artificial insemination just today, they barely have enough beef to supply to the restaurant it is so popular. The atmosphere and service is very welcoming. We take a seat on the enclosed, sunny veranda and decide that having beef is the best way to go-after all why eat fish at a cattle farm (although you can, it is on the menu).
Asian beef salad $17
The Asian beef salad is fantastic and so generously portioned with ten (yes I counted 
) big slices of juicy, grilled beef amongst pieces of lettuce, cucumber and tomato with a delicious sesame dressing drizzled on top of it. It sits in a deep fried cracker cup and the serving size is that of a main. I immediately start worrying about whether we will be able to fit in the mains.
Beef liver pate $16.50
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