Saturday, Sunday and Monday

WEATHER
Sat. Sunny and warm. Sunday sunny and warm. Monday sunny and warm

These posts are going to be short as I only have my iPad to type on and it takes forever!
Quiet trip to Auckland. Check into Novotel at the airport and then across to airport for lunch.
A short rest before we went into Auckland on airport express bus to watch England in the 20/20 match. Good seats and lovely evening, sunny and warm, great crowd atmosphere. Glass of wine and good entertainment and England won easily.
Caught the bus back to airport, coffee and bed.
SUNDAY
Alarm was set for 6.45 for a 7.30 check in. Joan's mobile rang at 6.20 and he ignored it. Then again a few minutes later and he ignored it and a message was left. I was worried as two calls and a message must mean important. Fortunately, so did he and he got up to hear it. It was Air N z saying the flight was delayed by one and a half hours! Very nice of them to let us know but it didn't make much difference to us as we were now up but at least we could take our time.
We checked in and as we had the delux package we were able to use the lounge and so went up and had breakfast and just waited.
Our flight was called and we boarded and took off at the new time of 11.30.
We had a light meal on the flight and I managed to watch an hour of the film The Saphires which was really good. I will have to watch the other half on the way back. I am not used to such short flights now!
The flight was smooth and lovely views when landing. Very hot on arrival.
Picked up by owner of cottages and she took us on a tour of the town showing us where everything is. It really is very small.
The cottage is very nice with everything we need. We were given a mobile phone to use while we are here. Unfortunately, all the convertible cars were taken. They have told us we can have one for our last afternoon.
We unpacked and then drove into town for some lunch, not many places open on Sunday but we got a sandwich. I would have loved a beer but lots of the cafes are not licenced.
We then went to the supermarket for some breakfast supplies. I think they have more variety in Fiji and Vanuatu and they are third world. Once the supplies run out there is no more till the next ship comes inand that is not often. They grow all their own fruit and veg as that cannot be imported apart from potatoes and onions. The apples were no bigger than golf balls and the banana were well past their sell by date but I am sure they don't use sell by and best by dates here, they eat what they have when they have it and that is that.
We took our supplies back and then set off to have a look around. It doesn't take long to drive around the island.  We went down to Kingston where all the remains of the prison are and Government House all very pretty and the water is the most amazing colour blue and so clear with golden sand. We went up Mt Pitt to the lookout at the summit and the views are wonderful. We took a '500 mtr' walk along the summit track. However it was not the 'easy' walk it stated and by the time we got back Jon was on his last legs. I thought we out to go back to the cottage and let him have a rest which we
did. We can explore more later.
Lots of places are closed on a Sunday so we ended up having dinner at the service men's club which was so old fashioned. However, the T bone steak was excellent.
I can see will will have lots of early nights here as dinner is only served till 8.00 or 9.00!

MONDAY
We had to be up and ready early today as we had a complimentary half day island tour and had to meet in town at 8.45.
There were 16 of us on the bus and I was amazed that there were three couples from UK. I asked them how they knew about Norfolk Island and one said her sister lives in NZ and so they came with her and the other two had read about it but their travel agents had to find out for them as they had never heard of it!
The tour and our guide was very good. You find people here have more than one job and the lady in the travel office was also the lady who made morning tea for us at one of the stops. Everyone knows everyone else and every car you pass waves to you. There are lots of cows on the roads and you have to give way to them. There are also lots of feral chickens which they ask you not to feed.
The tour was useful as we now know where to go and we can retun and spend more time at the places we only spent a short time at. We had some lovely coconut cake with morning coffee.
We went to one place on the coast and walked down the jetty and the fishermen were gutting their catch and throwing the guts back into the water and there were about 10 sharks swimming on the surface and eating the fish - amazing to see.
We got back into town and then went for lunch. After lunch we went to find out about buying some Internet but we had to go back later with our iPads as the man said sometimes it won't work, lucky for us it does.
We went down to Emily Bay this afternoon which was just beautiful. It is calm as it is protected by a coral reef. The sand is golden but best of all the water is warm and very clear and I had a lovely swim. Unfortunately, we have no sunshade and Jon is not supposed to sit out in the sun so he sat under one of the trees on the edge of the beach but he was being bitten by ants so we only stayed an hour but we will go again when we get a sunshade.
We got back and had a cuppa and a read before having a shower.
We decided on a Chinese tonight but it had to be takeaway. The restaurant is just across the road but they are only doing takeaway this week! It was OK but as he, Fred Wong, grows his own veg and it is seasonal the mixture was 'interesting'. The laundry and library are in a little cottage near us so we went and got a DVD to watch. Not a lot of choice so we watched Babe, I had forgotten how much I liked that film.
One thing I haven't mentioned is the spiders here, they are huge and everywhere and make enormous webs, quite spectacular.
Bedtime now not sure w hat time it is as my watch is still on Kiwi time and the hour and a half difference is getting too much to work out so I lea ve my watch off and I am on 'island time' as long as we are on time for our flight next Sunday that will be fine.
iPad won't let me scroll up to check this long post so forgive any errors. Hopefully I can now keep it up to date.