A brief taste of Norfolk Island, an autonomous Australian territory with a long and turbulent history, in the course of an expedition cruise sailing north from New Zealand through the Western Pacific with Heritage Expeditions.

In 'For the Term of His Natural Life', Marcus Clarke's classic fictionalised account of the brutality of the convict system in colonial Australia, the Rev. James North records his first impressions of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island in May 1846:

...some eleven hundred miles from Sydney. A solitary rock in the tropical ocean, the island seems, indeed, a fit place of banishment. It is about seven miles long and four broad. The most remarkable natural object is, of course, the Norfolk Island pine, which rears its stately head a hundred feet above the surrounding forest. The appearance of the place is very wild and beautiful... bringing to my mind the romantic islands of the Pacific... Lemon, lime and guava trees abound, also oranges, grapes, figs, bananas, peaches, pomegranates and pineapples. The climate just now is hot and muggy. The approach to Kingstown [sic]… is properly difficult. A long low reef fronts the bay... and obstructs the entrance of vessels. We were landed in boats through an opening in this reef...

More than 150 years later, the description still rings true, even if the hills behind Kingston are now largely cleared.