When I was a kid my family moved to Leigh Creek for three years, a small country town about 6 hours north of Adelaide. It was an isolated community where everyone knew everyone, a place where a 5 year old (me) rode his bike home from school all by himself and stayed home alone to watch BMX Bandits on VCR when he was sick. Well, my recent trip to Lord Howe Island reminded me of that, only it was way better.
Some of you may already know, but earlier this year I got married!!!
I won’t bore you with the photos from the day (also, Women’s Weekly hold the exclusive rights to the photos so my hands are tied), what I will do however is show you a few photos from the honeymoon!
The wife and I headed east to Sydneywhere we jumped on a tiny plane and headed even east-er to an island, not Easter Island – Lord Howe Island.
A simple google images search will tell you that the place is stunningly beautiful, and when you see it in person you won’t be disappointed, but one thing an image can’t tell you is what it feels like to be there. Here are a few of my favourite thing (you’ll note that everything on the list is so exciting it’s followed by an exclamation mark)
- You ride everywhere on bikes! There are roads and a smattering of cars, but as a tourist all you need is 2 wheels. Everywhere you go there are bike racks and you don’t have to worry about locking up your bikes or anything (refer to point 2). Also, the bikes have baskets which are pretty swish.
- No crime! Because there are only 200 local residents and 400 tourists at any given time, and just one flight in and out each day there is literally zero crime. Our accommodation didn’t have a lock on the door. On a typical day we’d ride our bikes to the beach, leave them unlocked on one of the bike racks and leave anything we didn’t feel like taking onto the sand in our basket (jumper, wallet, etc). So liberating.
- Nothing can hurt you! They have spiders, but none of them are poisonous, there are no snakes to fear while walking through tall grass, heck, even the sharks are harmless! A direct quote from my wife while out on a snorkelling trip “Billo, get in the water NOW, there’s a shark!”
- No mobile phone reception or internet connection! Ever wondered what life was like back before we had smart phones and wifi everywhere we went? It was awesome! I love technology as much as the next guy, actually probably even more than the next guy, but going unplugged for a week was amazing.
- Country vibe, tropical look! If you’re a fan of the country wave (you know, the single finger raised from the steering wheel as you fly past an oncoming vehicle at 100kph) then you’ll love LHI. It was a weeklong cavalcade of country waves and “G’days”. Everyone on the island seems to work out who you are and where you’re staying after a few days and all the locals are super friendly. It’s like a sleepy country town where the 45 degree heat, countless flies and thick dust have been replaced with 25 degree perfection, countless sand dollars and breathtaking rainbows.
I decided to pack super light and left the SLR at home, all my photos were taken on the iPhone, a cheap underwater point and shoot and a Fujifilm X100 on loan from the generous James Field. Sometimes less is more and I absolutely loved getting around with a couple of pocket sized cameras with no zoom.
Good times.
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| My weapon of choice |
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| This basically sums of LHI in one photo. The biggest super market in town does have pizza bases, but you’ll need to ask Sib or Rod or Tracey or Morris |
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| This guy was awesome. |
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| Unsurprisingly you get amazing stars on a tiny tropical island in the middle of the pacific. |
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| Yep, that’s a pretty decent sized shark that decided to ambush us as we were wading in the local swimming beach. |
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| Probably the greatest breakfast ever. |
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| That’s the airport to the right. |
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| Flying back into Sydney. |
