Beauty and brutality co-exist on Norfolk Island

It was well into the grey days of the pandemic when I decided I needed to book some kind of holiday so I had something to look forward to. Overseas was out of the question, and there weren’t many domestic tours on offer. Those I could find seemed to be filling up quickly. So with little consideration, I joined a solo-travellers tour to Norfolk Island. The whole solo travellers thing is probably a good topic for another article, but this tour also appealed because everything was organised for me. There were no decisions to make about what to do each day – an idea I found particularly liberating in the fog of pandemic fatigue. I had zero expectations, but for someone like me who enjoys history, quirky locals and fish dinners, I figured I was never really going to go wrong with Norfolk. But it turned out to be so much more. I found Norfolk Island to be a real surprise package, and wrote this story to paint a picture for anyone else considering a visit to this fascinating destination on our doorstep.