Norfolk Island Adventure

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Right beside us is the remains of a wartime radar unit, decommissioned in 1952, which was when I was here last. Comparing the pair of us, I think I have worn slightly the better, though admittedly a couple of my joints have been replaced along the way.

We head up and around the corner to the lookout

The Norfolk palm is a striking presence, perhaps a little more commanding than its nearly identical New Zealand cousin, the nikau, though the demands involved in being the southernmost palm in the world may detract something from the vigour of the New Zealand version.

Nepean Island is just off the coast.

Here in the scrub is a brightly coloured standout. I could well be wrong but it has the look about it of a plant that could easily become invasive. A bit like our kahili ginger in presence. A bracken fern sits almost unnoticed beside it until I realise that I am a long way from the last place I saw it.

Close by is Galinsoga parviflora, the Gallant Soldier, a common weed also in New Zealand, but this is probably about twice the size of any I've seen in New Zealand. As far as I have been able to find out it is the same species.

And here are a couple of Norfolk Island icons

Another old New Zealand friend, the jasmine, but dotted around the bush here it is an obvious garden escape. In my garden at home it shows a little more discipline.

I suspect this vine might be Passiflora aurantia, but it's difficult to get a web confirmation.

I'd say it's almost certainly a passionfruit of some kind.

We head back down towards the Mt Bates Track turnoff, and hang a left towards the Mt Pitt road.

Rats are a serious problem on the island, and in the National Park area at least there is a concerted poison bait campaign to at least diminish the damage they cause.

The track is designed to provide access for government vehicles. It is wide and pleasant walking. We carry on downhill and we might even, with a slight stretch, be somewhere in the Waitakeres, except that

now and again, a particular leaf formation just strikes one as, well, foreign...

and of course there's the pine trees.

There's no question that the Norfolk nikau has presence.

This is one I haven't seen before and it looks like a lime-green and slightly enlarged version of our Carmichaelia species. There is a C. baueri listed for Norfolk but I haven't been able to find a picture of it.

Another echo of the Waitaks, and I haven't got a name for this either.

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