There are lots of wonderful walks on Norfolk Island but unless you're a "Shank's Pony" fanatic you'll need a car to get to the best of them. The good news is that car hire here is so reasonable you'll scarcely believe it.
The smart way to enjoy this mind-expanding experience is to team up with another couple. You drive together to Mount Pitt where one couple sets off on the walk while the other two take a drive culminating where the walk ends - at Captain Cook's Monument.
Put a picnic hamper in the car and you'll be set to enjoy a leisurely meal in a magical setting when you meet up. The next day you can simply reverse roles.
(If you can't organise things this way, you can get a cab to drop you at the peak and pick you up at the other end.)
About half way up to the summit, keep your eyes peeled for a small sign reading "Hollow Pine". 50 metres in from the road you'll find it - a venerable giant that began life in the time of Oliver Cromwell. A similar hollow pine, says the legend, was the home for seven years of an escaped convict named Barney Duffy.
Barney was finally caught, it is said, by three troopers - Turner, Heffernan and Warnham. The giant, long-haired convict screamed a curse at them: 'Take me ...ye red-coated, lily-livered lice! Aye! - but hear my curse on ye: So surely as ye do this, before me corpse has hung a week on King's Town gallows, ye'll meet a violent death!' Two days after the hanging, as his capturers were fishing off Headstone point, a freak wave swept all three to their deaths.
Now drive to the summit where a wonderful pageant is laid out beneath you. When you turn your eyes to the sea, it really hits you ...what a microscopic dot is this Norfolk Island.
(About 2 hours or an extra hour if you take the walk.) Leave Burnt Pine via Queen Elizabeth Ave and take Stockyard Road to Marsh's Road which winds down to Ball Bay, the caldera of an ancient volcano. Return to the junction and take Martin's Road to Buck's Point which overlooks serene Ball Bay from the other side and offers a dramatic view of Phillip Island. Backtrack to Stockyard Road, and follow Two Chimney's Road to its end. Walk down the left side of "The Nest" out to the point for impressive seascapes bord-ered by petrified rivers of volcanic rock. Backtrack to the Middlegate Junction and head north up Cascade Road noting the typical Island home on your right circled by graceful, ancient palms.
