Norfolk Island Lord Howe Island

The Norfolk and Lord Howe, about 950 and 450 nautical leagues respectively in the Tasman Sea at about 30° S in Australia, are the strongly dug remains of the volcano. These are located on U-boat Ridge, which could have linked these submarines to New Zealand and New Caledonia in the Ancients.

Set in clear, fresh, blue-green waters with sea corals, both of them have a gentle, humid, sub-tropical weather that is not too different from the Californian coast, except that they have neither frosts nor warm, arid summer. Due to their climatic and isolation, both of them have fascinating flora more in touch with those of New Zealand and New Caledonia than Australia.

During a visit in October 2005 we had noticed the thought that many of the trees and shrubs grown there would probably thrive in the West Coast garden. Even though there is strict control of tourist activities on each island (camping is not permitted and guests must show accommodation upon arrival), both are wonderful places for those interested in flora, fauna and other facets of the island's nature plus walking, snorkelling, stargazing and just relaxation in a nearby tropic heaven without dampness or overheating.

They are both exceptionally clear, there is a shortage of posters, grey paint and car transport, and the island' s inhabitants respect their island world and their sensitive eco-systems. Regular flights run from Australia and New Zealand to Norfolk and from Australia to Lord Howe. Norfolk, the bigger of the two isles ( (about fourteen sq. km and shaped rounded), climbs out of the ocean on steep rocks, except on the south shore, where the country descends softly into the small, coral-fringed Emily Bay.

Highest point, Mt. Pitt, rising to about 1,000?? The average annual precipitation is around 50 inch, and the temperature ranges between 40 and 80 F. There are 171 plant types native to the island, 47 of which are native (nowhere else to be found). The island's eponymous, the widespread Norfolk pinewood (Araucaria heterophylla) is dominant from every lookout or overlook.

Norfolk was founded in 1788 with the foundation of a punishment settlement in Australia. In the early 1800s, almost eighty per cent of the island's indigenous forests were devastated by man and imported game. In fact, some of Norfolk's indigenous wildlife is severely threatened, such as Philip Island Hibe (Hibiscus insularis) and Abutilon Julianae; both are only known from Philip Island, an island about three nautical mile off the southern coast, but are also found on the isle.

Cute Philip Island rose has blossoms with light to cream crowns of violet throat. Until 1963 there were only eight remaining herbs. Even though today it is increasingly grown on the island and returned to the wilderness, its reproduction has proved problematic, and it takes ten to twelve years for the plant to mature.

Philip Island Aboutilon, just as beautiful, was long considered deserted until a botanist who fell down a rock in 1985 saw a tuft of an unknown, yellow-flowered bush. In spite of the early destruction, there are still some large populations of outstanding primeval forests, especially on Mt Pitt and Mt Bates, which are located in the island's central area.

Easy to reach by road and with a number of footpaths, the wooded areas in the Swiss Alps offer a great diversity of interesting herbs. Norfolk-based Margaret Christian spent a whole afternoon with us, pointing out some of the most remarkable flora on the island. Exceptional or uncommon trees, in various popsptly tropic populations that form the wood hood, including Ungeria floribunda and Sarcomelicope simplifiedcifolia (Rutaceae), Elaeodendron curtipundulum (Celastraceae) and Baloghia cophylla.

The Cyathea Australianis, about five meters high, and C. Brewnii, more than seventy foot high, one of the highest in the worid. The palm trees (Rhopalostylis baueri) are sociable and dominate the wood with fingerlings and sprouts, while grown-ups stick their tops through the awning. Another, the rarer and more than five meter long ferns, Marattia Salicina, has a large, bellied moss.

It is also home to nine orchid varieties, among them a dendrobium that grows in tufts up to twoft. wide. On more open areas along the edges of the woods, the hop shrub with colourful fruit from bright reds to reds - our favourite - was particularly conspicuous and much more decorative than the shapes frequently grown in California.

A few lumps were almost two meters high! The Dianella intermedia, a small but appealing lily-like plant with sword-like foliage up to two legs high and striking bluish to violet fruit, is just as unusual as the pretty but threatened Euphorbia norfolkiana. Lord Howe Island is home to the most southern body of sea corals in the whole wide open sea and is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

Approximately seven nautical mile long and 0. 3 to 1. 8 nautical leagues in width, this half moon-shaped island is about half the approximate area of Norfolk, but different in geography and ancestry. At the south end of Lord Howe, the two steep summits Mt Gower and Mt Lidgbird dominate; with 2,870 and 2,498 ft respectively, they are the highest points on the island.

Both summits, usually enveloped in fog and dust, host a magnificent cloudforest. The central and north parts of the island, on the other hand, have low, softly curved mounds, which in some areas are surrounded by windy bush. It has a similar climatic conditions to Norfolk, but the precipitation is somewhat more abundant and averages around 65 cm per year.

We have 241 plant varieties of Lord Howe, 105 of which are native. Lord Howe was spotted in 1788 and was left uninhabitated until 1834, when fewer than ten colonists set up a small picket to fill up stocks of through-passengers. Unlike Norfolk, man's activities have had much less influence on Lord Howe, as about 85 per cent of the island is still shrouded in local forests.

A large part of the lowlands is covered by Howea forestiana, generally known as the King tree, a herb that became popular in Victoria as a greenhouse and indoors potter. In 1828 the growing European and North American market for these trees brought flowers and flowers to Norfolk Island to build a nursery for the cultivation of seeded plants.

Today, the economy of both isles is still partly dependent on the export of Norfolk (Kentia Palmssaatgut ) and Lord Howe (Keimsaatgut) to almost all parts of the globe. It is so small that it is easy to travel with a hired bike and there are many itineraries. Besides the kentias, the tree species Cryptocarya triplizervis (Lauraceae) and Drypetes deposites spp. are also known.

Euphorbiaceae, Howea belemoreana, Pandanus fortsteri and the eriolioma pitosporum. Ordinary flatland species are a relation of the irises (Dietes robinsoniana), an Orchid (Dendrobium macroropus sub-sp. howeanum) and a number of ferns such as Adiantum thepidulum, Asplenium milenei, Doodia medium, Phymatosorus theustulatus sub-sp. howensis and staghorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum), which form large, conspicuous lumps on tree trunks and rocks.

In contrast to Norfolk, the highlands or mountain forests on Lord Howe differ drastically from those of the lowland. Mt Gower's peak is the best place to see the mountain wood. Our first evening on the island we visited a talk by Ian Hutton, writer and inhabitant of Iceland Naturist, who gave us an insight into Lord Hoe's nature histor.

Beneath the top the forest is full of Cryptocarya gragsonii, Dysoxylum falyllum (Meliaceae), Melaleuca oweana and Metrosideros neervulosa, together with another tree (Hedyscepe canterburyana), while fern, orchid and other herbs, such as West Ringia, form the undergrowth. Almost every single sq. centimetre of the knot or stem surfaces in this thick, scrubby cloudforest is covered with moss, lichen, fern and other epiphytical herbs.

In this bush wood, small bushes and bushes of Dracophyllum Fitzgeraldii and Zygogynum Hoeanum dominate, as does another tree (Lepidorrhachis Mooreana), which is characterised by its striking grapes of reddish-violet color. There are several types of Blechnum fern in the undergrowth, and a thick sponge covered the floor. It was an ever-present nebula and nebula that hung or whirled between the herbs.

We are organizing our planned trip to these tropical South Pacific Isles with advice from Kerry and Don and postponing it until November 2008.