Snorkelling at Ned's Beach

Second-last day at Lord Howe Island - it was a bit overcast in the morning, so we decided to go for a walk up to Top Shop and check out the goods for sale - if we were going to be cooking (which I wasn't planning to), we could have bought some lovely steaks or fish there.  We carried on up to Greenback Eatery (which was only open for dinner on Thursday, the day we were leaving), then down through Middle Beach Road and back on to Lagoon Beach Road.  We stopped at The Anchorage for our regular coffee, then headed back up the hill - which seems shorter and less steep each time we climb it!  Our fitness levels are definitely improving.

Time for lunch, then we grabbed our snorkelling gear and used our private pathway down to Ned's Beach to see how it compared to our previous snorkelling trip.  We hired wetsuits (all based on an honour system) from the shed then ventured into the water, which was around 22 degress.  We were again greeted by hundreds of fish - I've since discovered they were mullet, kingfish and silver drummers.  We got past them and out to the very close coral reef.  Again, there was a large variety of coral, heaps of fish including incredibly long garfish, parrotfish, wrasse, spangled emperors, and butterfly fish.  And all of this less than 100 metres from shore.  Just magic - I love this place!  We bumped into Jane and John, a couple we had done the snorkelling trip with, and they came up to have a look at Lorhiti Apartments - they were very impressed and said they would look at booking there next time they come to Lord Howe.

We'd booked into the Bowling Club for our final dinner at 6.30, so Jess took us down there again.  We had 'melt-in-your-mouth' salt and pepper squid for entree and it was delicious. I was tossing up whether to have fresh king prawns, but I ended up with a very good steak and Trev had a chicken parmigiana for mains.  We bought some tickets in the meat raffle, and we won a kilo of king prawns!  So it was a wise decision of mine to have a steak - looks like it's prawns for a late supper.  One of the chefs gave us a lift home from the club.  It's going to be hard to leave this place.

Feeding the fish at Ned's Beach - in more ways than one...

Next morning, after having breakfast on our front verandah, we walked down the hill to Ned's Beach.  This is one of the local attractions where you can feed millions - yes, millions - of fish directly off the beach.  You buy fish food for $1 from a dispenser, then head into the crystal clear water where they are all just waiting for you.

I headed into the water - Trev waited on the beach and took photos, cos he had no swimmers or other clothes to change into.  Well, I was swarmed by these fish - I don't know what they were, but the 'small' silver ones were at least a foot long, and the big blue and light blue ones (with really big teeth - more later) were up to a metre long.  I walked in up to my hips and was in the middle of this feeding frenzy. Seriously, they were almost knocking me over.  I was having a ball, while Trev took some photos and a movie. 

I mentioned the really big teeth - well, one of the big guys decided he wanted something a little more substantial, and I felt something connect very vigorously with my knee.  I looked down and my knee looked a bit red, so I moved into shallower water and found that my knee was dripping blood... he really did get a a good chunk out of me - see photo.  I hadn't realised that I was going to be on the menu!


We walked all along Ned's Beach, and further along near the rocks I spotted a brilliantly coloured parrotfish - as with all the others, he was not shy and came so close to me that I was able to get some good photos of him.  What a lovely start to the day.

From Ned's Beach we walked into the 'CBD' - about half a dozen shops, a church and a couple of restaurants.  We had lunch and a good coffee at the Anchorage Restaurant, which seems to be the hub of the island for locals and touricsts alike.  Quite a few of the businesses were closed, as it was Saturday, and apparently this is a Seventh Day Adventist island.

We walked a little further to check out snorkelling tours, but they were also closed, so eventually headed back to Lorhiti.  Late in the afternoon we decided to walk up to Malabar Hill to watch the sunset.  It was only about 1.5km each way, but unfortunately 90% of it was vertical!  We nearly made it, but the sunset beat us - it would have been an interesting return trip with fading light, so we turned back and promised to attack it again the next day.  But I did get some beautiful photos on the way up.  So pretty.

We booked into the Bowling Club for dinner and found that another couple from Lorhiti, Victor and Maria, were also going.  We had a lovely evening there with them, a good meal, and one of the locals drove us home.

So far, so good - the scenery is spectacular, the locals (and other tourists) are friendly, and the food is good.  Another good day.