Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

136 | June• 2018

My Discoveries

Five Reasons Why Norfolk Island Enchants

Tiny, remote and intriguing, Norfolk

Island is a world of its own that ofers

visitors real downtime and a portal

into the past, writes Michelle Hespe.

1 NORFOLK’S OWN LANGUAGE

After the famous 1789 mutiny on HMS

Bounty, Fletcher Christian and his

men settled on Pitcairn Island with

Tahitian women they’d met on a five-

month mission in Tahiti collecting

breadfruit. The English men and the

Tahitian women took elements from

each language to communicate.

By 1856, the 194 Pitcairn Islanders,

having outgrown their island, were

permitted by the British government

to move to Norfolk Island. They

brought their language–amixtureof

Polynesian and 18th-century English,

now simply called ‘Norfolk’, with them.

2 DOWNTIME

The island is only 34.6 km square, so

you can walk or ride a bike to most

places. Nightlife takes the form of

theatre and comedy performances

and dinner under the stars. There’s live

music and entertainment at the Jolly

Roger bar and restaurant, but you’ll

likely be tucked up in bed by 11pm, as

there are no nightclubs or rowdy pubs.

3 LOCAL ORGANIC PRODUCE

The produce on Norfolk Island is

mostly homegrown, organic and

Small is

beautiful on

Norfolk Island

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

Island

Norffolk

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