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Lord Howe Island: Hiking and Nature Paradise · Everyday Hiker

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Everyday Hiker Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Beck.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Join me and my guest hikers as we share amazing locations, practical tips, and guides for new hikers, as well as those with more experience looking for some inspiration.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And please, if you like what you hear, follow me, share with your friends, rate my podcast, and send me your feedback.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm going to be talking about Lord Howe Island.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's not South East Queensland, but it is just such a fabulous place to hike that I thought it was worth doing an episode for something to do some forward planning for you put on your bucket list.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now David Attenborough once said about Lord Howe Island, it's so extraordinary, it's almost unbelievable.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd have to agree, for hikers it's an absolute paradise.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a UNESCO World Heritage Listed Island, lies about 700 kilometres northeast off the coast of New South Wales.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can only reach Lord Howe by plane.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's serviced by two airlines, Qantas out of Sydney, and Eastern Air Services, out of a couple of locations, but best in Southeast Queens Anne is out of the Gold Coast.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing is that flights aren't cheap, which is why I am doing this episode for you today now, so that you can jump on and subscribe to those two airlines and wait for their sale fairs to come out.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: They do go on sale about twice a year.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now we were also lucky enough to score some Qantas Frequent Flyer reward seats to Lord Howe, which are very hard to come by.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It took me about a year, and then it becomes challenging because you've got to match it up with the accommodation providers.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: But this is another fairly cheap option to get to Lord Howe Island.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Alternatively, you can book through the package providers.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So Specifica Travel specializes in this location, and their packages include flights, accommodation, and some meals, even.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's also the hiking company Life's an Adventure that do an all-inclusive six-day hiking package that hits some of these great peaks we're going to be talking about as well.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it costs you a bit of money or a lot of patience waiting for sales, it is totally worth it as Lord Howe is a really, really special place.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's only a small island, and to give you some idea, the way you get around is by bike.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it's surrounded by a marine park and it's capped on each side of the island by really stunning mountain peaks.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to run you through the itinerary that we followed in a week at Lord Howe, and it'll give you an idea of the sort of hiking and other activities you can expect while you're there.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: But before we do that, let's look at the flight themselves.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: They are really small planes that go out to Lord Howe, and they need to be able to carry enough fuel to make it over and back.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: This has an impact on your luggage.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, you will be asked to keep your luggage in a strict weight limit.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But my number one tip with the flights is actually to carry a change of clothes, PJs, maybe swimmers and thongs, like basic bathroom items, because it is not uncommon for your luggage to get delayed.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: If they need to choose between taking extra fuel for a windy day or bags, you know which one is going to go.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always good to have those things on hand because flying to Lord Howe is a little bit of a challenge in itself.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you arrive on the island, you'll get picked up by your accommodation provider as there is no public transport as such.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: The speed limit all over the island is 40 kilometers per hour, and there aren't many cars there.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, you've got to get around on bikes.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the first things you want to do when you get there is get down to the bike hire shop.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It does operate on limited hours, so you want to make sure that you've got your bike as a way to get to all of these trails I'm going to be talking about.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there are none, well, there's a couple, I suppose, that you can walk out of your accommodation door and straight up to the trail.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in terms of what to take, there's a village shop with pretty decent supplies but for self-catering.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But as you can imagine, for a remote location such as this, it does come at a cost.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some accommodation providers to get over this will give you a meals package, and it is well worth thinking about.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you want some hiking snacks or dehydrated meal options, etc., these are the sort of things that you want to bring from the mainland, but of course, you're going to have that luggage weight limit to contend with.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: We found that there is a number of reasonably priced restaurant and dinner options around the island, including pizza at the brewery, which is fantastic.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a great seafood truck down at the wharf, so you can certainly get by with the food that's on the island if you choose not to go for a meal package.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to hiking, you are absolutely spoiled for choice, but there is one iconic hike on the island, and it's an iconic hike for New South Wales, and that is Mount Um Gower.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might want to book this in advance to guarantee a spot because you can only hike this mountain with a guide, and there are two companies supplying guides, but they really are only going a few times a week, and the problem is that it's weather dependent.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, despite our best efforts of booking to climb Mount Gower, we booked it for later in the week, and the weather closed in, and that day was cancelled, and we weren't on the island to be able to reschedule.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, just think about that.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do Mount Gower, like I said, it's an iconic hike, you probably want to do that in vans and book to go earlier because they do give priority to people that they've had to move to another day.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mount Gower is a tough hike by all accounts, though.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be able to hike the eight hours that it's predicted to take and to hit that elevation of or the hiking that you need to do with an elevation of 875 meters.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: You also need to be comfortable with exposed areas and using chains and ropes in the trickier spot.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is listed as a hard hike by all trails, and you will be asked to confirm your fitness by the tour operator before you go.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I don't know if I was hugely disappointed to miss Mount Gower because we were lucky enough to do the goat track, which is in the on the same mountain range, so on one side of the island, and the day that we did the goat track, the weather was absolutely superb.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the locals actually told us that the goat track is a mini Mount Gower and a similar experience, although obviously we don't get to say that we did have Mount Gower.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is a shorter hike, probably about four hours, and it's not quite the same elevation.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's about two-thirds of the way up Mount Gower.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're deciding whether or not Mount Gower is right for you, even if you've booked it in advance, you might want to try doing the goat track first just to make sure you're comfortable because you're basically leaving from the same a similar area as Mount Gower to do the goat track.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're walking through a similar rainforest environment to get to the base of the mountain, and then you've got a scramble, it's not a straight track up the 562 meters of elevation that you'll have to handle to get up the goat track, and you will need those chains and ropes and you know a bit of exposure.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a cave at the top which gives you just a brilliant lookout over the ocean, but it is quite daunting being on the side of that cliff as you get up to the cave, so that's why I'm saying it'll give you a really good idea of how comfortable you would be with Mount Gower if you do this hike.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: There is a steep drop-off, but there are, like I said, there's ropes along the cliff edge, and then there are chains to help you get up some of the steeper bits, particularly into the cave itself.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'd keep going when you get to the caves.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you walk just a short distance, sort of, and that's better because there's a bit of vegetation to cling on to as you get round to the front side of the mountain, and you get a really great lookout to some unusual rock formations in the ocean, the most notable of which is the Bulls Pyramid.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really great adventure to do the goat track, and it's only half a day walk, so it leaves plenty of time to do some other activities in the area or head down to one of the nearby beaches for a dip.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's another hike at this end of the island, which is a real treat for some wildlife observation.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: The trail starts at the marine reserve area, which is just behind the island's airstrip.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you're heading out to the Mutton Bird Point viewing platform where, surprise, surprise, you might get to see mutton birds, but also the much rarer masked booby birds.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you are a bird watcher or just living love seeing birds in nature, then Lord Howe is an absolute dream for that.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many different bird types to observe.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: From Mountain Bird Point, you can head out to Rocky Run Creek for some more stunning views of the ocean and onto Boat Harbour, which is sort of a pebbly beach with large rock boulders, similar to where you start the Mount Gower track.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And from here you go back inland via some more rainforest tracks, which is in the area at the base of the goat track.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So back in the area around the airport, so two big hikes there being Mount Gower Goat Track and also this Mutton Bird Point Nature Reserve hike.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Back here, there is a very very popular beach for swimming and surfing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So people do come over to Lord Howe to surf, and depending on the time of the year, you can head down to this beach and you might see muttonbirds nesting in the dunes on the walkway down to the beach, which means that you wouldn't need to go out to the point.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that I really loved about this beach, apart from it's a beautiful beach to walk along, there's rock pools, etc.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when we were there, a plane came in, so the planes come in a couple of times a day, and it literally feels as though it's got to land on you, it's just above your head, and you know it's a really unusual place in Australia to watch that kind of have that kind of backdrop with a plane coming in so low.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, in the middle of the island where a lot of the accommodation is grouped, the most popular beach without a doubt is Ned's Beach, and from Ned's Beach you can do one of the nicest hikes, and that is walking straight out from the beach.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can go up and you can see it, you can see it from the beach.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: This big grassy hill called Malabar Hill.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is steep, you really have to lean into it, but it's not technically difficult because it is a trail running up a grass hill, and when it gets to the top, you get some large boulders to walk through, and you're getting a completely different view now on this side of the island from where you were before over at the Mount Gower side.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: We only walked as far as Kim's lookout on this particular trail, and which is along the top, you walk along the top, and then we made our way back because we wanted to do some snorkeling in the afternoon at Ned's Beach, and I'll talk about that with other activities.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a pretty decent hike, anyway, to go along the top.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other options is to keep going down to the other side, and that's the to North Bay, and that's the hike that I'm going to talk about next, which is what we did a separate day.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So on the other side of the island from the lagoon, you continue heading out until you reach North Bay, and this is where you access the second big peak on the other side of the island.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you walk through the trails here, and you are ultimately if you kept going straight over the top and down the other side, you come to the lovely old settlements beach, which is a really nice walk in its own right, and the beach is actually really beautiful, no one near as crowded as Ned's Beach and terrific for a swim.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: From Old Settlements Beach, you can keep walking round to an area called the Old Gulch, which is really unusual.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is a very narrow inlet, and it's all large boulders and rocks on this beach.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when the water is at high tide, the waves crash in around the sides of the old gulch.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, be careful if you are going at high tide.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's spectacular to watch, but low tide's probably a little bit safer.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: From here, you go back towards the beach, and then that second peak that you can climb is called Mount Eliza.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is much shorter but still sort of relatively steep than what you get over the other side at Mount Gower.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the main reason you would go up there is to see the nesting seabirds, and also, of course, another magnificent view of the lagoon side of the island.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, be careful though, different times of the year, Mount Eliza might be closed.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: That the walk-up Mount Eliza, if those birds are nesting and it's considered sensitive.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: To do this whole hike, including Old Settlements Beach, Old Gulch, and then up Mount Eliza, it's probably four to five hours.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, particularly if you want to have a picnic and a swim at Old Settlements Beach or back at North Bay, which is very, very pretty, and there's some good snorkeling there too.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you include Mount Gower, that is five days worth of hikes, and there's pretty decent hikes there, pretty solid walking time on those.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a week on Lord Howe, that's probably going to be enough hiking for you, and you may even choose to do you know, not all of those five hikes, or combine them, like I said, with that day four and five by doing the Malabar Hill and all the way over to Old Settlements Beach, which is a pretty full day hike when you do all of that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted some time in the afternoon to do some of the other activities on Lord Howe Island.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, first up, the lagoon is the centre of recreational activities.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's all sorts of water sports you can do there, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the place where a lot of the water-based tours leave from to either go out deep-sea fishing or snorkeling, which I can highly recommend, is out of that lagoon area.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: We did a smorking a snorkeling trip in a glass bottom boat leaving from the lagoon generally in the morning, and we headed round to that North Bay area of that last day of hiking.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the special thing about this area, so I'd encourage you to get outside of the lagoon for snorkeling, is that there are some wrecks here in North Bay, and there is some really spectacular sea life around those wrecks.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we saw some pretty small, but nevertheless a little bit daunting.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Reef sharks, there were sea snakes, there was octopus, and there were just a dozen varieties of different-looking fish as well.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, really great snorkeling.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can also do some fantastic snorkeling on Ned's Beach.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's some really large, colourful fish here.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you don't want to go out on a boat, you can wade in and snorkel here.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: There is some snorkeling gear that you can hire on the beach.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's a hut you need to bring cash, and you can also buy some fish food.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is the real feature of snorkeling at Ned's Beach.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: The fish will come and eat out of your hand.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's also some really great rock pools at the other end of the beach, too.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another fantastic thing about Lord Howe, if you're not just there for the hiking, we played nine holes of golf.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, this was a great little course.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, far better standard than what you would expect on an island of the size.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, once again, it was kind of an honesty thing like uh pay your green fees, which were very reasonable, and pick yourself out some clubs and um balls, very casual.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: We also played lawn balls, um, there's an active um club on the island that runs tournaments, etc.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I took a couple of yoga um classes on the grass at Ned's Beach.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a museum, there's wildlife talks and an artist studio for some sort of rainy day options, um, plus a couple of shops and, like I said, restaurants and cafes in the village itself.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Look, honestly, this is one of the best holidays I've been on for combining that very active lifestyle of hiking and boating and snorkeling and everything else.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's such a relaxed vibe on the island.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's so few people, the numbers are strictly limited in terms of how many people can be on the island at the one time.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's no fancy stuff, there's no cars to worry about, there's that honesty system.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody says just leave the stuff in the basket on your bike when you go out hiking.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it'll be there when you get back.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's unbelievable flora and fauna, just things you won't see elsewhere.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the walks themselves, the hikes, is as good as anything you'll find on the mainland.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I've inspired you to put this one on your bucket list.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it might take, as it did for me, a good year of planning to get those sale airfares or the package deals, but Lord Howe Island a must to go to, in my view, if you love your hiking.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, um, happy hiking.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to you next time.