New Thrills and Chills on Norfolk Island
A Norfolk Island tour operator has devised a way to thrill and then chill visitors - spook them on a ghost tour and then calm them with yoga on the beach the next morning.
The Norfolk Touring Company has launched the ghost tours and yoga on the beach classes as part of a range of activities aimed at broadening the island's appeal as a place of mystique for all ages
The official 'Ghost Guide to Australia' by ghost buster Richard Davis, names the idyllic South Pacific island as the country's spookiest place. Because of its tortured history, tiny Norfolk Island boasts more ghosts per square kilometre than any other state or territory, claims Mr Davis.
To help daring visitors find locate lost souls, Norfolk Touring is now leading white-faced tourists on lantern walking tours of the seaside cemetery and the abandoned convict colony, with expert locals doing their best to scare travellers with tales tall and true. Paranormal events have been reported on several tours already with strange lights and sounds reported. The 3.5-hour 'Ghostly Talks and Walks' start at 6.30pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and cost $55 per person including a three-course dinner amongst the convict ruins.
To help calm jangled nerves, Norfolk Touring has debuted a 'Mind and Body Experience' on one of Norfolk's pristine beaches - Cemetery Beach of all places. Participants are taught yoga and meditation beside the sparkling coral lagoon while they breathe in what scientists have labelled the cleanest air on earth outside Antarctica. The program, which finishes with a swim and a healthy breakfast on the beach, costs $35 per person and runs every Tuesday and Saturday at 7.30am.
The tours can be booked via travel agents in Australia, at the island's visitor centre or through The
Norfolk Touring Company on 0011 6723 22232 or via www.norfolktouringco.nf.
"Norfolk's long and bloody history, first as a notorious penal colony then as a refuge for descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers, has endowed it with a rich store of ghost stories," Mr Davis explains in his Ghost Guide. "At night when the sea lashes the jagged coastline, the wind moans through brooding pines and the cries of petrels (called ghost birds by the islanders) fill the salty air, it's easy to imagine ghosts at every turn. Not all, however, are imaginary," he warns.
Mr Davis says Norfolk, an external territory of Australia 150km north-east of Sydney, is the perfect haunt for ghosts with the island's gruesome history reflected in local place names such as Ghost Corner, Headstone Point, Slaughter Bay, Cemetery Bay, Bloody Bridge and Gallows Gate.
Tales of supernatural events on Norfolk include an invisible donkey that wrecked a picnic, the sounds of clanking chains and shuffling feet in old military homes, a man "made of light" hovering above a bed, a ghost sitting in the middle of the main street, missing shoes at Government House and a meddling soul who cleared a women's wardrobe and hung all her clothes on the washing line.
Aside from its restless spirits, Norfolk Island boasts dramatic coastal scenery, duty-free shopping, new adventure activities and a range of accommodation and dining to suit all budgets.
Australians not afraid of ghosts can jet to the 'haunted' isle in less than 2.5 hours, with new flights linking Norfolk with Australia four days a week. General information on the island is available via www.norfolkisland.nf.
Media contacts:
Andrew Mevissen/Bill Gray
MG Media Communications
Ph 02 9904 0011
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