It might belong to Australia, but Gillian Vine finds plenty of New Zealand connections on Norfolk Island.
Oamaru Stone and kauri in a church, birds and plants almost exactly like ours, houses of Kiwi timber, New Zealand milk on my breakfast cereal ... it could be Milton or Millers Flat but I'm almost 1900km from home, on Norfolk Island.
The similarities feel slightly weird, given that the island, all 35sq km of it, might well have been annexed to us.
In the end, it became linked to Australia, a decision some islanders now regret, as Canberra dissolved the local legislature last June and there is uncertainty about the future.
The island had been self-governing since 1979 but basically, Norfolk ran out of money, partly because its tourism industry slumped.
In exchange for being taken over, which more than two-thirds of residents oppose, islanders now pay tax and get some welfare benefits.
Apparently we have missed a couple of chances to run Norfolk.
The first was in the 13th or 14th century, when Polynesian settlers arrived.
The presence of our native flax (harakeke) is cited as evidence that they came from New Zealand but the group departed after perhaps a couple of generations and left almost no traces, so we may never know.
Skip to 1774, when Captain James Cook landed briefly and named the island after an English duchess.
Nowadays, locals point to a solitary Norfolk Island pine at Emily Bay and say it was a mature tree when Cook visited.
Another New Zealand link was forged when the Melanesian Mission was founded by the Anglican Bishop of New Zealand, George Selwyn, to evangelise the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, part of his diocese.
The organisation had its headquarters on Norfolk from 1867 until 1920, which may explain the use of Oamaru stone and kauri in elegant little St Barnabas Church.
The church is notable not only for the kauri roof and pews with exquisite inlays and Oamaru-stone buttresses but also for its Burne-Jones windows and superb William Morris rose window.
Maybe our last chance to administer Norfolk Island was in the 1940s.
At one point, 1100 New Zealand troops from the infantry's 36th Battalion were stationed here and the airfield was used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force until 1946.
New Zealand could have stuck around, as it was responsible for maintaining the World War 2 garrison.
"Garrison'' these days is associated with Norfolk's two convict periods, the first from 1788 until 1814, the other 1825-53.
This second penal settlement was notable for the incredibly brutal treatment of prisoners, established by NSW Governor Ralph Darling as a place of , as he put it, "extremist punishment short of death''.
A small museum holds leg-irons and the cat-o'-nine-tails, whose use laid open a man's back with a few strokes.
Other punishments were slightly more subtle.
Prisoners worked in dangerous conditions offshore to quarry blocks of coral from under the sea, while the crank mill near Kingston pier was run by teams of 50 who worked 12-hour shifts turning the capstan that operated two giant millstones to grind grain.
Working in the salt house or lime works may have been a little easier but for all convicts, life was harsh.
In contrast to the crowded prison and the soldiers' slightly cramped accommodation, civilians lived in spacious houses along Quality Row, many of them beautifully restored.
From the Queen Elizabeth Lookout, it is easy to appreciate the difference as one looks towards Kingston's convict-built wharf and the remnants of the convict settlement, including the octagonal prison.
The prisoners, who had so little to live for, staged two mutinies, in 1833 and 1846.
In all, 26 men were executed for their parts in the two uprisings and some of their graves can be seen in the island's cemetery.
However, Slaughter Bay was not, as I assumed, the scene of a bloody revolt, but simply means muddy, as in the English village Long Slaughter.
The cemetery is a place to appreciate another aspect of Norfolk's history. Names like Christian, Buffett and Quintal are frequently seen on headstones. These were men and women - and their descendants - who transferred from Pitcairn Island in 1856.
The British Government, which recognised that Pitcairn was too small for its growing population, established Norfolk as a colony separate from New South Wales but with a governor appointed by Sydney.
The island was not formally assigned to Australia until 1913 and one Norfolker told me there were mutterings even then that this was not the best plan and linking to New Zealand was a better option.
Descendants of Tahitians and HMS Bounty mutineers, the Pitcairners brought their own language, a mix of Tahitian and 18th-century English and crafts like weaving, as well as their maritime skills, which led to the establishment of a whaling industry.
Lighters like the whalers' craft are still used to ferry goods to shore from the ship that arrives from Australia at three-weekly intervals.
Nothing seems too big to deal with, although I'm told it took three lighters to manoeuvre a bus from ship to shore, where it landed safely.
Growing one's own fruit and vegetables is important, as the island imports no fruit and the only vegetables to come in are onions, garlic and potatoes from New Zealand.
No produce is exported, unlike the days when kentia-palm seeds were a golden crop, grossing $A1300 a kg on the international market.
When the price dropped to a dismal $A50 a kg, it was uneconomic to continue.
There are plenty of local initiatives, with wine, goat cheese, liqueurs, soft drinks and coffee produced on the island, while tourists love Jess Himii's chocolates.
Whatever the political future, tourism is likely to remain the No1 earner for this quiet subtropical island, where history and bush walks are top attractions.
● Gillian Vine travelled to Norfolk Island with Air New Zealand, which flies from Auckland to Norfolk Island on Sundays; Sydney on Mondays and Fridays; and Brisbane on Tuesdays and Saturdays, giving travellers the option of combining a Norfolk holiday with a visit to Australia. On the island, she was the guest of Norfolk Island Tourism (www.norfolkisland.com.au) and stayed at Kentia Cottages (www.kentiaholiday.com).
