King Island is no ordinary place. Like a scene out of ET, getting here on a 4-seater plane is like flying on a bicycle through the air. There is no ferry, so flying is the only option unless you have your own boat. After all the years I've been in Australia I'd never been to the islands of the Bass Strait, so a flight to King Island was my Christmas gift to myself. I haven't been disappointed. One of my favourite UFO stories is about Frederick Valentich: a young pilot who disappeared in his plane en route to King Island in 1978 after believing he encountered a UFO. No trace of him or his plane has ever been found. Numerous theories have been proposed about his disappearance but the most common is that he was flying upside down and saw his own lights reflecting on the water before crashing.
King Island has no active CouchSurfing hosts and no official campgrounds but it's possible to freedom camp. However, I would have been at risk of absolutely nothing being open on Christmas and then not being able to eat. Like what I did when I went to Christmas Island, I put a post on Facebook, and two different people offered to host me. Stuart picked me up at the airport and had asked me to pick up a couple of hamburgers from McDonald's since the golden arches don't exist on King Island. Kelly and Phil would offer to host me at their dairy farm, and Stuart said I'd be more comfortable there even though it's further away from Currie, the main settlement. Dairy is the main industry on the island, and King Island cheese is famous. Fishing and kelp are the other two major industries; Stuart would take me to where they dry the kelp after picking me up from the airport.
As with many remote islands, there's the obligatory lighthouse.
There are plenty of Norfolk pines and the island is named after Phillip Gidley King, so there is a Norfolk Island connection. For four nights I'm on this wonderful island. Christmas Day would call for a full schedule today. Kelly and Phil are very active in their church, and they'd be singing at service today. It's the first time I've been to a church service of any sort in at least the past few years. With everything closed today, we'd pick up Phil's mother and then gather at their home for a Christmas lunch. Kelly got me as a Christmas gift a 2025 King Island calendar and a cattle tag key chain. The weather was absolutely brilliant today. Stuart would join us for lunch and then we'd go for a drive to Naracoopa on the east coast.
Anikka called whilst I was at the jetty and we had a very nice chat. I was hoping to spend Christmas with Anikka and family but they had plans in Victor Harbor, so I sent them my love as a gift. One of my goals is to find all of the geocaches on King Island (15 in total) and I made another find before going home for a long nap. Christmas Day sure is a day to recharge. Dinner this evening was one of my favourites: roast lamb with gravy, potatoes, pumpkin, and mint sauce. Afterward, we'd take a drive down to Grassy to see the blue penguins. I was bitten on the finger by a blue penguin a long time ago in New Zealand, and I've of course seen thousands of penguins in Antarctica. Just to remind everyone, there are no polar bears in Antarctica and no penguins at the North Pole. In fact, the Galapagos penguin is the only penguin in the northern hemisphere. I didn't manage any decent photos of the penguins as it was dark and it's not good to use a flash around them.
Whilst travel around Christmas is expensive, I always do my best to be somewhere special. Christmas was always very interesting when I was a child. When we would write a Christmas list, our Dad would do his best to make sure he got us as much as possible as we asked for, even if I had six or seven Nintendo games on my list. As an adult, I prefer moments rather than things as Christmas gifts. If someone is going to get me something I love something useful, such as a calendar.
As a connoisseur of Australia, being in the Lucky Country isn't complete without a trip to King Island. Kelly and Phil, I had the most wonderful Christmas with you. Thank you very much for making my Christmas Day and my time on King Island so special.
