Frenzied on Lord Howe

You don’t get much more relaxed than Lord Howe Island, it is almost the definition of idyllic island life – and with all the conveniences of the mainland, electricity, coffee, fresh bread.

But there’s one spot where everything goes wild. Ned’s Beach is on the Island’s East coast and is a wonderful stretch of pristine sand with tropical blue waters. Take two steps into the sea and you are surrounded by fish, drop,a piece of bread and you are engulfed in a feeding frenzy. Shoals of small, pale fish; huge blue fish with gaping mouths; the occasional rainbow-colored parrot fish. They all go wild.

We felt quite safe, even though we met a woman yesterday who proudly showed off where she had been bitten on the leg; not once but twice. She must have given off a smell or something because she was the only one the sharks showed any interest in when we snorkeled.  Anyway, we occasionally got buffeted by the bigger fish when the waves washed them into us and often had them curling around our legs like silky cats. But no nibbles. This was Lord Howe at its most frenetic.