Norfolk island was virtually uninhabited when, in 1774, Captain James Cook fell across it. If you see how small the island is and how big the Ocean around, you understand that a bit of luck was involved, even if you take into account that Cook was a great explorer. Lying 1500 kilometres due east of Australia's Byron Bay, Norfolk and its two satellite islands, are actually part of a gigantic undersea chain of mountains called The Norfolk Ridge, which stretches for 1770 kilo-metres from New Caledonia to New Zealand - but almost all of it is below the surface of the Ocean. Captain Cook described the island as 'a Paradise' - a word he did not use to describe any other of his many discoveries. We can agree with him. Norfolk started its career as an inhabited island as a settlement where convicts worked as slaves and living conditions on this paradise were actually close to those of Hell.