Tackling seven peaks on Lord Howe Island, Australia’s answer to the Galapagos

Iconic views, glass-clear snorkelling, indigenous species and sweat-drenched yet rewarding climbs: bucket-list travel doesn’t get more sensational than this, finds Cameron Wilson

LHI’s peaks provide a challenge in paradise (Cameron Wilson)

Our troop of 11 starts out at Old Settlement Beach on Lord Howe Island (LHI), taking the track first through a thicket of palm trees, then clambering up a steep ridge to Kim’s Lookout. The cliffs are under assault from thousands of red-tailed tropic birds, one of 14 seabird species that nest and breed here. There’s no time to linger: although we have five days to do the Seven Peaks Walk, we will bag three of those peaks today. I barely have time to catch my breath before we’re back down the ridge and across to North Beach for another sweaty jungle climb to Mount Eliza (147m) and North Head.

And here it is, on Day One, the money shot: south across the lagoon to Mt Gower, an oceanic mist cloud settled like a quilt on its flat volcanic top. It’s one of the most iconic island views on the planet.

LHI could fairly be described as Australia’s Galapagos. When Ian Hutton wrote his much-lauded book in 1998, he had another noted naturalist provide the foreword: “Lord Howe Island is so extraordinary it is almost unbelievable … Few islands surely can be so accessible, so remarkable, yet so unspoilt.”