Media Release: Locals’ Guide to Lord Howe Island
Australia, 7 September 2018: One of Australia’s iconic destinations, World Heritage listed Lord Howe Island, now has a detailed guide to the 40 best locations and activities.
The Locals’ Guide to Lord Howe Island is written and photographed by a collective of island locals who love their home and have knowledge to share.
Co-author, Luke Hanson, says: “following from the success of our Lord Howe Island Cookbook, we wanted to return to a longer format style of writing, supported by narrative videos and beautiful photography.”
Despite its high profile on numerous ‘best in the world’ lists, such as the National Geographic Places of a Lifetime, Lord Howe has very limited information available to help inspire and plan travel.
Hanson says “the generic travel guides are not very useful once you’re on the island, our media articles are excellent but brief, and our local and State tourism authorities are focused on social media, so we thought we could fill the void.”
“Among the pool of potential writers on Lord Howe we found a lawyer with an MBA (Denis Corcoran), a scientist (Luke Hanson), a professional editor (Geordie Tennant), a hotelier (Dani Rourke), and a multi-lingual marketer whose last job was with the United Nations (Pia Funch). We were blessed with talent and motivation, and the resulting Locals’ Guide is unique in its originality, quality and detail.”
“We write about places that only locals know about, we provide tips and details that only locals know about, and we tell stories about some quirky locals that only an isolated island in the northern Tasman Sea can produce.”
The Locals’ Guide also features a number of stunning narrative videos by film-maker, Andy Lloyd, which explore how an eclectic mix of locals interact with their island home. His subjects include an outdoor guide, local ranger, hotelier and artist, and each has an infectious enthusiasm for life on Lord Howe.
Andy Lloyd says “the days of making montage videos to music are gone, and now, to engage people with videos, we have to tell stories. In many ways, videography has gone full circle, and the best film-makers are engaging their viewers on multiple levels, through sights, sounds and authentic non-scripted words.”
The result of Andy’s approach to film-making is beautiful. Hanson says “each time I’ve shown the unreleased videos to friends and family, just to explore their reaction, there have been tears, laughter and wonder. Andy is gifted and his ability to create mood, tension and emotion in a three minute video is mind-boggling. I still get tingles when I watch his videos.”
Another feature of the Locals’ Guide is that it’s not commercial. There are no ads or pop-ups, and it doesn’t bombard viewers with endless options to engage.
Dani Rourke, co-author and owner of Pinetrees Lodge says “while the Locals’ Guide is hosted on the Pinetrees Lodge website, it’s just a reflection of where we work, and it gives the Guide the best chance to be read by people searching for travel inspiration and details on how to experience Lord Howe”.
New content will be loaded on the Locals’ Guide each week as the writers systematically cover the island from coral reefs and perfect beaches to the mist forests on of Mt Gower.
Hanson says “we’ve released the Locals’ Guide with 40 locations and activities, and will reach 100 by the end of 2019. We’ve also talked to publishers and have plans to convert our best content into a beautiful Lord Howe Island coffee table book by the end of 2020.”
Anyone with an interest in travel, photography or videography will enjoy spending a few hours reading the Locals’ Guide, and anyone with an interest in Lord Howe Island, in particular, will enjoy the distraction of some quality content.
For more information please visit www.pinetrees.com.au/the-locals-guide-to-lord-howe. Please call Amy Miller at ADM Communications on 0415 913 273 or email amy@admcommunications.com.au for interviews with the authors of the Locals’ Guide to Lord Howe Island.
