The Big Island

The Big Island has already proved itself to be much more of a pain in the ass than O’ahu when I stepped off the plane and had to pay $25 to get a shuttle bus 9k in to town, and despite 2 emails to the hostel, they hadn’t got my booking and were full. Just when I thought I’d have to trudge crestfallen to the $75-a-night hotel round the corner, the lovely guy at the desk said that someone hadn’t shown up and as it was technically past check-in time I could have her bed and fight over it with her if she showed up. Result!

The Koa Wood Hale Inn (also known as Patey’s Place) is the only hostel in Kona, and brilliant with it. It’s got a uni-dorm feel, but the crowd is much older. In my bit of the hostel are a 50-year old Mancunian woman, a 45-year old Canuck, a 30-something Washington bike shop owner and other lovely people around my age or a bit older. The owner, Zero and the girl and guy that work there are heaps helpful and lovely to hang with, the girl being from New Brunswick and the guy being from Nashville, Tennessee and so having one of those accents that you only ever see in movies.

The main towns on the Big Island (which is officially Hawaii) are Kona and Hilo, on opposite sides of the island and a 3 hour drive away from each other. I am staying in Kona, mostly for the coffee. Kona coffee is grown between 800 and 2000 feet on this side of the island, and the process of picking and roasting these beans is so labour intensive that only a handful of family-owned farms do it. They control the Kona coffee market, and also therefore the quality of the coffee available, meaning that it is of the highest standard, and not sold to places like Starbucks who will buy the lowest quality available and peddle it as some sort of new wonder drug. This makes me happy.

The island is also relatively big compared to O’ahu, and to see everything I want to in my 3 days here, I think I will have to hire a car.

On my first day, however, I contented myself with wandering down to Kona town, meandering through the holiday markets and having some awesome grub. I stumbled upon another free display of hula dancing by the most beautiful women, and as is custom for hula dancers, they were elegant and fantastic, wearing gorgeous clothes and amazing hair adornments. I fell in love with one of them a little bit.

I was searching for a decent wave or two, but it turns out that in the town, all the breaks hit onto a mad amount of rocks, so only the most skilled or desperate really go there. The strong tides and relatively big waves mean that it certainly wasn’t an option for me, as I didn’t have travel insurance and didn’t fancy paying the US hospital bills to deal with my broken back.

The amazingly beautiful hula women of Kona

Ruminations on my way over

There’s nothing like nice surprises when you’re traveling. I managed to get all the way from Pupukea to Waikiki on a $2.50 ticket, actually used my return shuttle bus ticket to the airport, wasn’t manhandled by US security like normal and didn’t have to pay the $10 fee for checked baggage because I’m international. Win!

There’s only a Starbucks in the airport though, so I had to fund my most hated of companies by buying an oversweet drink and a shit scone. Fail.

I’ve seen quite a lot of off-duty Army or Navy people in Hawaii, wearing their military ‘civilian gear’ or carrying a camouflage rucksack or something. I think that’s a bit odd. Also, while boarding the Hawaiian Airlines flight, I heard this between a dude and a girl wearing a football shirt. There’s been some kind of massive American Football game on just prior to boarding:

Dude: I hear they love [team] in the military.

Girl: I am in the military. I just got back from Iraq.

Dude: (suddenly much more reverent) Well thank you for serving.

I wonder whether Americans stop to think about why young girls and guys are being sent to farflung countries to risk death or what the rationale is being pushing this idea of “serving the motherland” for the sake of the “land of the free”.

What do Americans get for their taxes? Their education, except for the very top schools which of course no one but the rich can afford to go to, is an international joke, nothing is free on healthcare and even their transport systems are lacking in most places.

Why aren’t they annoyed in paying as much tax as the rest of the Western world and still getting a shit deal because their government spends it on invading Middle Eastern countries on morally-dubious grounds and paying a million dollars a piece for those horrible intrusive new xray machines at airports?

I also wonder if they notice that no one else in the world pronounces it “eye-rack”.

Like ever, the North is better

The North Shore is turning out to be much more interesting than Waikiki, not only for the people I’m meeting. From Corey the surfer who thought it fine to call me Baby Girl and invite me to “go to the beach, look at the stars, you wear your bikini, we’ll take some beers, get playful, “ to the Spanish girls eating rucks of chicken, everyone is a character.

The most interesting guy though was a wicked surfer/farmer from Uruguay who told me heaps about his country and South America generally and was so calm and affable that I found myself drawn to his conversation. He specializes in bovine genetics and said I can stay on his farm when I go there.

Here are some facts about Uruguay that I did not know:

-       no tourists

-       great surf

-       Uruguayan peso

-       Bit more expensive than the rest of South America

-       Politically left

-       Corrupt

-     lovely people

-       Peaceful, rural place.

Who wouldn’t want to go?

The night ended up being wicked, hanging out and drinking with US surfers Gordy, Kevin, Amy and Jake, Juan the Uruguayan cow-genes-fiddler and a few others wanderers all night in the shack. Great people, and we had a lot of laughs.

I wish I’d come to the North Shore sooner instead of wasting time in Waikiki for so long. It’s way more becoming up here. People stay in Pupukea then cycle to Halei’wa to surf and hang out – the whole North Shore is a giant surf beach, bereft of the tourists but full of surf bums. It’s a fantastic space and I’ll definitely come back at some point, though now my time restraints take my on a plane to the Big Island – which is apparently even more beautiful than O’ahu.

Excellent signs

Hawaiian Jesus

Abandoned beaches on O'ahu's North Shore

I got to the North Shore (Pupukea to be precise) having forgotten what uncommercial beaches could be like. Waikiki is entirely man-made (they shipped in loads of sand at some point) and at all times is full of people. It was nice to see this isn’t the case up north.

The North Shore is a total surfer’s haunt, and Pupukea itself is basically a small stretch of road, with 2 parts of the same hostel on it and a supermarket. It is literally steps to the beach though, and the only place to stay near the hella famous Waimea Bay, which is strangely bereft of accommodation.

I’ve got myself own to one meal a day, because its too hot to eat and I’m desperately trying to save some cash (this consists of a mid-day binge usually bookended by 2 ridiculously cheap coffees to start or end my day – not my healthiest eating plan, I’ll admit, but certainly my thriftiest) and have been exploiting the Honolulu Cookie company’s ‘come in and try every flavour’ madness policy to full effect, but by the time I got to the north I was starving.

After an orzo salad, a huge slice of carrot cake and an apple ($12, thank you very much) I headed west, or ‘windward’ in Hawaii speak*, for a walk along the beach to find some good waves and a surf hire shop.

2 hrs of walking face-to-the-burning-sun later, I had covered Shark Cove and Three Tables and reached, passed or failed to find Waimea Bay. I swear to God it was only 3 bus stops prior to where I got off for the hostel, but nowhere seemed to be the world-famous surf spot. In fact, for the most part of the 2 hours I’d been walking along deserted beach ankle-deep in the cold waters.

Let’s just take a second to imagine how soul-shakingly glorious that was. Yes, it was that good.

Anyway, my legs were caning and I’d started to get a bit thirsty, having drained my water bottle with dinner, so I decided to head back up to the road that I thought was running parallel to the beach. Problem is, most of the beach at this point with lined with houses, which is delightful when old people are waving to your from their nulti-million dollar abodes (and every one of them does wave and smile) but it is a bit of a pain when you just want to buy a can of coke. Just in case you ever do find yourself in this situation, don’t freak out that you’re trespassing on private beaches and are soon to be arrested – it’s illegal to deny public access to any part of any Hawaiian coast, which I like a lot. 

I eventually found what I thought was a path (after a lovely chat with a 40 year old life guard which somehow ended in my trying to explain both Russell Brand and dubstep to him) but in fact turned out to be an old woman’s garden. I only realized this once I was already in, and she was sat watching me. I’d already committed so I just kept on walking, unbuckled her front gate and kept on walking, but not before I’d found a pager on the lawn and handed it over to her as she incredulously watched me. Smooth, you might think – no, because beyond the house was nothing but a scrap heap and I had to walk back through the garden with her eyes boring through me to get back to the beach.

After half an hour more I was spitting feathers so miraculously got back on to the road and started walking back the way I came. I went down a driveway to what I thought was a drinks stand, but yet again it was just someone’s house. Thankfully this woman was amazing, laughing off my drinks-stand hypothesis and filling up my water bottle from her house.

“It’s perfectly fine to ask some water, honey.”

“Yes Jula, but I am English, and forgot that strangers can be nice”

We had a nice chat, during which, like all Americans I’d met in Hawaii, she asked about my travels and life, including the much-asked quandary “You’re not traveling on your own, are you?!” I’ve been asked this with surprise in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and America now, and I don’t know whether the surprise is because travelling in mostly Western, mostly English-speaking countries holds many major hazards of which I am unaware, or because I look like a 14 year old who can’t look after herself. Perhaps, as I’ve actually got lost and confused in all those countries listed above, its actually the latter.

*Interestingly enough, this is about the only Hawaii-speak you will actually hear, apart from ‘Aloha’and ‘mahalo’, which are almost anagrams of each other.

Pupuoops

Broke a bed in Pupukea. Amazingly, I was on my own.

My new best friend

I’ve yet to figure what this says about me, but weird people are drawn to me. I swear to god, if I’m on my own, they flock towards me like lonely flies towards particularly friendly shit. Usually this isn’t too bad (and I’ve got some amazing friendships with people that can only really be described as oddballs) but it’s a fact. Only Tom Anderson has it worse, and this is because his ridiculous size makes him a target for those with an interesting take on the world.

It came as no surprise to me, then, that as I sat on a bus in Hawaii heading to the North Shore to catch some decent surf, an elderly man with 2 teeth who could have been a living anti-meth advert*, got on, scoured the half-empty vehicle, then plopped down next to me.

Generally, despite being English and therefore socially repressed, I don’t mind talking to strangers (in the most literal sense of the word) but I was loving the chance to have a bit of solitude listening to Russell brand, Matt and Gee talk about Noam Chomsky and Big Bird, and enjoying the sights of O’ahu.

Sure enough though, 5 minutes in, this OAP taps me, waits til I take my headphones out, and proceeds to points out the homeless people in the bus shelter. Homeless people in Hawaii are not uncommon, horrible though their situation is, and wandering the edge of Kuhio Beach in the evening is a saddening sight, but I’ve no idea why he felt it necessary to inform me about it.

Perhaps the guy just liked telling people about his local area, as another 5 minutes later he tapped me, waited for me to stop enjoying yet another pair of silky-sounding Sennheiser CX300s which I was determined to get the most out of before I inevitably broke, lost or swallowed them AGAIN, to describe to me the death of a young boy at the upcoming intersection. 

This event had been memorialized by the placement of a statue of a bike like the one he was riding at the time. However I couldn’t yet see this and having struggled to understand the rambling murmurs of my new friend, so I did that thing where you laugh and nod in response to an indistinguishable utterance. I repeated this until I figured out that he was actually describing the untimely death of a youth, wherein I realized I was laughing and agreeing with a tragedy and was plunged into a guilty silence.

Thankfully, being already beyond the parameters of acceptable social interaction, I don’t think this fellow was worried at all.

*the anti-meth ads in Hawaii are actually pretty good: sharp close ups of shitty teeth or facial scabs with the phrase “meth: not even once”. Pretty powerful.

Love on the beach

Perhaps its something about the romance of Hawaii in the eyes of the world, or perhaps its something about the beach which I’ve forgotten, as I never usually sit still on beaches if there are wave to be trashed about by, but since being in Waikiki I’ve been shown partnerships as sturdy and happy. From the playful youngish couple in front of me as I write, to the elderly poncho-laden couple on the boat at the Arizona Memorial, whose hands searing for each other secretly in the crush to exit effected me profoundly, everyone seems determined to crush my usual British cynicism towards long term relationships, at least white I remain in the South Pacific. 


Even the sun places itself just behind the gathering clouds to illuminate a young guy kissing his girl in the sand. It’s making me want a cuddle.

Emo box just wants a cuddle

Pearl HarboUr

I managed to drag myself out of bed at 8am (earlier than I have to get up for work!) to head over to Honolulu proper and hopefully beat the crowds at Pearl Harbour. Yes, all the signs say Pearl Harbor but I refuse to adhere to the mis-spellings of Americans. Fortified by a fabulously cheap cup of Kona coffee I jumped on the (late) bus and got there about 10.

As per the usual U.S. sense of terrified paranoia you have to leave your shit behind at the entrance (apart from your camera and money), and it was chucking it down. As you enter, you watch a 20 minute film about the Dec 7th bombing in 1941 which brought the Americans kicking and screaming into the Second World War. It's surprisingly informative and not too over-the-top in terms of sentimentality, which was a refreshing change, and then you get on a ferry to be taken over to the memorial itself. The memorial is for the USS Arizona, the main warship victim of the attack, on which almost 2000 people died. 

The memorial itself isn't anything special but I was actually really interested in the history of it, probably because I don't know a lot about Pearl Harbour at all, apart from having watching half that terrible movie, during which I got so despondent about the level of acting and storylines in modern cinema that I turned my brain off entirely and could only ascertain that the story was set somewhere hot in America, which actually lead me into a false belief that Pearl Harbour was in Florida. Thanks for that, Ben Affleck.

I'm not sure if my lack of knowledge was because I didn't listen in History or because we don't really learn about it in the UK (being so saturated with our own rich history), but I was enthusiastic about the facts and genuinely moved, perhaps due to the uncharacteristic restraint shown by the US in showing what happened. I know this is probably due to the fact that half their revenue comes from Japanese tourists, and so going on about the 'savage murder of thousands of their best American boys by the Jap scumbags' isn't such a great idea, but nonetheless I found myself at the verge of tears on several occasions, even when nothing particularly emotional was going on.

Due to rain and not-worth-getting-wet-for waves, I am kind of bored in Waikiki and heading to the North Shore tomorrow.

Americans

Timewarp

27 hours, 4 flights and 3 countries after I left Christchurch, I arrived in Hawaii on the same day.

Yep, you read that right. I left Auckland on Jan 11th at 8 am. I landed in Honolulu on Jan 11th at 11.30am.

I had totally forgotten that I'd be passing the international date line (and didn't see it once...) so when the driver announced the time and date on the shuttle bus from the airport, I involuntarily went 'WHAT?' really loudly and had to ask a bewildered American tourist what date it was. I had booked my accommodation for the date I thought I was getting there: the 12th.

We had stopped for refueling at Christmas Island on the way, and I poked my head out of the plane's door to see what the craic was. I was totally disappointed: not one hint of tinsel and no reindeer anywhere. It was more of a deserted island. At this point I started to doubt whether Easter Island was made of chocolate at all, but I soon regained my senses.

I was almost disappointed again when I got to Honolulu airport (which, by the way, has almost no roof) and there weren't hoards of hula dancers cascading me with leis, but to be fair this is more of a problem with my own imagination than any fault on the part of the Hawaii tourist board.

I got to my hostel, threw on my swimmers and headed to Waikiki Beach (30 seconds away) for my first surf. It clicked: this is American Paradise. The sun is strong but its not too humid (I guess it is winter), and the sea is green but not too wild. The streets are clean, the people are happy and the coffee is good and plentiful. What more does your average Yank want? Designer shopping and hundreds of people wearing flowers in their hair? That's all here too.

It sounds ghastly written down, and did prove to be after about 3 days, but as a first view its pretty amazing. The waves had unfortunately settled down for the day so I had to settle for floating about in the  gorgeous sea with the sun beating down on my skin. It's a tough life.

The bus all around the island is $2.25 but that's about the cheapest thing in Waikiki. I found a lack of veggie restaurants or anything approaching a budget option, but thankfully there was enough at the local 'Ruffage Foods' restaurant to keep me full and going for all the time I was on the south part of the island.

Duke Kahanamoku

 A particular treat on Oahu, and the rest of the islands, is Kona Coffee, grown in the Kona region of the big island between 800 and 2000 feet only. If you're not American you probably haven't heard of this coffee, for 2 reasons: it's too labour intensive to be worthwhile dealing with if you're a big company, and there are only a handful of small, family-run coffee farms on the east of the Big Island who grow it, and they're not all impressed with huge corporations. I loved it immediately.

After a day or two, during which I only got to surf once in lacklustre waves and realised that I needed to move on from tourist haven Waikiki if I was to a) catch a decent break and b) not go mental, I noted that beyond sun bathing and shopping, there's not all that much to do. There's nothing wrong with this, per se, but I had come for adventure, not relaxing 24 hours a day. I sat on the totally manufactured beach - they shipped the sand in from elsewhere - and watched the lightning to my far right without feeling any rain. I had to admit, it was pretty magical.

Also pretty magical is the Honolulu Cookie Company. Not only do they produce amazingly delicious buttery yummies, they have numerous stores in Waikiki, all of which give out free samples of all their flavours. And this is not the sparse tasting opportunity you might find in a supermarket - oh no. These shops have veritable bins full of cookie bits and invite you encouragingly to try all their variations. Living on a tight budget meant that I was down to one decent meal a day with coffee to stave off the hunger, so wandering around the 4 different stores in my immediate vicinity and filling my pockets in each became a daily habit. Whatever, I figured, it's a victimless crime. It's not even a crime, just overdoing it on the 'gratis' front.

When the sun set on one of the days, I stumbled upon a free public display of traditional Hawaiian music and hula dancing. It was very different than I imagined, and utterly gorgeous. When a Ukelele and several small drums create a jaunty rhythm, the women move their arms into physical patterns while their knees bend and their hips roll, all the time moving up and down. It was hypnotic, and so, so beautiful. I especially enjoyed it when a 5-piece troupe of older ladies took over. It's always inspiring to see the older generation active and enjoying life, and the lady at the front in particular was having the time of her life. I stayed until they stopped dancing.

Hula

Other than this I spent 2 days entertaining myself by throwing myself into my James Joyce novel (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, if you're wondering) and wandering tattoo parlours trying to find one I liked the look of. One shop in particular looked good but once I'd explained my ideas for design and placement to the huge dude behind the counter, he took it upon himself to disregard everything I'd said apart from 'wave' and turned my idea into a huge Polynesian design that I couldn't have been less interested in. I seem to find that big tattoo guys want to cover me in big guys tattoos. I'm too small! Back off!

An evening with....Fijians

After a flight during which I only narrowly avoiding talking to a strange middle-aged ex-surfer for 3 hours about the break up of his marriage and "the worst year of [his] life", I bounded off the plane to the astonishing sight of 5 Fijian guys in the requisite 'South Pacific / Hawaiian' shirts playing ukeleles and singing traditional songs to welcome people to Nadi. Wicked!!

I ditched my bags and caught the $1 bus into the town. After a few weeks travelling the expensive hubs of Aus and NZ, these prices were very much appreciated.

It was pretty baking hot and a lot muggier than I imagined, and after being in two predominantly white countries I was struck by how dark-skinned some Fijians really are. For some reason, in my head South Pacific Islanders had a colouring closer to Asian people, but I've absolutely no idea where this would have come from - probably the same place as my mistaken but strongly-held assumption that Michael Stipe had AIDs, when in fact he's just getting older and balder. Note to self: engage in fact-checking more often.

The main drag of Nadi, which is not the island's capital (that's Suva on the Eastern side), is small and fairly beaten-up in a lot of ways, but the most striking feature of the town is its people - or more specifically, their smiles. At first glance the people of Nadi seem to have the same small-town despondency of any other area, but the second you smile at them, they break out into the biggest grins and nod to you. They may possibly be the friendliest people in the world at this point, and I loved sitting waiting for the bus and people watching - their interactions filled with a contagious positivity.

As befits an island quite affected by poverty but frequented by many tourists, there are the usual attempts to part you from your money:

"Bula!"
"Hey."
"Where are you from? Shake my hand - it's ok, Fijians are friendly people...Where are you from?"
"England"
"Ah, the motherland! How long is your stay?"
"About 5 more hours."
"We have a fantastic Polynesian handicraft store just down this way. I will take you..."

...at which point you politely wrestle yourself from the situation and try not to be too condescending in your denials. This exact conversation took place about 4 times in the one evening I was there.

The goods at the proper stores were all fairly tacky so I bought nothing, but did wander into a Hindu temple. After almost flouting custom by wearing my shoes inside, and being told off accordingly, I got chatting to a Fijian Hindu man about the temple and the religion itself. He taught me about Ganesh, the elephant god, and his rat friend on whom he used to ride around. The building was delightful, colourful and inspirational (as I suppose all religious architecture should be, if you're into that sort of thing).

I realised that my short time in Fiji was slipping by and I should be heading back to catch my flight, so i had a delicious $5 daal and rice (these prices!!) and accidentally got chatting to a very excitable American in the departure lounge. I was attempting to dispense of my Fijian dollars in an interesting and non-tacky way, and she pointed me towards a bag of kava, a drink with supposed analgesic and relaxant qualities (like a glass of good scotch or a really mild valium, along with the requisite straining bag and drinking coconut*. Sold!

*As of writing I have not tried this. It could be total bullshit.

CHCH-ing!

I already liked Christchurch, what with it being the hometown of my very awesome friend Tim after all, but I wasn't aware how much I liked it until I actually got there. As I had made it to Tim's hood before Tim, by several hours, I took the opportunity to hang out at the Christchurch Art Gallery where they were having an amazing-looking Ron Mueck exhibition. In the name of thrift, however, I just poked my nose around the corner and instead took in all the free shit. It's good shit.

I then navigated the ridiculously easy CHCH bus network to find myself wandering around what I knew was my friend's home area until I heard his very distinctive laugh, and seconds later was handed a glass of wine and introduced to his incendiary extended family. I was stoked enough just to have my own bed, but getting washing done for me, getting fed to bursting and then taking a bottle of vodka over to his friend's place made me grin from ear to spazzy ear.

The next day, after crepes which were an attempt to say thank you for my overwhelmingly great welcome, Tim and I commandeered his mum's car to drive around the sights of CHCH. After coffee half way up a mountain and the surveyance of some shocking earthquake damage (NZ might well be earthquake country, but I've never felt anything more than a tremor down my left hand side and as such, don't really understand how it works), we skidded right up to the summit, stopping only to take photos on the way up. I was told that the South Island was the more beautiful of the two, and it really is: see evidence below.

Heading down to the city, Tim took me to his old living area, which included possibly the best cafe I've ever been to, C1 Espresso. The food was great, the drinks were stellar but most importantly they had a water dispenser made from an old sewing machine, they were pumping the Ricky Gervais podcast into the toilets and the ladies' was announced as such by a Princess Leia doll stuck on the door. I was smitten and almost bought one of their t shirts from the fridge.

Trippy Leia

After a few days on my own, avoiding human contact to some extent, it was great to sit down with such a good friend over coffee and discuss life, the universe and everything. Some very inspiring decisions came from that chat - including my hope to take Mondays off while in Canada to write and hopefully end up finishing that enigmatic first novel - and I hope I can keep hold of those resolutions in the future.

The gorgeous day was ended perfectly, enjoying champagne with the soon-to-be-married neighbours, and early to bed so I wouldn't miss my flight. Saying goodbye to my favourite Kiwi in the morning was not easy, but knowing that he'll be visiting Canadialand made it all the more bearable.