Wednesday 23 March 2011

Sorry for the lack of posts......

We've been really busy these past couple of weeks traveling across to the North Shore where we didn't have proper internet, just my ipod with wifi. Here is a quick update from us....

sooooooo.....

Last Sunday we took TheBus to our campsite, Friends of Malaekahana, on the Windward Coast. It was an hour and a half away from Waikiki which doesn't seem like very far, but when you're stuck on a fully air-conditioned bus, wearing summery clothes, with all your worldly possessions stuffed under the seat, it gets cold and annoying!



We had a fun time staying in your Li'l Grass Shack:


which consisted of a carpeted platform big enough for us both to sleep on and keep our stuff on at the same time. We began enjoying the quiet privacy of our own place after a week sharing a room with 6 other people, but soon got uncomfortable with no pillows and no comfy bed to sleep on! We had a beautiful view of the ocean right outside our door which was amazing for a few nights, but the wind picked up and blew through our bamboo door until we couldn't sleep and going outside became a chore, battling against a gail force wind every morning. We explored our beach, Malaekahana, which had good waves to learn to body board on. We contemplated renting boards of around $20 a day each, but George found some broken ones by the main office which we 'borrowed' (and accidentally lost in the jungle!!). They were broken enough for no-one to care about them, but perfect for us to mess about on. I was pretty proud at how quickly I picked it up and even caught some air while riding a quite fierce wave! George later borrowed a longboard and practiced real surfing.

The week on the North Shore proved to be tougher than we anticipated. We were told over and over again, that the mentality of the people on the North Shore was really laid back and chilled out as it's a big surfing community. We found this to be the mentality of the bus drivers too who turned up whenever the hell they wanted to! This wouldn't have been too much of a problem, if there wasn't a bus every hour! We began to feel slightly isolated in our grass shack which provided us with little shelter from the elements, so couldn't be a comfort when we came back from long days on buses. We did find some really cool stuff though! Like, a little town called Kahuhu which was an old Sugar Mill and was home to the most amazing Grill! I had coconut-macadamea shrimp which was incredible, and I even managed to convert George into a shrimp lover (he HATES seafood!). We took trips to Waimea Bay which has a nice rock to jump off into the sea. George had a great time flipping off that and wowing the crowd. I enjoyed filming him and swimming in the cool water! We also went to Waimea Valley which is a botanical garden and has a waterfall you can swim in. But, instead of paying the $13 each to get in, we snuck around the back and got in for free! I hope none of the grandparents are horrified by this, remember.... we are backpackers who cannot afford such luxuries, but shouldn't be denied the pleasure of seeing such amazing tropical beauty! 
We also visited the Dole Plantation which harvests pineapples and is home to the largest maze in the world! It is over 2 miles long and the quickest time anyone has completed it was in 7 minutes. We completed it in....... 45 minutes! haha! Still, not as bad as some people! 


  I can't think of anything else significant we did on the North Shore now...... I think that was about it. Oh! We also found a little village called Laie (pronounce all the vowels separately, like L-A-AY-EE) which had a cinema and a supermarket. So every morning, we bought tinned pineapple chunks and a cinnamon roll each for breakfast! We also saw a film called Limitless which stared Robert Di Nero and Bradley Cooper from The Hangover. It was quite a good indie film, which turned into a typical Hollywood film at the end with shoot-outs and thuggish violence. It was a story about a drug which enhances your brain power and Bradley Cooper, a failed writter, uses it and becomes really good at judging the stock market and makes lots of money. But everyone wants their hands on the drug and there is deadly side-effects. It wasn't great! Had potential though! 

Thats about it for our North Shore adventure! We're now back in Waikiki, staying at a budget hotel which is lovely! We get to have a proper shower every morning and have a comfy bed to ourselves! With pillows! We've had a lot of adventures this week, but we will write about them in another post, another time. We're off for dinner! 

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