Sorry we are so behind on this blog! We've been keeping ourselves so busy and have hardly had any downtime. We're in Los Angeles now and it's absolutely amazing! But we'll talk about that in another post because we still need to fill you in on what we did in our last week in Hawaii!
So! Back in Waikiki we were much better placed to actually do things. We contacted our good friend Jules Fox and met up for a hike through the jungle to the beautiful Maunawili falls, where you could climb up above the waterfall and jump into the deep splash pool! We had so much fun there with Jules and his family.
Afterwards we all went back to their house and made delicious homemade cinnamon rolls! mmmmm!
The next day, we took a trip out to Hanuama Bay which is this beautiful bay on the west coast of Hawaii. I think it's protected by some marine society or something? But I know that it is a protected coral reef. It was amazing!
We brought our snorkels and swam around with the beautiful fishes! I (Esme) found it a bight scary swimming next to such sharp coral and I proceeded to freak out on a couple of occasions when George insisted we walked over the reef because it was quicker than swimming around it.....
But the highlight of the day for me, was seeing a giant sea turtle up close! here is a rubbish picture for you: (the turtle is on the right)
It was a beautiful moment until a Japanese tourist swam on top of me to get a photo and pushed me into the coral! So I pushed him back and hoped I blurred his photo. Karma and all that.
I can't remember what we did that evening, I think we just chilled because we sun bathed on the beach for a good couple of hours and I feel asleep which was a weird experience..... not a great fan of sleeping outside, feel very vulnerable!
here are some funny photos for your amusement....
One thing that we had both really wanted to do ever since we started researching Hawaii was kayak out to uninhabited islands in Kailua Bay. So the next day we went and did it! We hired a tandem kayak from a cool little surf shop in Kailua and took it down to a river nearby to practice our paddling. It was a little precarious clambering into this thin little kayak at first but we soon got going and found that we were actually pretty good at it! Esme sat at the front navigating and setting the rhythm of the paddling. Once we felt confident in our paddling abilities we took our little kayak to the beach and launched into the sea. This was quite a challenge due to fairly big waves coming into shore and we probably looked very silly wobbling about in front of the locals, but eventually we were out into the deep blue pacific! We paddled out to a great little island called Flat Island which had a seabird sanctuary on it. Mooring the kayak, we had a little wander around and looked back at magnificent views of the mainland.
On the way back to shore, we managed to capsize and Esme got all grotchity (as she does) because our cameras and wallets were in a dry bag in the kayak and we worried they'd be ruined. But it was fiiiiiine!
That evening, we got a call from our old friends Ernesto and Fred who were having a meal at their house and had invited us along. AT their house, every friday is Hawaiian Friday when Fred makes his traditional Hawaiian food. Ernesto had just come back from seeing some family in Texas and was all in the mood to make mexican food. So we decided to contribute to the feast by making a traditional British dessert! We racked our brains for British desserts..... brownies? no, American.... spotted dick? no, we don't know if they'd understand the concept (as we dont) what about jam rolly polly?! How do we make it!? We decided to settle on this:
TRIFLE!!! It was so good! They had NONE of the ingredients we'd typically use, like custard, jelly and sponge fingers. But they had plenty of whipped cream and sprinkley toppings! So we completely improvised. We used Jello pots with fruit in as the jelly base, crushed choc chip muffins for the sponge, and vanilla pudding for custard! We called it the American Trifle. Which is apparently a lot like parfait. Ernesto made incredible guacamole with his secret ingredient..... milk! Fred made Kalua Pig, poi and raw salmon salad with brown rice. Kalua Pig is a very boiled, quite tasteless salty pork which is boiled with poi leaves which give it a very tea-like taste. Poi is a plant and Fred used the base of the plant to create a sort of brown/grey paste which is a startchy substitute to potatoes. The whole dish was very strange tasting and we didn't really like it! In true mexican fashion, Ernesto wasn't satisfied unless we had a beer in our hand a food on our plate, so it was hard for us to say we didn't want any more! It was strange for us to see meat and fish on the same plate too. Felt weird in my mouth and on my taste buds! But it was a good experience and a lot of fun to hang out with them again. Their girlfriends came over too so we had a little triple date going on and it was nice for me to speak to some girls!!
The day after THAT was Saturday and George went cliff diving and skim boarding with Jules and his family while I stayed in Waikiki and shopped and slept. It was nice to have some time apart! We met up in the evening and had a meal at the Cheesecake Factory which makes delicious cheesecakes and we had a menu of about 25 to choose from! We settled on sharing the cookie dough cheesecake which was a biscuit base, cheesecakey middle with lumps of cookie dough baked in and a chocolate topping. Very sickly and filling but sooooo good!
Here is George skim boarding:
So, then it suddenly turned to Sunday and we got very emotional about leaving Hawaii! Our time there was very mixed, and we realised we weren't going to miss the place so much as the people we'd met. We spent the day in Ala Moana with Ozzi and the Hawaiian Freerunners which was fun. We just chilled and George ran around with them. That evening, we met up with Jules and his family again and we hiked up Mount Tantalus (something we'd wanted to do, but didn't get around to doing until now) and watched the sunset! The hike wasn't very hard, and once we got up to the top, we got a magnificent view of Waikiki!
the radio tower in the right hand corner was were Jules and George climbed to get the amazing photo above. I was gutted because I was wearing jeans and flip flops so wasn't prepared to climb the barbed wire fence! I got some nice views from my little platform behind the bamboo forest:
We later went back to Jules for pizza and watched a bit of the American remake of Let The Right One In. Big disappointment if you've seen the original Swedish version and were blown away by it, like I was. It was a really nice end to such an incredible time in Hawaii. We will never forget it, I'm sure!
On the monday, we just packed and got ready to leave for the airport. We had breakfast at a cafe and bought pancakes and smoothies. But when we got the bill, the smoothies came to over $6 each and we weren't prepared to pay some much for blended fruit and milk, so I got the courage to tell the waitress we were not happy with the price of the smoothies. She went and spoke to her manager, and we expected the manager to come over and talk to us, or to knock a couple of dollars off the price, but the waitress came back and too the smoothies completely off the bill! We were so happy! And I was so proud that I got the courage to complain. Being a polite British girl makes you very nervous! And I need to realise that, especially in America, the costumer is always right! Ernesto and Fred were kind enough to give us a ride to the airport that afternoon and it was nice to say a final goodbye to them before we left.
The plane ride to LA was easy and smooth. We are here now and have another weeks worth of adventures to update you on!
Here's a little teaser as to what to expect next......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fouvwilGWc
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