Monday 3 June (again)
Our flight is at 2.15 in the morning, so
we’re at the airport by midnight. It’s a
2 hour flight over to Guam, then a short wait before our 7 hour flight up to
Honolulu. The travel isn’t too dreadful,
but we’re pretty much skipping a night’s sleep.
To confuse things even more: we cross the date line on our way, so
although we fly out at 2.15am on Tuesday, we land in at 6.20pm on Monday. I can just about grasp the concept, but it
has Nick’s brain hurting all night.
We’ve again gone for a fairly cheap last minute deal, but after Palau it
feels like high luxury. Our ‘moderate’
room is huge, with quiet, efficient air-conditioning, a balcony and cooking facilities. There’s even free tea on tap in the lobby
whenever we want it. We’re crashing out
fast, so as soon as we’ve dumped our stuff we head out for some food. United Airlines don’t believe in vegetarian
food, so it’s my first meal all day and I’m more than happy to stuff my face at
the California Pizza Company.
Tuesday 4 June
We sleep until 11 today – it’s not
surprising really, considering the lack of sleep the night before as well as
the massive time difference. And the
sleep does seem to have sorted us out.
We use our cooking facilities to make ourselves brunch and then head out
to the beach. Hawai’i just couldn’t
disappoint, even if it tried. The sun is
shining and the beach is long and palm-lined.
We spend a couple of hours soaking up some
rays and having a swim, then go for an ice-cream in lieu of lunch. We spend the afternoon pounding the pavements
– it’s been a while since we’ve seen proper shops. We head back to the beach as the sun is setting
for a few drinks.
Afterwards we find some just about average
Mexican food to bloat our bellies.
Wednesday 5 June
Waikiki has got me in a bit of a spin: it’s
the last ‘proper’ place we’ll be for a while, so I’m torn between cramming in the
internet time to sort out the black holes in our trip, hitting the shops to
stock up on essentials and replace our increasingly ratty t-shirts and simply
forgetting about all that and hanging out at the beach.
In the end today accidentally turns into a
shopping day. There’s an anonymous huge
shopping centre nearby and we take a walk over there to get provisioned
up. Of course everything takes a little
longer than we think, so by the time we get back it’s nearly time to find our
dinner. We go to the Yard House – a big
bar/restaurant that was a favourite last time we were here. We have a few drinks at the bar while we’re
waiting for a table and then chow down
Janet adds: as Nick put it – it’s been 3
really long years…
Thursday 6 June
We catch up on the relaxing with a few
hours on the beach this morning. To be
honest, the time difference has still got us spannered and we’re struggling to
get out of bed in the morning, yet quite happily staying up half the night. We have lunch back at the room and then spend
some time at the pool in the afternoon – once again furiously interneting (and
washing clothes). We reward ourselves in
the evening with another sunset walk along the beach and a pint of Longboard
Lager.
Friday 7 June
As it’s our second visit to O’ahu, we
decide we really should see something other than Waikiki so we’ve arranged to
hire a car today. We pick up our
adorable cherry red Fiat 500 and set off on a mini road-trip round the
island. The dual carriageways and strip
malls of Honolulu soon give way to red dirt sugarcane plantations and take-away
shrimp vans. Our first stop is for a
poke around Hale’iwa on the north shore.
It’s a strange and utterly charming mix of wild-west and surf culture.
After a bit of a wander round we drive
along the north shore, home of big wave surfing. We stop for a look at Banzai Pipeline and
Sunset Beach – in winter these beaches are famous for their monster waves and
pro surfers. Today they’re wilder and
windier than Waikiki (especially with dark clouds overhead), but somewhat
lacking in waves. Still, the long, soft
strips of sand backed by lovely houses and steep green valleys are well worth
the trip.
Rounding the northern tip of the island we
mosey our way down the windward coast.
There are beaches and small towns aplenty, but we’re mostly here for the
ride.
Things start to get busier again at Kailua
and as it’s just gone lunchtime we stop for a bite to eat and a short walk
along the beach.
The day is getting away with us so we press
on to take in the southern tip of the island.
The day hasn’t cleared and is still windy with brooding skies and choppy
seas (although it’s still lovely and warm).
By the time we’ve wound our way back to
Waikiki and dropped off the car it’s about 6pm.
We tidy ourselves up and take a walk down the street. There’s a Pan Pacific festival going on, so
the main street has been closed and is lined with food=stalls, performers and
revelers – just the sort of thing Nick loves.
Saturday 8 June
We’re leaving Hawai’i today (boo!) to fly
down to Tahiti (yay!). We have a few
hours to kill before our flight this afternoon but there’s plenty
happening. There’s a parade down the
main street and we see decorated cars and floats, policeman doing tricks on
motorbikes and costumed people on horses.
Down at the beach Roxy are hosting an
amateur women’s long-boarding competition.
Er, no, I don’t enter, but we do spend a bit of time soaking up the
atmosphere and trying to figure out which of the little blobs on the waves are
actually competing.
There’s just enough time to get some lunch
before heading back to our hotel to catch the bus up to the airport.
It’s a 5/6 hour flight down to Pape’ete,
Tahiti and Hawaiian Air look after us reasonably well (by this time I’ve given
up on finding veggie food on planes and just fill up on the crackers). By the time we land it’s gone 10pm, so it’s
too dark to take in our surroundings. We’re
greeted with a blast of warm, humid air and a little Tahitian song and dance
performance. Our British passports get
us waved through immigration without even a stamp – it’s like travelling in
Europe and we’re wondering if we can stay indefinitely. We pick up our luggage and haul it across the
parking lot and up a steep bank to the Tahiti Airport Motel. The room is clean, the air-conditioning is
quiet and efficient, we have internet (!) and a kettle (!!).
We’ve forgotten to pick up any local
currency, so we dump our bags and walk back to the airport. The money is crazy and huge (although the
coins make the most satisfying clink in your pocket).
We use some to pick up water, Hinano beer
and milk before heading back for some sleep.
Sunday 9 June
I wake up early this morning to the
familiar and comforting sound of cocks crowing.
A quick peak out the window reveals a beautiful sunrise view of Mo’orea.
It’s a false start though and before I know
it I’m snoozing again. Tahiti is just a stop-over for us on our way to Easter
Island. Because of the flight schedule
we’ve got 2 days spare here. We haven’t
planned anything major, so we’ve got the time at our leisure.
We get breakfast at the hotel and
immediately the French-ness is evident: lovely fresh baguettes, croissants and
pain au chocolat. We decide to go and
have a walk around Pape’ete. As it’s a
Sunday the buses aren’t running too regularly, but we’re happy enough walking
the 5km into town. It’s warm, humid and
overcast today. Pape’ete is slightly
grimy around the edges, but Nick says he could be France. It does have a more western feel to it and we
don’t particularly stand out as tourists.
What we hadn’t factored on is that because
it is Sunday pretty much everything is shut down. None of the shops are open and even the
tourist information has closed. Still,
there’s a fun, relaxed atmosphere.
Families are picnicking in the park along the waterfront and there’s a mini
vanilla festival happening. We find some
lunch and then start the walk back. We
call into a shop for a bottle of water and are stopped on the way out by a
member of staff who hands us a giant baguette.
We can’t work out why, but she’s quite insistent, so we mumble our
thanks and continue up the street with the baguette under my arm. I’ve got my stripy top on, so Nick says all I
need is some onions round my neck and I would literally be French. (Although I’m not sounding it: my French
lessons seem a long time ago and I’m very rusty.)
Just about halfway back is a look-out point
that takes in the airport runway. Nick
is particularly excited about this, so we hang out for a while hoping to see
some action. We do get a close up of a
plane landing, though we were hoping for something a little bigger.
We stop to buy some cheese to turn out
baguette into a meal for later and then go back to the hotel to make some
plans. We’re coming back to French
Polynesia after we’ve been to Easter Island and we haven’t worked out what
we’re doing yet.
Monday 10 June
We’ve decided to spend today exploring
Tahiti a little bit, so we check out of our hotel and walk back to the airport
to pick up a car. There’s a sealed road
that runs all the way around the outside of Tahiti Nui (the big bit) and about
halfway round Tahiti Iti (the little bit).
There are no roads that cross the steep mountains in the middle of the
island, so pretty much everything is crammed in along the coast. It almost feels like one continuous
town. It is a beautiful drive though,
with mountains on one side and sea on the other. We stop at a beach for a snorkel.
There are a couple of local ladies
sunbathing topless (complete with teenage boys gawking at them from behind a
fence) – which is a bit of a relief for me.
Some places are a little conservative and I’m never quite sure when and
where it’s appropriate to parade around in a bikini.
Our next stop is for a stroll around the
remains of an ancient temple, followed by a walk to some fern-lined caves
housing freshwater pools. We take a few
minutes to watch some surfers at a black sand beach
and then head to a roadside café for
sandwiches the size of our arms. For the
most part we’re finding Tahiti really expensive, but the sandwiches are dirt
cheap and delicious.
We drive down to Teahupoo, another surf
beach, on Tahiti Nui and then start the return journey. We stop for a short walk through lush (but
mosquito laden) forest to three towering waterfalls.
Best of all: we’ve got the whole place to
ourselves. It’s great not to be
following tour buses around for a change.
It’s late afternoon now and we make a
couple more stops to watch a sunset game of football on the beach and surfers
taking on the waves in the last of the sun.
We’re back in Pape’ete in time for
dinner. Although it’s now Monday, it
doesn’t seem particularly livelier than it did yesterday. We grab a bite to eat and then make our way
towards the airport. We were due to be
flying out a little after midnight, but a last minute schedule change from LAN
has pushed this back to 2am, so we have a few hours to kill. Tahiti airport’s ‘inner sanctum’, once you
pass through security, is rather un-airport like. It looks more like a swanky bar complete with
mood-lighting and comfy seating opening out onto an outdoor smoking area. We have a few beers, relax and soon enough
it’s time to board.
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