Enthusiasm ignites greatness (you know it)
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2011
1
49
290
Trip End
Nov 20, 2011
Where I stayed
Haleiwa, Hawaii
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
So Noah chats to the reception and we pack up our lovely sea frontage studio and relocate up the street to a cottage with allegedly better internet access. We find ourselves paying considerably more money (but justify it will be worth it if we find gainful employment!) and in our new home. It has a kitchen / diner, a lounge room, bathroom, 1 bedroom, and then another bedroom (count them, that's two!!) and a giant deck that overlooks the beach (although, across a road). We are stunned, and love it instantly.
It also has a deck off our bedroom that leads to the bedroom of the next cottage – so that is a bit weird (I hope we are not inadvertently in a swingers retreat!?). But other than that, bliss. We log onto the internet and it does not work. This does not make us happy. It is the reason we are here. Grrrrrrr. After much trying I can access the internet if I stand on a corner of the balcony, and kind of lean over a bit. So I upload photos for the last 2 days blog and link to facebook. This does not sound a lot but is a lot more than I have been able to achieve in the last 2 days. It has been very frustrating. Noah cannot access the internet at all, so he is going to have to sit in another building tonight so he can use the internet. Grrrrrr, again.
We are all shattered, from what – we do not know. So we eat a very lacklustre early lunch and hit the beach, and suddenly all feel fabulous. I have a look in the guide book and make some extremely vague plans about what looks good (it is difficult to get motivated to do anything except plonk on the sand – it is so magic!). But I get some sense of achievement from making a list of lovely beaches and some markets we have not been to. Noah and Elwood play on the beach, today they are bears again. Noah has to be a bear called Kenai and strangely, Elwood is insisting on being Cheese-eye. There is not a character in Brother Bear, he has misheard something. But he is adamant he wants to be called Cheese-eye today. If we slip up and call him Elwood, he corrects us. So, Cheese-eye it is. Not cool.
It rains on and off whilst we are at the beach, but this is par for the course in Hawaii. It is so humid all the time, the rain comes with that. We muck around and then decide to go off in search of another beach with less rough swimming. We still feel tired, so we grab a coffee and head north and have a great drive around the tip of the island. In Hawaii this is known as Holoholo – to go out for the fun of it – an aimless stroll, ride, or drive. We are learning a lot in Hawaii!
We pass lots of amazing beaches, typical Hawaiian homes, fruit stalls and just a gorgeous landscape of farms, mountains, and sunshine. We stop in the town of La’ie and buy more coffee, soft drink, and snacks. We feel infinitely better. Turns out we were all starving. We have pretty much been hungry since we arrived in Hawaii – all 3 of us. I guess it’s all the razzing around on the beach and the sea air.
We continue our drive south on the western side of the island. We stop at another beach, and have a run around. There are trees and grass, and then a little bit of sand and then the sea. The bay is lovely; there is not a soul on the beach. Elwood runs around like a crazy in the wind. We do not stay for long, as there were some suspicious looking types in the car park and Hawaii is notorious for cars being broken into in car parks, especially at isolated beaches. So we head back to the car, to find it is still there, and so is all our stuff. This is good.
We head back towards home, and pass some great signs. 'Enthusiasm ignites greatness’ was our favourite. That was just in someone’s front garden in support of the local football team. We also smiled at ‘There is no hope in dope’. We also pass plenty of what are essentially vans by the side of the road selling shrimp. I cannot imagine eating seafood from someone’s car by the side of the road. Maybe I will loosen up in a few days.
We stop off at a produce stall and I get a bit overexcited. We drink fresh cold coconut milk from the shell. When we are done, they chop it up with an axe / really big knife and scoop out the inside and serve it back in the shell. It is not quite what we expected. The flesh was quite soft, and not as coconutty as we had hoped. It was quite nice, but the texture was a bit fleshy. To show how unrefined my palate is, I would have preferred a Bounty! We also buy pineapple, papaya, watermelon, and bananas – everything looks amazing. In a moment of impulse, I bought some steamed coconut rice, with a banana wrapped in a banana leaf. When in Rome, and all that....
W e head to Sunset beach and the sunset takes my breath away the second we get out of the car. It is amazing, Noah and I cannot believe it. We are so very pleased we decided to stop here. We sit on the beach, watch the sun go down and eat fresh fruit. It is fabulous. I open up the banana leaf parcel and it looks like cold cooked rice with a banana stuck on the top. Noah and Elwood turn their noses up at it, I give it a shot. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it tastes like cold, cooked, congealed rice. Which, I guess is exactly what it is. I decide to give the rest of it a swerve.
We have an amazing time at the beach. We play, Elwood jumps in the waves, and we dig holes. Noah and I cannot believe that we are here and this is actually happening. It is bliss. That is the only word which really does it justice.
We head home, and I make some dinner. Noah manages to have six servings of macaroni. It must be the sea air. It seems to have a lot to answer for at the moment. Elwood manages to eat his but is struggling to stay awake. We keep him awake for as long as possible (as we are a little bit over being awake before the sun!) and he finally flakes out without a word of complaint.
Noah grabs some chocolate and , unexpectedly – guava nectar, to help us through our ‘to do’ list. So here we are. Sitting in our lounge room (yeee ha!), getting stuff done, and looking forward to another beautiful day in Hawaii tomorrow.
Good night good people.
