The Sun, Sand & Surf (Part 3)

We'll have been back for 3 weeks officially today. Sigh. So quickly, the holiday seems a world away. Hawaii and it's beautiful beaches, which make it THE PLACE to chill. The sun, the sand, and the surf... Bring it on.

Nine: Chill out at the Beach


My favourite moments were those spent, just the 2 of us, enjoying you-and-me time by the beach. Little wonder maybe, since the beaches were all pretty spectacular. Stretches of (mostly) soft white sand with crystal clear water, stretching into nothingness on the horizon.

And so we whiled away much time, lost in our own little world.

Bliss.

Hanalei, Princeville, Kauai

Ten: Learn to surf at Poipu Beach, Kauai

Well, that was only DD really... I just chilled out at the beach! This was in the final days of our honeymoon and flopping around was foremost in my list of priorities. Besides, that gave me the opportunity to take pics.

I must say, I'm pretty proud of my guy, he caught on real quick. Guess the childhood skateboarding and good sense of balance helped. Me, just the sight of surfers bobbing in the water made me grateful I wasn't out there. Seasick on a surfboard? I'd never live it down.

Picking up the basics...


Paddling out...


Success!


The bug has bitten. He wants to go again.

Eleven: Watch beautiful sunsets

One sunrise was more than enough for us late risers!

The problem with the sunsets - and this is the one main grouse we had only our holiday - is how EARLY it is. Sunset is around 5.30pm and by 6pm, it's pitch black. Which made the days very short, especially when you wake up late...

But each sunset was amazing anyway. We always had to stop to watch.


Kama'ole I Beach, Kihei, Maui


Sheraton Beach, Poipu, Kauai


Outside the Beach House, Poipo, Kauai
(while waiting for our table)


Waikiki Beach, Oahu

Twelve: Taking a helicopter flight over beautiful Kauai

This was an indulgence, but there was no better way to see the island, so we went anyway. Kauai is the scenic island, and it well deserves it's title.

And it was truly truly truly amazing. Waterfall after waterfall (including the one featured in Jurassic Park), Waimea Canyon, the breathtaking Na Pa Li Coast, the absolute majesty of the Waialeale Crater...

Our one regret: not taking the doorless helicopter. Knowing my tendency towards motion sickness, DD decided that we shouldn't be too adventurous on my first heli trip. The ride was great - we strongly recommend Air Kauai for the excellent tour - but the glass made it difficult to take pics. That plus the fact that DD happened to pick a rather strongly coloured shirt which ended up getting reflected in the pics!

Argh!

But here are some of them anyway...


Front row seat! Thanks to being the lightest member of the group.


Towards the Canyon


Around Waimea Canyon


The Waterfall of Jurassic Park fame


Na Pa Li


Na Pa Li's Cathedrals


Emerging from within


The endless coastline...



Next time, we're going doorless.

Thirteen: Experiencing the world famous Waikiki Beach

The Waikiki of the movies - the thumping beach music, the white sand all but covered by all the sunseekers out to catch the rays... Not an accurate picture of the true Hawaii, but not to be missed. So we decided to stay on Waikiki beach itself for our last day. Outrigger Waikiki it was, with the lanai overlooking the beach.


Waikiki with Diamond head in the background

We strolled around, gawking at the fantabulous hotels by the beach, especially the Sheraton Ala Moana. Wow. Too bad room rates started at like $400 pplus US for garden view... Ah well, maybe in another lifetime...


Ok that's it. I want to go back!

Kudos to DD who was so sweet and planned most of our trip, just so I'd have one less thing to worry about. It was perfect.

What's There To Do? (Part 2)

Many people expressed surprise at the fact that we spent 2 whole weeks exploring the Hawaii. "What's there to do? For 2 whole weeks?"

Plenty.

Five: Sample good food

Loads of yummy food to be found! Pity the price of the good stuff meant that we reluctantly tried to restrain ourselves from splurging all the time. But I think we still managed to eat rather well.

At Roy's, a simply amazing restaurant with Hawaiian fusion food - i.e. Western food with Jap influence. Reeaally yummy.

The dish I'm staring intently at is the appetiser - Potstickers. Essentially dumplings? DD figured this one out first. In our lingo, these would be: Guo Tie! We were really horrified by the seemingly literal translation. But they were yummy though!

And below you have me with what turned out to be the find of the holiday - seared Ahi served with spicy soy mustard butter. The fish is sashimi quality, so it's cooked on the outside, leaving the centre still red. Gosh, I'm almost drooling thinking about it. And I don't even like tuna! Imagine my amazement to find that Ahi is yellow-fin tuna... Simply the best!

Another great restaurant: Mama's Fish House at Paia, Maui.

This was also a really pretty place, by the beach, with coconut trees swaying and lighted torches "survivor style" by night :) An old time favourite for a reason - the food's fresh and good. More reasons to indulge! Pity it got dark a little early so we couldn't get that good pics...

Anyway, here's the appetiser I liked - some fish (probably Ono, I forget) with lime and coconut juice, onion, cucumber and tomatoes...

And below is us with all the yummy food! (Love the traditional Hawaiian Kalua Pig, wrapped in leaves and baked in an earth oven!)



Warning: Food is NOT CHEAP in Hawaii cos a lot of it is flown in. But on the plus side for folks like us, there's a lot of seafood on the menu - YUMS. We'll worry about the cholestrol later... :P



Six: Explore the Road to Hana

Ok, this we didn't actually manage to properly accomplish cos we were so happy in our lovely place out Huelo Point that we didn't get out till almost 3pm! And with the sunset at around 6pm, it really didn't leave us much time to complete the legendary 30 plus mile drive (one-way) of the 617 turns and 56 one-way bridges... And regrettably I don't think our pics do justice to this hugely popular drive of the hidden waterfalls and scenic stops...

Road to Hana

Seven: Sample Kona Coffee on Big Island, Hawaii

Trivia to file away: What we loosely term "Hawaii" really comprises a whole chain of islands. These make up the US State of Hawaii. The biggest island in that whole chain is actually also named Hawaii (vs. Maui, Kauai, Oahu, etc.). Due to the (obvious) confusion, it's now also known as the Big Island.

So the Big Island is where they grow the world-famous Kona coffee. And of course we had to go kay-poh and see what it's all about. I think DD covered most of this in his earlier post so I shan't be too long about it. According to our guide on our mini coffee tour at Greenwell's, Kona apparently grows the most amazing coffee due to it's rich volcanic soil, the elevation and climate, and the predictable weather patterns. Weather in the area is like clockwork - the sun comes up around a particular time, the plants are bathed in sunlight for a fixed number of hours, then (and this was the most amazing bit), it would start to rain between 3-4pm. And true enough, it rained that very day, at 3pm. That was totally weird - predictable weather? A real oxymoron to me...

But whatever the case, the coffee plants love it. We'd arrived in harvest season so the trees were ripe with coffee cherry. Squeeze the cherry, and out pops the coffee bean(s) ala the pic in DD's post. Then comes the removal of sugar, drying, and roasting... Lotsa work for a cuppa! Me thinks I'll stick to drinking... which we will do, I suspect, given the packets of coffee we bought! Couldn't help it - the scent was just too inviting.



Eight: Visit an active volcano on the Big Island, Hawaii

Kilauea Volcano, the world's most active volcano, has been erupting since 1983 with no sign of stopping. Reportedly the only volcano in the world where news of a fresh eruption brings people running towards the volcano instead of away from it! Ha ha.

But this was what we came to Big Island to see.


Kilauea Caldera. Back in the late 1800s when Mark Twain visited Kilauea, the entire caldera was a lake of fire... that must have been quite a sight. I jokingly told DD that if I were a preacher, I'd preach right by the caldera - a real effective visual reminder of hell that would have been!

"The smell of sulphur is strong,
but not unpleasant to a sinner."
- Samuel Clemens

Halema'uma'u Crater, the crater within a crater.


Southwest Rift Zone, caused by the earthquake of 1868.


Thurston Lava Tube - a "tube" formed by lava flowing. The external surface of the lava cools on exposure to the external environment, but within the core the lava continues flowing, extending to form a tube. This one is really massive.

An interesting sight: Tilt meters at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Measuring the tilt of the earth can help predict the likelihood of an eruption or earthquake. This chart plots the movement of just prior to and after the Boxing Day Tsunami.


But the main show came on at night. So the next day, we zoomed all 200+ miles back to the park to see the lava flow by night. Apparently up to about 8 months ago, you could literally walk right up to the flow and see it goo-ing it's way past. Sadly the area suroinding the flow has become unstable so you can only see it from afar.

It was still quite a sight - red glowing slopes and a red cloud where the plume hits the water... It was pitch black though, so a little difficult for shots...

Just behind DD is where the original Chain of Craters Road has been overwhelmed by lava. The rest of the way is only accessible by foot. We picked our way across, occsionally chancing on a single road sign, buried deep in the the lava rock, a lonely reminder of the original path and the unrelentless power of nature, and the exceedingly greatness of the creator...


Lava glowing on the slopes of Kilauea

[Yes, there's more. To be continued again...]

Newly-Weds on Honeymoon (Part 1)

Prelude: Trust my dear hubby to post about our honeymoon - and start
right smack in the middle of the trip! Sigh. And me being the anal person that I am can't take it :) So here, in as bite-sized a portion as I can manage, is our holiday...

Symptoms of being a newly-wed on honeymoon:

1. When airline personnel/immigration ask you if you're married,
   your husband enthusiastically says "YES!" with a big smile.
2. You happily show your husband the "how many family members are travelling together with you" box in the customs form and enthusiastically put "1".
3. You get a kick out of people referring to you as Mrs.
4. You merrily sign off with your newly acquired surname and gleefully show your husband.
5. People smile at you indulgently and ask if you're on honeymoon on a regular basis.
6. You keep track of how many days you've been married and celebrate on every occasion.
7. You love to slow dance.
8. You can spend hours with each other on the beach, in the car, sitting around airports, doing nothing in particular, and still have an amazing time.
9. ...

The list goes on... :) Needless to say, we had a wonderful honeymoon.
And I'm now sitting here wondering how to condense 2 weeks in beautiful sun-drenched Hawaii into a decent-sized post!

This was one activity packed honeymoon. The main aim was to do nothing, but anyone who has travelled with us would know that it's rather difficult for us to not try and see as much as we can while on holiday, and since it was the honeymoon, we indulged in activities which we wouldn't usually try because they cost... :P Oops!

So anyhow, here's a snippet of our Hawaiian adventure - a kinda "things-
we-did list"(in not quite chronological order):

[By the way, I haven't edited any of these shots and we're really pretty amateurish photographers, so please excuse the quality :)]

One: Bike down Haleakala Volcano

This was really fun, but for the 2.45am pick-up, which left us with hardly any sleep from the night before. Guess it does take quite a while to drive 10,000 feet up a volcano! But how often do you get to catch the sunrise above the clouds?

Pre-dawn lights & Sunrise


The amazing moonscape of the crater in the early morning light


What we didn't realise was how COLD it would be at the summit in the morning. We were told that it would be in the high 40s Fahrenheit, which meant nothing to us who only understand degrees Celsius. Well, it turned out to be about 8-10 degrees C. Ack. Check out the guy next to us all wrapped up in a blanket! Thank goodness for our riding outfits.

After the sun came up, it was time to start whizzing down to volcano, which was great fun because there was virtually no need to pedal at all - 38 miles of riding with minimal work :) I was busy "wheee-ing" around corners all the way down, so much that our ride leader John told DD that "your wife rides like the wind"... Oops! Unfortunately riding meant we didn't have the opportunity to take many pics, just a couple during our stops...

Horsing around with the glorious view behind

Two: Snorkel at Molokini Crater & Five Caves in Maui

The bonus of visiting a tropical destination? The water isn't freezing cold, so it's at least possible to get in! So snorkeling was on the list, at Molokini Crater, an extinct volcano now designated as a State Marine Life and Bird Conservation District.

It was nice I guess - clear waters with a large variety of fish, but honestly, I told DD it wasn't too different from Tioman! Plus the water got a little choppy and I started to feel a little unwell after a while. I get seasick real easily, you see.

Here I am, huddled in my towel, not feeling so good after bobbing around on the boat for a bit... DD had to persuade me to get in the water at our next destination cos I was rather reluctant, esp after having gotten dry. But I'm glad I did cos we got to swim with turtles at Five Caves.

There were turtles everywhere, which got our whole boat excited. And we actually got incredibly lucky. After snorkeling for about 45mins, we were heading back towards the boat when we noticed a group of people swimming towards us, excited yelling "turtle!". Popped our heads underwater and lo and behold! A turtle came swimming right under me. And to top it off, it headed towards DD about 3 metres away from me and surfaced right beside him! DD was so excited he was pointing it out to whoever could see. That was the highlight of his trip :)

Three: Stay at nice places, well sometimes!

Remember the mystery pics DD sent me? Turned out to the the incredibly lovely Huelo Point Flower Farm our own little "kampong retreat" (cos it was really far down an ulu road!) But it was sooooo nice. And the place actually turned out exactly like the pics :)



[Us in the hall, at the head of the bed, and in the upstairs TV area respectively]








The bed was this amazing structure that literally "floated" out above the bottom storey.

And we had a little open kitchen, so I got down to work making our first home-cooked meal - an unhealthy meal to sausages, hash browns, fish fingers, eggs and pancakes! I have to say though, it was pretty satisfying :)



And did I mention the outdoor jacuzzi?


And the amazing view?


No wonder that this is now one of my FAVOURITE places to stay!

Four:Check out the surfers at Hoopika Beach Maui

Here's where we got to catch some "north shore" action. Not the famed North Shore of Oahu, but the waves are pretty similar. Apparently this is the start of the season and the waves get even bigger in Dec when surfing season really take off... Man, watching those guys really put the itch in us to try to surf!

The beach and the surrounding area was lovely too - more photo opportunities!


[To be continued...]