Hawaii Part 3

Hitchhiking in Hilo, Hawaii...

With lots of free time on my plate I stopped in Hawaii again for a week and went this time to The Big Island to see more of Volcano National Park. There's a great short, 3 or 4 day, hut to hut hike you can do to there to get to the summit of Mauna Loa. And the annual backcountry fee is only $10! But first, because it's an isolated high-elevation hike over very rough ground, you have to be interviewed by a ranger. My interview didn't start well. I began by asking where I could rent hiking boots - I'd rented boots last year in Iceland - and the ranger said, You don't have boots! And it all went downhill from there. He learnt that I didn't have hiking poles. Or a tent. It's a hut to hut hike but due to the elevation the weather can close in at any time and sometimes you have to hole up exactly where you are for several days in zero visability. So a tent is recommended. I said I couldn't carry a tent. I agreed instead to take 6 emergency blankets for such a situation. I lied about having a good sleeping bag. Next we discussed that there is no potable water on the trail. And then I horrified him twice in a row by admitting that my plan to get to the trailhead was to hitchhike and that my cell phone is without a sim card. 'You're planning to go alone?', he asked, 'Give me one reason why I should grant you a permit.' 'I'm old,' I said, 'I know my limits, I know when to stop, and I know when to turn around. I have nothing to prove and if the trail looks too challenging or the weather looks like it's worsening I'll just go back.''Hmmm.' He wasn't happy but he agreed to give me a permit. Next he opened his large ledger to see if, despite very short notice, there was still availability in the huts I wanted to book on the nights I'd requested. Yes. There was. In fact they were empty. Completely empty. Meaning not only that there'd be no one else in the huts at night but likely no one else, at all, on the trails. Really? Really! Isn't hiking Mauna Loa on the top of all tourists' agendas? How could it not be? We sat on opposite sides of his desk for a couple of minutes looking at the gaping hole in reservations. The cabins were well booked both the week before and the week following my time on Hawaii but completely empty for several nights right around the time I could go. I'd hoped to meet someone at the trailhead and stick with them for four days, or, if not that, at least meet people coming the other direction to chat about the trail ahead... 'I think,' I said, 'this is the time to turn around.' And I decided not to do the hike afterall. Which left me lots of time for other great stuff.

Being a random tourist in Hawaii - or anywhere else for that matter - I'm too cheap to go on guided day excursions and too unsure a driver to rent my own car so my preferred methods of getting about include a) finding other hostel guests who have rented cars and joining up with them b) taking local busses or c) hitchhiking. None of these methods are perfect. Sometimes the other hostel guests with cars are all very young and just want to hang out on a beach all day. Sometimes the bus, clearly marked on the schedule, is apparently operating on 'island time' and just doesn't show up at all. Sometimes you hike 5 miles uphill in the hot sun before getting picked up only to learn you're on the wrong road. So none of my preferred methods of transportation are perfect, and all 3 of them tend to be inefficient, but if like me you have lots of time, little money, and a willingness to accept a bit of pot luck, it's all good in the end. I went almost everywhere I wanted to go and met a lot of great people along the way.

I'd been going to split my time on The Big Island half in Hilo on the wet side and half in Kona on the dry side but I loved Hilo so much I just stayed right there. Hilo gets over 3 metres of rain a year. The Banyan trees are amazing. The Monkeypod trees are amazing. The roads through the rainforest are amazing; lush green walls of vegetation, inpenatrable undergrowth rising up, up and over creating green tunnels, long low grarled tree branches reaching right across the road and into the jungle on the other side, ferns big as trees, palms of all descriptions, banana plants, bamboo groves, multi-footed mangroves, trunks big and small green both with moss and vines, and a plethora of other unknown verdant plants many of which are in bloom adding a heady floral aroma to the rich earthy background. And the birdsong goes on all day. It looks as if there ought to be monkeys, at least, if not dinosaurs. It's fantastic, just fantastic. And then you drive across an imaginary line into an area where there's been a recent lava flow, black blocky aa or bronze ropy pahoehoe, and suddenly it's more barren than a desert - though presumably it still gets masses of rain - and the rock, primative, primordial even, stretches for miles, smelling of sulphur, begging poetry.

One hostel resident.

I walked up to Akaka Falls on purpose and discovered that I now look exactly like my father...

... and then hitchhiked to the botanical garden (with a military family with 4 small kids).

I took the local bus to Volcano National Park and then hitchhiked down the chain of craters road (with a young German couple) ...

... but was too chicken to stand on the arch at the bottom ...

... though I did take a walk to see the petroglyphs.

My most ambitious hitchhiking was to the summit of Mauna Kea (with a police officer and his teenaged daughter) ...

... which I did on a gloriously sunny day.

But my favourite hitchhike (with 4 off duty cruise ship workers) was to return to the lava fields...

... that I'd seen before. (See Hawaii Part 2)

Unlike several of my good friends who return to the same resort year after year I like to go to different places, see what's around the next corner, explore the unknown. I seldom want to return to somewhere I've been, I'd rather go somewhere new. But Hawaii's special. I'll be back!

Fiji part 2

AKA Little Malolo Island
AKA Big Brother is Watching
AKA Peaceful Days

I get to Fiji and the first time I have wifi a window pops up on my phone. It's my find-a-crew app telling me that according to my ip address I appear to be in Fiji and asking if I want to update this information onto my profile. '&£¥$#×@,' I think. Really? It feels like big brother is really leaning heavily over my shoulder.

But, having been prompted, I update my information anyway, and then, out of habit, I look to see what boats are in the area looking for crew. I'm not looking to crew. I've been crewing. I'm just on my way home doing an extended stop-over in Fiji since I have to fly through anyway. I'm only here for a few weeks and my only agenda is to catch a ferry out to the Yasawa Islands and find cheap accommodation there for a few days, maybe snorkel once or twice.

But one boat is looking for crew, just for a week or two, to do a trip out to the Yasawa Islands. Well. Who woulda guessed? I message the captain and 24 hours later I've taken a Cat out to Little Malolo Island and, as if by magic, I'm living once again on a boat. It's a large newish Beneteau, and, best of all it's docked so we can walk on and off at will (unlike Infinity which was always at anchor and therefore involved endless communication screwups wrt when a dingy would be going to or returning from shore).

It turns out that when I get there the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. The captain, Scott, asks sheepishly, apologetically almost, if I'd mind staying docked on Malolo Island for a few days till the wind spins back around to where its supposed to be. Of course not!

Little Malolo Island has a lot of crabs; huge green coconut crabs that live on land, big brown shore crabs that scuttle put of the way and hide, small white sand crabs, and tiny bright red rock crabs. It has beaches galore, three huge resorts that come with all the bells and whistles, about 12 private houses and twice as many boats anchored offshore, an airport, an organic farm that produces a wide variety of fresh fruit, veg, and herbs for the resorts and the island store, and amazing tides. The tides aren't particularly high but the bay is incredibly shallow so the sea retreats a kilometer or more each each day exposing almost endless sand flats and then inexorably, incredibly, almost unbelievably flows back in covering them up completely. It seems impossible yet at the same time effortless. Like my being here.

We get up in the mornings and go for long walks along the beach while it's cool out then swim in one of the marina resort's pools. In the afternoons we go diving, or head over to watch the world surfing competition at Cloudbreak, or dingy out to Cloud 9 to snorkel there, or even spend a couple hours reading in the cockpit, a gentle breeze washing over us, before meandering over to the bar for a drink where Scott, who's been here a while, knows everyone. Eventually we decide what to make for supper and, after watching the sunset, cook and eat, and another day in paradise has slipped by as stress-free as sipping sangria in the shade and I can't imagine, at all, what I might possibly have done in a previous life to be so lucky as to have the privilege of being here.

I'm not sure if we're going to make it out to the Yasawas or not and I don't care either way. Little Malolo is fine.

Cloud 9 is a floating bar, anchored far offshore in shallow water near good snorkelling, that makes great cheap pizza in a wood fired oven. What's not to like?

Fiji part 1

AKA  Fiji on the Cheap

(I like Fiji even before I get there. Fiji Air is fantastic. They give you a bottle of cold water and a damp face cloth as you board the plane then ply you with endless food and drinks while in the air. My favourite kind of service.)


Fiji is expensive, everyone tells me, you won't like it.

But that depends on how you approach it.

There are resorts that cost $600/day, heck there are resorts, only accessible by private helicopter, that cost $6000/day. My hostel, on the other hand, is $12.97 CAD/night. Seriously. Tropic of Capricorn Resort, it's right there online, you can check it out. It's beachfront, has AC, two pools, great matresses, crisp clean sheets, free wifi, lots of comfy chairs and hammocks in the lobby, by the pools, and on the beach, it has two backpacker friendly restaurants and it even offers complimentary airport pick up! Who could ask for more? (Of course, for $12.97 a night you have to share a bathroom, but I've been sharing a bathroom with 11 other people for 3 months now - Infinity had exactly one working toilet, and a 4 year old who couldn't wipe her own bum yet - so not having a private bathroom seems fine to me.)

Hostel!

The first day is Sunday and everything is closed so I walk into Nadi to check out the Hindu temple and, stopping at a small roadside grocery for a cold drink, see that there's a cafe tucked inside. I get a huge plate of excellent lamb curry with rice and Indian salad for 5 fiji dollars ($3.24 CAD). Yum.

Temple.

The next day, I do chores; get my glasses fixed, my hair cut, try in vain to mail the heavy things I never use home (my wetsuit, broken camera, collected rocks, souvenir coins), and search fruitlessly for a copy of a Lonely Planet or similar guidebook. I end up down at the chic Port Denarau, where, instead of eating at one of the expensive tourist restaurants, I spy a lady at the corner of the parking lot selling meals to locals. For 2 fiji dollars I get a roti (a crepe filled with delicious curried peas and potato). I also - not with the same lady - sign up for a time share presentation. It costs $5. I will have to listen to a 50 minute presentation at a brand new 5 star resort the next morning following which I will get an all-inclusive pass for the rest of the day and, then, the following day, get a free $200-value island-hopping day-cruise. Both days come with open bar and all meals and watersports included. Even a submarine ride at one island as part of the cruise. Wow! I'm OK to spend a day at a 5 star resort, OK to do a free island-hopping day-cruise. Of course I know the cruise will be a bit cheesy and I know I'd win the 'cheapest tourist ever' award if there was one, but I'm OK with that too!

Fiji, expensive? Really? No way. Not if you're me.

Infinity cont...

Tongan Tidbits Two.

A couple of views from Niuatoputapu...

.... and an islet near Vava'u.

Me with boys in school uniform...

... one of the many many Christian churches ...

.... and the King's palace (looking like a cottage from the 70's to my Canadian eyes!)

And, oh yes, I almost forgot, one of our pre-teen self-appointed guides getting us a snack for the trail up to the lookout!

Infinity cont...

Tongan Tidbits


1. Food on Board

We are living on a boat that is a) in the South Pacific b) operating on a vegan + fish diet and c) on a very tight budget (despite paying crew). Everyday we each have one four hour shift (two hours on the wheel followed by two hours as navigation support person) and one job (which could be cleaning or cooking). Our meals depend on what ingredients we have or haven't aquired at the most recent island, if we've caught fish recently, and who's cooking (if you're cooking to can make whatever you like!). In the end our meals resemble the following:

Example daily menu #1.
Breakfast:
fresh bread with various toppings
smoothies made from frozen bananas
Lunch:
split pea and onion soup
mango-coconut-pineapple salad
Supper:
sushimi
fish curry with rice

Example daily menu #2.
Breakfast:
crepes
fresh papaya slices
Lunch:
pasta with tomato or pesto sauce
Supper:
chilli
roast potato slices
hot flat bread and humus

2. Niuatoputapu

We weren't going to stop at Niuatoputapu but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so we did. It was like a bonus box of chocolates you discover by accident. All the islands we'd been at so far weren't in fact islands but merely atolls, very low lying rings of coral marking the place that islands once stood many million years ago, but Niuatoputapu was an actual island made of volcanic rock. While there we climbed to the lookout accompanied by 4 adorable pre-teen boys, swam in the fresh water spring, visited the king's palace, stopped at a beautiful beach, admired the view of the next island over, and, of course, did a great dive. Two days full of fun activities and then we were off again.

3. Cave diving.

Vava'u, different again geologically anywhere else we've been, is uplifted limestone, a high(ish) flat table plateau eroded into butte like islands and riddled with caves. (It's a hundred and some meters high which is very low of course compared to mountainous terrain anywhere but high compared to the atolls we've been visiting where the maximum elevation - sometimes of a whole country! - is about 3 meters.) After a day in the town; obligatory hike to the top of the hill, restaurant meal, internet time, drop in at church fundraiser with traditional dancing going on, etc, etc... we were back on the boat and heading out to small uninhabited islands and gorgeous deserted beaches.

The highlight of this region was the caves. We did cave dive after cave dive. I regretted once again not having a gopro to record the experience. Inside the underwater caverns, looking up at stalagmites, down at huge schools of fish, and out to the impossibly turquoise entrances, was more special than I can describe. Some of the caves had multiple tunnels leading into them so you could swim in and out different ways, some had air above the water so you could surface and breathe, and others had branches leading off into the pitch black interior in all directions. It was simply amazing! We snorkeled into some caves, kayaked into others, and, of course, SCUBA dived as well. Heaven on earth for sure.

4. Night Sky

When we're sailing we don't see much of the night sky as there's a huge red awning over the cockpit that protects us from the sun during the day but blocks the sky at night too, and, also, it always seems to be cloudy if not raining at night at sea. But when we're at anchor and I get up to do a 3 am pee I always take 15 and go to lie on the hammock on the bow from which there is a fantastic view of the night sky. At this latitude the milky way is splendid. It spans the sky from horizon to horizon going directly overhead cutting the bowl of the sky into two equal halves. The southern cross, high in the sky in the early evening, is setting by the middle if the night, and if you wait long enough, of course, you can always see a shooting star.

In the water tiny dots of bright fluorescence blink on and off as if trying to mirror the sky above and it is so beautiful that words, again, fail me.

5. Uniforms

All over Tonga, well to the bits of it I've been to, the kids wear uniforms to school. Girls, of all ages, wear shirts with pinafore dresses. Boys wear shirts, sulus, and traditional wide woven belts. It seems so odd to me to see all the boys walking home from school, hanging out at the ice cream shop, chilling with their friends, in what look - to my western eyes - as long skirts. Also men in many professions with uniforms, like postal or telecom workers, are often seen going about their business in company coloured shirts and sulus.


P.S.  Leaving Early

I'd originally planned to stay with Infinity till the end of August, to continue living with the family and teaching the kids until I had to go back to work myself, but all the other crew were leaving early June, it wasn't clear if the kids were going to be there all summer or not (long story), I sort of felt I'd had the Infinity experience (very long story) and in the end it turned out to be much harder than I had expected to be the member of the community that I'd hoped to become (very very long story) so when we got to Tonga I booked the cheapest ticket onwards that I could find... Fiji here I come!

I fear my posts have been a bit dry of late, and traveling without a camera (just my phone) doesn't help. Hopefully a change of pace will liven things up.