For all the fans

Honolulu, Hawaii

Sat 16 August 2008

I think I’ll make all my flights to America in the future via Hawaii. America greeted me this time with an Aloha and a big welcoming smile. The young man at the immigration desk asked about my plans whilst in America with a tone of general interest, rather than interrogation. As I cleared customs and picked up my bags I stepped outside to blue skies, white sand and a healthy mix of the fat and the thin, all lightly dressed as a beach climate such as this will encourage.

The ratio of fat to thin people is about the same as the ratio of Japanese tourists to tourists from the rest of the world, in other words, there are a lot of fat people. Despite this, and being unable to check in for seven hours, my initial impressions of Hawaii are good. My first purchase, which I’m sipping on right now, an iced kona mocha, is delicious. I’m sure the many purchases I’m yet to make in this idyllic sunny paradise will be equally as delicious.

But I’m jumping ahead. I’d taken off from Sydney six hours from now, and courtesy of Jet Star and the International Date/Time line, have arrived before I left. While at first glance this seems like the greatest thing ever, my inability to sleep on planes has left me a little tired, with my last sleep a restless one some time in the future, about 24 hours ago.

Rob White had come seen me off at the airport, making a normally boring wait in the departure lounge a delight, accompanied by a couple of beers. Jet Star, as far as budget airlines go, wasn’t too bad. It was my first experience with them, and it was as I expected, except the in-flight entertainment I had pre-ordered took the form of a giant playboy, with a limited selection of movies. The lack of free alcohol would be my only other gripe.

I’ve just seen a free shuttle rock up, and am considering running after it. I still have about four hours to kill before I can check in and grab a couple of hours sleep before checking out the Honolulu night life on offer. I do have one major concern: since my last exaggerated adventures, I’m now a year older. I don’t know if I can still handle the hostel scene, and the alcohol-fuelled adventures that accompany such a scene. That’s still a worry for later this evening. For now, as the free shuttle has left, I’m considering a walk up to Diamond Head, a crater that looks approximately three miles away from where I’m sitting now, under the trees opposite the Surf-Rider resort, which looks more like a mansion than a hotel. With my iced kona mocha gone, it looks like it’s time for me to go.

Sunday 17 August 2008

From a reasonable distance, it’s quite obvious I was wearing a singlet yesterday. A tip for new players, expired sunscreen will not work as well as unexpired sunscreen. My arms, neck and shoulders are red, but my chest and back are as pale as ever. The walk up to Diamond Head was worth the view, and taking the long way back around the crater showed me a different part of Honolulu. The walk all up took about four hours, and only after I had stopped in at a beach bar at the back of the Surf-Rider Hotel did I realised that no matter how much expired sunscreen one puts on, it won’t protect you.

The rest of the day was taken up with a ride around to Sandy Beach and the other side of Honolulu, away from the crowded tourist beaches of Waikiki. I’d met a pseudo-local, there for the summer, on my walk up to Diamond Head the previous day. She’d never been to Sandy Beach either but had been keen to check it out and was happy to show me around. The six-foot waves at Sandy Beach broke very close to the shore, onto submerged and later revelled very painful rocks, except for a small stretch which was taken up by a large local scene. This is where all the tanned and attractive people were hiding. I wasn’t able to take too much notice however, as I was given a lesson in body-surfing from one of the locals there, who didn’t want to see another tourist killed on his beach. I had a couple of painful dumps, one which completely flipped me and landed me high up on the beach in a perfect ten point gymnastic dismount. At that moment I decided for a small break, casually strolling from the surf and another potential rib-breaking situation.

The Rest of Hawaii

I was suffering a hang over on the Monday after a fun night out and an introduction to Tequila Rose’ a too few hours previously. Breakfast in the form of chicken, mahi-mahi and steak from a favourite local takeaway helped alleviate some of this feeling, washed down with flavoured shaved ice. This is all the rage in Honolulu, but it didn’t really do much for me, and reminded me too much of yellow snow. The rest of the day was pretty chilled, a bit of shopping, casual drinking, eating and a dip in the Pacific. It was during my relaxing float off Waikiki that I saw a giant green head swim past me. Not knowing what it was, but being a bravely fearful man, I bravely fled to the shore in a fast, but not panicked, semi-freestyle fashion, abandoning those who had been swimming near me to their fate. From the safety of the beach, I could see the children that had been gleefully playing in the water where I had seen the monstrous head continue playing. No one else seemed to panic. I later realised it had been a turtle I’d seen, and not some sort of green shark with a particular taste for tourists.

I flew the next day to San Diego, a one-night stopover on the way to New York and the reuniting of the Hawketc team. I’d failed to surf once in Hawaii, owing to a combination of crowded surf beaches, late sleep ins and not much on the wave front where surfboards were available. But here in sunny San Diego, one of my favourite American cities, I became the awesome surfer I always thought I could be. My time in San Diego was far too short, but thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a place that I’ll have to come back and visit again. The weather is warm, the people friendly, the wearing of t-shirts only optional and the women in bikinis. I hear also it has a zoo that’s not too bad, one day I will have to get there and check it out.

It was time to leave, and travel to the greatest city in the world, New York City.