Blog 34 - Waikiki, Hawaii

The flight Fiji-Hawaii was not too bad… The fact that we had to make a stop at Samoa to get some fuel was a bit annoying, because dinner was not served until after that stop and that was about midnight….

It was 8am when we arrived at Honolulu airport. First thing to do was getting some money out of the ATM… It didn't work… and they promised me they were going to reactivate my credit card… isn't that great.. At least I had 50 USD, so I could get on a shuttle bus to the hostel..

I went to the Waikiki Beachside hostel and I have to say that was a good choice. Friends of mine had stayed there before, so I knew it would be alright. Expensive though, compared to Australia… Luckily there was free wireless at the hostel, so I could give my mum aring, so she could call the ING the next day.. 12 hrs earlier here in Hawaii. We managed to pay for the hostel with my mum's credit card and after that I went to get some food with the 20 dollars I had left.. In the end.. everything turned out fine.. My credit card was reactivated by the end of the day, so no more worries :-)

In the afternoon I went for a surf on my short board and the waver were really nice! In summer there is a south swell in Hawaii, so going to Waikiki instead of the North Shore was a good choice. Everyday this week I went for a surf and the last couple of days new swell arrived, so there are some proper waves out there.

Next to surfing I did some running, yoga and hypes of reading.

On Saturday there was a knock on my door and Chris came in: I met Chris and his friend Matt in Fiji, where I taught them and some other people yoga. Saturday night we chilled out and had some drinks and on Sunday morning I gave them a surfing lesson. The waves were actually pretty small on Sunday, but it was great fun with the soft tops and they did a good job. (Chris and Matt left Monday morning) In the afternoon we hang out at the beach and Sunday evening, Davis (works at reception) gave me a lift to the supermarket on his moped, which was really nice and I bought some proper bread, veggies, fruits and cheese…

Monday was the only day this week the waves were crap. I did go out, but there wasn't much to it. In the evening I met Ronnie and (another) Chris, both of them staying at the hostel, and I picked up an 8'6'' from Travis, a guy that (also) works at the reception here, so I could even go out if the waves were not so good, but, the swell picked up quite quick, so the next day, Ronnie took me on a free bus ride (I'll explain that another time.. we did have tickets, but didn't have to pay for them) to the yacht club where he works (he's an engineer). We went for a surf over there at 'The Bowls', which was an awesome wave! He had a 6'10'' we both surfed on. The problem here in Hawaii is that you're not allowed to bring a surfboard on the bus, so it's really hard to surf anywhere else than nearby unless you've got a car (obviously).

Wednesday morning I did some shopping.. I now - not good for my budget, but one needs some souvenirs ;-) Surfing later that day and in the evening I watched a movie (body of lies) on my laptop.

Thursday more surf, Free yoga in one of the shopping centers (not ideal, but alright) and chilling out most of the rest of the day… I've been quite tired lately, so I'm just taking things easy.. I was so lucky, I borrowed a bicycle from (another) Travis that's staying at the hostel, so I could go to the supermarket again to get some more bread… Watched 'Bee movie' in the evening: very funny…

The next day, Ronnie and I checked out some Ukulele's and I'd really like to buy one, but so far they are either really expensive or out of tune, so I'll just have to keep on looking for one… In the afternoon I was going to see Kamla again! Kamla and I met in Coff's Harbout, Australia, while I was staying at Scott's place (surf museum). She does some work for Bill Hamilton, who lives on another island and I was supposed to visit here there, but because of money reasons I couldn't. Nevertheless, she was going to fly back to Oz the next day and had to spend the night in Oahu, so I could meet up with them. We went for a surf and the waves were really good, had hypes of fun. Later that night we went out for a coffee… they were a bit late, so I ended up making some music with some random people and Bill ended up playing some guitaras well.

Coffee was nice, we had some good conversations and I really hope to meet Kamla again, either in Oz, Hawaii or Europe…

This morning I did some yoga and I will go for a surf later today when the tide will be coming in.. The reef here is not too bad, but I got a couple of scratches already and there really annoying…

Waikiki is awesome… I love it…