Hang loose in Hawai'i

Originally planned as a second rest-stop (the first since Langkawi), our visit to the most remote islands on earth turned into a relatively eventful week – so eventful in fact that we were too busy experiencing it to blog about it!

Whereas Langkawi was a tropical island of beaches and rainforest, the ‘big island’ of Hawai’i has 11 of the world’s 13 climates… of which we encountered a fair few! In the course of one morning’s drive (in a big American convertible, no less) we moved from palm trees and ferns, through a shiny black lava moonscape, to rolling hills which wouldn’t look out of place beside the peat-bogs of the Isle of Lewis. Of course Lewis doesn’t have an active volcano (with so much lava flowing into the sea that they measure the land added to the island in acres per day)!

While the lava where it flowed, makes parts of the island essentially barren, the coastline where we were staying was the archetypal Polynesian beach with white sand, palm trees and turquoise water teeming with tropical fish and giant green turtles. In between swimming with the turtles, eating exotic Dragon-fruit (with its fluorescent purple interior) and drinking from coconuts hacked fresh from the tree (or world-famous Kona coffee from the neighbour’s plantation) we found some time to explore. We visited some impressive native Hawaiian temples, wandered down subterranean lava-tubes, drove through the cattle-ranch district (where the locals wore cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats rather than flip-flops and shades), and went down to Huggo’s bar, right down on the sand, to hear live rock after sunset from an ensemble of award-winning recording artists.

What made this stay so memorable was the warm hospitality of our hosts, Jamilla and Ahti, without whom we wouldn’t have seen the real Hawai’i as their knowledge of its history and culture was unsurpassed. I even went native, to a degree, and I don’t mean by polishing off the portions with which all the cafes and restaurants insisted on filling the plates (one morning I ordered French Toast and got half a loaf with each slice over an inch thick) but instead by buying and starting to learn the Ukulele – with the help of Jamilla’s good ear and string expertise of course. Ahti would have helped, but was away playing a screaming sax solo at the Hawaiian music awards with the band we saw at Huggo’s – and what an amazing warm-up gig that was!

After the far more rural, relaxed (and real) Hawai’i, we travelled to Honolulu and stopped over there in order to make our flight out to San Francisco, so we had a chance to experience the other extreme: Waikiki Beach, perhaps the most famous, built-up and commercialised place in the entire state, is where the surfers ‘hang loose’ and ride the waves almost before the sun climbs lazily above the horizon.



















Next stop; San Francisco.