Sunday, December 19, 2004
Surfin' USA
What a difference a continent makes. Landing in LA was like landing on another planet. I had previously always said that I never minded whether I ever went to LA in my entire life, but we spent a really pleasant 3 days in this vast, sprawling city and I was pleasantly surprised by the place. For a start it is very low rise, meaning that it sprawls for about 100 miles!, but also meaning that you can see the beautiful blue skies every day (unlike in Manhatten). We stayed with a friend of Nick's from university who very kindly lent us his car to make our life very easy here. I didn't appreciate that without a car in LA you cannot exist - people looked at us like we were aliens when we tried to walk anywhere. There are no corner shops or convenience stores, everything is in malls.
First things first - we had to find a curry and fast. Although Argentina is the culinary capital of South America it does not have a passion for spice, and we both have had curry cravings for around 6 months now. Fortunately we found something to suit our tastes and we could get on with shopping and sightseeing.
Shopping is great here and with the USD so weak the bargains are even more crazy. We both picked up new digi cameras - my first and Nick's replacement after the armed robbery. Sightseeing is even better though and it was a lot of fun to visit the likes of Venice Beach (grungy tie dye hang out), Santa Monica (wonderful beach and manicured park area), Sunset Boulevard (even saw the George Michael toilets), Rodeo Drive (posh shops with wonderful Xmas lights), Hollywood (the stars and the hand and footprints of the likes of Humphery Bogart and Jack Nicholson).
From LA we jetted off to the sunkissed shores of Hawaii for some fun in the sun. We decided to visit 2 islands and chose Maui and Kauai as the most beautiful sounding and accesible. Maui was the first destination for the whistle stop tour in 6 days. I thought we would be chilling out a little more on the beach in Hawaii but there is too much to see here to spend all the time on the beach. We did a couple of scenic, if slightly hair-raising drives (I was driving - Nick was clinging onto his seat) round the coast roads. This involved lots of one-lane bridges and steep cliffs dropping off to my right and a couple of donkeys to contend with. But along the way we also passed several lovely waterfalls and swimming pools below them, stunning coastal scenery, black lava beaches with white surf pounding the shores, blowholes, rainforested walks, white sandy beaches fringed with palm trees.
We got up for sunrise over the volcanic crater in the middle of the island which was wonderful (although not perhaps their best sunrise according to the postcards on sale) followed by a beautiful walk around the moonscape of the craters. We snorkelled around the western beaches with some very colourful tropical fish and sampled a few of the golden sandy beaches in the south.
We stayed in a great place in the north shore that is far less touristy than the rest of the island and we basically ended up having the most wonderful house all to ourselves for the few days we were there. It was perched on the coast with the lawn running down to the windswept, crashing ocean. Sitting in a hammock overlooking the ocean and the shoreling in the distance was totally relaxing, but the highlight of the place was definitely the hot tub in the garden. Drinking champagne under the stars listening to the pounding waves just a few metres away was deadly romantic.
Next stop was the island of Kauai and for some real surfin' USA action - yes, that's right - we took a surf lesson one day which was a great laugh. After a bit of shoreline instruction we headed for the waves and the first one caused wipe out as I forgot everything immediately, but I managed to stand up on the second and most of the rest (with a good push into the wave from our teacher). Once I tried to paddle myself up to speed to catch a wave it prooved a little more tricky and by this time my arms were totally dead. Excellent fun and something I would definitely try again.
Kauai is where a lot of Jurassic Park was filmed and the lush green valleys and mountains and idyllic waterfalls are recognisable and just perfect. The greens are deliciously vibrant and after a quick shower the intensity is just gorgeous. We took a helicopter ride, with the doors off, over the island and what a trip that was. Leaning out of the windows as we circled over waterfalls and into hidden valleys of green, sharp, jagged mountains. The scenery on the Na Pali coast is totally unique with these jagged green daggers pointing skywards and white surf crashing around their roots.
We did a bit of walking in the lush greeness itself, climbed to some more waterfalls and sat on the beach for a while. The biggest waves in 6 years hit Hawaii while we were their with waves as tall as 50 feet striking hte north shore of most islands. This on the day that we were surfing ourselves ! Fortunately we were surfing in the south and the island took the heat of the size of the waves, bringing them down to a very manageable 2 feet. We had to go and see these waves though and the north shore of Kauai is very unspoilt and a good place to get the binoculars out and check the pro surfers testing some of the big waves. It was like one of those Xtreme sports channels - surfers being pulled out into the surf by jet skis then launching themselves before surfing an enormous wave (we saw waves maybe 35 feet tall) and the surfer just looks like a dot compared to the enormity of the wave. The wave then curls itself around the surfer and tumbles down chasing the surfer until either he succumbs or he manages to cruise over the wave.
Hawaii was a little less developed than I had feared, but a less "Hawaiian" than I had hoped. The American culture is very prevelent and it is difficult as a tourist to sample and see any evidence of anything truly Hawaiian really. That said, it was a great 2 weeks in a place I would not ever have gone to had it not been for this trip - due to the huge distance from the UK.
We are in Auckland now and already South America feels like it happened months ago. I have to keep reminding myself of everything and struggle to keep up some kind of Spanish - which was fine in LA but obviously not in NZ. Happy Xmas to one and all and best wishes for an amazing 2005.
First things first - we had to find a curry and fast. Although Argentina is the culinary capital of South America it does not have a passion for spice, and we both have had curry cravings for around 6 months now. Fortunately we found something to suit our tastes and we could get on with shopping and sightseeing.
Shopping is great here and with the USD so weak the bargains are even more crazy. We both picked up new digi cameras - my first and Nick's replacement after the armed robbery. Sightseeing is even better though and it was a lot of fun to visit the likes of Venice Beach (grungy tie dye hang out), Santa Monica (wonderful beach and manicured park area), Sunset Boulevard (even saw the George Michael toilets), Rodeo Drive (posh shops with wonderful Xmas lights), Hollywood (the stars and the hand and footprints of the likes of Humphery Bogart and Jack Nicholson).
From LA we jetted off to the sunkissed shores of Hawaii for some fun in the sun. We decided to visit 2 islands and chose Maui and Kauai as the most beautiful sounding and accesible. Maui was the first destination for the whistle stop tour in 6 days. I thought we would be chilling out a little more on the beach in Hawaii but there is too much to see here to spend all the time on the beach. We did a couple of scenic, if slightly hair-raising drives (I was driving - Nick was clinging onto his seat) round the coast roads. This involved lots of one-lane bridges and steep cliffs dropping off to my right and a couple of donkeys to contend with. But along the way we also passed several lovely waterfalls and swimming pools below them, stunning coastal scenery, black lava beaches with white surf pounding the shores, blowholes, rainforested walks, white sandy beaches fringed with palm trees.
We got up for sunrise over the volcanic crater in the middle of the island which was wonderful (although not perhaps their best sunrise according to the postcards on sale) followed by a beautiful walk around the moonscape of the craters. We snorkelled around the western beaches with some very colourful tropical fish and sampled a few of the golden sandy beaches in the south.
We stayed in a great place in the north shore that is far less touristy than the rest of the island and we basically ended up having the most wonderful house all to ourselves for the few days we were there. It was perched on the coast with the lawn running down to the windswept, crashing ocean. Sitting in a hammock overlooking the ocean and the shoreling in the distance was totally relaxing, but the highlight of the place was definitely the hot tub in the garden. Drinking champagne under the stars listening to the pounding waves just a few metres away was deadly romantic.
Next stop was the island of Kauai and for some real surfin' USA action - yes, that's right - we took a surf lesson one day which was a great laugh. After a bit of shoreline instruction we headed for the waves and the first one caused wipe out as I forgot everything immediately, but I managed to stand up on the second and most of the rest (with a good push into the wave from our teacher). Once I tried to paddle myself up to speed to catch a wave it prooved a little more tricky and by this time my arms were totally dead. Excellent fun and something I would definitely try again.
Kauai is where a lot of Jurassic Park was filmed and the lush green valleys and mountains and idyllic waterfalls are recognisable and just perfect. The greens are deliciously vibrant and after a quick shower the intensity is just gorgeous. We took a helicopter ride, with the doors off, over the island and what a trip that was. Leaning out of the windows as we circled over waterfalls and into hidden valleys of green, sharp, jagged mountains. The scenery on the Na Pali coast is totally unique with these jagged green daggers pointing skywards and white surf crashing around their roots.
We did a bit of walking in the lush greeness itself, climbed to some more waterfalls and sat on the beach for a while. The biggest waves in 6 years hit Hawaii while we were their with waves as tall as 50 feet striking hte north shore of most islands. This on the day that we were surfing ourselves ! Fortunately we were surfing in the south and the island took the heat of the size of the waves, bringing them down to a very manageable 2 feet. We had to go and see these waves though and the north shore of Kauai is very unspoilt and a good place to get the binoculars out and check the pro surfers testing some of the big waves. It was like one of those Xtreme sports channels - surfers being pulled out into the surf by jet skis then launching themselves before surfing an enormous wave (we saw waves maybe 35 feet tall) and the surfer just looks like a dot compared to the enormity of the wave. The wave then curls itself around the surfer and tumbles down chasing the surfer until either he succumbs or he manages to cruise over the wave.
Hawaii was a little less developed than I had feared, but a less "Hawaiian" than I had hoped. The American culture is very prevelent and it is difficult as a tourist to sample and see any evidence of anything truly Hawaiian really. That said, it was a great 2 weeks in a place I would not ever have gone to had it not been for this trip - due to the huge distance from the UK.
We are in Auckland now and already South America feels like it happened months ago. I have to keep reminding myself of everything and struggle to keep up some kind of Spanish - which was fine in LA but obviously not in NZ. Happy Xmas to one and all and best wishes for an amazing 2005.
