Hawaii - Aloha Ukulele Heaven

We were a bit nervous about going to Hawaii. Reports on the TV in Vegas had shown heavy rain and flooding, but nothing was mentioned at the airport, and it was too late to change plans anyway. So after a stop-over in L.A. (disappointing not to see the Hollywood sign) we landed in Honolulu on March 7th to blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20s.

Picked a hostel that sounded good - the Beachside Hostel - and soon found ourselves living a nice short walk from here...


that'll be Waikiki Beach, as modelled by Jen (remember that blue sky, you won't be seeing much more of it). And we sat around a bit to watch the sun go down...


what's known as a "Romantic Moment" apparently. What would I know.

We mentioned the flooding and whatever to a guy in the hostel, who was quite surprised to hear about it, and it was decided that the North Shore must be responsible. It seems that areas of the island have very different weather, despite the small size of the place.

Hung around Waikiki for a couple of days - saw some Hula dancing at the recreation ground and wandered round the shops - then decided to hire a car and see the rest of the island. We ended up with a little Suzuki jeep who's picture doesn't deserve to grace the same blog as our lovely Mustang from Vegas. It was barely functional, there was no back to the soft-top so we had to padlock our backpacks to the door frames every time we left it. And, of course, it started to rain. And the further north we went, the more it rained, and the more leaks we discovered. Still, it was OUR barely functional leaking pile of rust.

OK, so we did a little sight-seeing. Went to Hanauma Bay, which has very good snorkelling, although we didn't find out (yet) because it was a little windy and a little cold and had started to rain a bit. Saw a blow hole - big seas + small hole = spouty water - and lots of nice beaches which would have been that little bit more appealing if it wasn't for the rain. And by the time we got up to the north shore it was varying between heavy wind, and heavy wind with heavy rain...



Stayed at the Plantation Village Backpackers in Waimea - nice little cabin with three small dorm rooms. By now the rain was quite impressive and we spent the evening sat around talking with the other people there. Next morning, surprise surprise, it was still raining. Most people in the cabin seemed to be leaving today and the sensible thing appeared to be to head south where there might be less rain, so that's what we did, and after trying a few different places to stay we ended up back at the Beachfront Hostel in a much drier Waikiki. And the first person we met in our new room was Kris (from Austria), who we'd just said goodbye to at the Plantation Village.

And I've just remembered about the Ukuleles. They're everywhere. I'd forgotten when I bought mine that Hawaii was the place for Ukuleles and it certainly was. Every souvenir shop sells them, even cheaper ones than mine, but there were also some specialist shops where you can spend over $1500 on particularly good models. I even saw an electric uke with no headstock (kinda like a Steinberg guitar) and a body like a travel guitar. As it happened, I bought a solid case and a sticker and left it at that. Oh, and a book to learn some hawaiian tunes, and spent the early mornings sat on the balcony merrily strumming away.

We'd decided not to visit another island, mainly due to cost and also because I'd been assured there'd be other chances to see volcanoes, so we spent the rest of our time staying at the hostel in Waikiki. We drove up to Hanauma Bay again when the weather was better and snorkelled in the reef there. It's a nature reserve and the reef, which acts as a barrier to provide calm water, is teeming with fish. They also limit the number of people allowed in so it never gets too crowded...


And that was about it. We did some more lazing about on the beach and playing in the sea...


Rachel (Cornwall), Me, Ken (Cornwall), Jen, Huan (San Francisco), Morgan (Vancouver)

and managed to burn a little despite the cloud.

And a quick educational note: It's called Hawai'i to the locals. The ' is an okina, which is a gutteral stop (like the middle of "uh-oh", go on, try it) and like the 13th letter of their alphabet. For those interested the other 12 letters are a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p and w. The smallest alphabet in the world! See, you're learning while you're skiving.

Anything to add Jen???

Always! You miss out loads of stuff. We didn't see Magnum PI but we did pass his house and we actually saw a sea turtle in Hanauma bay. That was exciting. Plus we managed to get a bus that took us on a magical mystery tour instead of the supermarket (remember seattle anyone?) but we did get lei'd, so thats a bonus.

We watched a street parade with lots of hula dancing and people from Japan, a dragon, more hula dancing, variations of the stick dance and enough hula dancing to shake a stick at, literally - we got really flat bottoms because every group stopped and showed you their act, which was kind, but it lasted over 4 1/2 hours!

The cocktails are rather nice but waikiki is very very touristy and every third store is an ABC shop (a franchised tat shop - all with the same products but different prices which is odd). The fire engines in Hawaii are yellow. If you wear a flower above the right ear it means you are available.

Ok i think thats enough of the minutae of our lives.
Time to move on. See you all in New Zealand. For now, Aloha.

Viva Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley

Welcome to the opportunity to gamble as soon as you step off the plane. We must have arrived in Las Vegas!

It's everything cheeesy you ever hoped for and just as you'd imagine. The bling is everywhere and at all times of the day or night; flashing lights, blip ding whooooh of gaming machines, colourful shiny surfaces, the ka-ching! noise of computer simulated jackpot wins, the shuffle of cards, the roar of the crowd and of course outrageously large Americans. We got a bargain priced luxury hotel room right in the centre of the Strip and soon got into the swing of things... Here's me enjoying a few goes at the penny slots accompanied by our new favourite thing - Complimentary drinks :-)

But its not all drinking and gambling. There's tonnes of stuff to see and free shows too. We saw a Volcano erupt, an impressive water fountain display to music, and a full on pirate ship battle with singing and swash buckling. All in one evening. Not bad eh? You can see the pirate's sword moving in this pic, that was just before all the guys stripped to the waist and dived into the water. Nice. I suppose that was to balance out the fact that all the lady pirates seemed to be dressed in their underwear...

During the day we walked for miles because each casino is massive. MASSIVE. Past the statue of Liberty, a disneyesque castle, the bridge of sighs and the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triumphe (which gave me a bit of a shock - it was almost like walking to the office!).

Now did you notice the blue sky in that pic? It was lovely and warm in Vegas. I barely needed a cardi. In fact it was a good 50 degrees warmer than it had been only 2 weeks ago (of course we were in Fernie then) which has got to be a shock to anyones system. Not to worry, I soon discovered a number of mushrooms, which made me feel quite at home.

So after a few days of wandering about drinking free booze and seeing who could get the biggest win from a dollar, we decided to hit the road. Being cooped up in a small town for three months had taken its toll. So, we decided to drive nearly 1000 miles through the desert, to see Monument Valley. In a Mustang. With the top down.

There's Col. Doesn't he look grand.
A real road trip. Motel Rooms, singing Hotel California at the top of my lungs. ahh. Now the thing about deserts is that they are fairly empty. Which means no real need to put any curves in the roads. for miles. And miles. Just straight, empty road, and the occasional passing car. And the side effect of driving for miles and miles down an empty road with the top down, is nice big hair...Here's Cols hair in action before it hit the big time...

So Monument Valley. It's all it's cracked up to be. The stacks are too big to comprehend and we took a good many photo's. Here's the edited highlights.

and of course 'The Mittens', which look like giant mittens, as demonstrated by our model.

So What next? Well on our way to Monument Valley (which is 2 states away from las Vegas) we dropped in on the Grand Canyon and watched the sunset over it, as you do, and rather lovely that was too. But not content with the view from the top we decided to go one better and catch the view over the Canyon. So we nipped back to Vegas and caught a Helicopter ride.

Over Las Vegas and all its shiny things, over the Hoover Dam...

That white strip by the shore line is caused by the water level dropping due to outrageous water requirements in the ever growing Las Vegas. Apparently.
And over the Grand Canyon. Wheeeeeeee. Swooop. Imagine the theme tune to 'Apocalypse Now' playing (In fact we didn't have to imagine it. It was playing over those rather tasteful headphones we were wearing). And then into the Grand Canyon, Where we landed and had a champagne lunch. Yes i know we're bumming it round the world but a girl has to have standards sometimes.

So. That brings us to the close of this little adventure. Another 2 stickers to add to the Uke and then it's off to the South Pacific to Hawaii.
'til then, !kerching!

Farewell Canada ('til next time)

Enough with the skiing already!!!

Time to quit while we're ahead, or rather still in one piece. Well two pieces I suppose, one each. Anyhow, enough, places to be and things to see.

We spent the final month in Fernie living with Jim and Liza and little Remi (all pictured below), also Assaf and Tara. Larry turned up for the last week or so and should be currently enjoying our old room. And a merry time was had, what with group dinners and new people to ski with.

Final tallies were....

75 days for Col, and about 10 less for Jen

Injuries included....

Jen's weird finger thing - it kinda pops out when she's asleep.

Jen's knees - they need to spend some time on a beach. This is part of the reason for Jen's absences from the slopes, that and her inherent laziness (her words, not mine).

Col's thumb - to match the one I hurt last year, I skied into a tree. I now know what it feels like to be female - I have no grip strength and am unable to open jars.

Col's middle finger, left hand - Jen shut it in a car door. She laughed when she did it and she laughed as I wrote this.

Col's middle finger again - fell down stairs (while sober) and bent the top back. It hurt. A lot.


Anyway, been there, done that. Time to head for Calgary and adventures new - minus all our skiing gear mind, need an excuse to come back next year. Somebody chalk it up in the LPT diary. So, we got a lift with Mark, and Sam came too. Went to the Olympic Centre with Mark to watch him do his bobsled run and met up there with Dave (check back to the Inca Trail if you don't remember Dave) one of our hosts for the next couple of days.

Spent the evening with Dave, Claire (our other host, Inca Trail again) and Sam at the Calgary Tower trying to persuade Jen to stand on the glass floor, and then at Montana's where I had the "All You Can Eat" Ribs - or "You Can All Eat" Ribs as it turned out, except for Jen of course who had side orders.

The next day Dave chauffered Jen, Sam and me around the wondrous sites of Calgary. It felt just like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one adventure after another, there was the Post Office (?), the mall, the indoor driving range (piccy below), Canadian Tire (you can buy guns!!!), the Ship and Anchor (where Claire joined the fun) , and finally canadian five-pin bowling - did the Brits beat the locals? I think they did.

So thanks to Dave and Claire for putting us up for a couple of nights, and for getting us to the airport on time. Here's a picture of Claire looking a lot cleaner than in Peru - everybody say hello (and if somebody wants to remind us of the cat's name that would be great).

Cheers Dave - say hello to Auby the giant cat (it's pronounced Obi).

So that was Canada. It's all good.

Crouching Jen, Hidden Toilet Roll - North America

What a joy it has been to visit the toilets of North America. The white porcelain, the abundance of soft toilet paper and the choise of two flush options have all combined to make it a pleasant experience. Some have even featured gimmicks to make the visit more hygenic, I've frequently seen aniseptic dispensers so that you can wipe down the seat for that just cleaned feel, or disposable paper seat covers so that you never need come into contact with anything; both options making the term 'it's much less bovver with a hover' totally redundant.

But as we all know, not all Loo's are born equal. Theres always going to be a winner and in this case the prize goes to the laidies loo at 'The edge of the world' board shop and internet cafe in Fernie B.C. This particular delight features bubble wrapped walls, feathers and fairy lights and all sorts of fancy decoration. You might have to turn your head to the left to see the picture properly.








Here, every available surface has been utilised to its full and frantic potential. Honestly you could spend a good half an hour in there trying to work out if that is the arm of a tiny tears doll glued to the wall above the tissue dispenser...


Other good features in ski resorts include a nice big basket to put yout helmet, gloves etc in. Handy. Plus plently of paper tissues for the blowing nose routine which follows coming in somewhere warm after the well below freezing temperatures outside.

In order to provide a balanced account i do have to point out some of the not so great features too. Namely the stalls. What is it with America and the click together stall design? Ordinarily selecting a stall and closing the door ensures you are safely enclosed in a small room on your own to get on with things with privacy. But not here, the door and walls are connected using bulky spaced out hinges which ensure that there is a big gap. sometimes a very big gap. On one occasion in Seattle I was curious to see just how big the gap was and discovered i could fit a paper back book through it - plus my hand. And in the New york HI hostel the gaps on the shower cubicles are big enough for one girl to pass the shampoo bottle to the girl in the next stall, and for me to be able to witness this exchange from 3 stalls down. Hmmmn.

Aaaanyway, the prize for most curiously placed toilet roll dispenser goes without a doubt to the ladies loo in a pub (the Ship and Anchor) in Calgary.



And now a quick note about the bathrooms in private residences we have encountered. 802a 6th Avenue Fernie boasts lashings of hot water and an extremely clean bathroom at all times of the day, thanks to Shirley who cleans as good as my mum, and thats saying something. 1102 5th Avenue Fernie boasts a bathroom big enough to fit my entire house in it. And Honorable Mention goes to Claire and David McClean in Calgary, for the fluffiest thickest softest towels and of course the Aveda shampoo, thanks for the use of!

So that brings this report to a close, i'll sum up with a phrase often heard in Canada " It's all good".

Quick note for the boys - the Royal in Fernie has head rests in the urinals. Be sure to try them if you're in town, just don't fall asleep.