Day 5 & 6 of trip or day 4 & 5 in Hawaii 29/11/2016 Tuesday/Wednesday

We are getting better at this time zone change situation. I took this picture when we were almost all the way to Hawaii to remind myself which side of the day I was on. Flying over the International Dateline and the equator at the same time got us twisted about. Of course we were awake for most of the trip whether it was then or now or perhaps even a tad bit before. I am saying this because after only three or four days we are within three or four moments of being almost normal which we are mildly excited about. In other words I was asleep at ten pm last night; OK so I took a sleeping pill, and up at six am. Narda took longer to sleep and was up at 8. Yes, blogs can be this boring and mundane.

I was particularly anxious to get an early start to the day because this was the day we were going to go around the whole island. We plan to go around that other island we have lived on since moving back from China and before that New York – Australia, but we will probably take a lot longer to do that. Oahu we were going to do in one day. And cheaply too. There are tours for hundreds of dollars per sucker offered by everyone you meet here. Hawaii is a real hustle but that is what the place survives on. Us tourists, well not us – but ones who actually spend money, shell out the income for these paradise lounge lizards.

The best way and of course cheapest, is to take the Circle Island-via North Shore bus. Bus #55. We ask for the dollar per-trip senior rate even though Narda is five-years too young and I am four years past the mark for it. We average out the 65-year old requirement and that is almost honest. The regular cost is $2.50 so even that is quite a cheap way to get around the island.

The bus, as everything in the States where there is a hint of warmth, was super air-conditioned and we sat shivering because we did not think of bringing a jumper because hey this is Hawaii and it is supposed to be warm. We noticed everyone that got on the bus had a jacket or jumper or something a tad bit warmer than next-to-nothing at all. We got off two hours later at the Dole Planation, on the Kamehameha Highway in Wahiawa, just to get warm and to grab a cuppa. As we had transfers we knew we could get back on the next bus to get to Haleiwa. It is listed as the number one spot to visit on some tourist brochures but somehow, we were not terribly impressed. There is a large sales place to go through with lots of overpriced crap all with images of pineapples on them. Pineapples themselves, and this is where they are grown, cost a couple of dollars more in the shop than at Walmart. Go figure. Then there is a train ride for eight bucks through pineapple fields which we didn’t go on. I did go on it back in May of 1981 when my parents came over from New York to visit because Sacha had been born six months earlier and they wanted to see him. We went to Maui then too but this trip we are staying on Oahu. The last time Narda and I were here, July of 2002, we did this bus trip too but we did not stop at this pineapple place. We did not go on the pineapple walk for six dollars per person either but chose to look at the pineapple plants around the store and over the fence. What really caught my eye were these trees which are a gum tree though not the same as we have in our front yard back in Adelaide in which we get the occasional koala visiting and I run out and take photos to put on Facebook. These trees are Mindanao Gum trees and have colourful markings. They remind me of paintings from my street artist days (1972 – 1974) in New Orleans (yes, you can see my paintings from any one of my four ‘Thoughts in Patterns” books available in e-book format from (http://neuage.org/e-books/)

mindanao gum (Rainbow eucalyptus) at Dole Pineapple Plantation

We stopped in Haleiwa and got warm again and had coffee, and took the bus to Kahuku. The waves were not high today. Not even at Banzai Pipeline or Sunset. In the next few weeks they can get to 40 – 50 feet swells. We did have good views from our bus window. The night Sacha was born, January, 1981 a previous passing through my life (and having a couple of kids with me) entity and I drove to the North Shore for the birthing experience and the waves were going across the highway (I was working at Queens Medical Centre and we wanted a more natural setting plus we wanted and had taken classes to do the Lamaze underwater birthing trip and Kahuku Hospital was the only one who would go along with it.).

We only saw this from the window:

Terrell was actually an angel on the bus and let me have his back-row corner seat which was heated from the engine. It was such a relief I nearly wept. No kidding, hyperthermia was not far off. The second part of our circle-the-island trip was speccie. Our driver was a speed demon, but not the same as in Cambodia where you seriously start planning your funeral and the bus dodges and weaves at a million mph, while texting. This one was fast and good.

I am sure few folks go to the hospital where their children were born. I have now done it twice both times with Narda. As I explained to Narda it is the process that is enjoyable. Going to Hawaii then taking a day to go to the end of the island to see some little hospital. Not exactly on the tourist top one-hundred places to visit. We only spent ten-minutes inside then went out and got the next bus back to Honolulu.

When we arrived in the rain into Honolulu we bought some groceries at Walmart and had a nice home cooked meal back at the flat. I’m getting quite attached to this place. The weather is perfect, cool breeze all the time, warm enough to swim. Last night we watched a few episodes of Blacklist.

Each morning we get a free coffee and cake from the convenience store, ‘on the house’ as long as we turn up before 9 am. They call it a continental breakfast.

Our balcony – the ocean is visible between the buildings

30/11/2016 Wednesday

For us it’s morning tea. So this morning I woke up normally, no pill, feeling good. We went on a long walk to Diamond Head and the suburbs nearby, crossing though a park full of these banyan trees.

We discovered open inspections in this area and I managed to drag Terrell inside.

The first one was a 2 bedroom flat listed for 1.6 million dollars. The next one was amazing, every piece of furniture hand-picked and designed, all sorts of beautiful jungle colours; only 3.6 million, 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. Unfortunately, they did not let us take any photos. Not sure who buys them. I asked the realtor that question and she said they were most often bought by foreign investors. (not teachers!!)

We also, ‘toured’ a house for a few million that was built in the 1920s. I think that is the one we will purchase and in a future dream move into it. There was no shed involved so bringing all my belongings that fill our shed in Adelaide will be a problem. We probably should buy the house and the apartment overlooking the ocean and that way Narda would not send me off to de-clutter classes in the future, again.

Diamond Head Park between the sea and the crater, always one of my favourite parks in the world. Memories of going to music concerts in the 1960s – 1970s in the midst of the volcano. Sitting under coconut tree reading Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy – feeling like I was part of King Arthur’s Court. Not quite sure what these folks were doing in my favourite park but it wasn’t King Arthur’s Court.

Being retired teachers (we think) (yes, definitely says Narda) we try not to think of school but a surf school would be ideal as long as they stayed in the water and we on land; or we drove their school bus:

With only two days left in our first stop in our four-month ‘retirement-world-tour’ we hope to get up and about tomorrow, Thursday, good and early though it is already 10:30 pm Wednesday so we may sleep in.