New Years Eve in Waikiki

Saturday, Dec 31
This morning started at a pub that offered 2 for 1 breakfast coupons. A couple of blocks from the hotel, away from the beach, we think it’s owned by a Canadian, based on the décor and menu options. Good omelet, pancakes (more coconut syrup) and banana muffins.
We then took advantage of the hotel’s complimentary stand-up paddle board lesson. They usually only get one person doing it, so they only have one board. Today, there were 4 of us, so we had to take turns, which made for a rather boring lesson. Waikiki beach is protected by an artificial reef, which makes it very flat. If you want to do any surfing or boogie boarding, you have to paddle way out. So we got in the car and headed out to the North Shore, where the swells were supposed to be small. We drove for over an hour, stopping at many beaches which all had either a lot of rocks, “no swimming” signs, or unpredictable looking waves. Eventually, we asked someone and after driving the full length of the North Shore, we turned around and found a beach just to the south with boogie boarding waves. But instead of sand, there was a big smooth slab of rock underneath. Rob did some rides, but I got right out again and waited for him.
After about 45 minutes at the beach, we went for lunch at a school bus converted to seafood shack. We both had some awesome white fish with garlic and herbs. Someone from our hotel was there with one of the Lotuses. Loti? Rob had asked the price at the hotel, but we ended up sticking with the Calibre with cheap tires that made a horrible noise on the highway. More drool from Rob at the site of the Elise.
After lunch, we shopped for North Shore souvenirs. I got a new rash shirt for sunburn free snorkelling.
Back at the hotel, we had a nap to prepare for a night of partay-ing. Eventually, we got dressed up to go find dinner, and found a lot of line-ups and over priced, reservation only prix fixe menus. Rob seemed to be drawn to sushi, but the sushi menus weren’t speaking to me. So we settled on a 50s style diner called the Rock Island Café. Meh. Nothing special. I had another hot dog, this time with kalua pork (Hawaiian luau style) on top. After dinner, I decided I wasn’t comfortable in a dress and heels, so we went back to the hotel to change. Cue another nap! At 11:30, we walked over to the beach to watch the midnight fireworks. We’re hardcore like that.
The fireworks were good, about 15 minutes long, with a few thousand well behaved people on the beach. After the fireworks, we came back to the hotel and used the 24h free internet in the business center to check in for our flight tomorrow night. 45 minutes after online check-in opened, we got the last seats on the plane. Aisle seats, across from each other. I am a window seat girl, and I won’t be able to sleep with nothing to lean on. Oh, well.

Flying Hilo

Friday, Dec 30
As planned, we started the day at Ken’s. Rob wasn’t feeling well, so he shared my shrimp omelet with a side of banana pancakes (with coconut and passion fruit syrups!). After breakfast, we went to the airport to check in for our helicopter flight over the volcano.
We arrived about 15 minutes early for check-in, which was required 45 minutes before the fight. Once everyone had checked in (36 people for 6 helicopters), we watched a 5 minute safety video and were assigned seats and pilots. Then we went and lined up on the tarmac for our flights to return from the previous tours. If everything went perfectly, we would have been sitting in the sun without hats (which were not allowed on the flight) for 30 minutes. When our pilot arrived, he shut down the propeller and called for a service vehicle. So we waited an extra 40 minutes for the issue to be resolved. At peak sun time. Eventually, we got on the helicopter, well sunburned, and took off. I was sitting behind the pilot while Rob was in the middle. They promised us that they would be giving everyone a copy of the DVD they make on each tour (which they usually sell for $25) to make up for the delay.
We flew past one of Barrack Obama’s planes, being held in Hilo as a backup while he was vacationing on Oahu. Then we flew over some Hilo neighbourhoods, a macadamia nut plantation and some lava fields. We got some good views of some gas plumes while we flew. We then got 2 passes over the opening of pu’u o’o, the source of the current flow to the ocean, one for each side of the ‘copter. We flew over on our side, so that we could look down right into the lava. Then, we started to follow the flow, which is mostly underground. Or possibly just cooled, it’s hard to tell how old black lava is from the air. But before we got very far, the generator light came on and the pilot turned around and took us back to the airport. He assured us repeatedly along the way that we weren’t in any danger, as we were flying on mechanical power and didn’t need electrical. And even when we needed electricity to land, we still had lots in the battery. So after waiting an hour and 10 minutes, we got about a 15 minute flight with a single glimpse (each side) of the red lava. The company will be refunding our payments and I talked them into free t-shirts. They gave us a generic DVD as they had turned off the recorders to save power when we lost the generator.
We then walked over and checked into our flight to Honolulu. The Hawaiian Air check in desk at Hilo is actually smaller than the helicopter tour check-in desk. There are supposed to be direct flights from the mainland, but everything on the arrivals and departures screens was “Honolulu”. And there were flights about every half hour. But because I pre-booked we had to wait about an hour and a half for the flight that I booked. I had tried to book the helicopter tour a little later but wasn’t able to. I’m kind of glad given the delay.
We got to Honolulu after an uneventful flight (despite being seated between 2 babies, it was a short flight!) The car rental company gave us a Dodge Calibre, and made a hard sell to upgrade us to a Mustang convertible. It was raining at the time, and I decided that renting a convertible would guarantee that it lasted for the rest of the trip. So we took the Calibre and saved $70.
I drove to the Waikiki Parc hotel, with valet parking. It’s one building away from the beach, with modern, upscale décor. The also offer daily rentals of a Lotus Elise, which Rob drooled on everytime we walked past. I didn’t splurge for an ocean view this time, so we saw lots of Honolulu buildings.
After checking in, we went for a walk down the beach. Waikiki is quite a bit busier than Kona, which was busy enough. The beach is rather small for the number of hotel rooms nearby. We counted the number of balconies at the Sheraton in front of the hotel and figure that hotel alone has about 1500 rooms. Our hotel has about 250 rooms. Behind the hotels, there’s a strip of high end stores, with thousands of people walking around. It very reminds me of Vegas, without the casinos and freebies. Hawaii is a poplar destination for Japanese, and they seem to be stocking up on American brands here.
From the beach we went in search of dinner and ended up at the International Marketplace, which is a bunch of vendors selling cheap, made in China, “Hawaiian” souvenirs. We ate at Haute Dog, a hot dog vendor that’s been featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. We both had dogs with mango mustard and pineapple relish. I washed mine down with an awesome pineapple slush. After the hot dogs, we went to the icecream booth and got a brownie sundae to share. Yummy. Then back to the hotel (past all the Coach, Prada and Feragamo stores) for a quick swim in the hotel pool before bed. We caught the Hilton fireworks at 7:30 as an appetizer for tomorrow night.

Exploring the island

Thursday, Dec 29
This morning we checked out of the hotel in Kona and headed out on the north route to Hilo. Before leaving, I went into a coffee shop for their free wifi and tried another cup of Kona coffee. Nope, still not a fan. We stopped at the Waipio Valley lookout. Only 4WD vehicles can drive into the valley. From the lookout, you can see a gorgeous black sand beach at the bottom. The valley alone would probably be worth getting a jeep. The rest of the valley is all private property, so nothing else to see.
The town at the top of the valley is a cute little "small town America" type of place, with a nostalgic, yet busy, main street. We stopped at a place called Blane's Drive-In. It was a let down. Rob was feeling queasy since breakfast, so all he wanted was a milk shake. And he had his heart set on something tropical like pineapple or banana, but all they had was chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. I got a pork sandwich, and it was fatty pork, with loads of mayonaise and wilted lettuce on a flavourless white bun. Bleh. We then went into a local fudge and ice cream shop, but they didn't do milkshakes, so we just got a couple of pieces of macadamia caramels and peanut butter-chocolate fudge. Mmm.
The next stop was at Akaka Falls. But we were running out of time and they wanted $5 to park, or $2 each to walk in, so we got a quick photo from the parking lot and kept going. Near the entrance to the falls was a place called "Mr Ed's bakery and jams". We got some ginger cookies and coconut macaroons. We also got a cinnamon bun, but not the giant ones they had available, just a "small" one. We ate the cinnamon bun later and wished we'd gotten the one that was about 10" across instead of just the 5" one. Damn, it was good.
In Hilo, we checked into our hotel. There are a lot of shady looking places here. It was obviously a popular tourist destination in the 70s, but the years have not been good. I read before booking that the deal here is that the state owns the land and leases it to the resorts for a short period of time. The time is so short that the hotels don't want to invest in renovations, and couldn't get a loan to do it anyway. Local authorities have realized the problem and have started negotiating longer lease terms conditional on the hotel coming into the 21 century. The first hotel that has been done is the one I booked, the Naniloa Resort. Our room and the hallway have been redone, but that's about it. The exterior and main floor still need to be done. Oh well, it was cheap and we're only here one night.
We stayed long enough to drop off our luggage and headed up to Volcano National Park. We should have researched the park a little better. It's at an elevation of 4000 and when we got there shortly after 4pm, it was about 15C and very windy. By sunset, it dropped to 12C. My raincoat was in the car, and was wearing denim capris and my hiking shoes with socks, so I was okay. Poor Rob was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and barefoot with sandals. We managed to get through the Thurston lava tube, a few minutes at the steam vents and sunset at the Jaggar museum which overlooks a smoldering crater. We sat in the car until it got dark enough to see the glow from the crater. We then took a couple of photos and jumped back in the car.
For dinner, we drove back to Hilo and looked for a place we'd seen in Kona called "L&L Hawaiian BBQ". We found one in Hilo and went in to check out the menu. Based on the pictures and lack of customers, we figured it was frozen food heated up in the microwave, so we left. We had seen a place called "Ken's House of Pancakes" near the hotel, so we went there to check it out. When we arrived, there was a line up out the door, and no parking. That looked promising. I went in while Rob parked, and while they were busy, they were able to get us a table right away. It's a 24h places with at least 100 items on the menu. I had calamari and a "Hawaiian" turkey sandwich. Rob had a cajun chicken sandwich. The sandwiches were good. But the calamari was the best $6 calamari I have ever had. Not as good as the place in Kalk Bay, but decent and an awesome price. We're going back tomorrow for coconut banana pancakes.

Turtles

Wednesday, Dec 28
Today was the best day so far, the kind of day you dream about when you book a trip to Hawaii.
We started the day with another hotel breakfast, which we are getting realy sick of and starting to think about skipping and heading to Denny's. But we're too cheap to go to Denny's. Then we went to a snorkel place which is supposed to be a close second to Kealakekua (where we went on Sunday). We got lost on the way, since the directions clearly say "go past the entry gate for Pu'uhonua O Honaunau State Park, then take the one way road on your right." (Also known as "Place of Refuge") What they should have said was "go through the first gate to the state park, and take the one way road on the right before the second gate to the state park." About 5 miles down a deserted road, we decided the instructions would have mentioned a distance if it was more than a few feet.
I now figure that the directions are vague in order to keep the place a secret. Definitely better snorkelling than at the Captain Cook monument. We parked about 30 meters from the spot where we get into the water. A second name for the spot is "two step" because you climb down 2 steps and you're in the water. It's deep enough to not have to worry about running into coral, too. There is a lot more variety of coral and fish there. Probably not as many fish as Captain Cook, but a lot more variety of fish. We also saw a few eel, an octupus (which are almost impossible to see because they camoflage so well), and a turtle! I spotted the turtle first (well, maybe at the same time as the 2 scuba divers, but definitely the first of the surface dwellers) so we had a good 5 minutes of following the turtle by ourselves before someone from the snorkel tour spotted him and shouted to everyone else. Once the others got in, it was a lot of bumping and fins in faces. Eventually, he came to the surface for air, and a couple of the snorkellers moved in and started grabbing him. I yelled at them and they backed off, otherwise it might have gotten ugly.
After well over an hour, I decided to get out of the water. Rob was already waiting on shore. Getting out is much harder than getting in, since you don't realize the rocks you are sitting on are filled with sea urchins until you are looking into the water through a snorkel mask. They hide in holes and are harmless as long as you keep your appendages out of the holes. But that's easier to do when you are standing on the rocks than when you are putting your hands on the rocks and pulling yourself up. But we both escaped unscathed.
Next to the snorkelling area, there's a small, muddy beach and boat launch (much easier than the one at Kealakekua Bay) and a sea turtle was resting over there while I was snorkelling. But he was hard to see with sand on his back.
Oh, and because it’s been a few days without abuse of the rental car, we used the center console as a cooler. We filled the hotel room ice bag with ice and put it in the console, then placed a couple drinks on top to drink after snorkelling. It turns out the bag was not water proof. Hopefully the console dries out before we return the car.
Next we headed for a beach so Rob could do some boogie boarding. We stopped on the way at a bakery/cafe and had some banana bread with macadamia nuts and banana bread with coconut. Not as good as mine. I also finally tried some Kona coffee. Not as good as Costa Rican. I found it a bit strong and bitter. I prefer lighter, sweeter brews.
The beach we were looking for is called "White Sands", and also "Disappearing Sands", as the surf sometimes pulls the sand out to sea and then brings it back later. When there's sand, it's supposed to have good waves for boogie boarding. When we found it, there was sand, but it was a small and very crowded beach. And the surf was minimal. But given that the next possible option was Hapuna Beach, about 40 miles north (since Kua Bay is closed to cars on Wednesdays) Rob decided to give it a try.
I was hanging out on the beach under my shiny new beach umbrella when Rob came up and told me that a sea turtle was sharing his waves while I was sitting there looking clueless. I ran out to where he had last seen the turtle, and within a few minutes, he was back. He was calmly swimming from person to person, sneaking up and scaring the crap out of unsuspecting children and women with small nudges. He was bumping into Rob several times, but it wasn't as frightening to him. At one point, I was standing with my back to the waves, about 3 feet away from the turtle when a wave knocked me forward and almost right on top of the turtle. He managed to escape. But he wasn't alone. At one point, I could see 3 of them while Rob could see a fourth. Fortunately, the people on the beach were much more respectful, nobody went out of their way to touch them. I finally decided I had enough of trying not to step on turtles when jumping in the waves, and headed back to the protection of my umbrella. After I left, Rob was trying to catch a wave and got tripped by a turtle. He ended up ass over tea-kettle in the wave and came up with a lung full of sea water Those suckers are pretty daring with those big shells! A few people mentioned that these turtles visit the beach every day.
After a few hours at the beach, we came back to the hotel and had a late lunch of leftover poke and crab salad. Rob then had a nap, and I did some reading on our balcony with a cold drink. We then made the obligatory trip to Hilo Hattie's, the original tacky Hawaiian souvenir shop. At the store, they had a pearl jewellery counter where you could buy oysters for $15 and keep whatever you find in it. A woman was trying her hand, she tried 2 oysters and got 2 matching pairs of pearls, which she made into earrings. I then tried, since Rob's mom's birthday is coming up and she asked for pearls, and I got 2 singles, one pink and one black. I didn't like any of the settings for single pearls, so I now have to get them mounted some other way.
After shopping, we went for a late dinner at a place called Splashers. The place was very popular, so we had to wait at the bar for a table. We ended up sitting next to the same woman who was buying pearls and her friend. We chatted with them for a while, and we now have new friends in Portland and San Francisco. The food was excellent. Rob had seared Ahi tuna, I had macadamia nut crusted Mahi Mahi with a pineapple sauce. And they had mango cheesecake for dessert (which is something I fell in love with in Australia, and have to get as much as possible.)
Rob is now doing laundry in the hotel laundromat. We are heading out the volcano tomorrow, and on to another island after that.

More Beach

Tuesday, Dec 27
This morning we decided to hit Kua Bay early, while it was still possible to get a parking spot. The parking lot opens at 9am, and when we arrived at 9:20, we got the last spot before people had to park on the road. The waves weren't as big as yesterday, but still enough for Rob to use the rental boogie board. I also discovered some good snorkeling on the edges of the bay, so I looked at fish while Rob rode waves.
After a few hours we came back to the hotel, changed into dry clothes and went in search of local food at a place called Da Poke Shack. Poke (pokay? pokee?) is essentially Hawaiian sushi. Cubed pieces of raw yellow fin tuna with various oils and spices. Rob got the shack special poke with sides of spicy crab salad and brown rice. I got lau lau, a Hawaiin dish of pork and fish wrapped in some sort of leaf, with a side of salmon ceviche. We then got more special poke and crab salad to go.
Back at the hotel, I prepared to spend happy hour by the pool, but found that the lobby lounge chairs facing the ocean were more comfortable and just as close to the tiki bar. Just as well, as someone broke some glass in the pool, causing it to be closed for several hours. Rob went exploring the touristy part of Kona.
We then went shopping for jeans at Macy's and my special waterproof sunblock. Macy's was a bust, the saleswoman checked stock, and none of the Hawaiian stores carry my jeans. She explained that jeans don't sell well here due to the heat. Then we looked at Kmart, Walmart, Safeway and Target for my sunblock. The stuff is called Bullfrog, and it lasts all day, and doesn't wash off. That's good for my clear redheaded skin, and for the reefs I snorkel at. It's the best stuff I have ever used. It's not sold in Canada, and I didn't bring enough to last both Rob and I for a 10 day vacation. Target carried it, but is sold out. The other places don't carry it. There's a local pharmacy that had it, but they were really expensive. So we searched the GPS for a Walgreens or CVS. No Walgreens on the big island, but 2 CVS listed. The first one turned out to be the previously mentioned local store. So we tried the next "CVS" 5 miles away. Another branch of the same local drug store, who was also out of stock of my sunscreen. With all the gas used driving around, I think it would have made more sense to just buy it at the expensive drug store.
Tomorrow the plan is to check out another snorkel spot and more doing nothing.

To the beach...

Monday, Dec 26
We slept in this morning, getting to breakfast a little after 9am. After breakfast, we went back to the room to laze around a little more and discuss what we should do for the day. There has been a barge of some sort parked in the bay, and we finally took binoculars down at breakfast to satisfy our curiosity. Upon learning that it's a jet-ski rental establishment, Rob expressed an interest in renting jet-skis. The other options for the day were to drive north to find a sandy beach, or drive south to another snorkelling spot. Eventually I made the executive decision to go to the beach. So we suited up, lathered up and hit the road.
I seem to have lost my funky black hat from MEC, so we stopped at Target to buy something to cover my head. I picked up a white baseball cap with "Aloha!" written across it in bright colours. Because, you know, I didn't look quite enough like a tourist before. The price on the shelf was $6, but it scanned at the cash for $13. It turns out the hat was put in the wrong spot on the shelf, but the cashier gave it to me for $6. Score! We also picked up a beach umbrella.
I was looking for a beach called Kua Bay. The directions in my guide book took us to an unmarked road which led to one of the most crowded parking lots I have ever witnessed. It reminded me of signs in a parking lot in Northern Australia at a popular swimming hole, "If this parking lot is full, Buley Rock Hole is crowded. Please come back later." Cars were parked all along the road, to about a 20 minute walk from the beach. I decided since I wasn't even sure this was the beach recommended by the book, we decided to keep moving. The next stop would be Hapuna Beach, lauded as the most spectacular beach on the island, but another 20 minute drive away. Along the drive, it started getting really windy. Once we arrived at Hapuna Beach, the wind was so strong that not many people were hanging out. We got in the water, but there weren't any waves to play in. Plus, the wind was lifting sand from the beach and tossing it in our faces. So we got out of the water and sat in a protected cove on the beach for about another half hour before Rob pointed out that the hotel pool had better seating and alcohol for sale. Back to the hotel!
On the way back, I suggested we take another look at Kua Bay, hoping that at 2:30 in the afternoon, the crowds would be starting to thin, and we'd be able to see if it was worth going back in the morning. This time, while it was still very busy, we were able to snag a decent parking spot. Once we walked down to the beach, we discovered why it was so busy. The waves were perfect for boogie boarding, and the whiter sand made the water appear much lighter. We stayed for about an hour, playing in the waves.
For dinner, we had reservations for the hotel luau. $58/person for all you can eat, all you can drink and a Polynesian dancing show. Line ups for the bar were long, cups were small, and Hawaii state law apparently limits each person to 2 drinks at a time. So we essentially got back into line as soon as we got our drinks. The other people at our table were a retired couple from Alberta now living on Vancouver Island, with their 2 adult children still living in Alberta. Calgarians are everywhere.
The food was excellent. Rob and I had more than our fill of fish, beef, chicken, pork, coconut and pineapple. Finished off with pineapple upside down cake and coconut cake.
The show included dances from various Polynesian islands, including Samoa and New Zealand where Rob and I have visited before. In New Zealand, we attended a Maori dinner, similar to a Hawaiian luau, and were seated at the only table with other English speaking guests. As a result, Rob was brought up on stage and learned the haka, the New Zealand warrior greeting, designed to intimidate. At the Hawaiian show tonight, the man doing this part came through the audience and gave his scary, tongue hanging out growl to various men. He gave it to Rob, who returned it with an equally scary growl and tongue. He was probably the only person in the crowd who has learned the Haka from actual Maoris. He suprised the guy and earned a laugh from our table. Later in the show, a man did a Samoan fire dance. It was slightly less impressive than the 11 year old world junior champion that we saw in Samoa, but good nonetheless.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Sunday, Dec 25
Our Christmas plans today were to rent a kayak and paddle to "the best snorkel spot in the state." It's at Captain Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay, which is accessible by foot over a one hour hiking trail, or by boat. To get there by boat, you can kayak yourself if you have a state issued permit to land the boat on the shore, or with a tour boat. We're not big on snorkel tours, so we got up and hit the buffet breakfast before going and picking up our rental kayaks. Today's abuse of the rental car entailed strapping 2 kayaks to the roof. The rental place was a couple of miles away from the put in spot. At the put-in, a few local guys hang out helping people with their gear in exchange for tips. We didn't know about this in advance, so we only had a $20 bill. Worth every penny when they helped me down the 5' drop to the boat in the water.
The trip took about 45 minutes, including small breaks to enjoy the scenery. Apparently dolphins are common to this area, but we didn't see any today. At the other side, where the snorkelling is, there were lots of sea urchins in the rocks, but we both escaped without injuring anything. We then spent about an hour swimming around, looking at fish and taking pictures. Then we stopped for lunch and I went back out to see more fish while Rob waited on shore in the shade. There was a tour boat in the bay, which looked to be very crowded. But they had slides to get into the water and a barbeque on board.
We then paddled back and had some fun trying to get back out at the pier. Rob managed to get out, but it was too tall for me, and him and the local guy pulling on my arms didn't help. But I was able to swim to the end of the pier where there were stairs.
Back at the hotel, I discovered that the pool bar offers happy hour every day from 4-6. Half price mai-tais and pina coladas. Yes, please! So I spent a couple hours by the pool and got tipsy.
We then headed out to a sushi restaurant for our Christmas day dinner. I had lobster tail tempura rolls, rainbow rolls and ceviche. Rob had some tuna so red it looked fake, but he said it tasted so good he may never enjoy sushi anywhere else again.
And then back to the hotel for bed time.

Snow?

Saturday, Dec 24
Today, while eating breakfast, we watched a pod of dolphins chase some snorkellers in the bay in front of the hotel. Our plans for the day were to drive to the top of Mauna Kea. It's the site of several astronomic observatories at almost 14000 feet. It's the tallest mountain in the world, if you include the 8000 feet that lies below the ocean. There is a guided tour for 4WD vehicles every Saturday and Sunday, as long as the road isn't closed due to snow. We checked the forecast, and since the road was open, we headed up to the visitor's center at 9000 feet soon after breakfast. After acclimatizing at the visitor's center, we joined a convoy and drove up. The rumor is that driving up to the summit voids rental car insurance, but there was no specific prohibition with our company, so we just didn't tell them. At the top, the temp was about 0C. This sounded balmy to us, but we hadn't considered the effect of the 50km/h wind. Brr. I thought we came to Hawaii for the heat? There were dozens of local Hawaiians with pickup trucks that they were filling with snow. We assumed this was a Christmas thing, but the rangers said this happens every time it snows on the mountain.
Part of the tour included access to the Keck telescopes, where several people collapsed due to lack of oxygen. Then we were left to wait for sunset, about an hour after the end of our tour. While we waited, about 30 tour buses came with tourists to see the sunset. The tourists got out of their buses and gatherd in front of our car. A few minutes before sunset, clouds came over the mountain from behind us and blocked the sun. It made for an interesting glow. But the sun set so quickly that we almost missed it due to not being able to see the progress from the car.
As soon as it set, we hopped back in the car and beat the tour buses back on the road down. Between the summit and the visitor's center it started raining. By the time we made it to the visitor's center, it was pitch black and pouring rain. There was also another few hundred people waiting there for the night time star gazing program. The rain made star gazing impossible, and the crowds waiting for the rain to pass convinced me to skip it. So we stayed long enough to each use the bathroom, lose each other and get soaked before heading back to Kona.
We ended up following one of the pick-ups full of snow back to town. We were very tempted to follow him to see what he would do with the snow. But we had to hit a grocery store to get lunch for Christmas day.

Off to Hawaii!

Friday, Dec 23
To avoid Calgary winter as much as possible, and with few family in town, we're spending Christmas in Hawaii.

We got up early this morning and got to the airport. The line-up for US customs reached through the designated area, around behind the check-in counters and down almost to the Tim Hortons before domestic security. This represented about a 2 hour wait. After about 45 minutes, we were called to the front due to being the next departing flight to keep on schedule. By the time we made it through customs, and security and our gate, it was boarding time. We walked right onto the plane, and then had to wait for about 2 thirds of the other pasengers to make it through. We ended up leaving about 45 minutes late. Coincedentally, right behind us was one of Rob's mountain bike buddies with his family.
That plane was one of the 3 oldest in Air Canada's fleet. No seat back entertainment, and ash trays in the arm rest. I had discovered this when checking in, so we brought lots of books, movies and games to keep ourselves entertained on the 7 hour flight. We landed in Maui, collected our bags and took them to check in for our inter-island flight. The line-up for security there was so long, and we landed so late that we decided not to leave the airport. Instead we had lunch behind security again and got on another flight.
We landed in Kona slightly after 4pm and got the shuttle to the rental cars. We had booked a "standard SUV", and were given a Chevy Acadia. It's got AWD, and non-sliding doors but it's a minivan in every other way. Yuck. But apparently there is always a shortage of rental cars in Hawaii, and Christmas time is especially bad, so we had no choice. We couldn't even pay extra for the Cadillac Escalade because it was reserved.
We're staying at the Royal Kona Resort. It was built in the 1960s and not had much renovation since. It's very old-school, kitschy Hawaii. We love it! We booked an "ocean view" and they gave us a corner unit with a wrap around balcony and 2 walls of windows with sliding glass doors. The neighbours are going to LOVE us. One way faces the pool and ocean, the other direction faces the luau pit and the other tower of the hotel.
We went for a bit of a walk up the street, the main core of the tourist district. Lots of pub restaurants, gift shops and tour agencies. Then we drove to Target and Costco to stock up on drinks and snacks before heading back to the hotel and passing out.

Coming home

We're home now, back to work and back to real life, but I figured I should wrap up the blog.

Our last full day in Cape Town, we went back into town to do a little more sightseeing and souvenir buying. We stopped into the Turkish Baths, but they didn't seem as nice as I remember from Istanbul, so we didn't go in.

We went back to the Pan African market, the indoor stalls from before. UG looked at more masks. There was one vendor UG liked before who told the story of the various masks he sells, so we went back to him. UG looked at several masks and the vendor kept asking which one he wanted to know the price on. Finally UG picked one and asked the price. When the vendor said 2800 ZAR (about $400), UG almost collapsed. But he wouldn't let us leave without making a sale. So UG told him all he had left was 500 ZAR. I believed him, so I said he wasn't allowed to spend the full 500, because *I* still had shopping to do, and I was out of cash. So they agreed to 300 ZAR. Sshhh, big secret, we're not supposed to tell anyone what a huge deal we got.

I still believed UG only had 200 ZAR left, so I didn't end up buying anything. Well, that and on closer inspection of the hippo I liked, the dark colour was created with shoe polish, not from ebony wood like the seller claimed.

It was wonderfully hot out, so we hurried back to Simon's Town to head to the beach. But by the time we got back, the wind was blowing, clouds were coming in and the water was cold.

That evening, I had to log into the airline website and pre-pay for my extra luggage for a 50% discount, for the domestic flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. I decided to err on the high side, and purchased 15 kilograms, way, way, way more than I thought I would need.

On Wednesday, home day, we woke up to absolutely the best weather in Simon's Town of the entire stay. It made packing up very difficult. We went out to pick up my souvenir wine and liqueur. UG was also looking for a South African lock set, since most locks we encountered used these weird, antique style keys. But the locks were brand new. So we hit up several hardware stores looking for locks. No idea what we're going to install the locks on, but it was fun exploring African hardware stores. It turns out the little place that reminded us of Totem (or Beaver Lumber for the Ontario crowd) was actually their equivalent of Lowes. The shops got smaller and scarier from there. I am glad I don't have a house that needs renovations in Africa.

With all our loot, and still a few more hours of vacation and nice weather, we tried again to go to the beach. This time we made it in up to our knees. It wasn't "quite" as cold as Long Beach on Vancouver Island, but definitely not as warm as up near Durban or Saint Lucia. Back at the apartment, we took a quick dip in the pool and let our suits dry while we finished packing.

Once we got everything packed up, with the help of UG's travel scale (also used for weighing bike parts at home), we weighed the bags to ensure no one bag was too heavy. It turns out I had a little over 14kg more stuff than the basic domestic allowance. Good thing I got the 15 kilos. I guess UG can be right once in a while.

Over the course of our stay in Cape Town, we saw oodles of old Volkswagen Beetles. UG is a big fan, he has owned 2, and we still play "punch buggy". We also play "stumpy" when crossing railways. Neither of us has ever been accused of being too mature. In case you are too mature to know the game, if you see a 70s or earlier model of VW Beetle, you punch the person next to you and say "punch buggy (insert colour of the car), no punch backs!" Anyway, with all the Bugs in the Cape Town area, we had a great time playing "punch buggy". Typically, UG gets me more than I get him, he seems to have a radar for them. But even I was able to get a few, there were so many of them. On the way to the airport, we saw 5 Beetles, I got him on all of them. It was probably a good time to be leaving, as we were both starting to get bruises from the game.

On the flight, we had a young South African guy sitting between us. He was chatty and wanted to hear all about our trip and tell us about his country. The first thing he asked us was "did you get mugged?" He was an interesting guy, so excited to be going to J'burg on his first business trip, his first time in a fancy hotel.

Our flight was 45 minutes delayed, fortunately I gave us a 3h window in Johannesburg. And the airline wouldn't check our bags through from Cape Town, despite insistence on the Trip Advisor forums that they would. So we had to find them and haul them across the airport ourselves. For some odd reason, the airport staff would not let people take their carts into the airline check-in line. Everyone had to unload all their stuff at the end of the line, and maneuver it up through the line to the front. I made the line move especially slow, and left a bad last memory of South Africa.

By the time we got through security and found the gate, we had about 20 minutes to spare. Good thing I didn't take the "experts" advice on Trip Advisor and only leave a 1 hour window!

About 26 hours later, we arrived home, tired. But happy to not see snow on the ground.

Sharks, round 2

Saturday I "dragged" UG for a drive around the wine region. To get there, we followed a pretty coastal road, then passed a massive "township" (aka: shanty-town), almost immediately followed by vineyards.

We started with a stop at the visitor centre in Stellenbosch, which turns out to be the oldest European village in South Africa. The woman there got on a tangent about social issues in South Africa, which led to comments about all the young people of South Africa moving overseas, mostly to Australia. The downside of Australia, according to her, is how regimented life is there, all those rules! Apparently in South Africa, you can do whatever you want. That explains the driving!

But she also provided some helpful maps and suggestions of places to stop. I was expecting a "wine route", a loop of some sort that drives past the majority of the vineyards. But it turns out ALL the roads in the region have multiple wineries on them. There seems to be at least 10 times as many wineries as the Niagra or Okanagan regions. Some of them aren't even on the winery tour map. We stopped at a relatively new winery with impressive gardens and modern restaurants, then very old one with a quiet outdoor cafe under the oak trees (with homemade lemonade and lemon meringue pie!).

We then passed a tourist trap of a shop, with large, ugly, multicoloured metal art decorating their front yard. As we have a weakness for tacky tourist traps, we had to stop (have YOU had your photo taken with the world's largest mango?). The front half of the shop is basically a country grocery store. The back half is a discount wine liquidation warehouse. There were bottles of wine for about $2 CDN. I was tempted to load up, but what if it wasn't good? If I bought 2 bottles so I could try one before going home, it was no longer such a good deal. The decision was made when I realized I didn't really want to fight the crowds. UG compared the experience to an underwear sale at Army & Navy (a slightly less upscale store than Giant Tiger for you Easterners), old ladies going crazy and buying everything in sight. There was one giddy woman pushing her cart loaded with possibly 50 bottles of wine.



We then stopped at a couple more wineries with good scenery (no tasting for me, as UG did not appear to be in the mood to wait for me to try the thousands of wine on offer) and then headed home.

By Saturday evening, UG had recovered from his seasickness, and picked up some drugs from the pharmacy to take on the next attempt at shark cage diving, but Sunday's trip was full. Apparently they had been trying to call us all day to see if we still wanted to go, but either they were trying to call our Calgary phone number, or we're the victims of yet more South African cell network issues. But they were able to book us in for Monday.

Sunday turned out to be the best day in Cape Town, weather wise (up to 34C and sunny in Cape Town proper). We drove into town and wandered around the V&A Waterfront (Victoria and Alfred, named for Queen Vicki and her son, not her husband Albert). This is a cleaned up for tourists version of the 19th-20th century harbour front. It's a large collection of malls, tourist gift shops, restaurants and harbour cruise boat operators. There are also live musical acts and a ferris wheel. After arriving and then spending about 45 minutes looking for a bathroom we sat down at a restaurant with a shaded, waterside patio. Unfortunately, it seems like 85% of South Africans smoke, and restaurants here have never considered non-smoking areas. So while we waited almost 2 hours to order, eat, get the bill and pay, we were completely engulfed in cigarette smoke.

We then headed back to Simon's Town with the intent of hitting the beach. But everyone else in the city was out enjoying the weather, so we hit a traffic jam on the scenic coastal road. By the time we got back to the apartment to change into bathing suits, we had only about an hour of sun left. So we suited up and enjoyed our private pool instead.

This morning, we woke up early to a clear, calm and warm (although still dark) day. While eating breakfast and preparing to go on another shark tour, suddenly the wind blew in, as if someone turned on the wind switch on our movie set. UG pulled up his email and was told that the trip may be cancelled, and that they were trying to call us again. Apparently there are a lot of messages waiting for us back in Calgary. A few minutes later, we got another message that the trip was to be delayed by an hour. When we eventually arrived at the boat, everyone else was already onboard, as they were all staying in Cape Town or on the Atlantic coast, a 45min drive away, so they were all already on their way to the boat when they heard of the delay, so they had to wait on the pier instead of a couch like us. I am very happy to have chosen this spot.



A shark breached in front of the boat before we even got to the island and dropped our decoy to instigate a breach. Of course, UG and I missed it as we were riding in the nice warm cabin, instead of up on the cold, windy viewing deck. Once the decoy was dropped, I got probably 30 minutes of video of a rubber seal bobbing through the waves. But no sharks.

As we were getting ready to drop the anchor, our captain pointed out a seal swimming by himself and told us to watch him. He had a feeling, based on the activity we had seen, and the fact that the seal was all alone. I video'd this poor lonely seal until he passed the boat and I could no longer see him. That was the point when he met his fate and was snapped up by a shark jumping out of the water. Luckily, UG saw it through the front window of the boat cabin, and another guest from the top viewing deck got a photo. I then got video of the shark flailing around and finishing the seal off.

UG decided not to be the first to suit up in anticipation of getting in the cage, since the wetsuit was uncomfortable, so 2 other guys went first. While they were in the cage, the largest shark of the day grabbed the bait line in front of the cage, got it caught on his teeth, and slammed into the cage in the process of getting away. This shark was about twice the size of the guy that rattled UG's cage on Friday. And both guys in the cage saw it, since it happened in front of them (as opposed to behind like UG's experience). There were at least 2 more sharks who came by the boat while these guys were in the cage. Eventually UG decided to get in, but the activity seemed to be done by then.

Back on shore, we went for lunch with a couple of the other guests who have just arrived in SA from Oregon. And just as we arrived back at the apartment, it started to rain.

We now have less than 48 hours until we leave to head back to Calgary. On one hand, I am looking forward to seeing my dog and sleeping in my own bed. On the other, it doesn't seem to have stopped snowing in Calgary.

Sharks!

We got up super early today for our shark trip. The boat leaves at 6:45 from the pier down te road, so we were up around 5:30, more than an hour before sunrise here.
It was raining lightly here in town, and of course cold at that hour, but at least there was no wind. From shore, the sea looked perfectly smooth. The tide was especially low, so getting into the boat was difficult, and I had a wet bum before we pushed off.

There was another couple there with their daughter. The daughter was wearing a top from Mountain Equipment Co-op, so we asked where they were from. Airdrie, about 20 minutes north of our house in Calgary.

On the way out to Seal Island, where the sharks hunt, we saw about a hundred dolphins, and perhaps 10 seals, swimming around in the open water. The seals were funny as they would stop every now and then and poke their heads up to look around.
Once we got close to the island, they threw a seal decoy into the water and dragged it behind the boat and circled the island for what felt like an hour, with nothing interesting happening. We were told if a shark bit, it would happen instantly, so if we wanted photos, we'd have to just watch with the camera pointed and ready. I put the camera in video mode and just kept it pointed at the decoy. So I have a whole lot of video of nothing.

Then they decided to drop ancor and let people get in the cage suspended off the side of the boat with scuba gear. As soon as the anchor dropped, a shark came up to see what was going on. It happened so quickly, nobody was ready, and all I saw was a flash of grey skin.

UG was the first volunteer to get in the cage, so he got into a wetsuit that was a little too small, and waited about another 20 minutes for more signs of a shark (he thought it was more like an hour). The sea out at the island wasn't nearly as calm as in town, with large swells causing the boat to sway quite a bit, so UG was not enjoying the wait. The rain had stopped, which was good for me, watching from the upper deck of the boat. Once another shark appeared, I got a photo of the fin, and UG got in the cage. Within seconds of getting in, the shark came up and bumped the cage. It swam between the cage and the boat, giving the cage a frightening shove (it scared me, watching from the boat). UG, in the water, turned around to see what had caused the bump, but the shark was already gone. He stayed in for about a half an hour, and the waves caused the cage to bang around a lot, so he assumed that's what had caused the first bump. He saw a lot of jelly fish, but nothing else. 2 other people who got into the cage saw the shark, but 4 of them saw nothing.

After getting out of the cage, UG started feeling seasick. He didn't take a second turn, and spent the rest of the trip just praying for it to end.
Overall it was very disappointing, especially for UG. This was the whole reason for our trip to South Africa in the first place. All he saw was the fin I managed to get a photo of. We were supposed to go out again tomorrow, but the forecast is calling for high winds. We have an opportunity to go out again on Sunday, but we'll have to wait for UG's stomach to settle for him to decide if he wants to try again.
After getting back to the apartment, I turned on the TV to catch the end of William and Kate's wedding, live on BBC. While UG slept, I watched the first half of the wedding from a recording.

Once had a good long nap, we went back to the Brass Bell for dinner. This time, we went upstairs, which was a little less sketchy. It had actual tables and chairs, instead of picnic tables downstairs, actual flooring instead of subfloor planks, and white painted walls and decoration instead of whatever colour the wood was before and beer advertisements. The food wasn't quite as awesome as before, UG had his fish sent back as the first one was a little overcooked. For an appetizer, we ordered a small wood fird pizza, with ham, pineapple and banana. Banana has been on several pizza menus here, and UG had been dying to try it. It works with pineapple, but on it's own, it would be very weird.

And driving home, we saw more penguins again, wandering the streets, hanging out in people's front gardens.

Cape Town

For dinner last night, we drove around the coast to Kalk Bay (I giggle every time I say that) looking for a restaurant that had been described by our host. We were told there was a building right on the water, with multiple levels and restaurants on each level. Apparently the restaurant on the bottom has to replace it's windows after every storm, it's that close to the water. We drove around, and happened to find a place that vaguely fit the description. It was 2 levels, with about 5 restaurants in the building, at least 3 of which shared the same menu and kitchen.

The building and decor were extremely sketchy. There is a commuter train from Cape Town that winds along the bay, right next to the water in most places. This building was on the water side, so that we had to cross under the tracks from the parking lot to get into the restaurant. We sat on the lower level, but I poked my head upstairs to look around. The restaurant upstairs closest to the water appeared to just be a glass box mounted on top of the restaurants below. There were 2 other restaurants in behind on the upper level, with a large gap in between so that everyone had a view. The roofs of the lower restaurants (where an upper restaurant didn't cover) were just sheets of corrugated cardboard that almost didn't appear to be fully attached to the structure. Our waiter pointed out the one end of our restaurant was curtained off and not used, because the rain was still coming and going, and the roof leaked at that end.

But damn, that place served the best seafood ever! I had the fish and chips with calamari combo (battered hake), UG had the line fish of the day, bluenose. He wolfed his down too quickly for me to taste. My hake was decent, no bones, good batter, tasty fish. But the calamari was to die for. Perfectly cooked so it wasn't the least bit rubbery. It was called the Brass Bell if you're ever in the area.

This morning, it was a little cloudy, so we decided to go into Cape Town and hit the markets and go up Table Mountain later if the clouds cleared.
The area of Cape Town where the markets are is a pretty little area with British colonial architecture, and lots of quirky, independent shops. Unfortunately a severe lack of parking makes it difficult to spend much time there. I guess most people must stay at a nearby hotel and take a taxi to the shopping districts. The market was disappointing, as the prices were very high. And bargaining was expected, but even then, the prices didn't move very far. I ended up only buying a small wooden hippo, only because I wanted a photo of the girl running the booth with her baby tied to her back.

After leaving the market, we found another building that seemed to be occupied by multiple independent vendors selling similar stuff as the market. Prices here were much better, and I bought a giraffe before UG hurried me out because our parking time was up.

By then, the clouds had mostly cleared at the top of Table Mountain, so we headed over to take the cable car to the top. The crowds were insane, likely because the cable car has been closed for the last 2 days due to weather. It took about an hour to purchase our tickets and get to the top.

Now, living in the moutainous area of Canada, I have ridden my share of lifts and gondolas. I am generally pretty comfortable with them. The Table Mountain cable car has the unique feature of a rotating floor so you get to see every angle as it goes up. The combnation of standing, and not being able to hold on while the floor moves makes this a terrifying ride. At least for me. UG was laughing all the way, making bad jokes like "should we be going down this quickly?"

We then drove home via the western coastal road. We stopped to watch the sunset at a pull out, where a makeshift market was just packing up. I bought a huge wooden hippo partially on impluse. I have been looking for a hippo, and they are everywhere, so I have been looking for a "perfect" one. I had basically decided to just buy one, because I get the feeling I am not going to find a perfect one, and UG is tired of me looking. So the purchase was somewhat impulsive, somewhat planned. I hadn't expected to get one so huge, but she was a great price (we'd rather sell 'em then pack 'em!) and she's unique to most of the ones around.
Once the sun dipped below the horizon, we kept going. To get home, we had to follow a brand new toll road, which hugs the side of the mountain above the shoreline. The road cuts through the mountain in a few spots, with ledges cantilevered out above the road. Again, I am used to mountain roads, but in Canada, we support the tunnel on both sides!

And just as we arrived home, I saw a few penguins wandering down the street. I saw a couple last night, too, on the way to dinner. Apparently they go for walks after the tourists leave for the evening.

The southern most point of Africa

The weather forecast was predicting some doomsday scenario for today. It was supposed to be colder, windier and rainier than yesterday, and worse than the storms yesterday morning and last night would pretty much have to be the end of the world, as far as I can imagine.

But when we woke up (at 8am!) the sky was clear, the sun was shining and there was almost no wind. Actually, I woke up to use the washroom around 6am, there were stars out.

(Sidenote: South Africa is about as wide as BC and Alberta combined -half as tall, but has only one time zone. So the sun rises and sets at much more civilised time here on the west coast than it does in the east, where the game parks are.)

So we decided to take advantage of the suprise nice weather and go south the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. As was suggested by our host, we went in the morning as number 1, the winds generally get worse in the afternoon; and number 2, the tour buses from Cape Town arrive around 11am and the place becomes a mad house.

It's a pretty drive up to the point, with lots of nice views of the sea. We arrived at the Cape Point parking lot at about 9:30, but the funicular (tram) to the top of the point was having technical issues and wasn't scheduled to start until 10am anyway. So we decided to drive around to the Cape of Good Hope and then come back.

The parking lot for the Cape of Good Hope is at sea level, next to the Atlantic. Just as we parked, UG pointed out the 4 ostriches wandering around the end of the parking lot. I took a few photos from the car before getting out, as I was sure they would run off as soon as I did. But when I got out of the car, they stayed where they were, so I snapped some more pictures. UG decided to climb to the peak (about 60 feet of stairs followed by a scramble for another 100 feet or so), so I got back into the car to wait for him. As soon as I got into the car, the ostriches ran towards the car. I wanted to get more pictures, but I was afraid to open the window. They passed the car and started heading down the road, and I realized they had probably felt trapped by us, with the rock face behind them, the ocean to their left and us in front of them. So when they felt safe, they decided to make a break for it get get more out in the open. Goofy birds.

After UG got some great photos and came back down, we went back to the other point. By then, the parking lot had almost filled up, and we were feeling like we should have waited for the funicular to start because we had such a good parking spot before. But we were first in line for the next car once we bought our tickets, and didn't have to wait too long.

At the top of the tram, there's another set of stairs up to the old lighthouse. As were were climbing the stairs, I recognized one of the couples from our safari jeep at Elephant Plains. They have been doing a similar route to ours with their young adult son. They are headed back to Sweden tomorrow, so I doubt we'll see them again.

From the base of the lighthouse, we saw a couple of dolphin or seals playing in the waves. It's hard to tell them apart from almost 300m above. After we saw the ones surfing the waves, UG pointed out some dark patches a little further out. He said he wasn't moving until he saw the shark come by for a feeding. After quite a while when I didn't see any of them surfacing for air, I pulled out the binoculars, and realized we were watching seaweed.
I am really nervous about this shark tour if UG thinks sharks eat seaweed!

Combing back down from the tram, we encountered 4 full sized motorcoaches, as opposed to the mini-buses that were there when we arrived. And by then, another 100 or so cars were parked along the road, and disagreements were starting over parking spots and right-of-ways. I guess it's good advice to go in the morning. I also realize those ostriches we were the only ones to see right at that spot were probably thinking "Damn, the tourists aren't supposed to be here for another hour!"

Back in Simon's Town, it had obviously been raining. We came back to the apartment for some lunch, and the plan was to head back out for some more scenic drives to the other side of the penninsula. But UG has fallen asleep on the couch, so it looks like we're in for the rest of the afternoon. There are a whole bunch of sailboats out in the bay, but it seems like a terrible day for sailing, as the wind is almost non-existant, and it keeps raining off and on.

Heading to Cape Town

We packed up yesterday morning and headed out from Pietermaritzburg back down to the coast, back to the "beach" resort to pick up my bathing suit.

As we were leaving the resort last week, we saw a public beach about 2 minutes away from the resort, but we hadn't seen anyone swimming at it. And since we didn't realize that we'd be going back to the resort (because if we realized I'd left my bathing suit behind, we would have just turned around then and got it) , or how close we were to the airport, we didn't bother to investigate last week. But yesterday, on the way to the resort, we noticed there were people swimming. After picking up my suit, we had about an hour and a half before we had to be at the airport, which was about 20 minutes away, so I convince UG to stop and let me dip my toes in. He didn't think we had time to change into bathing suits, swim, dry off and get to the airport, so toes was all I could do. So I took off my shoes and socks, rolled my jeans up to my knees, and went down to the edge of the water. Within about a minute, a huge wave came, and soaked me almost to my crotch. But I was wearing my jeans because they were too heavy to pack in my suitcase, and that's when they are dry! So I laid on a bench for a few minutes to get them dry enough that they wouldn't drip on my shoes while UG sulked in the shade because he was so hot and HIS bathing suit was buried in his suitcase, not loose in the back seat of the car like mine. So after a few minutes, we got back in the car and took the long route to the airport.

After dropping off the rental car, we went inside the terminal. We stopped an employee to ask directions to the elevator (packing light is not one of my talents), and he happened to point us to the flight status board where our 1:15 flight was now scheduled to depart at 5:10. And we're there early!

Another 10 minutes later, we're done exploring the brand new Durban airport (King Shaka International, UG loves saying the name and is going to start a petition to change Calgary International to something better sounding, like Chief Chacka International Airport), and we realize there is not enough there to entertain us for 5 hours until we can check in. So we went back to the rental car desk and asked if our car was still there. No, they had already taken it for cleaning. How much for a different car for 4 hours? About $70. Hmm, well, there are 6 other companies, and I got time, so I walked to each one and compared prices. Only 2 actually had cars, so we got one for $60 for a 1 day rental. We considered a taxi, but we didn't know how to explain where we wanted to go, and we didn't know how to get back. $60 was a bargain compared to the resort, and this time I KNEW I'd get to play in some waves.
We were given a Hyundai i10. My theory is that the car isn't big enough to have a name, so they gave it a number. A Toyota Yaris would have been an upgrade, and it still had 4 doors. We folded the back seats down and filled the little jelly bean on wheels with our luggage, and hauled our butts back to the beach.

Back at the beach, UG pointed out that the only people swimming were kids. Was there a reason for that? Um, yes. It turns out the breaking waves were so strong, only 6 year olds have the energy to spend any time in them. In the process of getting past the breaks, I was knocked on my butt a couple of times and sent somersaulting back on shore. I was still dropping pebbles out of my pants when we eventually made it to Cape Town, and I probably should have still been wearing my rash shirt, because keeping the girls covered when you don't know which end is up is a challenge. But I made it past the rough parts and got to bob around in the deeper parts where the waves (mostly) weren't breaking, so weren't as tough to deal with.

We spent about 20 minutes in the water, and then 40 drying off, and then headed back to the airport.

Back at the airport, we got dinner, then went to check in. When we checked in, we were given meal vouchers because of the flight delay. Damn-it, we are so used to the "just be glad we're letting you fly with us" attitude of North American airlines that it never occurred to us there'd be meal vouchers for a 4 hour delay. So we took our vouchers, which were for one restaurant and went to see what they had for dessert. Nothing interesting, so we gave the vouchers to a family that was heading in.
When we finally got to board (at about 5:30), they were handing out 400 Rand airline vouchers to eat passenger (worth about $60 Cdn) as an apology for the delay. These flights only cost us about $90 Cdn to start with.

By the time we got to Cape Town, it was dark, so we didn't see anything from the air. And although the GPS took us on the scenic route to our accomodation, we still didn't get to see much there either.

We're staying in a suburb of Cape Town, on the coast of False Bay in the Indian Ocean. The town is called Simon's Town, and it's a pretty little seaside village. The shark tours leave from here, Cape Point is just down the road, there is a protected penguin colony living across the road, and the beaches are warmer than the Atlantic side (which is important when it's late fall here). We've rented an apartment, since we're staying put for 9 nights. It's an interesting apartment. It's the main floor and back of the second floor of a house. The owners have the front of the second floor and the 3rd floor. It's built onto a steep hill (UG doesn't like the driveway!), and there are spectacular views of the bay from 3 sides of the house. There's even a sweet old husky mix who comes by for a belly rub whenever we go outside (Lula, she belongs to the owners upstairs).

We woke up this morning at about 5am, thanks to a nasty wind and rain storm. I thought some patio furniture was going to come through a window. I guess there's a downside to living high up on the hill. Incidentally, I am shocked, (happily) at the lack of over-the-top security here. There's a front gate, and a door lock. There are large picture windows and sliding glass doors with no bars and only the usual little latch to lock the patio doors. The small windows have bars, I think it's impossible to buy windows without bars in South Africa. The big windows were obviously imported, but they cut costs on the little windows which weren't showing off a view anyway.
After staying in bed to about 8am, we headed out in search of breakfast. UG was starting to be unimpressed with the lack of restaurants in this little town, but we eventually found something, and after we ate, we realized there's a lot here, but nothing opens before 9am.

After breakfast, we went and loaded up on groceries. I spent a while in the wine aisle. I am very impressed at the huge selection of wines available at the grocery store. A full aisle of only South African wines. I bought 3 bottles to sample, at an average price of $5 each.

Back at the apartment, we were being lazy and looking through the brochures of things to do when the owner husband stopped by with a print out of the week's forecast to assure us it's not going to be so cold and windy the whole time we're here. After chatting for a while, we realized he's an avid cyclist. When he heard UG is also into mountain biking and hasn't been able to ride for the last 7 months, he invited him out riding tomorrow morning. (He later had to change plans, as the friends who were going are unavailable due to public holiday, but he still plans to take UG out one day).

He went out to run some errands, and came back 20 minutes later to tell us some whales had been spotted in the bay, close to shore, just 9km up the road. We had no expectations of seeing whales here, since they are only ever seen in the winter. It's extremely rare to see them in the bay in April. We drove up and watched them for about 10 minutes before they swam out too far to watch.

We then went to see the penguins. The owner of the house told us about the boardwalk we can use to see them without paying the fee to the national park, since there's no fences corralling them to a certain location. But we get in free anyway with our park pass, so we went to the main viewing boardwalk. There seemed to be 3 buses of Japanese tourists, plus a few hundred other random tourists, so I think we'll go investigate the free boardwalk another day. But the penguins are worth the trip anyway.

While we were out sightseeing along the waterfront, the wind was much calmer than up at the apartment, but still occasionally gusting. The thermometer read 17C, and the sun was shining and warm. Without the wind, it would have actually been a nice day. Much nicer than the 11C and raining that was predicted. Besides the rain this morning, we got some rain last night. And apparently that's the first rain this town had gotten for 4 months. It's also raining this evening. But at least we got a few hours of sunshine.

Pietermaritzburg

(Peter-Mariss-Burg for the linguistically challenged like UG!)

Friday turned out to be very nice weather. We ended up spending it by the pool at the hotel.

Our next stop is Pietermaritzburg, for a mountain bike world cup. I had to book stuff before the details of the race came out. I got lucky booking a hotel just 5 minutes from the venue, but I didn't book the right days. So UG was going to drive the hour from the coast up to the race to catch the downhill qualifying runs, and the 4-cross (4 guys riding downhill at the same time?). But he ended up being lazy like me and spent it at the pool instead.

We were going to go to the beach. But it turns out even the beach they will shuttle you to is not a "swimming beach". I still have no idea what makes a beach un-swimmable here, nobody will say. They just say "the swimming beach is that way." So frustrating to be so close to such a warm ocean and not be able to go in.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was okay. Not spectacular, and the omelet was terrible, but there were enough options that I was finally able to eat. But by about 2pm I was starting to get hungry again. I know the pool burgers are awful, and the only other option on the pool menu is nachos with "cream cheese". Apparently if you want anything else, you aren't allowed to sit at the pool. So I walked to the "beach" bar (closer to the beach, but still not on the beach), and their menu was all Greek mezes. I do like Greek food, mezes not so much. The restaurant inside the hotel had fish and chips, so I walked up there and asked for take-out. They told me no, if I didn't want to eat in the restaurant, I had to go to my room and order room service. I finally snapped, and demanded fish and chips TO GO! For the cost of this place, if I want fish and chips, and I want to sit by the pool, and they HAVE fish and chips, I should be able to take it to the pool. I had had enough of this "if you want to sit in place X, you have a choice of these 3 items. If you want to sit in place Y, you can have a choice of these 2 items" from a resort that brags of all it's food selections. So they let me take it to the pool. Fortunately, it tasted decent, so I didn't have to have another temper tantrum.

And 3 hours later, I was hugging the toilet bowl. UG thinks it was sun stroke, but I've had sun stroke, and that was not it. I'm convinced it was food poisoning, but UG says it took too long to come on. It was not alcohol induced, as I'd only had 3 alcoholic drinks all day. I felt okay in the morning, but I started to feel nauseous part way through breakfast. It came and went throughout the day, but fortunately not as bad as Friday night.

Saturday, we spent another couple of hours by the pool and then drove up to P'burg. The hotel here is a 4 room guest house. We got a phone call from them at 4pm asking if we still planned to stay here, as the staff was planning to go home. It's a pretty little place, all rooms have a private bathroom, and the other 3 rooms were occupied by the Ukrainian cross-country mountain bike team. They checked out early this morning for their flight home, as their final race was yesterday. All the other places we've stayed at here have had some kind of security fence or wall, and 24h staff or security guards, so it was fairly unobtrusive. For example, in Jo'burg, the hotel was surrounded by a wall topped with electric fencing. The only way inside is through the front door, past the valet, bellman and front desk clerk. So individual rooms had the standard hotel key card. At the game reserves, there's an outer perimeter fence, open wilderness filled with vicious animals, then a camp perimeter, so we just had a key to our room. But here, there's an outer wall with a gate which we have a remote for, and then there's a gate on the building itself, and then the door has a lock (we have a key to the back door/gate, only the staff has keys to the front door/gate), and finally we have a key for our room. The weight f the key chain is pulling down UG's pants. (Come to think of it, the place in Graskop only had a wall and a key to our room, no security guard, so I guess that's the reason for the "don't leave your purse near a window" warnings.)

According to the tourist books, Durban has the highest concentration of Indian people outside of India, so the curries here are supposed to be great, so that's what UG wanted for dinner last night. We were told there was a good liitle curry place in a nearby mall, so we headed over there. The stores close at 6pm on Saturdays, but the restaurants in the mall stay open later. Arriving at the mall at 6:15 was a strange experience. The mall was closed, so almost all the lights were out in the parking lot. Yet there were hundreds (thousands?) of people around who had just gotten off work and were waiting for their rides. There were even a few large groups milling around the parking lot, like a bar had just closed. We parked, went in the closest door, and even the mall map was turned off. We managed to figure out that all the restaurants and the movie theatre were on the back side of the mall. So we got back in the car and tried to drive to the back side. But the back side had no entrance, just delivery doors. Finally, we found a door with lights on and cars in the parking lot and used that entrance. That turned out to be the closest entrance to the restaurants, and since they were still open, even the mall map was still on.

I dropped UG off at the race venue this morning and came back to the hotel. I had planned to do some exploring on my own, but because the driving is so bad here, I'll probably just hang by the pool some more. Although, I realized I left my bathing suit in the lobby of the hotel on the coast, just as we were arriving in P'burg. So I'll have to wear my snorkelling bathing suit if I want to swim in the pool, which consists of a surfer's "rash shirt" to protect me from sunburn. A little dorky for the pool, but better than nothing. MUCH better than nothing. The other hotel is really close to the airport, so I'll be able to pick it up on our way out tomorrow.

We are scheduled to fly out to Cape Town tomorrow. I got an email yesterday from the shark tour we have booked for Wednesday saying that high winds have been forecasted, so they will be cancelling Wednesday's tour, and can we book another day. Yes, we're in the area for 9 days, partially just for that reason. UG checked the Cape Town forecast this morning, and Tuesday is predicted to be 11C and raining. Ug. So I have spent part of my morning looking into whether it's feasible to just stay in Durban a few days longer. Flights are no big deal, but the rental car might be difficult. And finding a decent place to stay was hard enough before. With just a day's notice, it's pretty much imppossible. So now I gotta figure out what to do in Cape Town when the weather is 11C, raining with high winds.

Saint Lucia

We got up early this morning and hit the road. We were stopped by 2 roadblocks before getting to the border. One was in the same location as yesterday, the other just before the border to South Africa. Both times, UG was asked to show his driver's license. We provided his international driving permit along with his Alberta license. It wasn't asked for, but they were appreciative. I'm glad we had it rather than deal with the repercussions of not having it. Once they were satisfied we weren't doing anything illegal, we were sent on our way.
Crossing the border was even more chaotic than before. This border crossing was signifigantly more busy, with roads going in every which direction. SA has the number of lines condensed to one. Both for people arriving and for people leaving the country. The wait was about 45 minutes to get stamped back in by immigration. Then a quick stamp without a single question about our cameras, etc.
We're now in Saint Lucia. It has the feel of a Florida beach vacation town, with a short main street filled with motels, surf shops and tour agents. I took a drive around town while UG was resting in our room, looking for information about snorkelling. I also went looking for the ocean, which is just outside of town. I got as far as where the river meets the ocean, and the road ended at a campground which is not on the map. While turning around, I saw a hippo walking along the far side of the river. I parked the car, got out and watched, and there were 4 of them out of the water! This was my first sighting of a full hippo. Up to now, they've all been partially submerged in a pond or river. I left them after a few minutes, as I figured I had left UG alone for too long.
After a swim in the pool and dinner, we drove the other way to the beach. There were a few other people there, wearing bathing suits and wrapped up in towels. But the waves were huge, so we didn't get too close to the water. It was also late in the day, so the other people were leaving.

Swaziland

At breakfast, we could see that it was just catfish splashing. No hippos to be seen, just a croc way off at the far side of the pond.

It's still cold here. Well, about 16C, but the air has a damp chill to it. And it's overcast. So we decided to skip the game drive and head into town to experience Swaziland. The closest town is supposed to be the main tourist mecca, so pretty much all we saw was a couple of craft markets. At the first market, there was a silversmith shop on the premises, where I purchased a small silver pendant which is supposed to have giraffe hair in it.

The next market was a little less fancy, it contained about 120 stalls all selling the same wooden and stone animal carvings, beaded jewellery, baskets and paintings. We walked around each stall before making choices of what to buy. The whole time we were there, only a handful of other tourists stopped in, visited one or 2 stalls and left again. I think the few purchases we made were those vendors only sale of the day.

One vendor we have named "Crazy Eddie" invited us into his "crazy shop, with lots of crazy things, beware of the crazy prices!" UG bought some small wooden elephants from him. A few vendors were selling these cool shadow boxes with about 12 small elephants lined up in the box. UG wanted one, but didn't want to have to bring the whole frame home, so we bought a bunch of the elephants, and I'll have to build him a shadow box at home. There were also some giraffes in shadow boxes, so I purchased a couple of giraffes. I also purchased a pottery jar, nice and light!

We then drove on further, and saw a sign pointing the way to the "Summerfield Botanical Garden" and decided to stop and check it out. It turned out to be a fancy resort, with over the top, immaculately groomed gardens and fountains. There was a restaurant on the grounds as well, so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner. When I get internet access again, I'll have to check out the room rates, because it seemed far too fancy to let bums like us in. Yet, in the restaurant, there were only a total of 3 other couples, in a very large restaurant.

Our camp was also very quiet last night, with maybe 20 guests at a camp that can hold a few hundred. Tonight, a couple of tour buses have pulled in, with some people camping and some staying in huts like ours. But otherwise, it almost feels like we're the only tourists here. Like Bali, but not as warm.

While driving around, we encountered a police road block twice (same roadblock, different directions). The first time, we were waved through. The second time, we were pulled aside, and our headlights and signal lights were checked. All was in working order, so we were sent on our way.

Tomorrow we head back into South Africa, to a small, out of the way town called Saint Lucia. It is near the coast in an area that is supposed to have good snorkelling, plus there's a river running through town which is supposed to be teaming with more hippos, and another park nearby is supposed to have more rhinos. But tomorrow will be mostly spent driving.