november 30th

Today I had decided – after much deliberation – that I was going to head up to the North Shore for a couple of days. The whole of the north coast is meant to be beautiful, and much less crowded – which, to be honest, would make a lovely change from Waikiki. But first, I manage to squeeze in a couple more hours down by the beach before meeting the bus which was to take my luggage up to the hostel (the Backpackers Vacation Inn at Pupukea). While waiting for the bus, I meet Jo and Roger, who thought they were going up on the free bus, but there reservation had been ‘lost’.

So we headed out for my first experience on the local public transport – handily called TheBus (just in case you are an idiot). The two hour bus ride wasn’t the most scenic, at least not until we were close to the destination, and the number of mad people who decided to join us was just incredible. But hey, that seems to always happen with me and public transport.

When we arrive at the hostel, we are told that there is an opening ceremony for the Eddie Aikau surfing competition just down the road at Waimea Bay. And not only that, there would be free food too! After a short walk we found the bay, which was absolutely gorgeous, and watched as a whole bunch of surfers (probably famous ones, although I wouldn’t know them from Adam) participated in a ceremony which involved some prayers on the beach and a large procession out to sea. The waves were just huge, even right on the beach, and it all made for an amazing spectacle.

And the food? Well, it turned out that we had stumbled onto a large, free, Hawaiin Lu’au – lots of seafood, pig, chicken, some weird stuff called Poi, and some more weird stuff which we couldn’t work out. Then there were speeches, and I came away thinking that if I knew anything about surfing, then I bet I would have been pretty amazed to have been there.