Monday night I landed in San Francisco, more certainly in San Jose, because the ticket to the San Jose airport was 40 $ cheaper. Asami and I booked our flights together and looking back we were super annoyed by being forced to go all the way down to the south to San Jose, which is an hour away and we don't have a car to just go there easily, especially not at 5 in the night, like when we were departing. But we were lucky and a friend of Asami was so nice to drive us. The way back was way more difficult, but I'll get to this later.
In the end of May, Asami and I flew in a 5 hour flight to Maui, where we first picked up our old, rented Volkswagen-Bus from the car rental and later Kavisha at the airport in 30 °C and with a humidity of 80 %.
We enjoyed cruising around the island but were surprised when it suddenly started to rain in the afternoon (& only stopped in the night). Maui is surprisingly green and especially when you're coming from California, where they have the biggest drought since 1200 years and everything looks a bit like in the desert, you're not used to this anymore. They have too much water, and we don't have enough.
Our first night was spent on a parking lot somewhere close to a camping spot. Kavisha, who is from LA, had never been camping before and the whole situation with the portable toilets was very strange to her so we always went together, carrying flash lights and showing each other the way.
Asami and Kavisha slept in the upper bed, which was basically the roof, which you could expand, and I had the first night to my very own in the lower bed, as we only picked up Haley the next evening. When I woke up the next morning it was 5.30 in the morning, thanks to the time difference it felt like 8.30 for me and as the others were still sleeping, I got up and used the free time to go on a little expedition on which I found the camping spot with all the tents and a long and flat beach right next to it.
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| Shaved Ice |
After we had some Shaved Ice we used the day to find our way on the Hana Highway through some kind of rain and bamboo forrest, looking for our next sleeping spot. Though we found it, we decided to sleep once again on the parking lot, as the new spot was pretty scary, no people, only dogs, wild cats and mosquitos and all rooms were left open. So we went there after we picked up Haley from the airport.
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| Our Bus |
When we decided to leave the next morning, we noticed that the dashboard suddenly didn't work anymore, so we couldn't see how fast we were or how much gas we still had, so we had to go back to the car rental and switched the bus to a red VW-Bus, which was working just fine.
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| The New One |
With our new bus and a full gas tank we started our tour by going to a beach and left afterwards to Kihei on the Hana Hwy through the rain forest until we were in Waianapanapa at the Black Sand Beach.
On our way there we passed several waterfalls and had to stop at one of them to take some pictures in the stream under on of them. As Asami and I walked to the stone, we found a little trail that lead us to a Pool directly under the small waterfall. Nobody could see us from the street and it seemed like a very hidden place, so we decided to take off our still wet clothes, still wearing our bikinis from the beach, and jumped into the cold water.
Arriving on our new camping spot we were happy to see that we finally had real toilets and didn't even care about the outside beach showers. Thanks to the swimming in the waterfall pool and the rain that set in later in the day we didn't really feel the urge to go showering anyways.
The Black Sand Beach was only a few meters away from our parking spot and the sand really WAS black.
The next day it was still raining so we decided to drive to the end of the Hana Highway, until Kipahulu, where we couldn't see and experience anything that wasn't related to hiking in the rain, which we all rather skipped. After turning around and going all the way back the Hana Hwy through the forest, the rain stopped and the san francisco-like fog lightened up and we saw some sun. First thing we decided to do was drive up to a burger place on a golf court to get some burgers, as we felt like we lived in the wilderness for weeks and only survived on bread, cream cheese and chips. Thanks to the car rental place, we had a list with good camping spots on the island, so we found a natural reserve, which was a insider's tip as they usually don't take any campers only if you know about the spot and particularly ask. To get there we had to go on a mud trail and I made a turn after I saw an SUV in front of us which stopped in front of a deeper puddle and a little hill behind that. If he don't think he can make it, how should we... but after going back to the parking lot in front of the golf court and talking to the guy who was working for the camping spot, we felt brave enough and tried it once more, this time successfully.
What can I say, it was worth the thrill, we had the whole reserve for us and only had to share our spot with a proud peacock running around. Kavisha was used to the portable toilets and we all didn't have problems going there alone anymore, though it was right behind an abandoned house next to the outdoor cold water showers, which were actually really nice. We parked our car as close to the water as possible so Haley and I got the sea spray in our face when we left the trunk to our bed open in the night.
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| View from our bed |
The next day was our last one on Maui and I got up at 5.30 and woke up Haley to go running. Because Haley didn't have running shoes with her and ran barefoot we soon decided to go running on the beach which was super exhausting and after 2 kilometers we jumped into the cold water to cool down.
Once we brought away the car and took pretty much the only Uber on the whole island we went to the airport, ready for the second part of our journey on O'ahu in Honolulu. The flight took about 40 minutes and we flew in a little propeller-driven plane over several smaller islands and turquoise water and Haley and I tried to find sharks or whales.
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| In the upper left corner, under the airplane's wing: O'ahu |
Arriving at the airport in O'ahu we picked up the car at the car rental and with all the charm four unwashed girls with shaggy beach waves could bring up we managed to get a slightly better car for a slightly better price. People on O'ahu are way nicer to tourists than on Maui.
We spent our first night in a hostel and in the night we went to the beach right next to it and enjoyed the warm sea around out feet and the soft sand between our toes because we knew we were going to move to an Airbnb apartment on the 20th level of a hotel in the middle of Waikiki the next day.
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| We calculated, that the apartment actually was cheaper for us than staying in the hostel (View from our apartment) |
The next days we took the car to go to different beaches but always got back to the Blowhole Beach which was hidden under a lookout right on the coastal highway.
One morning we got up really early and went to see the sun rise at 5.30. Asami really wanted to see it from the top of the Diamond Head Crater, but they weren't open yet (yeah, you can't just climb up there, you have to wait until the crater's "opened"). So we just looked for a nice place on the east coast of the island and still saw a beautiful and marvelous sun rise.
Saturday we went to celebrate Haley's 21st birthday which of course is a really big thing for Americans as they can finally buy, drink and sell (!!!) alcohol. Of course we went to some bars and really didn't get served until 12 (not even 10 minutes before that...).
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| The only usable photo of that night |
Sunday we rented kajaks and standup paddle boards and drove to a beach with an island and while Asami and Kavisha paddled away on their kajaks, Haley and I tried our best to get on the paddle boards and first of all kneel on them, which wasn't too hard and we got pretty fast after a few minutes. But standing is a whole other thing and I fell into the water quite a few times until I remembered my first tries on a Skateboard and it kind of worked out. Haley already gave up and kneel paddled away so I was a small lost point, standing on this big board in the middle of the bay, probably having all the water experienced hawaiians watching and judging me, especially when I struggled getting back up on the board after falling into the water. While paddling on my knees I opened up an old wound on my knee and started bleeding a bit, which I really wasn't happy about. I mean, people die from shark attacks there and who knows, maybe they smell my blood and immediately know that I'm helpless on the open water and just swim under the board with open jaws just waiting for me to fall again - right into their sharp teeth.
Aber ich habs ja überlebt und bis auf einen Sonnenbrand am Rücken ist mir auch nichts weiter passiert, auf dem Rückweg hab ich einfach mein Tshirt angelassen (auch bei Ulis Surfstunden gelernt, Tshirt ist besser als jede Sonnencreme).
But except for a little sunburn on my back I survived and the only dramatic thing that happened was that I cut open my legs -once again- on the stones in the water all around the island we went to.
Monday morning Haley and I had to leave really early in the morning to bring back the car and catch our flight to Maui where Haley had to wait for 12 hours for her connecting flight to Sacramento and I for 4 to San Jose. So first thing we did after we landed was to get a cab to a Pancake Restaurant and later check in after a little tour to a shopping mall.
What no one had noticed on all other flights before suddenly was a big thing, I had fluids in my bag!! And more than enough, four sun screens, an after sun lotion, make up and contact lenses solution. Though the women from the airport said she saw a spray on the scanner she only took out my after sun lotion and said that I could check in my luggage if I wanted to keep it. But this would've costed me 25 $ and the after sun was about 3 $ so whatever.
Haley and I sad goodbye at the airport and I took my flight to San Jose, sitting in the last row, next to the toilets and a pda'ing couple.
After I arrived I got a message from Haley, who had booked another earlier flight back home and was already on her way to SF asking if she could crash at my place for the night. And though she departed two hours later than me we arrived at San Francisco Airport at the same time because I had to take the Shuttle to the CalTrain to the Bart to SFO from where we could get an Uber for 15 $ to my house. Right in San Francisco we got into the thickest fog I have ever seen here and even the driver said, he'd never seen something like that. It was like San Francisco was saying 'Welcome Back!' to us.
I needed the whole week after arriving to fight against my three hour jet lag (I know, ridiculous, I don't know why this is such a big thing for me). A few days later we went to Baker Beach and though the Golden Gate Bridge was in fog the beach was pretty sunny and I really got my first sun burn since I'm here. Not in Hawaii, no, in foggy SF. So generic.
And now we're enjoying the cold nights and foggy days of the summer in SF. I have a dog in my new apartment and every early morning he knocks impatiently on my door with his tail until I let him in and he can get into my bed and cuddle onto my legs. So almost like having a cat though now it is the size of a calf taking up one third of my bed and breathing like a grown up man.
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| Mowgli, 1/3 dog, 1/3 cat, 1/3 calf |
