Week One

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After not much of weekend, we've finally gotten round to adding our second entry to the soon to be famous Tim and Tina travel blog (which no one has actually read yet!).

The last entry left off with Tina losing her luggage and having a miserable time with Continental Airlines. We're glad to report that it eventually arrived 2 mins after we got off the phone with head office to find out where it was. Very proud of Tina managing to live off 2 pairs of underwear for 5 days. (Yes, she did a lot of handwashing!).

Tim's flights were fairly uneventful, but not very comfortable. He'd feared hassles from the reportedly aggressive customs agents, but it all went very smoothly in the end.

The thing that you immediately notice about Hawaii is how humid it is. After the airconditioning of the aeroplane and coming from cold wet rainy south africa, its quite a shock to be exposed to Tropical Hawaii (damp) air. Its very very sticky. Tim is loving it, Tina is just melting. The second thing you notice is how big the cars are! There are so many SUVs and big bakkies, its not surprising that the US uses more oil than everyone else.

There is also a sense of relaxation that seems to permeate the hot humid air. Apparently, it either causes or comes from the so called Polynesian Paralysis, but there is a definite holiday feel to everything. No one seems particularly rushed or stressed out. So it is not so cool that we are both having to work here. Tina's supervisors are still being particularly obstructive, and Tim is having to work > 12hrs a day in preparation to the launch of Tourism Radio Hawaii. However, we've still managed hit the local beach (Kailua Beach) a couple of times in the evening.

The Tourism Radio work is not all arduous though. We had to struggle through a drive around the island (basically to the North Shore) to test the content of the device. Past where they filmed Jurassic Park, Lost and others. We were forced to stop and test a tourism radio recommendation, having shaved ice at Haleiwa. Absolute torture really. We were also compelled to go for a swim at Waimea beach where the water was crystal clear. You could see underwater for over 20m and the gentle waves lapping at the shore were in sharp contrast to the winter months where huge 30 ft waves come in. Graeme, this is where they have the Billabong surf competition.

At some stage we'll have to put up the google plot of exactly where we went if anyone is interested. But now to see if we can add pictures to this post some how.

More to follow shortly.

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Photos

Mangos in the morning
Picking up mangos in the yard. Our staple diet!

Comments

[beastiecat]

Some People!
Hey guys, sorry to see that you are struggling so much in Hawaii, what with forced tourism and mangoes! Dealing with the airlines is obviously the universe balancing itself. ;) Looking forward to hearing more.