Setting foot on Hawaiian soil.
I arrived safely at Kona International Airport (not that I was traveling internationally, but that’s the name of the airport) Tuesday afternoon. As I stepped off the plane and walked down the staircase I was hit by the warm air. It was lovely. I walked across the runway and into the airport and immediately had associations to Brazil. It felt like Brazil, it kind of looked like Brazil, yet it wasn’t Brazil.
Getting into the baggage reclaim area (which is really just the area at the front of the airport, it’s all non-covered really so it’s almost as if you’re outside the airport) I had to wait for a while for the luggage to appear on the conveyer belt. Plenty of time to grab a copy of (almost) all the tourist brochures in the little stand that said “welcome to Hawaii” or something like that. The interesting thing is that most of the information tells you about these wonderful adventures you can have here, yet they don’t tell you any prices. A bit inconvenient, but I am thinking the strategy is to lure you into really really wanting to go with them on the snorkeling, diving, whale-watching, dolphin-swimming adventure and when they give you the price you might hesitate, but then you’ll think “oh well, it’s only this once and it’s worth it”. I don’t think I’ll be fooled that easily, although it did really really make me want to do everything they were presenting to me in bright colours and photos.
Finally got my luggage and my friend Elisabeth picked me up in the “University of the Nations- YWAM” vehicle. Then we sped along the highway towards her home which is right next to the Kona YWAM base. Kona is a volcanic island and so most of the island is black. Black lava that hardened and became black rocks. Not as green and flourishing as I first imagined.
We dropped off my stuff and the car and then met up with some friends of Elisabeth to go to Starbucks. Yey, they have Starbucks in Hawaii, and I went to one. I think my excited Norwegian self is coming out. Everything is exciting, even if it isn’t really.
Wednesday- beach and pool and other things as well.
Yesterday after actually managing to sleep till the grand hour of, oh, 8 am!! (I did wake up several times, but didn’t actually get up until 8) I figure I’ve got over the 4 hour jetlag. I had some breakfast and then after a little while we strolled down to the local beach, which is a tiny little strip of beach, but a beach nevertheless. It had coarse multi-coloured sand made of ground up shells I think. I paddled a little bit in the sea, but it wasn’t really an ideal swimming spot (apparently it’s more of a surfers place, and since I don’t surf I stayed on land).
Lunch was at the YWAM base. Not bad considering they cook for hundreds, probably thousands of people each day. After lunch we drank coke by the pool and then I went to visit a film-set. YWAM here runs acting and filmmaking schools, and my friend Elisabeth leads the acting school. This week the students are all making their own little short-films and the staff visit their sets. It was fun. Never been to a film-set before that I can remember. And in my humble, non-professional opinion they were doing a good job!
The rest of the day consisted of delicious frozen yoghurt bought from a sweet little Asian man and then we walked down to the local shopping area where there was a market and plenty of Hawaiian shops offering surfinspired clothing, coffee, macademia nuts and chocolate, ice cream, more coffee, jewelry, orchids, coffee, shirts, dresses, flip-flops (or sandals as they call them), coffee, and restaurants. Lots and lots of places to ensure you don’t starve. It was a lovely area, and I bought a mango and a little dress for my beautiful niece (the dress for my niece, the mango I ate myself). In the evening we went to this restaurant called “Huggos” where I had a veggie-burger thing called Taro I think it was and sat at a table which was in sand so it felt like I was sat on the beach. After dinner I had Kona 100% coffee which was awesome. It is no surprise to me that this is my favourite coffee!
So that was my first few days here. This morning I’m writing this (obviously). Not sure when it’ll be posted on my blog as the internet isn’t working right now. But it will make it online eventually. Today I imagine more working on my tan is in order…maybe some shopping…and tomorrow we’re renting a car for the weekend so we can go see the more beautiful beaches, visit the volcano, go to coffee plantations, and hopefully do some snorkeling or snubing (a mix of diving and snorkeling) one of the days. Oh, and apparently the Hilton hotel is a place to visit as you can have lunch while watching baby dolphins (or maybe just a smaller breed of dolphins) play in the pool next to you.
I like Hawaii.
I arrived safely at Kona International Airport (not that I was traveling internationally, but that’s the name of the airport) Tuesday afternoon. As I stepped off the plane and walked down the staircase I was hit by the warm air. It was lovely. I walked across the runway and into the airport and immediately had associations to Brazil. It felt like Brazil, it kind of looked like Brazil, yet it wasn’t Brazil.
Getting into the baggage reclaim area (which is really just the area at the front of the airport, it’s all non-covered really so it’s almost as if you’re outside the airport) I had to wait for a while for the luggage to appear on the conveyer belt. Plenty of time to grab a copy of (almost) all the tourist brochures in the little stand that said “welcome to Hawaii” or something like that. The interesting thing is that most of the information tells you about these wonderful adventures you can have here, yet they don’t tell you any prices. A bit inconvenient, but I am thinking the strategy is to lure you into really really wanting to go with them on the snorkeling, diving, whale-watching, dolphin-swimming adventure and when they give you the price you might hesitate, but then you’ll think “oh well, it’s only this once and it’s worth it”. I don’t think I’ll be fooled that easily, although it did really really make me want to do everything they were presenting to me in bright colours and photos.
Finally got my luggage and my friend Elisabeth picked me up in the “University of the Nations- YWAM” vehicle. Then we sped along the highway towards her home which is right next to the Kona YWAM base. Kona is a volcanic island and so most of the island is black. Black lava that hardened and became black rocks. Not as green and flourishing as I first imagined.
We dropped off my stuff and the car and then met up with some friends of Elisabeth to go to Starbucks. Yey, they have Starbucks in Hawaii, and I went to one. I think my excited Norwegian self is coming out. Everything is exciting, even if it isn’t really.
Wednesday- beach and pool and other things as well.
Yesterday after actually managing to sleep till the grand hour of, oh, 8 am!! (I did wake up several times, but didn’t actually get up until 8) I figure I’ve got over the 4 hour jetlag. I had some breakfast and then after a little while we strolled down to the local beach, which is a tiny little strip of beach, but a beach nevertheless. It had coarse multi-coloured sand made of ground up shells I think. I paddled a little bit in the sea, but it wasn’t really an ideal swimming spot (apparently it’s more of a surfers place, and since I don’t surf I stayed on land).
Lunch was at the YWAM base. Not bad considering they cook for hundreds, probably thousands of people each day. After lunch we drank coke by the pool and then I went to visit a film-set. YWAM here runs acting and filmmaking schools, and my friend Elisabeth leads the acting school. This week the students are all making their own little short-films and the staff visit their sets. It was fun. Never been to a film-set before that I can remember. And in my humble, non-professional opinion they were doing a good job!
The rest of the day consisted of delicious frozen yoghurt bought from a sweet little Asian man and then we walked down to the local shopping area where there was a market and plenty of Hawaiian shops offering surfinspired clothing, coffee, macademia nuts and chocolate, ice cream, more coffee, jewelry, orchids, coffee, shirts, dresses, flip-flops (or sandals as they call them), coffee, and restaurants. Lots and lots of places to ensure you don’t starve. It was a lovely area, and I bought a mango and a little dress for my beautiful niece (the dress for my niece, the mango I ate myself). In the evening we went to this restaurant called “Huggos” where I had a veggie-burger thing called Taro I think it was and sat at a table which was in sand so it felt like I was sat on the beach. After dinner I had Kona 100% coffee which was awesome. It is no surprise to me that this is my favourite coffee!
So that was my first few days here. This morning I’m writing this (obviously). Not sure when it’ll be posted on my blog as the internet isn’t working right now. But it will make it online eventually. Today I imagine more working on my tan is in order…maybe some shopping…and tomorrow we’re renting a car for the weekend so we can go see the more beautiful beaches, visit the volcano, go to coffee plantations, and hopefully do some snorkeling or snubing (a mix of diving and snorkeling) one of the days. Oh, and apparently the Hilton hotel is a place to visit as you can have lunch while watching baby dolphins (or maybe just a smaller breed of dolphins) play in the pool next to you.
I like Hawaii.