And so we come into the third of five weeks of the Canadian portion of our trip. The week started off much the same, with all day skiing at 120% and being whipped along by our instructors….for some reason my ski poles have “Sorrow, Sacrifice and Suffering” written on them and most days that is what I feel :). But all good fun and we are making some really good progress with the full day tuition.
This week we ended with a dog sled ride and a winter camping trip. Clarissa, Chloe, Michelle and I all went on the dog sleigh – the day started with a 9am pick up by the musher, who had all 10 of his dogs in a trailer behind him. We drove for half an hour to another valley and joined one more musher and dog team to have two 10 dog teams. The first team pulled Michelle sitting by herself in the basket of the sled and the second pulled Clarissa and Chloe in the other. I drove a third sled that was connected by a 2m rope to Clarissa and Chloe’s sled. I didn’t actually drive the dogs but was pulled along in the second sled but still had to steer and brake to keep up behind the first sled, without being slung out sideways, much like driving a towed car. It was really hard as I had to balance on two think planks out the back of the sled, shifting my weight to turn and then lift my foot and balance on the other to press the brake…all in a crouched position. Quite tricky as the sled is very light so easily rides up on one ski – in fact, on the first corner I went flying off at the apex of the corner and flew what felt like many meters before landing in a sorry pile on an icy patch. I hung on pretty tightly after that.
At one point we missed a turning off the narrow track that we were following and ended in deep snow – the mushers tried to turn the teams around and asked us to get off. Michelle climbed off and stepped waist deep into snow and promptly hit a panic attack as she thought she was going to sink under the snow – considering she had only seen 2cm deep snow up until now. Anyway, after hauling Michelle out we tried the carry on with the sled ride but the two dog packs become entangled and the mushers started shouting at each other trying to figure out whose fault it was. Michelle’s musher went in to untangle the dogs and promptly got entangled and fell over before getting control of the two packs. I didn’t take a photo of him as I felt sorry for the guy. The rest of the trip went well – I was pretty cold driving at the back but Clarissa and Chloe were so warm in the sled basket (with blanket) that Chloe fell asleep.
After the dog sled trip we rushed back home to prepare for our winter camping. Clarissa and I dressed in our ski kit, grabbed a shovel, sleeping bag and some sandwiches and headed up the hill with another 15 people for an overnight camp in the mountains (which are covered in 2m of snow). We took the ski lift up to one of the higher peaks and then hiked about 20 minutes off piste through the forest…that alone felt like a two hour hike as we carried all our ski kit, clothes, food, sleeping bag, shovel, probe and ice saw…sinking knee deep into snow on each stop.
When we arrived at our ‘camp site’ we proceeded to make our snow cave, which we slept in that night. It basically took Clarissa and I five and a bit solid hours of digging – starting at 3pm and ending around 8:30 at night, with virtually no break. Again, in full ski kit – to say it was exhausting would be the least of it.
Our first task was to clear a circle 40cm deep and 3m wide to remove the top, soft snow. That took about 1.5 hours. We then dug a trench 1m wide and 2.5m long – and shoulder height in depth. When we reached waist deep the snow was basically ice and we harvested 10 ‘beams’ of snow by cutting them out with the snow saw…that took another 1.5 hours. We then took the beams and laid them, needing both of us to lift them, across the top of the trench to create an A frame. We then chipped away at the sidewalls of the trench to create curved walls to add more space in the shelter. We then piled larger (football sized) pieces of snow to fill the gaps and then shoveled 50cm of snow on top of the construction. After that, we dug a hole man deep about 1m square in front of the snow cave and then tunneled sideways to make an entrance. We dug 2x 10cm wide holes for ventilation and let the whole thing freeze for an hour, after which we tested the structural integrity by jumping on the roof.
We pretty much went to bed straight away because we were freezing cold and exhausted by the digging. The night itself was hell and definitely the longest night we have ever had – we were freezing cold in our sleeping bags in the snow cave, and the floor was very lumpy – basically a sheet of ice…with the unwarranted constant worry that the thing would cave in on us. Not something for anyone slightly claustrophobic.
Overnight, everything that wasn’t in our sleep bag froze…which was basically everything. Our dinner froze, other peoples ski boots froze (we wrapped ours in jackets), people that were silly enough to bring ipods woke up to blocks of solid ice….I tried to read before falling asleep but the pages of my book had frozen together…and I was very thirsty after so much digging but my water bottle had frozen solid and I had to eat snow for moisture – which is not fun because it is hard, of course, very cold – and a mouthful of snow doesn’t yield much water. So after a lot of gnawing and a couple of degrees of body temperature you get a few mouthfuls of water….everything was a mission – even going to the toilet.
In the morning, after putting on my ski trousers which had frozen solid, and agonizingly squeezing into solid ski boots, we skied through the forest (a scary event on its own) and down the mountain to the village for a welcome breakfast and best bath ever. Definitely one of the toughest things that I had to endure – Clarissa suffered with the cold much more than I and we collected a host of injuries between us from digging in the snow that only came to the surface once we have warmed up…sore wrist, wrenched back and knackered hip. No doubt Clarissa will not let me forget this night for a long time – especially since it was my idea and I basically bullied her into it…..and I guess sleeping outdoors in a snow cave at -10 degrees was going to be horrible no matter what we did so logic should have forewarned us. All in all a great adventure post the event.
Next week will be a normal skiing week, and touch wood we are both holding it together quite well – at the start of the course the instructors warned us to be careful because 20% of us would end up with injuries and so far this has proven accurate, with a broken arm, blown knees and a few other minor injuries going around. Clarissa and I are careful– it is easy to fall and injure yourself when being pushed at 120% of our skiing ability by the instructors all the time but we pull back when we feel too uncomfortable….holding thumbs.
Chloe has reached the end of her travel ability – we may cut short our trip and return to Hong Kong early because at every stop she takes longer and longer to acclimate – we don’t know if the tantrums and difficult behavior is an early onset of the ‘terrible two’s or because she hates the cold Canadian weather. Probably a bit of both.
Hope all is well with everyone back home.
PS: if you can, watch the movie Hot Tub Time Machine – it was shot in Fernie, the village and ski hill we are staying at.
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Canada
So we arrived in Canada safely…a week ago. Sorry for no post but skiing for the full day and trying to recover in the evenings doesn’t leave much post writing time.
Fernie is a great little town – quite off the beaten track (hour flight from Vancouver, then a 3 – 5 hour drive on top of that) but that is why we picked it. It is deep in the Canadian ‘back country’ and the town only exists because of a mine a few miles away…and the resort. I wouldn’t describe the town as pretty – some of the European villages are much nicer, with quaint wooden houses etc. This town is built for serious snow and cold….normally 2.5m deep at street level and -20 degrees. However, as per our normal skiing holiday practice, we have bought the warm weather with us and there is no snow (town level) and people are happily biking around in T-shirts and even sun tanning in the balmy zero degree weather (these Canadians are tough!), which they call this spring. Luckily
on the mid to upper parts of the mountain there is enough snow (2m) to have fun. The good thing about Fernie is the weather is volatile – so we could well see another, and continuous, dumping of snow…which would cover the village; letting Michelle and Chloe experience the snow as they cant go up the mountain.
Our days are pretty much the same – we get up at 8am, have breakfast and catch the bus from Fernie town to the ski hill, which is 10 minutes away. There is a storage cabin with our ski’s etc and Clarissa and I split up for our respective lessons. Clarissa is doing the ski instructor course and I had planned to do the snowboarding instructor course but changed to learn how to ski. The reason is that when we were in London, I went to a ski boot specialist to get them to custom fit my snowboard boots to avoid the terribly painful feet I get because of the boot pressing against my high arches and instep. The boot fitters advise was to ditch snowboarding in favour of skiing because there is only so much customization you can do to a snowboard boot as it is made of leather…it just reforms while boarding to hit the pressure points that the boot customizer tried to avoid. However, with ski boots, the hard plastic means that any customization stays during the ski motion because of the hard material. Long story, but the short summary is that I am learning to ski instead.
I did try skiing many years ago and hated it – but this time around it is great. I am used to the snow and, because I fell so hard / often when boarding I have little fear of falling on ski’s…meaning my learning curve is fast. I am having lessons each day and will soon join the ski instructor group – not with the goal of actually getting the certification at the end of the five weeks but rather for ski improvement.
Clarissa is enjoying her skiing and they really seem to be challenging her – she even fell twice, which is more than she has ever fallen in the 8 years we have been together. They are doing downhill slalom racing, jumping, skiing backwards and other crazy things.
Today we did an Avalanche Course; which consisted of us skiing around with one of the rescue Ski Patrol me
mbers and he taught us how the mountain, weather, snow type and other factors lead to avalanches. We practiced how to stop problem terrain, how to self rescue, how to find a buried person using prods and transmitters / scanners and showed us the general operations and inside of the ski patrol mountain huts. They really have a fun job – every morning they go avalanche hunting in order to trigger (with bombs, canons, or via skiing) avalanches to make the runs safe. Fernie has one of the highest number of avalanches due to the terrain so the ski patrol is very busy. The most interested part of the course for me was when we dug away a 2m wide and 1m deep section of the snow to see how an avalanche happens. Each layer of snow through the season is highly visible in the cross section of snow – much like the timber rings in a tree…and if there is a good layer on a bad layer the upper layer just slides away with little pressure. So in our snow hole test, the was a bad layer about 2cm thick and about 40cm deep. The avalanche instructor dug around to isolate a pillar about 1m high and 30cm wide – he then out the spade on top of the column and with very little pressure (six hard taps – same force as you would use to slap someone’s hand away from the last chip), and the block broke away at the weak layer level – coming away as an entire block, held together by the good snow well enough to be passed around…and boy is snow heavy! So the lesson was that this 30m slab would slip down the slope with little pressure (a skier) and so no skiing there. Of course, that is for skiing in the mountain and off the ski runs that are maintained by the ski patrol…which we will never do – but it was interesting none-the-less.
…and as I write this, it has started snowing again…
Fernie is a great little town – quite off the beaten track (hour flight from Vancouver, then a 3 – 5 hour drive on top of that) but that is why we picked it. It is deep in the Canadian ‘back country’ and the town only exists because of a mine a few miles away…and the resort. I wouldn’t describe the town as pretty – some of the European villages are much nicer, with quaint wooden houses etc. This town is built for serious snow and cold….normally 2.5m deep at street level and -20 degrees. However, as per our normal skiing holiday practice, we have bought the warm weather with us and there is no snow (town level) and people are happily biking around in T-shirts and even sun tanning in the balmy zero degree weather (these Canadians are tough!), which they call this spring. Luckily
on the mid to upper parts of the mountain there is enough snow (2m) to have fun. The good thing about Fernie is the weather is volatile – so we could well see another, and continuous, dumping of snow…which would cover the village; letting Michelle and Chloe experience the snow as they cant go up the mountain.Our days are pretty much the same – we get up at 8am, have breakfast and catch the bus from Fernie town to the ski hill, which is 10 minutes away. There is a storage cabin with our ski’s etc and Clarissa and I split up for our respective lessons. Clarissa is doing the ski instructor course and I had planned to do the snowboarding instructor course but changed to learn how to ski. The reason is that when we were in London, I went to a ski boot specialist to get them to custom fit my snowboard boots to avoid the terribly painful feet I get because of the boot pressing against my high arches and instep. The boot fitters advise was to ditch snowboarding in favour of skiing because there is only so much customization you can do to a snowboard boot as it is made of leather…it just reforms while boarding to hit the pressure points that the boot customizer tried to avoid. However, with ski boots, the hard plastic means that any customization stays during the ski motion because of the hard material. Long story, but the short summary is that I am learning to ski instead.
I did try skiing many years ago and hated it – but this time around it is great. I am used to the snow and, because I fell so hard / often when boarding I have little fear of falling on ski’s…meaning my learning curve is fast. I am having lessons each day and will soon join the ski instructor group – not with the goal of actually getting the certification at the end of the five weeks but rather for ski improvement.
Clarissa is enjoying her skiing and they really seem to be challenging her – she even fell twice, which is more than she has ever fallen in the 8 years we have been together. They are doing downhill slalom racing, jumping, skiing backwards and other crazy things.
Today we did an Avalanche Course; which consisted of us skiing around with one of the rescue Ski Patrol me
mbers and he taught us how the mountain, weather, snow type and other factors lead to avalanches. We practiced how to stop problem terrain, how to self rescue, how to find a buried person using prods and transmitters / scanners and showed us the general operations and inside of the ski patrol mountain huts. They really have a fun job – every morning they go avalanche hunting in order to trigger (with bombs, canons, or via skiing) avalanches to make the runs safe. Fernie has one of the highest number of avalanches due to the terrain so the ski patrol is very busy. The most interested part of the course for me was when we dug away a 2m wide and 1m deep section of the snow to see how an avalanche happens. Each layer of snow through the season is highly visible in the cross section of snow – much like the timber rings in a tree…and if there is a good layer on a bad layer the upper layer just slides away with little pressure. So in our snow hole test, the was a bad layer about 2cm thick and about 40cm deep. The avalanche instructor dug around to isolate a pillar about 1m high and 30cm wide – he then out the spade on top of the column and with very little pressure (six hard taps – same force as you would use to slap someone’s hand away from the last chip), and the block broke away at the weak layer level – coming away as an entire block, held together by the good snow well enough to be passed around…and boy is snow heavy! So the lesson was that this 30m slab would slip down the slope with little pressure (a skier) and so no skiing there. Of course, that is for skiing in the mountain and off the ski runs that are maintained by the ski patrol…which we will never do – but it was interesting none-the-less.…and as I write this, it has started snowing again…
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Leaving Hawaii on Friday :(
I don’t want to leave Hawaii….we are just having too much fun and Chloe loves it too much – the beach, sand, warm weather, the dog-friends…all combined with the thought that -20 degrees and snow is just too strange.
Over the last week and a half we have been pretty busy and have got along just fine without Michelle (yes, yes – I know we keep harping on about her but she makes our lives so much easier). We have pretty much folded into Chloes routine…Clarissa and I take it in turns to get up early (6am – 7am) to look after Chloe while the other sleeps in (8am), I go for a quick 20 minute run while pushing Chloe in her pram and we then go on a family outing. Either to a far off beach, the sea life park, the zoo, Chloe’s baby gym, watch the big wave surfers, see the pineapple plantations (as boring as it sounds) etc. We then feed Chloe and ourselves similar food between 11am and midday, nap / read from 12am – 2pm and then head to the beach or the park until 5pm, home for Chloe’s and our dinner, a quick bath and then bed. Very healthy and relaxing for all.
Louise and Matt left on Saturday with a bit of stress. Somehow, the car keys made their way into the boot and the boot door was closed…2.5
hours before their flight departed. We frantically called around trying to figure out our best options; getting a taxi, finding a locksmith, getting spare keys sent to us, swapping flight or breaking the window (my preferred option). One of these calls was to the car rental company to see if they had any advice – and they certainly did. They asked me to hold while they transfer me to StarOne (like AA or RAC)…the operator then asked me to confirm my location and number plate and to step away from the car…because she was going to open it remotely…which she did! I have no idea how the system works but somehow the car doors just sprung open and we could get the keys….needless to say we were all totally amazed and felt a bit under the influence of George Orwills ‘Big Brother’. Anyway, we made it to the airport just in time and Louise kindly took back our diving kit – which won’t be of much use in Canada.
We waited near the airport for Mathilde to fly in and she is staying with us as Clarissa and her are doing a paddling course; it runs from 9am to 3pm so I am on Chloe duty for those hours…and having a ball. Chloe and I have our morning run, visit Starbucks where I have a tea and she has a cup of frothed milk, wonder down to the beach (I read / she digs) and then go home for lunch and nap…then head to the beach again with Clarissa and Mathilde. One such beach was amazing – just walking out into water 2 foot deep and we say about 10 – 15 turtles – and big ones too! They come into the shallows away from the sharks and to feed and we just walked amongst them floating along! On that beach was my dream house – double story villa’s with the front lawn leading straight onto the beach – no fence or other barrier. Perhaps after a few more years (read decades) of working.
So all in all you can see we are having a great time – we are all very relaxed, totally un-phased about time / queues or being late for anything…with Chloe’s mobile meals we can stop at any beach we like or do whatever we want whenever we want. And we have been meeting some very interesting people….through the paddling club Clarissa has some friends that have quit work to come live in Hawaii and it is very interesting to hear their take on life and new priorities. In Hong Kong, it is very easy to get stuck into the money trap – working, saving, working, saving – always needing more money, bigger houses, fancier holidays and faster cars…while these people have actively given up on that lifestyle to pursue the softer things in life…healthy eating, family development, sport….not worried at all about money - very tempting!
Over the last week and a half we have been pretty busy and have got along just fine without Michelle (yes, yes – I know we keep harping on about her but she makes our lives so much easier). We have pretty much folded into Chloes routine…Clarissa and I take it in turns to get up early (6am – 7am) to look after Chloe while the other sleeps in (8am), I go for a quick 20 minute run while pushing Chloe in her pram and we then go on a family outing. Either to a far off beach, the sea life park, the zoo, Chloe’s baby gym, watch the big wave surfers, see the pineapple plantations (as boring as it sounds) etc. We then feed Chloe and ourselves similar food between 11am and midday, nap / read from 12am – 2pm and then head to the beach or the park until 5pm, home for Chloe’s and our dinner, a quick bath and then bed. Very healthy and relaxing for all.
Louise and Matt left on Saturday with a bit of stress. Somehow, the car keys made their way into the boot and the boot door was closed…2.5
hours before their flight departed. We frantically called around trying to figure out our best options; getting a taxi, finding a locksmith, getting spare keys sent to us, swapping flight or breaking the window (my preferred option). One of these calls was to the car rental company to see if they had any advice – and they certainly did. They asked me to hold while they transfer me to StarOne (like AA or RAC)…the operator then asked me to confirm my location and number plate and to step away from the car…because she was going to open it remotely…which she did! I have no idea how the system works but somehow the car doors just sprung open and we could get the keys….needless to say we were all totally amazed and felt a bit under the influence of George Orwills ‘Big Brother’. Anyway, we made it to the airport just in time and Louise kindly took back our diving kit – which won’t be of much use in Canada.We waited near the airport for Mathilde to fly in and she is staying with us as Clarissa and her are doing a paddling course; it runs from 9am to 3pm so I am on Chloe duty for those hours…and having a ball. Chloe and I have our morning run, visit Starbucks where I have a tea and she has a cup of frothed milk, wonder down to the beach (I read / she digs) and then go home for lunch and nap…then head to the beach again with Clarissa and Mathilde. One such beach was amazing – just walking out into water 2 foot deep and we say about 10 – 15 turtles – and big ones too! They come into the shallows away from the sharks and to feed and we just walked amongst them floating along! On that beach was my dream house – double story villa’s with the front lawn leading straight onto the beach – no fence or other barrier. Perhaps after a few more years (read decades) of working.
So all in all you can see we are having a great time – we are all very relaxed, totally un-phased about time / queues or being late for anything…with Chloe’s mobile meals we can stop at any beach we like or do whatever we want whenever we want. And we have been meeting some very interesting people….through the paddling club Clarissa has some friends that have quit work to come live in Hawaii and it is very interesting to hear their take on life and new priorities. In Hong Kong, it is very easy to get stuck into the money trap – working, saving, working, saving – always needing more money, bigger houses, fancier holidays and faster cars…while these people have actively given up on that lifestyle to pursue the softer things in life…healthy eating, family development, sport….not worried at all about money - very tempting! username: allaccess
password: letmein
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Today we went whale watching, both the human kind and the fishy kind.
The human kind of whale watching was while I was sipping my tea in Starbucks; huge people, perfectly orbital, coming in to order Frappuccino’s with whipped cream (600 calories) and ordering sugar biscuits – one woman ordered 12. People really seem to come in two sizes here….huge or fit and in very good condition; nothing in between. I think that the reason for this is that healthy (or even normal) food is hard to come by and so those who make the effort to
be healthy almost become fanatical about it…and those who cant really be bothered slowly creep up the Body Mass Index.
I have forgotten what it is like to just sit and watch people for their strangeness, I used to do that when I first got to the UK but now the British strangeness was worn off to a point of then being ‘normal’ (or perhaps weird), however the Americans are still in the novel and strange category for me. I will say one thing for them - they are very friendly...just sit next to someone on a bus or at an adjacent table and a conversation with the total stranger will inevitable start, beginning with "where are you from". Strangely, when someone answers they are from the US (town and state given) that seems to be a conversation starter, but when we say Hong Kong / South Africa / UK it seems to be a conversation killer. Perhaps because of their limited knowledge of geography outside the US.
The fishy type of whale watching was while driving back from lunch with a paddling friend of Clarissa’s who have moved to Hawaii to paddle full time. During lunch they told of a paddler that was about 2 miles out to sea rowing and caught a wave, when a whale suddenly surfaced
in front of him and his outrigger canoe surfed down the swell and crashed into the whale, which swatted at him with its tail and smashed his canoe and tossed him through the air – luckily not injuring him. A totally freak event but apparently has happened before.
After the lunch they showed us a point along the coast about 5m above the sea that the locals jump off – a lava flow resulted in a steep drop off and the locals jump from the top of the rocks into the water. The trick is to get back out again by waiting around for a swell to lift to you to a point where you can cling on and clamber out. The risk is calling the swell wrong, which turns into a wave and bashes you into the rock. I considered jumping in with them and clambering out under the guidance of the locals but after seeing one Hawaiian boy getting it wrong and being smashed against the rocks – legs above head and at least 3m up, I decided against it. The other kids pulled their rather dazed friend to safety, and he emerged rather bloodied and cut up.
It was off this point that we saw whales, with babies, breaching the water while swimming on their way.
The human kind of whale watching was while I was sipping my tea in Starbucks; huge people, perfectly orbital, coming in to order Frappuccino’s with whipped cream (600 calories) and ordering sugar biscuits – one woman ordered 12. People really seem to come in two sizes here….huge or fit and in very good condition; nothing in between. I think that the reason for this is that healthy (or even normal) food is hard to come by and so those who make the effort to
be healthy almost become fanatical about it…and those who cant really be bothered slowly creep up the Body Mass Index.I have forgotten what it is like to just sit and watch people for their strangeness, I used to do that when I first got to the UK but now the British strangeness was worn off to a point of then being ‘normal’ (or perhaps weird), however the Americans are still in the novel and strange category for me. I will say one thing for them - they are very friendly...just sit next to someone on a bus or at an adjacent table and a conversation with the total stranger will inevitable start, beginning with "where are you from". Strangely, when someone answers they are from the US (town and state given) that seems to be a conversation starter, but when we say Hong Kong / South Africa / UK it seems to be a conversation killer. Perhaps because of their limited knowledge of geography outside the US.
The fishy type of whale watching was while driving back from lunch with a paddling friend of Clarissa’s who have moved to Hawaii to paddle full time. During lunch they told of a paddler that was about 2 miles out to sea rowing and caught a wave, when a whale suddenly surfaced
in front of him and his outrigger canoe surfed down the swell and crashed into the whale, which swatted at him with its tail and smashed his canoe and tossed him through the air – luckily not injuring him. A totally freak event but apparently has happened before.After the lunch they showed us a point along the coast about 5m above the sea that the locals jump off – a lava flow resulted in a steep drop off and the locals jump from the top of the rocks into the water. The trick is to get back out again by waiting around for a swell to lift to you to a point where you can cling on and clamber out. The risk is calling the swell wrong, which turns into a wave and bashes you into the rock. I considered jumping in with them and clambering out under the guidance of the locals but after seeing one Hawaiian boy getting it wrong and being smashed against the rocks – legs above head and at least 3m up, I decided against it. The other kids pulled their rather dazed friend to safety, and he emerged rather bloodied and cut up.
It was off this point that we saw whales, with babies, breaching the water while swimming on their way.
Next trip to the Pipeline - the huge waves that makes Hawaii one of the most famous surf spots in the world.
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Hawaii - a long overdue post
Hello all,
A long overdue post! the reason - we are now living the life of most normal parents (i.e. no help) and finding it hard, hard work. Chloe is up at 6 and is needing constant attention for
some reason - she is very clingy and grouchy and we think the constant change and jetlag is effecting her. She likes her routine, her own bedroom and her own toys...without all of these things I guess she feels insecure and grouchy...and to top it all she is only going to bed at 9pm - 10pm...leaving us no downtime and hence no posts.
A long overdue post! the reason - we are now living the life of most normal parents (i.e. no help) and finding it hard, hard work. Chloe is up at 6 and is needing constant attention for
some reason - she is very clingy and grouchy and we think the constant change and jetlag is effecting her. She likes her routine, her own bedroom and her own toys...without all of these things I guess she feels insecure and grouchy...and to top it all she is only going to bed at 9pm - 10pm...leaving us no downtime and hence no posts. That being said, Hawaii is really great...we have a three bedroom, two bathroom house that is directly opposite a park and Kailua beach. Throughout the day there are always people walking dogs, doing exercise and playing ball etc.
The general feel about the island is very relaxed. Everyone drives slowly and are extreamely
courteious - people let you in, dont cut lanes, drive at a moderate pace and are very patient with this South African who is pretty confused with the concept of driving on the right hand side of the road.
The beaches are perfect - Asian beaches are good but they generally have flat surf or powder sand, which feels a bit unreal. In Hawaii the sand is like South Africa (slighly rough), the sea is ALIVE with fish, turtles etc, and there is surf....and the water is crystal clear.
So far we have spent our time figuring out how to handle Chloe; she refuses to drive (perhaps
signalling the death of our US roadtrip) and is bored at home. So we take it in turns looking after her. Clarissa goes to Bootcamp (gym session in the park) or i go diving.
The dive is very good - an early start (5am) and my last dive was with an
interesting bunch of people....marines and Navy sailors stationed at the base on the island. I found it really interesting hearing their stories about service, Iraq, their day to day life in the US military and past deployments. The dive itself was pretty advanced; deep, with currents and to two Second World War ship wrecks - but the water was crystal clear and I saw a fair amount (eels, turtles, rays).
Today we drove out to Pearl Harbour to see the USS Arizona (sunk in PH) and to tour the battleship Missourie, which saw active service during
WWII, where the Japanese signed their surrender to the Allies and then finally saw action in the Persian Gulf (first war), beforing being decomissioned only 1o years ago. It was certainly impressive, with 14 huge guns (two guns weigh the same as a 747).
After the battleship tour we headed to a typical American diner for lunch, which was so disguisting that we left after one bite, blaming a cranky baby. I did feel a bit bad because the owner wouldnt take a cent for the meal we didnt eat
and even gave us a pie to take away. It wasnt that the food was bad (by American standards), it was just so stodgy and solid. It is obvious to us now why the US has such an obesity problem....it is actually hard to eat in a simple and healthy manner if you are out and about. The only drinks are cokes and root beer in unlimitless quantities (get free refills) and sweets, chocolates and crisps all seem to come in bucket portion sizes. I watched our dive guide buying a sprite after the dive - was in a 1.5l cup - and he drank it all. Must have been 1500 calories (66% of his calorific requirements for the day).
So all in all having a great time - have settled Chloe and are figuring out things to do...Louise will join us next week, then Mathilde the following week. Clarissa and Mathilda will spend most of the last week paddling so I will do all the diving I can next week.
We defintely will be back - a perfect place as far as I am concerned...great diving from boat / walking off beach, paddling for Clarissa, a lifestyle centered around the beach but yet set in a town with first world infrastructure (choice of products in super markets etc).
More posts and pic's to follow.
The general feel about the island is very relaxed. Everyone drives slowly and are extreamely
courteious - people let you in, dont cut lanes, drive at a moderate pace and are very patient with this South African who is pretty confused with the concept of driving on the right hand side of the road.The beaches are perfect - Asian beaches are good but they generally have flat surf or powder sand, which feels a bit unreal. In Hawaii the sand is like South Africa (slighly rough), the sea is ALIVE with fish, turtles etc, and there is surf....and the water is crystal clear.
So far we have spent our time figuring out how to handle Chloe; she refuses to drive (perhaps
signalling the death of our US roadtrip) and is bored at home. So we take it in turns looking after her. Clarissa goes to Bootcamp (gym session in the park) or i go diving.The dive is very good - an early start (5am) and my last dive was with an
interesting bunch of people....marines and Navy sailors stationed at the base on the island. I found it really interesting hearing their stories about service, Iraq, their day to day life in the US military and past deployments. The dive itself was pretty advanced; deep, with currents and to two Second World War ship wrecks - but the water was crystal clear and I saw a fair amount (eels, turtles, rays).Today we drove out to Pearl Harbour to see the USS Arizona (sunk in PH) and to tour the battleship Missourie, which saw active service during
WWII, where the Japanese signed their surrender to the Allies and then finally saw action in the Persian Gulf (first war), beforing being decomissioned only 1o years ago. It was certainly impressive, with 14 huge guns (two guns weigh the same as a 747).After the battleship tour we headed to a typical American diner for lunch, which was so disguisting that we left after one bite, blaming a cranky baby. I did feel a bit bad because the owner wouldnt take a cent for the meal we didnt eat
and even gave us a pie to take away. It wasnt that the food was bad (by American standards), it was just so stodgy and solid. It is obvious to us now why the US has such an obesity problem....it is actually hard to eat in a simple and healthy manner if you are out and about. The only drinks are cokes and root beer in unlimitless quantities (get free refills) and sweets, chocolates and crisps all seem to come in bucket portion sizes. I watched our dive guide buying a sprite after the dive - was in a 1.5l cup - and he drank it all. Must have been 1500 calories (66% of his calorific requirements for the day).So all in all having a great time - have settled Chloe and are figuring out things to do...Louise will join us next week, then Mathilde the following week. Clarissa and Mathilda will spend most of the last week paddling so I will do all the diving I can next week.
We defintely will be back - a perfect place as far as I am concerned...great diving from boat / walking off beach, paddling for Clarissa, a lifestyle centered around the beach but yet set in a town with first world infrastructure (choice of products in super markets etc).
More posts and pic's to follow.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
… so we come to the end of our stay in Fiji. It has been a great week – relaxing (mostly) with something for everyone. Fiji is an amazing series of islands, the people are extremely friendly and laidback, the pace is slow and the island has all the lush beauty that you would image a tropical paradise to have, including mosquitoes which seem to bite Clarissa 15 – 20 times a day and virtually no bites for Chloe and I. The coral reefs are among the best I have ever seen, with the sea bed dropping off sharply into deep crystal blue waters. The undersea topography is varied – some parts flat, some with huge (30m) columns of coral and some with peaks and crevasses rising sharply from 50m to 3m and then down again within a few meters of horizontal swimming; all with one thing in common – every inch of the seabed is covered in coral….not one tiny bit is let go to waste. The fish life is abundant and varied with tiny golden anthiers, shark, dolphin, turtles, tuna, barracuda, parrot fish – the list is endless.
Each day the format was mostly the same….up between 6am – 7am and straight off to breakfast just by the beach for the same order each day; Earl Grey Tea, scrambled egg, toast and porridge shared in an equally messy manner between the three of us.
After breakfast we would do an activity – either a dive or two, swimming with chloe (both pool and sea), building sand castles, playing in the gardens, going for a paddle, boat ride or a Kids Club activity (painting / arts & crafts etc).
Lunch’s were our sanity period as Chloe either slept in the Kids Club nursery or our room and we had some time to read…we always used to look at the other older couples on holiday who used to sit at meal times and read their books or play on their computers and think how sad it is they have nothing to say to each other anymore…well, now we are like that. It isn’t that we don’t have anything to say anymore – it is just that previously we would have spent our mornings sleeping or reading whereas we now spend it on the beach, in the gardens and have done all our chatting then….so come meals times we welcome the chance to read our books and play on our computers between courses. Lunch was always a three course meal and ended in a chocolate desert of some kind or another (for me anyway).
After lunch we do more activities – like today we went out to the local village and saw a natural hot spring boiling out the ground, two days ago we went hiking etc. Chloe has her dinner time at 17:30 and four guitarists come to the kids club to play kids songs, which keeps Chloe greatly amused as she wolfs down her dinner at top speed, clapping and dancing along. I think that Michelle is going to have to learn how to play the guitar.
After dinner we try have quiet time – and the thing that seems to keep chloe the most amused is a bucket of water, no nappy and a few toys / stones / moms handbag to put in and out of the bucket. A quick bath and then in bed, leaving us to have our anti-social dinner and then be in bed early for another day.
Tomorrow (Sunday) we fly out to Honolulu but are a bit worried because we have to rely on a local Fiji plane (10 seater) to get us from this island to the main city, where we catch a proper (747) to Honolulu – but the local plane is notorious for running late…one couple was kept waiting for 6 hours because the pilot didn’t pitch and when he did he kept everyone waiting for a further 45 minutes as he had his sandwich. Fiji time. Great when you can relax, not so great when you need to catch a connecting flight.
Before I sign off, one thing that we found quite amusing was a comment by Vito (the Nanny). Fiji has quite a problem with Indian Myna’s, a type of bird which is one of only three birds listed on the United Nations Top 100 Invasive Species list. They are more aggressive, harder working and smarter than the local population (of birds) and have mostly displaced the local birds. I told Vito that we had the same problem in South Africa, with the Indian Mayna’s being aggressive and pecking the other birds out their territory.
Now the two main ethnic groups in Fiji are the Fijians and the Indians; and you guessed it, the Indians are more aggressive, harder working and smarter than the local population (of people). There is some tension between the two groups and the Fijians own all the land but the Indians make all the money; there was actually a coup that overthrew a government that was deemed too Indian heavy. The tension boils over sometimes when the Fijians who own the land throw the Indians off the land when the Indians have built up proper plantations or property developments, reneging on leasing contracts etc.
Anyway, the mask shop was owned by an Indian family, and as we bought the mask Vito commented to us that it was not good that an Indian shop is selling Fijian curios and the Indians are just like the Indian Myna’s….of course referring to the birds pecking out the locals, but not realizing the true reason they have been able to do so. I saw this first hand as I watched the hotel staff going about their daily chores. Three people to lazily sand one chair by having two watch one half heartedly rubbing the chair with a bit of sandpaper, the phone will ring in the bar and the barman will watch it ring five times before answering and everyone walks in a manner that Clarissa’s 97 year old grandmother could lap….but it did slow us down to a relaxed pace and the service was great, so no complaints.
Hawaii here we come!
Each day the format was mostly the same….up between 6am – 7am and straight off to breakfast just by the beach for the same order each day; Earl Grey Tea, scrambled egg, toast and porridge shared in an equally messy manner between the three of us.
After breakfast we would do an activity – either a dive or two, swimming with chloe (both pool and sea), building sand castles, playing in the gardens, going for a paddle, boat ride or a Kids Club activity (painting / arts & crafts etc).
Lunch’s were our sanity period as Chloe either slept in the Kids Club nursery or our room and we had some time to read…we always used to look at the other older couples on holiday who used to sit at meal times and read their books or play on their computers and think how sad it is they have nothing to say to each other anymore…well, now we are like that. It isn’t that we don’t have anything to say anymore – it is just that previously we would have spent our mornings sleeping or reading whereas we now spend it on the beach, in the gardens and have done all our chatting then….so come meals times we welcome the chance to read our books and play on our computers between courses. Lunch was always a three course meal and ended in a chocolate desert of some kind or another (for me anyway).
After lunch we do more activities – like today we went out to the local village and saw a natural hot spring boiling out the ground, two days ago we went hiking etc. Chloe has her dinner time at 17:30 and four guitarists come to the kids club to play kids songs, which keeps Chloe greatly amused as she wolfs down her dinner at top speed, clapping and dancing along. I think that Michelle is going to have to learn how to play the guitar.
After dinner we try have quiet time – and the thing that seems to keep chloe the most amused is a bucket of water, no nappy and a few toys / stones / moms handbag to put in and out of the bucket. A quick bath and then in bed, leaving us to have our anti-social dinner and then be in bed early for another day.
Tomorrow (Sunday) we fly out to Honolulu but are a bit worried because we have to rely on a local Fiji plane (10 seater) to get us from this island to the main city, where we catch a proper (747) to Honolulu – but the local plane is notorious for running late…one couple was kept waiting for 6 hours because the pilot didn’t pitch and when he did he kept everyone waiting for a further 45 minutes as he had his sandwich. Fiji time. Great when you can relax, not so great when you need to catch a connecting flight.
Before I sign off, one thing that we found quite amusing was a comment by Vito (the Nanny). Fiji has quite a problem with Indian Myna’s, a type of bird which is one of only three birds listed on the United Nations Top 100 Invasive Species list. They are more aggressive, harder working and smarter than the local population (of birds) and have mostly displaced the local birds. I told Vito that we had the same problem in South Africa, with the Indian Mayna’s being aggressive and pecking the other birds out their territory.
Now the two main ethnic groups in Fiji are the Fijians and the Indians; and you guessed it, the Indians are more aggressive, harder working and smarter than the local population (of people). There is some tension between the two groups and the Fijians own all the land but the Indians make all the money; there was actually a coup that overthrew a government that was deemed too Indian heavy. The tension boils over sometimes when the Fijians who own the land throw the Indians off the land when the Indians have built up proper plantations or property developments, reneging on leasing contracts etc.
Anyway, the mask shop was owned by an Indian family, and as we bought the mask Vito commented to us that it was not good that an Indian shop is selling Fijian curios and the Indians are just like the Indian Myna’s….of course referring to the birds pecking out the locals, but not realizing the true reason they have been able to do so. I saw this first hand as I watched the hotel staff going about their daily chores. Three people to lazily sand one chair by having two watch one half heartedly rubbing the chair with a bit of sandpaper, the phone will ring in the bar and the barman will watch it ring five times before answering and everyone walks in a manner that Clarissa’s 97 year old grandmother could lap….but it did slow us down to a relaxed pace and the service was great, so no complaints.
Hawaii here we come!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Chloe Entry: 5 Feb 2010.
Dear Blog,
Today I finally figured out how the Evil Plan works.
They take me to the Baby Jail (which they try call “The Kids Club”) where they try to leave me with mean Auntie Vito, who stops me from doing fun things like sticking my tongue in the plug, jumping into the deep end of the pool and running with scissors. Paramount to abandonment if you ask me.
But luckily for me I am an advanced baby and I have learnt that if I scream and kick and cry and complain my mom feels bad and comes back, though this doesn’t seem to work so well on dad for some reason. So I carefully plan when to throw a tantrum; it seems to work best when Dad is about to go diving or when Mum is about to go for a massage and they are still within ear shot. If I leave it too late they don’t hear me and I settle down within a minute and play with the great toys...because crying is way too much hard work in this hot weather. However, the Parents
and I have reached a truce – a white flag in the form of a chocolate biscuit. I let them have their play-play time in return for a snack….a great deal from my perspective – I would happily swap the Parents for a chocolate biscuit any day of the week!photos: http://www.cactusblue.com/Fiji u:allaccess. p:letmein
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