Likelike, Pupus and Poki

This place is making me feel strangely timeless. We are having trouble remembering what day it is and I can't seem to write in a linear fashion here.
So.
Today we met Rhonda, Aaron and a local guy, Ash at a north shore spot that was breaking, Malekahena. no crowd. It was very nice. Did I mention the water? It is so warm here. Especially after 15 degrees in California! It would easily be in the mid twenties.

One minute it looked like this, then the next, like this...

The break was in a nice bay straight out from this cute camp site with Hawaiian style bungalows. It was breaking a long way out over reasonably shallow reef, but the waves were very rolling, without much oompf. We even had a little rain shower while we surfed, before the sun came out again.

Now, back to Monday. We went for a snorkel in the afternoon. They have tradewinds here, so in Summer the wind is essentially continuously easterly. Snorkelling in this proved a little interesting as the current was going one way and the wind the other!! Visibility wasn't great, but we do plan to do another snorkel, while Kristy does a dive in a famous place, Shark's Bay. Its meant to be great for snorkelling.
So, after deciding it was a bit windy, Kristy and I still wanted to snorkel. I with one good flipper and one with a broken strap, snorkel shoved up the side of my mask strap. But follow my intrepid leader I did!! We went out around some rocks, from our beach and two bays up to Turtle Beach.I couldn't see a bloody thing, above or below water and had to keep pulling my flipper on.
Meanwhile Jo and James were walking over hot volcanic rock to get to the same place, burning their tootsies! James pushed on, feet gored, and had a relaxing snorkel. Jo literally took the road less travelled, ended up shimmying up a fence and down a palm tree to get back on the highway and walk home. We had some high adventures to tell.
And it was all worth it because this is what we found:

Kristy spotted this one as we were entering the bay!

These guys are huge! Recharging in the sun :] There were about 4 on the beach.

They're called basking turtles as they're one of the few that just come to chill out on the sand.

Enjoying the Pacific

Paradise

Island Time

Heeeeeey.
We've been a bit slack with the updates because we've been having such a blast.
We explored Haliewa, the small town near our house, been to all the surf shops, had shave ice, found longboards for a nice cheap $70/week rental, Had dinner at Haliewa Joes, twice. We've also had a home cooked meal and pancakes for breakfast! My, we have been busy. Sorry, mum, no food photos. We were too busy gobbling! But I did have great ribs and an amazing sirloin :)

Shaka, man.

Famous Shave Ice (Love that Japanese influence here) from Matsumoto's!
James got 'rainbow' flavour....

Kristy with grape, raspberry & green apple.

In this photo you should note the fabulousness that is our reflection. We're very cool.

Yesterday we did some sightseeing. It was a big day. We basically drove around half the Island. Saw all the surf spots that aren't breaking, cos it's Summer; Waimea, Pipeline, Sunset, Rocky Point.

Four rented mals on the roof of the hire-car. We been tying those bad boys doooown!

Kristy & I standing up very straight at the Chinaman's Hat.

On the Kam Hwy

We drove all the way around to Kailua on the east (windward) side, near Lanakai. No waves here either!

In search of waves, we checked out Diamond Head, which was blown out, and finally ended up at Waikiki. Well, we had to do it at least once. There were a lot of people in the water and the waves were lovely, but few and far between.

Waikiki is just like you'd expect it to be. Whilst the North Shore is quiet, a little run down and unassuming, Waikiki is high-rises, Japanese tourists and ukelele music. We actually surfed 'Queens' which is pretty exciting as I've seen videos of this place. The waves were great shaped, but the stress of the crowd got to all of us.

After a whack of surfing and the trip back to the North Shore, we caught up with Jo's friend Rhonda and her boyfriend Aaron for dinner and cocktails.

Costa Brava

We did a snorkelling and kayak tour north from Barcelona to the Costa Brava before flying out. One final dip in the Mediterranean. Here is a video. Sorry that I don't have the resources at my disposal to make it a snappier production. Only just realised that this was sitting as a draft and not published!! Travesty!

 

The only photo taken of us that actually worked out :P

In the cave!!

Not quite as clear as the Aegean, I don't think.

Ios Backdrop

Here's Hannah's mad skills 8m jump, as promised:

Ouch. My brave girl!!

Santorini at 30km/hour

We had a very big day today. We had actually planned to do the laundry, but being Sunday, none of the washer-women were working. And so our adventure began...

We hired a quad bike which was an adventure in itself. This was NOT a decision made lightly. We'd seen people blasting around on scooters and mopeds on the last 2 islands and it wasn't until today that we felt it might be an ok idea. Not only are we driving on the 'wrong' side of the road here, but Greeks do some funny things on the roads.

 

We had helmets unlike half the loons (read: Aussie tourists) that drive around in their boardies and nothing else. The guy at the rental shop was trying to talk us into a 180cc bike and we were both saying, 'No, no! 50cc.' We got our 50cc for 15 Euros for the whole day - or bring it back in the morning - it doesn't matter...

Turns out he was right. The first hill we got to and we were being overtaken by everything on the island. I could have run faster. Girls on mopeds were going faster than we were. But we did get to see a lot of the island and at a very leisurely pace.

This is what we saw:

We drove to the southern tip of the Island to visit the famous 'Red Beach' - volcanic cliffs of red rock.

We'd hoped to visit the nearby archaeological site of Akrotiri, but it turns out its been closed to the public for four years.

 

So we puttered our way to the mid-east section of the island and had lunch in Perissa.

Perissa is known for its black beach.

They have walkways because the pebbles get so hot.

The water is still super clear. A lot nicer than that red beach. :/

We found that our crocs float.

 

The site of Anceint Thira was right next to Perissa but this wasn't accessible either. We didn't see the quad making the 500m ascent to the top of the mountain. So we made our way back to Fira, where we are staying. Today didn't seem to be the day for history and culture. But we did find:

and... 

Lots of grape vines here but they don't train them on trellising in rows like we do and they look a lot less nourished.

The views were breathtaking. It's so mountainous here!

Crazy Greek signs.

From the middle of the Island we went up to Oia (Ee-ya). A short 8km trip from Fira on the NW coast. But we took the low ocean road which was the long way around... across to the east coast and alll the way up and around.

Taverna by day.

Iced coffees out of the sun in Oia, overhanging the caldera, with Fira in the background.

 

There is a strange haze over the land here, the moon already up.

We didn't get to the 'White Beach'. But really, how could that compare when we have places like Yallingup and Esperance?? ;)

 

Weeeeeee!! We took the high road to Fira home. And I mean high!

vvvvvroom!

This completed our unintended circumnavigation of Santorini.

Underwater World - Welcome to the Aegean

We've been blown away by the clarity of the water so we took the opportunity to get some shots with the underwater camera. Now, you need to appreciate that this wasn't easy. The water is also really salty and so opening your eyes underwater gets painful after a while. Plus, without a mask you can't see anything on the LCD screen anyway! So photographing each other proved a challenge with lots of 'too closes' and complete misses. But we had fun!! These shots are from Mykonos.

By the way, you can click on the images for a slightly larger view (we are only uploading small files so it doesn't take too long.)
Happy Weekend!