And then it was time to say goodbye to New Zealand on Sunday the 9th of June...

The longest day ever

And that was the longest day ever, because first we had the (rainy) day still at home, packing our bags and cleaning the house. Our flight was only in the evening. And then we flew to Honolulu which is an 8-hour flight, and when we arrived, it was still the 9th of June – and morning again. Then it started to become a bit of a long day especially when you are not very good at sleeping in planes... Happily, everything went extremely smooth when arriving in Honolulu, none of the dreaded queues that often happen when you arrive and have to pass immigration in the US. We were quickly through, and were also soon hopping into our rental car. None of the stress often associated with renting cars at airports, with unclear directions and too much traffic. So we were on the road sooner than expected – and a whole day ahead of us, until we could check into the ‘pod’ we had rented for the next four days.

Snorkelling with turtles

So we drove to Hale’iwa, which was close to where we were staying, and stopped at the first beach we met. And that happened to be one of the hot spots for spotting turtles! Several people were staring at something in the water, so we joined them, and yes, there they were, bobbing around in the waves! Really cool view. One of the other days, we went back to this spot and I had the opportunity to view one of them up close and personal from the water, while snorkelling. The water was a bit murky, but I could see the turtle very well. He/she was grazing the sea floor, and I bobbed around a few meters away (you are not allowed to come too close and definitely not touch them). And a great opportunity to try out the underwater feature of my new camera!

This is NOT a tiny house

Then it was finally time to go to the ‘tiny house’ we had rented, which I was really looking forward to. The pictures were fantastic – and ok, there were no reviews yet, but you should give new listings a chance, right? Especially since it was difficult to find anything slightly affordable on Oahu. Well, that was not the best decision... The pod was off grid, which was fine with us – no problem to be careful with water and electricity, and to have Wi-Fi that you can only reach at the parking lot – but that was not all there was to it.

Let me list some things:

• The photos were from at least 5 years ago, so it was all looking a little less shiny and new and much more overgrown by sugarcane, pretty much hiding the beautiful view off the slopes towards the ocean.
• The whole front was made of glass, with only one blind over one small part of it, so it was boiling hot when arriving in the afternoon. We were actually afraid to leave our stuff for fears of stuff melting... There was an aircon in the bedroom to cool it down in the evening, but there were no windows to open during the night either (and you want to keep the sliding doors shut with all the animal life in Hawai’i) so it was quite stuffy, if you don’t want to sleep under a cold wind.
• The water in the tiny house did not work unless you walked downhill for about 50 meters and turned a timer there. Then you’d have 10-15 minutes of water – for washing your hands, taking a shower, and flushing the toilet. So that was less pleasant at night...
• We knew we had to bring our own drinking water, and that there was no hot water in the pod, which was actually ok because it was warm enough so a cold shower was fine. We also didn’t have any issues with the limited power – we were able to run the fridge during the day (not very cold though) and have the aircon help cool the place down in the evening.
• More problematic was the complete lack of anything that you usually find in a kitchen. There was something that looked like a kitchen, quite nice actually, but then there were no glasses, no cutlery, no plates, no bowls, no sharp knife, no tea towels, nothing that makes a kitchen a kitchen. There we were with our groceries, having bought in some mangos, yoghurt and muesli for breakfast... And we just thought: this is not a tiny house!! (and: ‘how much did we pay for this ‘glamping’ experience??)
• But well, of course we got used to it and it was okay, as long as you were just not there between 11 and 17 because of the heat...

Ahi

So we spent the days away from the pod. We went to Pearl Harbour, where we visited the WWII submarine USS Bowfin, and we visited the old town and shops of Hale’iwa. Another day we drove a nice circle along the east coast, which was a very beautiful drive with the jagged mountains on one side and the ocean to the other. We also had some nice food – in those ten days in Hawaii I ate ahi, or raw tuna, pretty much every day! Either as a starter or lunch or as a poke bowl which you can get in the supermarket (simply rice and then there are about 10 different types of raw fish to choose from). So delicious!