Hawai'ian beaches

Whilst in Hawai'i we visited,

used and exploited only three beaches.

Only three for New Zealanders is a very poor effort.

We are a water oriented people.

If we aren't racing to a seaside beach in the summer

we are heading into the mountains to make

the most of water skiing and boating on a multitude of lakes.

So to only have spent a small amount of time at the beach while in Hawai'i

is criminal.

Of course that's not why we were there.
It wasnt a holiday, it was an experience.

We arrived too late for the 4th of July fireworks

 but in the morning we paid a suitable tribute visit to Pearl Habour

then to Waikiki to visit tourist central.

Except that we didn't.

We drove through Waikiki to a park on the far side

Where the kids jumped pretty quickly onto the sand to

paddle and wander along the quiet end of Waikiki Beach.

 I love getting to know places with locals.

Doug Beaton parent of Keoni was our driver with most of the kids,

while Alex (older) brother of Keoni drove the boys and the food.

They go together don't you think.

Thankfully the boys were well behaved

so no food was lost in the journey.

I will post about the food

because so far everyone in NZ has been quite sneering

about American food.

Pattie mother of Malia and Rosie sister of Malia joined us too.

Pattie would go on to host five of our girls at her place on the Big Island.

Waikiki was a surprise how nice it was.

Yes it was crowded,with locals as much as tourists,

and the shopping was the more expensive kind

(still cheaper than NZ).

Me and Lou had a very pleasant time 'hugging'

Duke Kahanamoku's bronzed legs.

Wild and crazy, we were.

The Big Island doesn't actually have endless beaches

like you'd imagine.

Being a relatively new volcanic island

they are still in the epic process of getting beautiful, idyllic beaches.

On the Big Island, the first beach we visited,
 for about an hour was Hapuna.

I can't remember where I've put the photos of Hapuna

but it was a hot, dry, sunny day

until we got to the beach.
A good long white sand beach,
not too busy.
The sun was quite cool and the water was cooler still.
Keep in mind I avoid swimming in NZ
(unless around Nelson)
because the water is freezing!
Becky, Lou and I were meeting some of the kids at the beach.
By the time they arrived, we'd swum and were lying in the sun
hoping to get a good start on brownness.
Once the kids had swum,
jumped off the rocks,
snorkeled and played with a ball we'd found them
it was time to go.
Boy did that time pass quickly.

The third beach we visited was the best.
The best because it was all the best parts of NZ beaches.
69 is near Hapuna but a million miles away in beauty and mood.

One long beach divided into pockets of privacy between the trees.

One end was suitable for body surfing

and the end we were at was protected by a coral reef.

So ideal for snorkeling.

I'm not a huge fan of snorkeling.

I think because I used to have really bad sinus and

the mask added too much pressure to my face

but this day I decided to not be a sook and see what I could see.

We saw plenty of fish - neon yellow fish, parrot fish and

the humuhumunukunukuapuaa which turns out not to be Hawaii's state fish.

Which is good cause you have to have rhythm to say it name.

The thing I loved about 69

was simply that we were all so close together but

also free to do our own thing.

The girls swam and snorkeled,

Rosie and Kamuela (little siblings of Malia) bounced in and out of the sea,

we swam, we planned the next few days,

even got a bit of reading done and a bit of tanning.

The kids had fun and were never far away.

It was all good.

I love trees on the beach *sigh*

I think in the whole two weeks we were in Hawai'i

we spent about 5 hours on a beach.

Not long, not enough but we so busy do ag things

that we hardly noticed not spending time at the beach.

Last picture of 69 comes from Johanna the groover.

Shaka brah!

On July 5th Louly and I took ten young New Zealand farm kids to Hawaii for an agricultural exchange for two weeks. They are members of the NYZF TeenAg programme. We were hosted by East Hawaii 4H specifically the Beatons and Stouts. We visited many kinds of agricultural and horticultural operations, varied and diverse, learned that American ag folks like to philosophise about their place in the world and had a great time snorkeling and shopping in the sun. These posts are in no particular order cause I was too busy to post while in Hawaii and can be rather abstract and should only be taken as an inaccurate at best record.