A temperature change...

As well as crossing time zones recently, we seem to have crossed seasons too! This picture is one we took of Waimea Bay, Hawaii a few days ago...

This picture was back home in Wales at Rhosneigr Beach, Anglesey this morning! (not my photo).

It was below freezing and snowing hard all morning. No cars at all had driven up or down our hill when I attempted to leave. Thinking better of it, we both decided to stay put, keep the fire going and work from home today. After lunch, the clouds parted for a few hours, so we took a short walk out to see the mountains.

After another brief flurry of snow in the afternoon, we nipped out at about 5pm to get the view of the peaks from nearby Moel y Ci. 

It was so cold that my eyes streamed with tears and my nose felt like it might fall off!

And after taking a couple of photos, my hand was frozen!

Nice place to be though, even if we don't have the tropical temperatures. It's hard to even imagine now that we were surfing on a tropical beach just few days ago!

Back to the Future - Crossing Time Zones

It’s been a weekend of travel! Having crossed multiple time zones, it’s hard to remember or work out how long the journey back to The Cottage actually took. I do remember that we said our farewells to Hawaii and the guys at Honolulu Airport on Saturday morning and took off over the surf of Waikiki Beach.

That night, we jumped forward a couple of hours and landed into the bright lights of Los Angeles, California at dusk.

We had just enough time to grab some dinner and make our way over to the right terminal before boarding our next flight. We got a tantalising glimpse of life in first class as we boarded and made our way to the back of the plane!

Initially, we were seated with a large pregnant woman. The kind stewards, went off to find her a seat with more room, which was lovely for her and great for us as we thought we had a row of three seats to ourselves. Until an even bigger replacement passenger was assigned to the spare seat! It was a tight journey back over  American and the Atlantic. All ten hours of it! But we did get to witness a fabulous sunrise...

And could see all of Anglesey and Snowdonia as we approached the UK from the north west.

From Llandudno to the Lleyn Peninsular, Wales was laid out like a map, with the Menai Straits easy to spot.

Had a look for Loddington a bit later, but couldn’t quite make it out from our side of the plane!

Then finally, we put down at Heathrow, where the time jumped forward another eight hours to about 15:30 on Sunday afternoon. 

The car was waiting for us at the meet and greet car park, so just a five hour drive saw us back at The Cottage and put directly to bed! 

What an adventure!

Waikiki Longboarding

Got some more waves today after hiring an enormous 10 foot “Bear” longboard at Waikiki! It took some man handling just to get it to the waters edge!

We called into Pearl Harbour on the way, but queues that were winding all the way around the visitors centre put us off. Instead, we made our way over to the beach, by the statue of ‘The Duke’.

Despite the mellow waves, I managed to take a tumble and ‘got bitten’ by the bear. (Well, it’s fin took a slice off my elbow!). 

The weird/amazing thing about Waikiki Beach is that you can walk straight off the sand and into some of the worlds most glamorous shops, such as Gucci or the Tesla electric car showroom. We would have bought the white one, but decided that the doors might be a little restrictive in the multi-story car park in Bangor.

Back out by the beach, we stumbled on the 8th Inter-Island Hula Championship! Lloyd and I had a bit of fun by getting ourselves backstage for some selfies with the hula girls and their colourful outfits.

The stage was under a huge Banyan tree, which somehow had been preserved while skyscrapers were being built around it.

Back over at Kailua, we just had time for a trip on the paddleboard before dusk. We managed to go right down the beach, (without falling in), with Clare paddling on the back and me perched on the nose. Progress indeed. As we got out, there was a bit of drama on the beach when a fisherman caught a Hammer Head Shark!! Just a small one, but still!.....

Our final night in Hawaii was spent celebrating Lloyd’s birthday at restaurant that stayed open very late (10:30!!). Delicious food and possibly the tastiest cake ever made? A fabulous finish to an incredible time together.

Turtles & Whales

It was a dramatically damp drive over the mountains, back to the North Shore today. Waterfalls were pouring spectacularly down the steep tunnels.

First stop of the day - Turtle beach lived up to its name and we were able to watch a few up close as they bobbed around in the shallows.

The others fancied checking out the surfers over at the Pipeline and Backdoor wave and we were very keen to see it again! I could stand there and watch for hours!

The waves were a little smaller, but the dark skies gave it a more dramatic feeling and made the sea colour more vibrant. The surfers make it look so easy and they seem to take the poundings with ease, but as a reminder of how powerful the waves are, we watched one guy wipe out and get his board snapped clean in half!

As we stood watching, we noticed some big splashing out to sea, then all stood in amazement as we watched some (humpback?) whales flipping right out of the water! Sometimes a big tail would flip up, sometimes a spurt of water could be seen and every now and then, the whole thing would get propelled up into the air! What a spectacular treat! 

Around mid afternoon, we retreated from the beach as the rains arrived. We took shelter in a restaurant for a late lunch before driving back east.

We had a great fun evening in town, until late(ish). The restaurants close at 9pm, so we were last to leave after some delicious Italian food. Further comedy back at the house ensued...

North Shore, Hawaii

Clare and I took a trip up to the famous ‘North Shore’ today to do a bit of wave watching. 

The drive took about an hour, through amazing ‘Jurassic Park’ type scenery. The hills sides are all impossibly steep and densely forested with tropical trees. First stop, (recommend by friends), was for a quick snack of local garlic shrimps, from the famous food trucks. 

Then it was onto the main event - the most beautiful beaches!

The ‘Pipeline’ wave was incredible to see so close up. You could literally stand on the waters edge and look into the barrel of the wave as it peeled over - usually with a surfer trying to ride through without being caught by the tonnes of water crashing down behind them. (Look closely at the wave to get the scale!).



It was mesmerising and sweat inducing watching them.

Some of the big sets were three times the head height of the surfers, so we estimated them to be about 18’ high! I’d never seen anything like it. Such power!

Along the beach front were super cool mansion houses that were all owned by the major surf companies, to house their pro surfers. Photographers lined the balconies and a few drones flew overhead to catch the action close up.

It was a totally amazing, front row view!

We were so hot at the end of the day, that we went along to ‘shark cove’ for a snorkel to cool down. Thankfully there were no sharks, but there were lots of spiky erchins so we had to be careful where we stood. 

The emersion in the water cooled us down nicely to enjoy the drive back to base, past Wiamea Bay, where it was hard to believe that 30 foot waves roll in during the winter!

For the drive home we stopped to try another Hawaiian classic - ‘Shaved Ice’ (a cup of ice shavings), with tropical flavours.

Surfing Waikiki Beach

Another incredible day to remember! And not just because Clare and I were celebrating fourteen years of togetherness. The feeling of surfing a longboard right across the bay of Waikiki beach on a gently peeling, green, glassy wave will stay with me for a long time!

Over on the west side of the island, the beach is very different - with skyscrapers lining the beach. It felt like a whole new island and very exciting.

This is generally regarded as the birth place of surfing and there are tributes and statues everywhere of famous surfers.

We spent a fantastic few hours out in the waves, which despite reviews to the contrary, were relatively uncrowded. There were plenty of waves to get and all a mellow 1 to 2 foot high. Perfectly formed and easy to catch, we rode many side by side, whooping as we went!

It was an exhausting session (first of the year for me!) and the sun beat down on us too! Once we got out, we showered on the beach then went straight in search of food.

We found the perfect beach side restaurant to celebrate in and met the others for delicious cocktails and a late lunch.

After a delicious feed, we had a walk along the high street, which is adorned with amazing hotels and designer shops. We passed a few nice cars along the way too!

And this nice looking hotel. 

Everyone got souvenir t-shirts after a bit of shopping, then before the daylight ended, we walked back towards the car to go for a sunset snorkel.

The water felt really warm and the setting sun made the whole experience even more incredible.

After spotting plenty of tropical fish, we stood and watched the colours change over Waikiki.

A magic finish and a wonderful way to celebrate fourteen years of making memories like this together...