On the Road Again

The New Year finds your intrepid travellers back on the road after a rejuvenating stint in the colonies, where we endured hard labour for little recompense, and danced for small change in the evening.

Nonetheless, Hawaii is upon us (or more accurately, we are upon Hawaii) and Sydney is now a distant memory.

Our trip began with a little disappointment, being the failure of Flight Centre to inform us that our flight details had changed…in December! We arrived to an empty check-in desk at Kingsford Smith, and spent the following hours wrangling with the agency to get us on a flight ASAP. 6 hours later we were in the air and on our way to Kauai.

We arrived in the afternoon and drove to Doug & Dave’s house, courtesy of Airbnb, where we were greeted by the illustrious Rowena, friend of our hosts, constant jet setter, and social butterfly of the island. Our hosts themselves met us the following day, and all three of them would quickly become great friends. We spent the week socialising with our new island family, and meeting their extended network of warm and wonderful friends. We BBQ’d with Ro’s friends on the south side, and threw the best dinner party Kauai had seen in years at D&D’s.

In between social events we snorkelled, hiked, took boat rides upriver (unexpectedly accompanied by an all-singing, hula-dancing crew), ate magnificent food (Jade became the island’s self-proclaimed connoisseur of ‘poke’, a Japanese style ceviche), and explored the quaint towns dotted around the island. Kauai is rugged and beautiful, having provided the backdrop to Jurassic Park, as well as many other films. It’s jungle-clad volcanic peaks descend into crystal ocean, and rivers snake their way through the middle of the island, providing excellent kayaking opportunities, which sadly the winter winds prevented us exploring. We did however enjoy cycling along the shoreline, watching the whales breach and play a few hundred metres away.

Mornings were slow, and more than once accompanied by Doug’s spectacular southern-style breakfasts. Another highlight of the week was Bobo (Mr Bojangles to you), the most adorable Maltese cross puppy who wriggled his way into even Jade’s stone-cold (at least where dogs are concerned) heart.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and on Friday we farewelled Doug, Dave, Rowena, and Bobo, but thankfully not before ingesting more than our fair share of French toast and bacon. We were sad to leave such generous, interesting, caring, and hospitable friends, but alas we must float where the winds carry us, and keep faith that one day they will bring us back together.

Until then, thanks for a perfect week.

By Greg 


PS We are now travelling Maui & Oahu and will send a blog soon. Until then I’m (Jade) compiling blogs that were missed out from our Bolivia/Peru trip. Expect to see them interspersed between the current blogs!

*As always please check www.basketoflight.weebly.com for Gregs pictorial diary.