The big island, Hawaii

The little 50 seater jet from Honolulu to Hilo was great fun. I couldn't stand upright. It took off what seemed like vertical then banked steeply squashing you into the seat. The weather was stormy which delayed us 30 minutes. The flight to the big island only took 45 minutes. You NEED to hire a car on the big island - it's more Polynesian than American, and public transport is minimal. The conversation with Avis went something like this;

Me: Hi! I'd like a car for 3 days - what's the cheapest you have?
Avis: We have a special right now - for $90 a day you could have that;
          *points to bright blue convertible Mustang*
Me: *wide-eyed* ooh, I'll take the Mustang!
Avis: Great! You won't regret it!

 So there I am - sitting in a purring, left-hand drive, automatic Mustang in the pitch black airport car park. I've not driven a car in over a year. I change from park to drive, release the handbrake and cruise out of the airport - ill prepared but ready for adventure - I know Volcano village is about 20 miles south-west. It's raining hard, then clears quickly leaving an incredible vista of the stars through the windscreen (shield?). I take it easy, I have no idea what this car's capable of - I notice that the traction control is on and sports mode is off - I think I'll leave it like that for the moment.

Volcano village is tiny - one general store, the lava cafe, a Thai restaurant, a petrol station and some tourist accommodation. My hostel was called HoloHolo and was hard to find down some tiny dark roads. The hostel is deathly quiet, and quite cold. In the dorm room were two US geologists studying the volcano - they were getting up at 3am the next day to go to the lava lake - something that's off-bounds to tourists. I asked if I could join them, but special permits were required.

My reason for coming to this Island was to see some lava. The geologists said that the walk from crater drive was now 7 miles over old lava terrain, and impossible if you didn't know where to look for the lava. They suggested going from the north side, but it would require a guide as it would be on private land - costing $300 on your own, or $150 in a group. Also the rain was a factor - it was constantly raining heavily. As time went on I didn't find people willing to shell out $150, and I wasn't prepared to pay $300 - so the lava idea faded.

I took a drive in the rain down crater drive, where you pass various dated lava flows. The road winds down a huge hill to the sea and then the road stops abruptly, where a 2003 lava flow decided to cross! It's from here that you can hike 7 miles to the active flow if you so wished.

Lava says no to road

A flow from early 2000

I spend the last night before flying out in Hilo at a little guest house slightly out of town, called the Hilo tropical garden hostel. I meet up with two gnarly Alaskans who'd fled to Hawaii from the oppressive cold - as they (and many Alaskans) do every year. We drive up to the observatory at Mauna Kea. An interesting drive that steadily climbs and climbs and climbs, seemingly never-ending. The only indication that you're getting higher is the car using more and more fuel. We hit the clouds and heavy rain for 10 minutes then pop out into brilliant sunshine, and the observatory at around 13,000ft. From base (at the bottom of the Pacific) to the peak (33.000ft) it's twice as high as Everest (base to peak) We're not able to drive to the summit in my muscle car - this is only accessible by 4x4. There's some great little walks around the area on the red martian landscape but the wind-speed is incredible!

Wellington, New Zealand

Another lovely journey on the intercity through the Tongariro national park and its highly active volcano. As usual the drivers are super-informative and friendly. We stop at a curious farm cafe for a coffee and savoury scone. Out back there's some ducks, chickens, sheeps and some fluffy Llama type animals. In Wellington i'm dropped off at the main bus terminal then take a windy walk through town to the enormous YHA - this place has six floors!

Let it be known from the start that I love this place. This city was designed for people. Everything connects together perfectly. You can amble about along the whole waterfront, taking in bars, businesses, the museum, planks to jump into the crystal blue harbour from, sailing clubs, rowing clubs, helicopter taxi's - the list is endless. Businessmen on skateboards, joggers and cyclists happily share the board walk. There's no sense of one-up-man-ship here - no feeling of 'my house is bigger than your house' or 'my boat is faster than your boat' - everybody just seems happy to be there, and why wouldn't they?

20 minutes on the bus and you're on a remote beach at Island bay. From here are walking/cycling tracks around the point to red rocks and a seal colony - but it was off-season, and there was only one seal. Back in the city you can get up Mount Victoria in 45 minutes with an amazing 360 of the whole area. Down a track and some steep roads brings you back to sea level, and a beach fronted by some beautiful houses. This is where I shall live, if I ever come into some money - everything is so expensive. beer I ever drunk, at $11 (£5.50) for a pint - eek

My usually great YHA experience was tainted by two young German guys in the dorm - and they were without doubt the two most annoying bastards I've ever had the misfortune to share with. I got back the room at lunchtime to collect something and they were asleep, the room was pitch dark and stuffy with the windows closed. I grabbed my stuff and headed back out. Getting back to the room about 5pm they'd just got out of bed, I said hi but got no response. The window was still closed and the curtains drawn - I opened them, to looks of disgust. There were many power sockets in the room in use, charging their phones, laptops and mp3 players. I asked to use the one next to my bed and received a "no". I pointed at a spare one next to their bunk and said use that one. They couldn't as there was no signal there, and the phone was downloading. I bluntly said that I'm going to use this socket, just for 20 minutes, and unplugged the phone. Then they were obviously imitating my frustration in German. As they'd been sleeping all day they were full of beans - they didn't go out and talked and talked and talked - several times I told them to be quiet. At 2am they woke me up leaving the room and I though AHHH great, now I can get sleep, as I need to get the ferry at 7am next morning. They came back half an hour later with a McDonalds, eating it in the room and talking talking talking! I couldn't beleive it. I didn't say anything, I took some deep breaths to relax and put thoughts of killing them both out of my head and tried to get some sleep. What can you do? Some people really are arseholes.  

Rotorua, New Zealand

This place is like a movie set. Little chocolate-box houses sit on freshly manicured lawns protected by cute little fences. The roads are dead quiet - there's little traffic. The first thing you notice is the eggy stench as you enter the town. There's steaming egg flavoured geysers everywhere - even the church car park has steam hissing out of it. This is why people come here - and the various geo-thermal wonderlands (Wai O Tapu being the most famous) attract many day-trippers from around New Zealand.

I checked into a Nomad hostel again! I know I said I wouldn't after Auckland but the travel desk told me it was much quieter - which it is. Unlike Auckland the rooms are huge and airy, with big opening windows letting in lovely fresh egg-air! On arrival I had an 8-bed dorm to myself.

Geysers tearing up the street - and not pissed-up London geysers!

Maori pattern

The lake

Rush hour

I went for a walk to the thermal area next to the lake. There's a few spa's here using the natural heat from the ground for the jacuzzi's and mineral pools. I was keen to have a spa, but it was quite pricey, and there were lots of couples - I would feel a little odd sitting there alone. Past the thermal area is the stunning old colonial bath house - now an art gallery and museum. With the bowling green in front it's screaming England at me! I chat about the weather with a friendly bowler, like a true Englishman.

Further round is a visitor centre, a few cafe's and a helicopter tour operator - with landing pads floating out on the bay. I sit and watch the heli-tours come and go. I have this geeky obsession with aviation, in particular helicopters. Several times I've thought about blowing my savings on lessons, with the view to becoming a pilot in some beautiful part of the world - Alaska, the Caribbean, Norway, Pacific island hopping... but it costs (on average) $90,000 to get a basic commercial licence - then you need 1000's of flight hours to even be looked at by one of these exotic positions - and there's minimal positions out there (I've checked!). Most likely you'd be servicing oil rigs, or flying rubber dog shit out of China.

I continue walking around the lake then turn back when the zinging midday sunshine fades and an evening chill starts to bite - I love this weather.

That evening four mid-twenties German girls check into the dorm. One is half-German half-Thai - a pleasing combination. They're all very friendly and certainly not shy - getting changed in front of me doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest (do they not know my ageing heart can't cope with that kind of stress??) They try and get me out on the pub crawl but I decline, stating that I don't drink (not actually too far from the truth at the moment), and get into bed with my laptop (at this very moment I can hear face-palming!)

Koh Rong, Cambodia

Vietnam to Cambodia summoned images of a long painful bus journey, but the trip was absolutely fine. Before we knew it we were at the border and were whisked through in no time at all. Out into Cambodia it's same same but different. Before long we were at the Neak Loeang river crossing. The coach edged up onto a rickety old boat followed by other cars and many motorbikes; one with twenty live chickens strapped to the back; the poor things looked in a really bad way. There were ladies selling all manner of odd things to eat none of which I could describe!

It was a twenty minute float to the other bank where the bus creaked off; next stop Phnom Penh for a quick stop and bus change before heading to Sihanoukville, the beach partaaaay capital of Cambodia, for a one night stop. We stayed at the Big Easy; your average Ozzie style backpacker. One thing I didn't like was the major sweat factor in the rooms. Sure, dorm's are normally a little sticky but this one felt very damp and smelly!

Next morning up early for a rainy two hour boat trip to Koh Rong on a cute little (ex?) fishing boat. Getting on the boat with luggage was interesting; edging from the high dock down a thin steep bit of wood and under the roof of the boat. Deathtrap flip-flops removed we all walked the plank successfully and took to our seats. Talitha entertained me by trying to tune her uke over the pounding engine noise and Emily slept off last nights hangover.

With thirty minutes to go the island appeared. An absolute paradise; I've never been anywhere quite like it; snow-white palm-fringed sands, mirror-flat turquoise sea, and beautiful beach huts. As we docked you could see thousands of tiny fish gathered around the boats. Greeted by the Coco beach resort eager to gain our business we're scooted off to a bar for a welcome lemonade and chat. The island is mostly deserted; at Coco there's two bars with evening BBQ's, with a little village, some tourist huts and two dive centres, then further down the beach there's the paradise resort (with an amazingly open, stilted restaurant) then further down and around the corner there's some super-cool tree houses and that's it! We're told by a barman that this would probably be the last season it would be like this. Checking the wiki confirms that there's plans underway for mega-resorts, casino's, golf courses and even an airport; turning Koh Rong into Cambodia's playground for the rich. Incredibly sad, but I'm glad we were able to see it before it's destroyed.

Land ahoy!

Coco's

Looking back towards the village 

We ignore the Coco "we are the cheapest on the island" spiel and find a $10 (for three of us!); literally a wooden hut on the pier; with two double-beds. For the second night we wanted to splash out $35 on a tree house, but they were all booked up. The next few days are spent relaxing in the big egg seats, floating in the hot sea, enjoying the amazing Coco beach BBQ (and going back to enjoy it again, and again) with some Klang beers and staring at the billions of brilliant stars and distant thunderstorms in the sky.

Epic BBQ

Epic relaxing

 

Distant storms

I'm not a huge beach person; I get bored so easily. Beaches for me normally involve some kind of physical activity; I can't sit and relax for long. I loved this beach so much, because for the first time in my life I actually enjoyed beach relaxing! The absolute peace and quiet of it put me in a trance and hours went past doing happily nothing. My favourite favourite moment was waking at 5:30am for the sunrise. Me, Talitha, sea & sky.

 
I hope development is halted and beauty kept for dribbles of future tourists to see. Do people really want to go to huge expensive resorts, fighting for beach space, when you can stay on an almost deserted island for $10 a night? It makes no sense to me.

I would just like to add this picture of the little dog (Gremlin) that was rescued from the mainland by the paradise staff;

Cute??