Meandering Mumfords - Page 3 of 8 - Our Grey Gap Year & Beyond

November 6, 2023November 22, 2023

Our Escape Campervan Tour of North Island

Our “Chilly” Escape Campervan – we nicknamed her Little Lizzie after our old motorhome in the UK!

We began our clockwise trip by going up the stunning Coromandel peninsula to Coromandel Town (an old gold mining town) and then down the other side to Omokoroa, across to Ohope, then to Gisborne (Captain Cook landed here) and then Napier (a lovely town with lots of Art Deco buildings after the original buildings were destroyed in the earthquake of 1931).

Then on down the coast to Masterton. We’ve seen some stunning scenary (impossible to capture on our little phone cameras), driven on REALLY twisty roads (some with only 1 lane as the other has collapsed due to the cyclone earlier this year!), hugged beautiful coastlines and wiggled through gorgeous gorges, met some wonderful people along the way and even managed 1 night free camping (hopefully more to come). We’re seen acres of kiwi vines, more avocados and of course lots of vineyards in Hawkes Bay, more cattle than we expected and in Napier we had a pet greenfinch who took a dislike to our van and kept pecking it!!!! As per usual, we walked our socks off exploring our little stop offs and of course, had fish and chips on the beach!

From Masterton we drove out to Cape Palliser under gorgeous blue skies and next to blue seas, met a New Zealand traffic jam (herd of cows being driven down the road), climbed 253 steps to the top of the lighthouse, watched the large colony of fur seals and pups and ended with a great lunch at the Lake Ferry Hotel. It’s quite a hairy drive in places but worth it.

Traffic Jam, Cape Palliser Lighthouse, Fur Seals

When we left Masterton, we had intended to visit Castlepoint, but there was a severe weather warning of high winds and rain in place, so we cut our losses and headed inland across to Whanganui. We stopped off at the Anzac bridge, where Anzac Day ceremonies still take place, had lunch in Feilding (voted best town 16 times apparently) and then just had to wander around Bulls looking for all the puns it is famous for and popping into the tiny but interesting museum.

Whanganui was cold (got the woolly hats back out!) but was a lovely place to walk around. They have an elevator (Durie Hill) to take you up to the top of the hill! Lots of wall art, a great paddle steamer and a 1912 tram called Mabel (neither working during our visit!!), and lots of historic buildings to explore.

We then travelled the Surf Highway 45 to New Plymouth. The sun was shining again and the temperature rising and we had the most fabulous views of Mount Egmont (a dormant volcano that was also a stand in for Mt Fuji in The Last Samurai) all the way around.

We took a detour into the park to see Dawson Falls to stretch our legs and then again to see Cape Egmont lighthouse. The surf in this area was immense and incredibly rough in places.

After commiserating with the Kiwis over losing the rugby, we strolled along the coastal walkway of New Plymouth, taking in some great fun wall art, the museum, the war memorial and on our return we popped up to see the shiny Len Lye centre (he also designed the Wind Wand on the coast path) which stands opposite the beautiful old White Hart Hotel (which has some yummy gelato!) – quite a striking contrast. The clock tower is fairly new but houses the original clocks from the old post office that was demolished in 1963 and looks great reflected in the Len Lye Centre.

We left New Plymouth in the pouring rain, so didn’t stop off at Mt Egmont National Park for a walk as we had originally planned (couldn’t see the mountain at all). We made our way up the coast, past black sanded beaches and stopped off to see the 3 sisters (rock pillars). Ha, well, seemingly this can only be done at low tide, and of course, we got there at high tide!!!!! Still we got to see an odd wall of hundreds of old flop flops so it wasn’t a complete waste of time!!
We visited the Waitomo Glow Worm caves, which we have to admit were very impressive. Then whilst there was a break in the rain we carried on up the narrow winding road to visit the Mangapohue Natural Bridge (amazing rock formations but the path is closed so couldn’t see it up close – but Andy found a bridge to jump on!) then onto Periperi caves and finally to the Marokopa Falls. It’s definitely worth the drive just to see these falls.

We spent a couple of nights at Lake Taupo as we started our way back up to Auckland to return “Chilly”. The lake is a crater lake sitting in the caldera of Taupo volcano (a supervolcano!).

Taupo town has not changed much since we last visited in 2009, easy to walk around with a lovely lakeside walk and lots of eateries. We visited Huka Falls whilst the sun was shining – still quite a sight with over 22,000 litres a second hurtling through a small gap and down 11 metres. The water is beautifully clear and forms millions of bubbles as it goes through the falls, which turns it a gorgeous blue colour.

After Huka Falls, we went up to the Aratiatia Dam to see the flood gates open (happens 2 to 3 times daily and then as required). When we arrived, the gorge was completely dry, then the spill gates opened and released 65,000 litres/second for 15 minutes, and it’s quite a spectacle to watch. It’s also where the scene of the dwarves escaping jumping into barrels down a raging river in the Hobbit movie “The Desolation of Smaug” (2013) was filmed.

Aratiatia Gorge – before and after the floodgates were opened.

Then, it was on up Highway 1 to Cambridge for our last couple of days, stopping off at Tirau – a tiny town with corrugated iron figures and so many cafes it’s unbelievable!!

Tirau – Corrugated Iron (wriggly tin) Characters

Cambridge is a lovely town famous for many equine achievements, world renowned studs, trainers and bloodstock; including Melbourne Cup winners – Ethereal and Empire Rose and Mike Todd’s Charisma, famous in the eventing arena and an Olympic gold medalist. We dodged the showers and walked around the town, lots of lovely individual shops (I resisted, honest!!), eateries and to commemorate the area and its link to the racing fraternity we followed the mosaics of horses in the pavements – and found the lovely mare and foal bronze statue at the end.

We had a chat to the local volunteer firemen at the station and admired the old engine (still used for special occasions) and the old water pump, which is still in use. We returned to our camp site for tea and were surprised by all the fireworks – it seems New Zealanders celebrate the 5th November as well – more to bring in the start of summer than the attempted bombing of Parliament by Guy Fawkes as in the UK.

Under lovely blue skies, we visited Hamilton Gardens – seemingly an old city dump in the 1960s but now an award winning public garden – and free to visit too.

As well as a gorgeous rose garden, rhododendron lawn, lake, and playground, there is a series of enclosed gardens that are stunning. They include English, Chinese, Indian, ancient Egyptian, Italian, Maori, Tudor, Surrealist, Concept, Kitchen and Tropical gardens and still more are being designed. It really is a wonderful place to visit and take a picnic to.

Our 3 week tour of North Island, New Zealand, in our little “Chilly” aka “Little Lizzie” from Escape Rentals was great. We travelled 1699 miles from Auckland to Coromandel, to Gisborne and Napier, to Cape Palliser and round to Whanganui, then round the Surf Highway to New Plymouth, up to Waitomo Caves, inland to Lake Taupo, up to Cambridge then back to Auckland. Through stunning scenary, on some steep, windy, narrow roads, around volcanoes, alongside beautiful black sand beaches and beside lovely lakes, through varying weather – sun hats to wooly hats and back again and we’ve had some rain too but still we loved it. We had qualms about a small van at our age but it was fine, found a routine and got on with it – she was very comfortable, just as we remembered from 2009! We’ve met some wonderful people along the way from the nomads still travelling after 3 years to the locals who encouraged us to try freedom camping, to youngsters hitching their way around NZ and those who have bought old cars to do their travelling in.

Sites we stayed at: we used the Top 10 Holiday Parks everywhere except Ohope and Masterton. In Ohope, we were lucky (and early enough) to catch one of the freedom camping spots for one night, and at Masterton, we stopped at the Mawley Holiday Park, which is right in town.

Top 10 are not the cheapest but we found them to be clean and most had laundrettes on site which was very useful and we got discounts as we took out a membership with them (good discounts on other things through them like the Interisland ferries and the trains as well).

October 16, 2023November 1, 2023

A Tour around Northland, New Zealand

After Auckland and Parnell, we hired a car to tour Northland for a week.
It’s definitely worth taking time to visit this end of North Island – it may not have the hot springs etc that the central area does, but it is beautiful. We went up the west coast, with its stunning beaches (including one called Omaha)

and quirky towns like the bohemian Puhoi (famous pub, which is almost a museum in itself, good food and live music),

Orewa which had a great repair cafe that saved Andy’s hoodie from disrepair, Warkworth (named after the village in Northumberland and with streets called Morpeth and Alnwick), Waipu (home of Scottish settlers and they still hold Highland Games. They also have some good information boards in the town about the first world war and people from the town), Whangarei with its Hundertwasser Art Centre, amazing clocks (a huge sundial with movable numerals to account for daylight saving time changes and an amazing ball drop clock) and beautiful waterfalls,

Kawakawa (world famous WC – Hundertwasser again) and the steam railway and then historic Russell in the Bay of Islands, home of Flagstaff Hill of the Flagstaff War between the British and the Maori and not forgetting the Waitangi Treaty Grounds (we didn’t get to visit this historic site as we ran out of time – it quite expensive and probably needs several hours to do it justice). We travelled up the “tail” of the Island to the top and walked down to Cape Reinga Lighthouse – a fabulous spot.

Two oceans collide – Tasman and Pacific meet at Cape Reinga

The sand dunes along this tail are amazing and of course, on the east side of the tail lies 90 mile beach (only about 55 miles apparently but still stunning). Then on down the east side, past more stunning coasts of huge sand dunes and on down the Kauri coast, through huge forests of Kauri trees, including the ‘Lord of the Forest’ standing at 51.5 metres and which has a girth of 13.77 metres (quite a sight).

It’s more cattle than sheep up here and at present there are LOTs of tiny calves, we’ve seen acres of avocado trees and eaten yummy Kumara chips (like a sweet potato), seen creepy looking long finned eels

and stayed in some super BnBs, motels, holiday parks and AirBnBs along the way. Oh, and we also found the building used as the police station in the TV series Brokenwood Mysteries that we like – it’s the old post office in Helensville. The Puhio pub also appeared in it!

October 8, 2023October 31, 2023

New Zealand – Auckland and Parnell

We arrived in New Zealand a week earlier than planned and treated ourselves to a nice hotel stay in Auckland CBD. We moved from shorts and t-shirts back to long trousers, fleeces, and rain coats and dodged lots of showers but have loved it! Auckland CBD is an easy place to explore on foot (despite all the roadworks). There are lots of old elegant buildings tucked among the skyscrappers, interesting histories noted on pavements and seats if you take the time to look for them, and of course, lots of boats – it is afterall known as the city of sails. We’ve admired beautiful historic yachts at the heritage landing, watched the America’s Cup yachts do their turns in the harbour, and spotted the super yacht Bliss owned by the founder of Snapchat ($200mill apparently!!!).

The Maritime Museum was an interesting escape from the rain with displays from the earliest Polynesian outrigger canoes up to the Americas Cup and Round the World races.

We took a ferry across to Waiheke Island one day and took the Hop On, Hop Off bus around so we could try some of the wineries and breweries out – as it is out of season we found alot only opened from Thursday to Sunday (and of course we went on a Wednesday!!).

After a week in the CBD we moved out to the lovely suburb of Parnell with its old painted wooden houses with wide verandahs, good eateries, independent shops and lots of walks (albeit hilly). From here, we could walk to the Winter Gardens and Fernery. They have just been renovated and the glass houses strengthened (against earthquakes) – they look lovely – one is a cold house and the other a hot house, both with beautiful displays.
The fernery was deliciously cool and verdant and echoed with the sounds of frogs croaking! We also took a walk around the duck pond – very odd seeing tiny ducklings in October but of course it’s spring over here.

We also spent nearly 4 hours exploring the Auckland War Memorial Museum which has some really good informative displays about volcanoes (Auckland sits on an active volcanic area!) and how New Zealand was formed, Maori culture, nature, and the wars that New Zealand has been involved in. Rather poignantly, there was a Mumford listed on the WW1 memorial wall and a rather striking wall that was an empty plaque with the words “Let these panels never be filled.”
On a lighter note, we also met Peter and Barbara – two T-Rex skeletons on display in the ticketing area – pay up or else!!!!!

We also took the opportunity to visit the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. It’s fairly new (1973) and is beautiful inside – very simple, clean lines with stunning stained glass windows. Next door is the equally stunning St Mary’s Church, built in 1886. Up until 1982, it was across the road to the cathedral and was not being used so much. Then they decided to move it! It came across the street in one piece with the glass windows still in situ! It’s a stunning gothic wooden church made from Kauri wood from New Zealand, which gives it a lovely warm red glow. Both buildings are in use and have some lovely volunteers to tell you about them.

We walked to Judges Bay one day, past the tiny St Stephens Chapel where the constitution of the Anglican Church was signed in 1857 and where we met a lovely man and his 3 young boys cleaning headstones and repairing the fences in the cemetary, on down to Parnell Baths and back up the hill to the rose gardens – sadly it was a bit early but in the summer they must be stunning.

Love how the utility boxes are decorated here.

September 22, 2023October 17, 2023

Fiji – oh Fiji Time!

Well, our original aim had been to stop in Fiji for about 4 weeks to chill out, recharge our batteries and save some money. However, 2023 has seen a huge boost in tourism again and accommodation prices have shot through the roof, even hostels are expensive, and as we’d only pre booked the first week we got caught out. Even that week had changed as our first hotel cancelled on us (turns out they are gutting the place) so we ended up a bit further out than we’d originally anticipated, which also meant we needed a car too (which was expensive and a bit of a wreck) so not the best of starts eh?

However our flight from Honolulu to Fiji was quite special – we crossed the International Dateline and so lost a day, but then got to stop for 45-minutes at Kiritimati, a Pacific Ocean atoll in the Line Islands, sometimes known as Christmas Island. Wow, I’ve never seen such colours in an ocean before – they are simply stunning.
It is the greatest land area in the world of any atoll – about 150 square miles with a lagoon of about the same size. Due to its location being in the farthest forward time zone, it is one of the first inhabited places to see the New Year in.
The atoll was used for nuclear testing in the 50’s and 60s, but no-one was evacuated at the time, therefore exposing many to the effects of radiation.
Nowadays, there is a population of about 2000 and the area has become popular with fishermen, especially for BoneFish. We couldn’t get over how many boarded the plane at this stop!!

Our first week was spent near Nadi (pronounced Nandi). Then we moved on to the Coral Coast for 10 days before going to the tiny Serenity Island (one of the Mamanuca islands) for 4 days.

The island (Viti Levu, the main Fiji island) is so reminiscent of rural Malaysia and Brunei, even down to how the schools are built. It’s more mountainous than we expected too. Lots of sugar cane growing and is the main export here. You have to watch out for the little sugar trains crossing roads with their small carts full of cane!

We’ve visited the Gardens of the Sleeping Giant in the foothills of the Nausori Mountains – they were designed to hold the orchid collection of Raymond Burr (Ironside and Perry Mason). It’s a nice walk through tropical forest full of flowering African Tulip trees (stunning orange flowers but a bit of a thug!) and there’s a hike to the top of the hill for good views out across the coast to the islands.

We took a day trip to the capital, Suva. It was a nice drive going through tiny villages with stalls full of vegetables and fruit by the roadside and lots of lovely handmade brooms and whilst it is a tropical island we noticed some of the trees were turning colour like in a UK autumn which was not expected.

There also seems to be a rugby pitch (of some type or another, whether professional looking posts or just bamboo struts strung together) in every village! Suva is a typical capital city, lots of traffic and a busy old port area. We visited the tiny Fiji Museum just past the Parliament Buildings, where there was an interesting seafarers exhibition on, including part of the rudder from The Bounty (of Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh fame). We had lunch on the balcony there overlooking Thurlestone Gardens (the old Botanical gardens) and marvelled at the fruit bats hanging from branches in a nearby tree, squabbling away to each other.

Then we treated ourselves to cake at the Grand Pacific Hotel – opened in 1914 and reopened in 2014. She’s an icon of the South Pacific (and the cakes were good, too!).

We chilled out (on Fiji time which is a saying you here everywhere) on the coral coast despite the weather being rather overcast and at times rainy and enjoyed walks along the beach spotting various marine life – lots of blue starfish here as well as rather creepy sea snake cucumbers.

Our 4 days on Serenity Island was a bit of a disaster but without going into it too much we did have a lovely bure on the sea front (not quite on the beach but close enough) and did some snorkelling in a wonderfully warm sea.

So, having decided that Fiji was too expensive and possibly just not our thing, we cut our visit short by a week and headed off to New Zealand.

August 29, 2023September 3, 2023

Oahu, Hawai’i

Okay, just to prove that we’ve not just been drinking cocktails!!!

We got up at silly o’clock and did the Diamond Head Crater hike (early, so it was still cool – sort of!). Quite a workout on the legs as lots of stairs but not far distance wise. You enter the crater via a road tunnel and then hike up the inner wall to the summit where there is an old Fire Control Station that was built between 1908 and 1910. Thankfully, there are now handrails the trail originally didn’t!!! There’s also a tunnel you need to get through – not too bad as it is lit and it was worth going for the view (and to say we’ve hiked a volcano!!!!).

The crater was used by the military in the 1900’s for training and to defend Oahu during WW2. The crater is just over 1/2 mile wide and thought to have formed from a single eruption. Le’ahi tends to be called Diamond Head now after traders in the 1700’s mistook calcite crystals there for diamonds.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking of doing this, your time slot has to be reserved in advance along with car parking, although we just got the number 23 bus.

So, I guess if you’re coming all the way to Oahu, Hawaii, one of the key sites to visit is Pearl Harbour. This is the site of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, which led to America entering WW2. There are some interesting exhibitions about the attack, before and after accounts, an informative film and of course the poignant trip across to the USS Arizona memorial which still lies beneath the water with 1,178 souls still aboard.

Andy also went off to visit the USS Missouri (site of the final Japanese surrender signing on 02 September 1945, thus bringing an end to WW2) and also the aviation museum on the same site. You can visit the memorial for free but must book your trip to the memorial in advance on line (or take pot luck when you arrive – there is a standby section and your chances depend on time of day). The other exhibits, such as the aviation museum, USS Missouri, and the USS Bluefin (submarine), have an additional cost.
You can take an organised tour there or just jump on a bus (number 20) like we did!

We took a round island tour to see some of the other Oahu sites, including the Dole pineapple plantation (gorgeous pineapple icecream or Dole whip as it is known here),

the beautiful North shore with its lovely sandy beaches (but be careful snorkeling and surfing here – the sea is not as friendly as it looks) and yummy fresh shrimp dishes, Highway 3 – apparently the most expensive road in America, which cuts through some stunning scenary, Jurassic valley as it is known due to some filming here (!), and also the Byodo-In Temple – a replica of one near Uji, Kyoto and which stands within the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park which is a huge multi denomination cemetary.

We also got to see more green sea turtles swimming near the shore.
It was a good snapshot of the rest of the island if you don’t want to drive but it’s not cheap (although we did get a fair amount of discount for sitting thro a timeshare presentation – well it was the middle of the day in an air conditioned room so nothing was lost there!!!! And no, we don’t own a timeshare now🤣🤣).

And just for you Hawaii Five-O fans, we had to go and find the King Kamehameha statue seen in the series. In actual fact it stands outside of the Capitol of the Kingdom of Hawai’i and home to the Hawai’i State Supreme Court – you can go on a tour but sadly not when we visited – court was is session.

Instead, we crossed over the road and went on an interesting tour of the Iolani Palace. It was built in 1882 and is the only royal residence in the United States. It was the home of Hawai’i’s last reigning monarchs before they were overthrown in 1893.

So our Hawaiian trip comes to a close – it’s been interesting seeing how different the 3 islands we visited are; Big Island is very brutal with its huge lava fields, Kaua’i is stunning beautiful and green and Oahu is a real mixture of scenary, history, music, surfing and commercialism. If you are water babies, love surfing and snorkelling, then these islands are for you – even if you’re not, then there is still lots to see and do. The food has been great, lots of fresh fish (Poke bowls are delicious) and fruit, we’ve had yukele lessons, learned a little Hawaiian – goodness, it’s a hard language and only has 13 letters in their alphabet, and enjoyed some stunning scenary. However, it is VERY expensive, especially on Oahu. Would we come again? Probably not, but it is worth visiting once in your life, at least if you can.

August 21, 2023September 3, 2023

Kaua’i, Hawai’i

Chocolate, shaved ice, yukeleles, and gorgeous scenery – what more do you need?

We spent a week on Kaua’i, the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and the greenest – it is known as the Garden Island and you can see why – towering pleated cliffs and mountains all covered in verdant greenery – it’s also one of the wettest places on earth and yes, we experienced that as well!

We’ve driven the length of the island as far as you can in a rental anyway – the centre is pretty much off limits and there is no road on the west coast due to the huge imposing Na Pali coastal cliffs – best seen by boat or helicopter apparently. We’ve visited the Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii) and driven up to the Kalalau lookout (avoiding major pot holes but worth it).

It is best to go there first before the fog or rain comes in, and we were lucky enough to make it just in time. Stunning views, and you really do expect to see Dinasours (well, Jurassic Park was filmed here!). We didn’t get a chance to do any of the hikes because it bucketed down, but there are lots here of varying different lengths and difficulties.

We made a major error with places to visit here as you really do need to book up about 30 days in advance, so we didn’t get to any of the botanical gardens (although our AirBnB has such a stunning garden I’m not sure we missed anything!!) or the Haena State Park at the very top of the island – although we did drive up there – gorgeous scenary, valleys of taro farms, lovely beaches and lots of surfers and windfoilers riding the waves. We did get to Kilauea lighthouse,

now a wildlife refuge where we saw Shearwater chicks, Great Frigatebirds and the elusive Nene goose.

We saw (and heard) the Spouting Horn

and watched sea turtles swimming, explored tiny old towns like Koloa and Kapa’a, visited an old sugar plantation house, saw the Wailua and Opaekaa Falls and generally chilled.

We visited the Lydgate Farms Kaua’i Chocolate, where we were treated to a very informative talk about how cocoa is grown (each tree can grow for about 50 years with its prime harvest being up to about 20 years), whilst also tasting their delicious chocolate. I personally am not keen on dark chocolate, but I found their 70% was lovely, not at all bitter but still with a wonderful depth of taste. Needless to say, we ended up buying some, along with some chocolate covered mac nuts! They had harvested some beans about 3 weeks ago, but we could still see the tiny flowers and small pods growing on the tree trunks.

It’s definitely worth the trip, and you can also do a 3 hour tour if you have a chance.
In the lovely little town of Kapa’a we sampled our first shaved ice, which, although I was sceptical about, turned out to be delicious (watch out for brain freeze tho!!).

Then we came across a yukele shop, and were given a demonstration of various different techniques by a very knowledgeable gentleman.

It’s a lovely island which needs a car to explore, is slightly more expensive than Big Island but maybe because there are some high-end resorts and golf courses here. Oh, and there are hundreds of roosters here – the forest reds and, accordingly to local lore, a Hurricane enabled domestic chickens to escape, and now they’ve interbred. All are protected!!! There is no need for alarm clocks here!!!!!

August 15, 2023August 31, 2023

Hawai’i – Big Island

Hawai’i or Big Island is the youngest and biggest of the Hawaiian Islands and famed for its active volcanos, so our first visit was to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park for a day. On the way, we stopped off at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach – very aptly named as the sand is indeed black.

It’s a favourite for the Hawaiian Green turtles who often bask on this beach, and along with rarer Hawksbill turtles may lay eggs here, too. We spotted 2 turtles in the sea but thanks to Hurricane Dora (a fish hurricane, one that necer makes land) some 400 miles off the coast, the waves were incredibly fierce (as was the wind) and they struggled to get to the beach.
We drove through vast areas of black lava to the park and then drove along the Kilauea Crater Rim drive. It’s hard to describe the vastness of the crater and how much it sank after the last big eruption in 2018. There are no eruptions at present, although there was one in June this year, and a new cone has formed in the crater from that.

Kilauea Crater – you can just see the steam rising too!

We also saw the Kilauea Iki Crater, which you can walk across. This erupted in 1959 and continued for over 30 days. Columns of lava spouted higher than the empire state building during this time and eventually formed a new mountain.
Then, we had a short walk through the Thurston lava tube to finish the trip.

You can hike around the park (subject to conditions of course), and there is also another drive – chain of craters – but we didn’t have enough time for this.
Nature is pretty awesome, and this area is proof of that indeed. Our photos really don’t do it justice.

Thursday we visited two different cultural sites here in Hawai’i. Firstly St Benedicts Catholic Church, aka The Painted Church. It was built in 1899 and painted by Belgian Father John Velghe with no artistry training. It is quite something inside. It is a practising Church and whilst many Catholic churches preach fire and brimstone depicting hell – this is not the case in Hawaii as they already have their own “god of fire” in Pele and the volcanos! There is a small cemetery here with beautiful gardens. All graves are above ground due to the difficulty in digging through lava!

St Benedicts Catholic Church – The Painted Church

Then we visited Pu’uhonua o Honaunau – a temple of great powers. However, beyond the great wall that surrounds the Royal Grounds is a place of refuge. This is where those who broke the kapu or sacred laws and beliefs could seek refuge if they could elude their pursuers by foot or swimming through the reefs. In wartime, this area was also a sanctuary for the elderly and children.

We saw lots of yellow tang fish in the clear sea waters around this beautiful site.

Friday – rain stopped play (well nearly!). It was the first rain we’ve seen properly since April!!!
The day started well and we headed off down Saddle Road, which runs through the middle of the island between the two huge volcanos – Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Whilst not terribly photogenic it does make you feel very small and humbled by these amazing mountains. We took the side trip up 9200ft to Mauna Kea Visitor centre, which, although small, has an interesting display about the observatories and telescopes on the summit. You can hike there (the air is 40% thinner so you need to be wary of altitude sickness) or drive in a 4WD but the top is 13776ft, can be snowy and cold but is also considered a sacred area. The visitor centre gets busy at sunset as it’s a good viewing spot.
Then we headed towards Hilo and into pouring rain! The plan had been to visit the Botanical Gardens and Akaka Falls but there was no point. We did manage a break in the rain to quickly view the huge 6 mile long Waipi’o Valley, also known as the Valley of the Kings – communities used to farm taro here but most left after the 1946 tsunami.

Then on back to Kona to sample the local Ola beer and watch a stunning sunset after all that rain!

Next we ventured to the North of the island to the tiny town of Hawi, once a busy sugar town. We were amazed that you can see the island of Maui from this coastline.
We travelled up Highway 250, the Kohala Mountain Road, with amazing views back across the island. Here, it is very pastural land with ranches and cattle everywhere. We passed the Parker Ranch/ Camp Tawara memorial for the 2nd and 5th marine division, who returned here to recuperate and retrain during the second world war.
After a coffee and cake stop we ventured back on the coast road and stopped off at the Kawaihae harbour for a paddle – this was formed by a 120 ton aluminium ammonium nitrate explosion (under Project Plowshare, to normalise the “friendly atom”! This explosion creates something close to an atomic boom!). It created the harbour but did no damage to nearby Heiau (temples).

We then visited Pu’ukohola Heiau – a historic temple to the war God Ku and where King Kamehameha established his kingdom. There were some very interesting videos here of the hawaiian culture and history which tied in all the other sites we’d seen throughout the week. Then back through varying landscapes of old lava flows (cinders and smooth) to our AirBnB.
But before we left the island, we had to visit our two favourite local breweries, here in Kona!! Kona Brewing and Ola Brewing.

We’ve enjoyed Hawai’i. You definitely need a car to get around as the buses are not terribly reliable and the distances, whilst not huge, take a while to get around due to road conditions and speed limits. A very chilled island.

August 7, 2023August 7, 2023

San Francisco

We spent a few days in a lovely airBnB in Oakland chilling, being entertained by chattering blue Jay’s and squirrels playing. We’ve taken a trip to Alcatraz (yes, they let us leave!) – interesting, albeit smelly trip (the island is now home to a huge number of seagull and cormorant nests hence the smell).

View of Alcatraz as we approached on the boat

The cell block audio tour was worth doing, with tales of what life was like as a prisoner and the few escape attempts.

There was an excellent exhibition about the Indian Occupation of the island in the 1970’s too. After our boat trip back, we wandered along Fishermans Wharf and then hopped on one of the famous cable cars for a trip up and down the crazy San Francisco hills

and also saw one of the trams that had just been restored – it was out on its first trip complete with people dressed in historic attire.

The next evening, our hosts invited us to join in their street party for National “Night Out,” which is an annual event now and a wonderful opportunity for everyone to meet their neighbours. We did feel as if we were gate crashers but were welcomed by everyone, so we were soon put at ease.
Then we hopped on a ferry to Sausilito for a wander around – still didn’t get to see the Golden Gate bridge – the bay was in sunshine, but the bridge still shrouded in sea fog!!! Obviously, it is a very shy bridge!!!

We’ve also seen the USS Potomac ship (aka the floating white house – President Roosevelt used it for a while) in Jack London Square in Oakland. Jack London was an author, born in San Francisco and famous for his books “The Call of the Wild” and ” The Sea Wolf”.
Can’t quite believe we have reached the end of another leg of our trip – next stop Hawaii!

July 30, 2023July 31, 2023

San Luis Bautista and Santa Cruz

As we didn’t have far to go and had time to kill before getting to our hotel in Santa Cruz, we visited San Juan Bautista. This pretty town was once a bustling city in the late 1800s before the railroads took a lot of the stagecoach business away. Now the old hotel, stables, blacksmiths and adobe are protected as a State Historic Park – they have laid out an interesting self guided tour with some entertaining information boards.

These buildings are laid out around a large grassy town square and on one side is the San Juan Bautista Mission complex, founded in 1797 and which became known as the Mission of Music.

In the Chapel there is a door with a cat flap built in so they could catch the mice (yes even in those days!) and you can see animal foot prints on some of the clay floor tiles where they walked over them as they were drying in the sun!!

The San Andreas Fault runs along the hill at the bottom of the cemetery and during the 1906 earthquake the sidewalls of the church collapsed (they were restored in 1976). The remains of the original El Camino Real can also be seen here.

The Mission was featured in several scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Vertigo” and there are a couple of old carriages in the museum that were used too.
We then continued our journey to Santa Cruz – our final stop before handing the car back.

And so our 3394 mile, 5 week, Pacific Road trip has come to an end and the car has been returned!
We did venture into the crazy world of Santa Cruz for a day – if you love the beach, surfing, fishing or amusement parks, this is the place for you.

We walked the length of the 2745 ft wooden pier (longest wooden pier in the US) – never seen so many fisherfolk – and watched the Californian Sealions barking and jostling for a place on the pier supports.

There was a rough sea swim going on when we arrived, which looked like hard work and lots of surfers looking for a good wave. We didn’t spot sea otter 841 though – its making the news as its been hitching lifts on surfboards and then taken to biting the boards and becoming a nuisance so they are trying to catch it to check out its health. We wandered around the famous Boardwalk for a while watching some of the rides – 2 are historic landmarks now (the old Giant Dipper roller coaster and the Charles Looff carousel with 73 wooden horses and a 342 pipe organ – both rather gentle in comparison to the thrill rides of the modern world but lots of people were still queuing to go on them).

Then it was back up the road to the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery for a good pint and pizza from the food truck next door.

For those who are interested, we used the Moon book “Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway” by Jamie Jensen as a rough guide to base our trip on.
Would we do it again? Probably not, but if we did we’d stick to the area above San Francisco and explore Crater Lake, Mount Hood, Mount Ranier and Mount St Helens National Parks.
Now for a few days chilling before leaving mainland US and heading to Hawaii.

July 28, 2023July 31, 2023

Big Sur, Monterey and Pacific Grove

We moved north up Highway 101 to Salinas for a couple of days (the salad capital of the US, supplying nearly 80% of the country’s lettuce!! And also where John Steinbeck, the author, was born). From here, we drove the north end of the Big Sur (Highway 1) as far as the closure at Lucia.

It started off with the infamous marine layer covering everything but soon the sun burnt through and we had blue skies again. Whilst the Big Sur is supposed to be one of the main road trips I must admit, whilst it was scenic, I think we’ve seen just as spectacular, if not better, on other stretches of Highway 1 (Depoe to Cape Perpetua and Fort Bragg to Jenner). There were 31 bridges built, most of which have been replaced, with the exceptions of the 7 concrete bridges known as the Big Sur Arches like Big Creek Bridge and the iconic Bixby Bridge (didn’t stop for this one as too many tourists!!).

We stopped off to see the McWay falls – an 80 ft waterfall that drops directly into the Pacific (well, it does when the tide is in and is then known as a tidefall).

We did also manage to watch a group of huge magnificent Californian Condors soar overhead – they were on the brink of extinction but in 1987, scientists captured the last 27 and started a breeding programme before releasing back to the wild – it seems to have worked.

The next day, we visited Carmel Mission, one of the more important of the 20 plus missions on the El Camino Real. It was the home and final resting place of Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who established a lot of the missions (and according to a gravestone, the final resting place of Old Gabriel at 151 years old!!). The gardens here are beautiful.

From here we drove around Carmel (not the 17 mile toll road as it was so foggy it wasn’t worth it). Sadly, the 1855 Point Pinos lighthouse in Pacific Grove was closed but we did have a wander around the local cemetery (all the gravestones are laid flat to the ground) along with a small herd of deer!!!

We then parked up in Pacific Grove and walked the sea trail along into Monterey. During the Spanish and Mexican regimes, Monterey was the Capitol of California. In later days it became the hub of sardine fishing and canning. The old cannery row is now rather commercial but you can still see the old cannery buildings either side of the row and there are still three of the original 16 bridges that vaulted the street – they were used to shuttle unfilled cans to the cannery and packed tins of sardines back to the warehouse for shipping out by rail.

There are plenty of information boards around explaining a lot of the history and canning process, and not to forget, the links with author John Steinbeck.
We had a lovely seafood lunch at the Coast Guard pier, listening to Californian Sealions barking away from their resting places under the pier.

Whilst walking back, we spotted a sea otter playing in the sea kelp and a group of harbour seals lazing in a cove.