North Shore

Aloha

The North Shore is a truly beauiful part of the world. It has been so relaxing here and the perfect way to start our holiday.

Wednesday we took it pretty easy. Woke up quite late and dragged ourselves down to the Ola restaurant for lunch. This resort has about 10 different eating places and this one is right on the beach under a thatched roof. I started off with a Pina Colada ... a very good idea and what will be the first of many I think. Lunch was sliders. These were three medium size hamburgers (filled with beef, pork and fish). The slider has meat that has been cooked and shredded and the 'slider' is a reference to how the meat is shredded (the fork slides over the meat to pull bits off). It came with a huge pile of fries. Thank goodness we only bought one serve to share!!

The afternoon was spent by the pool. I love water and swimming so I was in heaven. I think I was in the water for about three hours. I did not want to get out. There were quite a few people on lounges by the pool but the water was pretty much left to me and a handful of others. Did a lot of my water aerobic exercises and just floated around enjoying the sunshine. Russ set himself up on a lounge and 'read' the paper (I think there was more snoozing going on than reading!!!). That night he went to a talk by a guy called Ricky Grigg, who is a professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii, and had been around when the 'surf culture' was just starting. Apparently, he was really interesting and Russ had a great time.

Thursday morning we were up and out early (well actually, earlier may be more accurate!!). Drove down to Sunset beach and checked out the scenery - gorgeous. We then had lunch at a roadside prawn farm. Now this may sound a bit dodgy but all along the coast are prawn farms and they have kitchens set up out the front where you can buy cooked prawns straight out of the water. We ate a huge pile of garlic butter prawns with rice and finished off with a massive shaved ice. Bliss

Last night was spent at the Hang Ten bar where we had dinner and watched a presentation by some Tongan drummers and fire sword dancers. Spectacula, especially with the backdrop of the setting sun. Oh yes, this life is really hard to take.

So .. a few things I have observed so far:

The people here are so damn beautiful. The women are so gorgeous that at one stage I did comment that it was a shame that I wasn't gay!!! Russ is VERY glad he has reflective aviator sunglasses (!!!).

The food servings are huge as we expected, but it is still pretty easy to find reasonably healthy things to eat. No-one forces you to eat the piles of fries!!! Sharing one meal between the two of us is plenty (great way to save money).

TV is great ... Discovering lots of new shows as well as some favourites from home (YAY ... Judge Judy). Some of the ads are really funny. For a country that thinks saying 'toilet' is inappropriate, they ads for 'toilet paper' are VERY descriptive!!!

Off now to enjoy our Friday, our last full day here. Will be back once we are in Waikiki. Thanks for reading xxx