We only had one night in Seattle, and the idea that we would spend the afternoon sightseeing morphed into a stroll round Chinatown, where the hostel was located. The hostel directed us to a very good and astonishingly cheap restaurant for our evening meal and then it was early to bed because we had to catch the first train in the morning to the airport.
The hostel had advertised itself as convenient to the airport train, and it did not exaggerate. We had to cross the road at the first corner and descend the steps to the platform. It was an arrangement I'd not seen before; the 'station' was shared by the light rail, which we rode, and the city buses.
Our train was on time and we were delivered to the airport, which despite the unsocial earliness of the hour was already teeming. Crowds surged around the Alaska Air automatic check-in kiosks, but we didn't have to wait long to get to one. Then a hitch. For a reason I cannot now remember we had to enter our address and the machine rejected our NZ postcode. There is indeed a desk with actual humans to resolve such little difficulties, but it had a huge queue, which did not seem to be moving at all. We had no option but to join it, with the risk approaching fast that we might miss our flight. To our relief an Alaska Air employee came down the line to see what issues people had. He grasped the problem at once. The "fix" was to check in at a kiosk but not to attempt to pay the machine for our checked bags. Instead, go to the bag drop and pay there.
So we did not miss the 'plane and we flew to Honolulu for the Golden Oldies hockey festival.
We are members of the International Harlequins team. Bill plays and Eve supports, encourages and defends our gear. We both socialise, which is the principal objective of the event. The team is currently managed from Calgary, so we were listed in the programme as a Canadian team. I have often described these festivals as "a week-long party with hockey breaks." It started with a welcome cocktail party and finished with a formal dinner. There were three days of games in between. No scores are ever recorded - it's purely for the fun of it.
Not that the hockey isn't important. We do try to play a reasonable game and to score more goals than the opposition. Since no hockey is played in Hawaii we were warned to bring ALL our gear, as none would be available locally. Sadly, the organisers did not understand the requirements of the game properly and the pitches were terrible. By the second day of games they had been mown shorter and were merely 'bad'. But give them credit for fashioning very serviceable goals from plastic pipe and whatever netting was to hand.
Our hotel was just across the road from Waikiki Beach. We trod the sands and swam in the sea. There was a modest swell, but not many people were trying to surf.
On Monday night the sky was aflame. The picture was from our hotel balcony. That's Waikiki Beach just behind the palm trees.
The hostel had advertised itself as convenient to the airport train, and it did not exaggerate. We had to cross the road at the first corner and descend the steps to the platform. It was an arrangement I'd not seen before; the 'station' was shared by the light rail, which we rode, and the city buses.
Our train was on time and we were delivered to the airport, which despite the unsocial earliness of the hour was already teeming. Crowds surged around the Alaska Air automatic check-in kiosks, but we didn't have to wait long to get to one. Then a hitch. For a reason I cannot now remember we had to enter our address and the machine rejected our NZ postcode. There is indeed a desk with actual humans to resolve such little difficulties, but it had a huge queue, which did not seem to be moving at all. We had no option but to join it, with the risk approaching fast that we might miss our flight. To our relief an Alaska Air employee came down the line to see what issues people had. He grasped the problem at once. The "fix" was to check in at a kiosk but not to attempt to pay the machine for our checked bags. Instead, go to the bag drop and pay there.
So we did not miss the 'plane and we flew to Honolulu for the Golden Oldies hockey festival.
We are members of the International Harlequins team. Bill plays and Eve supports, encourages and defends our gear. We both socialise, which is the principal objective of the event. The team is currently managed from Calgary, so we were listed in the programme as a Canadian team. I have often described these festivals as "a week-long party with hockey breaks." It started with a welcome cocktail party and finished with a formal dinner. There were three days of games in between. No scores are ever recorded - it's purely for the fun of it.
Not that the hockey isn't important. We do try to play a reasonable game and to score more goals than the opposition. Since no hockey is played in Hawaii we were warned to bring ALL our gear, as none would be available locally. Sadly, the organisers did not understand the requirements of the game properly and the pitches were terrible. By the second day of games they had been mown shorter and were merely 'bad'. But give them credit for fashioning very serviceable goals from plastic pipe and whatever netting was to hand.
Our hotel was just across the road from Waikiki Beach. We trod the sands and swam in the sea. There was a modest swell, but not many people were trying to surf.
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| Sunset over Waikiki |
There are no games on Tuesday and Thursday to let our not-so-youthful bodies recover. One of these is always a 'picnic day', when all the teams are bussed to a nice place to eat, drink, socialise and drink some more.
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| Eve Heritage, Bill Heritage and Bella Whippy (nee Heritage) |
One of our particular friends is Bella from the Fiji Invitational Veterans. She has been attending these festivals for about as long as I have. She was born Isobel Heritage and we have tried hard to find a link between our families. To no avail. But we pretend nevertheless that we are cousins.
One of the entertainments organised at this picnic was a relay race that involved removing a ribbon tied to a goat's tail and he next member of the team had to reattach it. I imagine this can be fun if you have had enough to drink. One contestant made it a memorable event by competing in a lime-green mankini. I do not intend to post my photographs of this, one of which appears to depict a very unhealthy interest in the goat.
On our free day, Eve and I went on a guided tour of the island. There are heaps of tours (tourism is BIG business in Honolulu), but very few offer anything like an introduction to the local natural history. There was only one that suited our timing so we took it. We gained insights into the coffee and cocoa industries, and visited the Waimea Valley Audubon Center, where the rare Hawaiian Moorhen was known to breed. And we actually saw one. Tick!
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| Shama Thrush |
The reserve also contained plenty of commoner birds, like this one, which is much more colourful than the moorhen. Our guide was pretty knowledgable about the trees, as well, in the center's delightful botanical gardens. The reserve was on the North Shore of Oahu.
The tour included a shrimp lunch from one of several specialist cafes beside the road. The chili shrimps were superb. The cafes cluster by a large area where the shrimps are bred in large ponds. In the nearest pond were several Hawaiian Stilts, even rarer birds than the moorhen. TICK!
The same evening most of the Harlequins went on a dinner cruise. The evening was balmy, the food was very good for a buffet, the band was fine and the dancers gave us examples of dancing styles from Hawaii and several other Pacific Island groups. It should have been a great evening, but it was totally spoiled for me by the incessant badgering to get the audience involved. This started on the bus from the hotel, when the courier had us rehearsing a "bus number one war cry" or some such nonsense. Dear cruise company, I am an adult and I do not need level one lessons in how to enjoy myself.
The only organised festival activity on the Saturday is the finale dinner, so that is another day for a free choice. Eve and I went to the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.
Getting there was a single bus ride from near the hotel. Entering the nature preserve required money and the compulsory viewing of a video about safety in the water - for both bathers and the marine wildlife. I think the dangers to swimmers were rather exaggerated. As you can see from the picture there is plenty of sheltered water because the waves break on the reef quite well out.
A few more dollars rented snorkelling gear. Eve is a very good swimmer but this was her first use of a mask and snorkel. The water was so shallow it was very difficult to avoid kicking or handling the rocks. There was not much coral, but the other life was great. We saw many species of fish - good sized ones, too. We also saw a turtle; the first wild one I've encountered. And I saw my first octopus, but it withdrew into a crevice before I could show it to Eve.
Eve was hooked on this. She immediately made it clear that she would like a snorkelling kit for Christmas, and a tropical holiday to use it in 2014. So mask, snorkel and flippers were under the Christmas tree and very soon I'd better start researching island resorts.
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| Hanauma Bay |
A few more dollars rented snorkelling gear. Eve is a very good swimmer but this was her first use of a mask and snorkel. The water was so shallow it was very difficult to avoid kicking or handling the rocks. There was not much coral, but the other life was great. We saw many species of fish - good sized ones, too. We also saw a turtle; the first wild one I've encountered. And I saw my first octopus, but it withdrew into a crevice before I could show it to Eve.
Eve was hooked on this. She immediately made it clear that she would like a snorkelling kit for Christmas, and a tropical holiday to use it in 2014. So mask, snorkel and flippers were under the Christmas tree and very soon I'd better start researching island resorts.
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