Turtle Spotting
I hate to rub it in, especially to those experiencing a cold winter at the moment, but it was another perfect day in paradise. It was 30 degrees, a light breeze blowing….it’s pretty hard to take.
We wanted to experience a Hawaiian-style church service while we were here so we decided to visit a local church this morning. We picked the Lili’uokalani Protestant church in the main street of Haleiwa, which had a beautiful volcanic rock wall at the back and a huge old clock – their pride and joy – that was given to the last Queen of Hawaii, Queen Lili’uokalani, by Queen Victoria (hence the name of the church). We were welcomed with open arms and even though the congregation was pretty small, they really made us feel a part of the family. The “Kahu” (minister) asked us to get up and introduce ourselves and when we did they all responded in unison with a loud and rousing “ALOHA!” It was very cool! Most of the service was in English but all the songs and hymns were sung in Hawaiian, which sounded beautiful but was a little challenging to sing along to, to say the least! I think Keryn wins the prize for being able to sing in the sweetest Hawaiian. We’ve noticed that lots of Hawaiians mix just a smidge of Hawaiian language into their English speaking so that you understand most of the sentence but not always the punchline. For example, in the church newssheet it reads: “All of your kokua is still needed to clean up our yard”. I’m not too sure what kokua is but it sure does leave it open to interpretation!
A couple of friendly ladies from church advised us that if we hadn’t already tried the “Hula Hula Chicken” (which we hadn’t) then we really should give it a taste. They were cooking it up a couple of doors down, in the supermarket carpark and it smelt so good! They split the chickens down the middle and splay them out across hot coals on giant rotisseries, lined up in a long trailer. They put heaps of herbs and spices on the skin and smoke them over the heat. We grabbed some bread and indulged in some Hula Hula Chicken sandwiches and we’d never tasted anything quite like it. It was really tasty and super tender!
After grabbing a couple of hats and some souvenirs at the Haleiwa shops, we headed down to the beach just off Camp Homelani (which aptly means “Heavenly Home”) where we are staying, to have a swim and snorkel. The beach is lined with those picture perfect postcard Hawaiian palm trees with the long, skinny, bendy trunks and the walk down to the beach is littered with different coloured frangipani and hibiscus trees. It’s just gorgeous!
The wind had picked up a bit after lunch so there were some gentle waves around. The water temperature was so warm too – around the mid-20s we reckon. Ross took a few of the kids out for a snorkel and those of us that were still on the beach could see quite a few little ET-looking turtle heads poking out of the water and looking around, but the guys in the water hadn’t spotted them yet. It was very funny to watch Ross dive down and come to the realisation that the rock he thought he’d been swimming over was actually a sea turtle! He swam to the surface with so much excitement – characterised by rapid arm movements from side to side and a kind of excited yelping through his snorkel – and immediately dived back under for a closer look. It was pretty exciting to come that close to a turtle that big! Ross said the turtle just gave him a look that said “hey dude, what are you doin’ here?” He was just another laid-back Hawaiian, hanging loose. The kids weren’t as lucky in seeing the turtles as up close and personal. We think Ross probably scared them away with all his excited arm waving and snorkel talk but Adam was able to get some footage of one of our shell-wearing buddies on his GoPro underwater camera! It was very cool.
This afternoon we drove back into the village of Haleiwa to have a good look around on foot. There are lots of cute shops and little cafes and restaurants and it reminded us a lot of Byron Bay. It was a bit touristy but still had that surf culture and combie van sort of feel. The prices in the shops were a bit steep, obviously taking advantage of the passing tourist trade but there were some great art galleries and homemade Hawaiian handicrafts. We would have bought some but it probably would have been a headache to get them through customs. There was also no shortage of places to get a “shave ice” and the queues were hefty (but didn’t stop us of course!)
We stayed in town for dinner and dined at “Cholo’s” Mexican Restaurant. There were heaps of Mexican trinkets on the walls and was so authentic we felt like we could have been south of the border for real. The food was great but the portion sizes were typically out of control! Molly’s nachos could have fed a village and Toby’s leftovers alone, carefully piled into a very large doggy bag, will feed us all for a week! The trap is also not to indulge in too many of the free corn chips and salsa dips before your meal comes. You have to wonder if anyone seriously ever finishes these dishes.
Once home, we had an all-in card game of “Emperor-Scum” which was heaps of fun! Georgia showed herself to be quite a card shark, having learnt all she knows from her wily and astute card-playing mother and Adam and I hovered around the scum chair for most of the game. Ross had a good stint at being Emperor and honed his techniques for the next game and Sam and Toby were as competitive as ever. Molly, Ebony and Chels were the quiet achievers. We’ll have a rematch tomorrow night and Toby will start as Emperor….wish us luck!
