Tahiti

Posted by Jim St. George on July 28, 2023
Posted in: French Polynesia, Oceania. Leave a Comment

Our two-night stop in Tahiti. A beautiful pool and some chairs facing out to the ocean made for a pleasant stay.

If there was ever a place that evoked almost unbelievable luxury, beauty, and exotic lifestyles it would be Tahiti. As a friend of our said, when she was a girl I was the place that game show winners went to. How else would a normal human being get to Tahiti?

Well, we’re obviously not normal because here we are. Now admittedly it took us a long time to get here: even with approaching six years of nomadic life we never made it here. So now we can finally check that box.

The morning view across to Moorea, our next stop

Oddly, though, we’re not spending much time in Tahiti itself. These days the great resorts and most beautiful islands are a bit further away, so we only spent really a day-and-a-half here, with another day-and-a-half at the end of our time in the Society Islands.

And what do you do with a day-plus in Tahiti? Not much really. We stayed at a surprisingly nice Hilton resort. No beach or even ocean access, but quiet, a beautiful pool, decent food, OK gym. A pleasant long walk just to see stuff. And whales! Yup, one morning I was out pretty early in an ocean-facing chair, peacefully reading when I thought I heard the distinct sound of a whale surfacing. Turns out I was wrong: there were two whales frolicking! You typically pay good money for a whale watch but there they were, probably no more than a hundred meters from shore.

Take my word for it, those are two whales there, not at all far from land

From here it’s a short boat ride to Moorea, an island just a bit northwest of Tahiti and then a bit further afield to Bora Bora. Those stays will be longer so hopefully we’ll have more to report.

We’ve come to terms with the fact that it rains on-and-off all the time around here. It can certainly create its own beauty.

Honolulu Again

Posted by Mark Sullivan on July 25, 2023
Posted in: USA. Leave a Comment

Lunch at the venerable Halekulani, where the service was amazing — like when the bartender asked if he could take this great picture

After Kauai we made one more two-night stop in Honolulu before embarking on the six-hour flight to Tahiti. Two notable things about this stop:

First, we decided to give another hotel a try. So this time we stayed at Halekulani, a venerable Waikiki hotel that recently went through a huge renovation.So you got the best of all worlds: A great old hotel with a storied reputation and super contemporary design and amenities.

But the best part of our visit was reconnecting with our friends Andrew and Maia Rosen, whom we hadn’t seen in decades. Andrew was one of our classmates at the Kennedy School at Harvard. Maia was his girlfriend back then who went to the Harvard Education School and lived in the same dorm. We’ve kept tabs over the years but just hadn’t managed to connect in person until now — after they’d moved to Honolulu, married, and raised three sons.

Arriving at the credit union’s new headquarters, we knew we were in the right place when we found this life-size picture of Andrew building the place

Andrew is President and CEO of the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union. He suggested we meet him at the brand new headquarters he just devoted a couple years to building. So we agreed — but had to joke a bit about coming to Polynesia to tour a credit union. As we entered the building, Andrew told us how he wanted to build a space where people would love to work. And he insisted that his staff really liked working there. Of course, we kidded, that’s what they’re going to tell the boss!

The building, which they’d barely just moved into after a long renovation, was loaded with spaces for socializing, relaxing, and doing teamwork. The design was sort of Polynesian, sort of Japanese, sort of Zen. And when we reached the top floor we found a huge kitchen/entertaining space with expansive outdoor patios with really comfy furniture. And lo and behold, we met a bunch of super friendly staff, who were hanging out together after work and cooking, drinking, and having fun. And we heard an earful about how much they LOVE working there. It was all very impressive. In my next life I want to work for Andrew at the credit union!

After enjoying some wine on the lanai there, Andrew took us to the lovely and serene Pacific Club where well-heeled Hawaiians gather for drinks, meals, sport, and mingling. Then on to his home near Diamond Head to meet Maia and finish off a wonderful evening of catching up. It was as if no time at all had passed since grad school.

Martinis at the Pacific Club

At home with Maia

The pool and beach from the Halekulani gym

Waikiki at night rom our balcony

Kauai

Posted by Jim St. George on July 23, 2023
Posted in: North America, USA. 1 comment

Anita, Al, Mark, Sierra, and Tommy getting ready to head up the trail along the Napali Coast

As Mark may have mentioned, this is our third-ever trip to Hawaii, and somehow I’d never really appreciated the islands on the previous two trips. We’ve done Oahu and Maui and I could never quite understand why everyone else was so enamored of the place. Well, our three days on Waikiki Beach – at the same hotel we’d stayed at in 2016 – displayed some of the magic that others love but I’d somehow missed. And five days on Kauai, the smallest of the four major islands, clinched it. I’m now a big Hawaii fan.

The main priority for our time on Kauai was to visit my brother and his wife, Al & Anita. They have not one, not two, but three rental properties up in Princeville (which have five-star reviews on VRBO; just sayin’) on the northern coast of the island. For years they’ve been inviting us out to visit and once we’d made the decision to go to French Polynesia it was a no-brainer to include time with them.

Sunrise from Al & Anita’s lanai in Princeville. Kind of stunning, huh?

A rainbow – OK, two rainbows! – later the same day

While we were still on Oahu when we would mention that we were going to Kauai people would get almost misty-eyed describing the peace and beauty of the island. And they weren’t wrong. The island is almost impossibly green with beaches seemingly everywhere. And when you’re with locals, or at least quasi-locals, there are a lot of things to do.

First, of course, there are the beaches. We spent a fair amount of time at Hanalei Beach, first introduced to me many decades ago by Peter, Paul, & Mary, the land where Puff the Magic Dragon lived. And yes, from a distance you can see where the ridge of hills looks like a lying dragon. Who knew it was a real place? Tunnels Beach was another highlight, and it seemed as though every conversation started with “Well, we could go to such-and-such beach,” with a discussion of the relative merits of the parking, surf, crowd, etc.

Sunset on Hanalei Beach

Another great beach was Hanakaipi’Ai, but the real attraction there was the start of a stunning trail along the Napali Coast. Na Pali in Polynesian means “high cliffs” and that kind of makes sense. The cliffs climb from sea level as high as 4,000 feet, making for stunning views, every bit as gorgeous as hiking the Amalfi Coast (though to be honest the perfect little cafés you find on the latter are missing here…). So we hiked a challenging two miles up and over some of the cliffs to another beach before turning around and coming back.

Tommy & Sierra on the hike

Mark, too!

Then the next day we saw it from another perspective, joining a boat excursion to see the entire 17-mile length of the Coast. Again, stunning and admittedly easier than hiking. Our boat was a surprisingly large zodiac, kind of an inflatable thing that in our experience was always smaller and less user-friendly. In this case it had reasonably comfortable benches and even a bathroom. Oh, and we managed to sail along the biggest pod of dolphins I’d ever seen. That and a stop for snorkeling off Tunnels Beach made for a great outing.

Here we are sitting on the zodiac with the cliffs of Napali behind us

And of course the real highlight of the trip was hanging out with Al & Anita and (in much shorter bursts) their daughter Sierra and her boyfriend Tommy. Somehow the latter two thought of better things to do than hanging out with her parents and old uncles. Beyond all the activities and everything, just hanging out on their lanai looking over the ocean, enjoying meals and all, was great fun.

So Kauai is pretty great. It’s worth mentioning, I guess, that all that greenery around the island suggests that perhaps it rains sometimes. And indeed, there were regular little spritzes all through the day. It would be perfectly beautiful on the beach one minute and five minutes later you’d notice that it had started sprinkling. And then five minutes later sunny again. Sometimes it was annoying but almost never would it be raining hard enough to really interrupt your day. Mostly it just added to the charm of the place. Mostly.

Al on Tunnels Beach. You learned to adjust to the changing weather.

And just like that I’ve become a fan of Hawaii. Good thing, because we’re headed back to Waikiki for a couple days before heading off to Tahiti. And after that we have 10 days on the Big Island. Good thing I’ve learned to love it!

The view down to Hanalei Beach. Somewhere off in the distance you can see the dragon pointing out to sea, though it’s not particularly obvious in this picture.

A view from the hike along the Napali Coast

Another view from the hike

Mark at the beach after the two-mile hike along the coast. The beach had a name, though I don’t exactly remember it now.

And me…

Activities for the week included a bonfire with Al & Anita’s friends Lanie & Sean. Lanie, it turns out, was a master fire-builder.

Dolphins on our zodiac tour of the coast. This picture doesn’t really do justice to just how many of them there were.

Exiting a cave during the boat tour. The little cousins sitting in front of me were so much fun to watch as they squealed in delight. And they totally reminded me of our niece and nephew Leigh and Jamal, 15 or 20 years ago!

More cave pictures

The Napali Coast

Mark with an uncharacteristically colorful shirt enjoying our cruise

Al & Anita at sunset