touch and go Fiji and welcome to New Zealand

So, where do I start? I Have been putting this off for so long that I am not even sure if I remember have of what I have experienced since I last wrote to update my blog.

Hawai'i was a culminating moment of my life, the cradle of surfing and still the epicenter of modern day surfing. The North Shore... I lived there, I was privileged to surf there (at the mellowest breaks of course) and met some great people. I thought this is too good, does it get any better? I think it does, all the time. I landed in Fiji, where I was greeted by friendly Bulas (Hellos) and a ukulele band. As a blooming ukulele player I was quite thrilled by this reception. I then went to a low key backpackers resort that was close to some of the best waves in the world and mosquitoes tried to devour me whole. I had no less than 40 mosquito bites on my right and left ankle and foot. My time in Fiji was most unusual, the resort had only just changed management and I was pretty much the only guest on the island for most of the time. Notable exceptions Eleanor, from Germany, that was a good chess companion in the long and lazy tropical afternoons and Tobi, also from Germany, who arrived just in time to surf some truly epic uncrowded waves in the island paradise of Fiji.

The staff that worked at the backpackers was absolutely fantastic. I have stayed in 5 star hotels in the past and nothing came anywhere close to the kindness and attention that I received while staying at the resort. One day it was raining and without us realizing it, they left umbrellas for us right by our sides for us to get back to the rooms and since we were the only guests they would ask us what we wanted to eat at meal times. Fijians seemed to me like genuinely welcoming, not because they had to be due to the nature of their jobs in then hospitality business, but more because of their culture. I hope that I will get an occasion to return to this little paradise and this time I will pack some real heavy duty insect repellent. My highlight in Fiji was surfing world class waves at the outer reefs of Wilkes' Pass and Namotu Lefts. Sitting in the middle of the ocean with one other surfer, perfect waves, the great Joseph the boat man and the closest land 1 km away was a beautiful experience. In Fiji you can surf while you check out the beautiful tropical fish on the colourful reef, just make sure you don't fall on the reef or you will damage it and yourself in the process. Tropical paradise, emerald green islands surrounded by intense aquamarine water, so beautiful that the Creator had to infest it with blood-thirsty mosquitoes that I can guarantee will try to eat you alive.

From Fiji, I took a plane to Auckland, largest city in New Zealand. The weather was gray and gloomy and as I stepped outside it felt very cold. Here I was to pick up a camper van and wait for my good friend Robin from back home to join me on this leg of the adventure. I somehow drove out of the urban chaos and spent two nights in the serene little beach town of Piha, about 50 minutes from Auckland airport. I was secretly hoping to get some surfing done before the arrival of Robin, unfortunately the weather had other plans. A full blown storm hit the region, the winds were so strong that I thought the faithful camper van would topple over or be blown out to New Caledonia. After having spent over two months in the tropical sunshine of the pacific I was not quite prepared for the cold conditions in Piha and thought that I was going to die of hypothermia on my first night. This of course was just exaggerated by my mind, as it was actually not really much colder than 12C at night and the locals were not phased by the storm and they kept on sporting shorts and flip flops to prove that summer is a state of mind, not a season in which the air temperature is high. No wonder the inhabitants of the British isles felt so at ease relocating this far from home, the weather is just the same, thought I.

Anyway, survived the storm and the sun made its first appearance to show just how beautiful the Land of the Long White Cloud is. Green rolling hills, snow capped mountains, rainforests, cliffs, roaring seas of blues and greens. I picked up my mate and we set off to do the impossible: visit the whole of New Zealand in three weeks. We drove an average of 400km per day in our faithful Samantha (this is the nickname Robin gave to our old, beat down diesel guzzling beast of a van). We watched the natural beauty of New Zealand roll by, from Samantha's mosquito splattered windows. We did touristy stuff and then we went were no tourist ever had gone before, we went full circle on the South Island and almost full circle on the North Island. We even went to Invercargill, don't think the locals had ever seen toursits before.The kiwis (inhabitants of New Zealand, not the fruit or the bird in this isntance) were super hyper friendly. If you love the great outdoors sell everything you own and relocate to New Zealand, or you could also just visit on a vacation. Highlights included: climbing the Franz Joseph glacier, walking to the lake at the feet of the Abel Tasman glacier, walking along the ebach with snow capped mount Taranaki in the background and -of course- swimming with wild dolphins in Kaikoura. I could write a million words but nothing would do the experience justice. Three weeks flew by faster than you can say “70 million sheep” and it was time to see Robin off. It was an absolute pleasure to travel with Robin and I would like to thank him for patiently putting up with my long drives in search of the best surf spots. Since you left Robin Samantha is no longer the same, she cries everyday and is even slower going up hills before you got here. Since then I have surfed in magical Kaikoura and made my way back up to the North Island. I am currently in Raglan, New Zealands surf capital. There are plenty of really good surf spots in close proximity but also the biggest crowds you will experience in New Zealand. Lana from Slovenia had seen on Facebook that I was headed to New Zeland and said that I was welcome to visit and I have been blatantly abusing her hospitality ever since I got to Raglan. Lana was a surf instructor that I met at an all Slovenian+one Swiss surf camp in the South of France. I cannot say how glad I was to have a place to rest my sore bones after running around the whole of Kiwiland.

A big hvala/danke schön/thanks goes out to Lana and Thekla for letting me stay in beautiful Raglan. It was an absolute pleasure to live with you. Upcoming plans before leaving New Zealand include surfing some of the best waves in the country and visiting family friends in Auckland. More on that in the -hopefuly- upcoming future. Currently in Taranaki, surfing in the shadow of the imposing snow capped volcano.

GLORIOUS HAWAI'I

BROKEN BOARDS AND WILD CHICKEN

The Pipepeline pro contest was incredible. It was the WQS, qualifying series where some of the best surfers on the planet battle in order to compete against the top 34 surfers in the world in the WCT. In the final heat local Jamie O'Brien caught some impressive waves, getting deep into the barrel, making the whole beach cheer. John John Florence, also Hawaiian born,caught a bunch of good ones too, but up until the last 10 seconds Jamie OB was leading. Then a sizable set came in and John John dropped into the wave and went Backdoor (Pipeline breaks left and right, the left is Pipeline, the right is Backdoor). The beach went silent. the wave was gigantic and it looked like the tube would just collapse on him, but somehow he made it out, after what seemed an eternity, sending the crowd into raptures. It was a truly epic final and I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be watching it. I also bought a beautiful second hand short board that I called Pele, like the Hawaiian Goddess of Volcanoes/Fire. She will be traveling with me to Fiji and NZ. In the hostel I have met many nice people and met a cool guy from Como which is just around the corner from where I live in Switzerland. Claudio and I set out to explore the island of Oahu and looked for a surf spot suitable for both beginners and intermediate surfers. We came upon a great wave in Puaena Point, just before entering the pretty little village of Hale'iwa, the gateway to the North Shore. We have surfed there several time and I have caught some fabulous waves. The local surfers were always pretty friendly and sea turtles pop up all over the break for air.

Today it is Saturday and the breaks are all crowded and the wind was blowing onshore, which doesn't help the quality of the surf. So we decided to rest our tired muscles and we went sky diving instead... SKY DIVING!!! Jump out of a plane at 14'000 ft. I don't think I was ever so nervous in my life. But I couldn't chicken out of this one. The safety record of the company is impeccable and a friend of mine sky dives back home on a regular basis, so I figured it cannot be that dangerous and I have also wanted to try it. The plane ride made the trip worth it already, with breath taking views of the entire North Shore, pineapple and sugarcane fields fading into glorious golden beaches that are constantly hit by roaring surf. We reached the drop zone and before I could say “parachute” we were dropping out of the plane, my guts felt like they would erupt out of my ears, but the views were amazing. I cannot describe the adrenaline rush that sky diving gives you, but it is something worth trying once in a lifetime.

In the hostel, where 95% of the occupants are surfers, the mood has improved as the wind has turned offshore and the waves have picked up in size. The famed Waimea bay is providing the goods and my Brazilian room mates can testify to that with the 3 boards they broke in less than a week. The hostel I am staying at is one of the most expensive hostels I have ever stayed it. It has a very rustic feel about it and many say it is true to the original spirit of the surfers that started the pilgrimage to the North Shore back in the '50s and '60s. Back then there were no fancy beach front villas, no monster truck driving locals and hardly any surfers out in the water and the Californians that came for the surf would camp out on the beach and live off the land: there were plenty of wild chicken and they are still there, very much uneaten and quite happy to get you out of bed at some ungodly time of the morning.

I digress, back to Waimea bay-

Recently I read a quote by Kelly Slater, 11 time surfing world champion, regarding Waimea bay: he said that it is intimidating to surf such big waves, with a high vertical drop, but that at the end of the day one has to remember that it is “just water”... easy for him to say I guess. I have never been anywhere in the world where water moves with such power. At pipeline on the day of the contest the rip currents were so strong it reminded me of river rafting: surfers would enter 100 meters to the left of the break and within 20 seconds they were transported 200 meters to the right. The waves come smashing down with such violence that it looks like the Niagara, Iguassu and Victoria falls are all simultaneously pouring down on the same spot. The water at Pipeline sprays out of the barreling wave with such force that it often knocks surfers off their boards. People that surf here are aquatic titans, they are in perfect physical conditions and -more importantly- are mentally ready to surf here. To me 6ft wave faces look big. Just to give you an idea the Hawaiians measure the waves from behind, so 6ft wave faces are more like 3 foot to them. When Hawaiians say that the surf was big, what they actually mean is that it was humongously massive!

Claudio and I before jumping out of a plane...

Puaena point and Hale'iwa from above

WQS contest

Pipeline!

Puaena Point, home of the sea turtle

Somewhere over the rainbow.

Hell in Paradise

The swell picked up again, and the wave faces went above 10ft for most of the remaining days in Hawai'iHawai'i, or at least Oahu. There are serious drug addiction problems and a lot of poverty. The South coast is the urban area that comprises Pearl City, Honolulu and Waikiki. Many tourists come to Hawai'i and don't really leave Waikiki, they are happy to escape the cold and be in a sprawling urban environment that offers shops and restaurants galore.

In our explorations of the island we felt sorry for the meth addicts of the West coast. We were also saddened by the very high homeless population in Waikiki, Honolulu and the West coast. It seems that people with Hawai'ian heritage were the ones that suffered the most and I cannot but help wonder what this island would look like now if the West had never brought its ways with it: private property, drugs, cement. Oahu is a small paradise for the holiday maker -usually over weight mainlander that sticks to the ritzy boutiques and if he really goes out of his way Waikiki beach- and on the other hand the surfer -usually sticks to the North Shore and couldn't care less about the shops, except those well stocked surf shops-; but Oahu has turned into hell for many Hawai'ians, who were robbed of their land and worse yet, their identities. It is easy to ignore this when you are out surfing the perfect waves of the North shore or shopping in the glamorous shops of Waikiki's main street. I often think about the less fortunate and wonder what I could do to make things better. If I ponder this question for too long I fall into a depressed state in which I am of not much use to anyone. I like to think that if we all conduct our life as good citizens: vote for the best government, adhere to the law, help our neighbors,take care of our family and respect the environment, that would already be a big improvement. Honolulu was recently voted the city with the best quality of life in the United States. I wonder how the homeless and meth addicts feel about this? How can there be so many poor, desperate people living amongst so many rich, wealthy people? On a local paper I read an editorial by a conservative party supporter.

He wrote something like this:

“I was recently in company of my liberal friends that have a young daughter and I asked her 'so what do you want to do when you grow up' and she answered 'I want to help the poor and the needy' and so I told her 'I tell you what, why don't you come by my house and you can mow the grass and clean up the garden, then I will give you 50 dollars and you can give them to the homeless guy that lives on Roberts' St.' at this the little girl answered 'why does he not come and work for you then?', so I answered 'welcome to the conservative party'. To this day her parents still don't speak to me”.

Now I agree that everyone has to do their part. But in modern day society families are shrinking, the units become smaller and smaller, the individual is in the spot light, greedy wealth accumulating is praised and those that fall out of the system are labeled misfits, bums and plain lazy. Is that really the case? Or perhaps we have become too self centered to recognize that our system has a downside. I admire the American dream concept, it encourages people to try harder, to innovate. It certainly has brought improvement in many things we do. Communication systems, modes of transportation, refrigeration, ect., in some way these are all a product of the capitalist society. But then there are 3 billion people that live in poverty, the under paid underbelly of the world, many of which still don't have access to any of those innovations I just hinted at.

Sorry for these mildly depressing thoughts. I try to focus on the positive, but I believe it is good to mention that there are plenty of things that can be improved on this beautiful planet.

Aloha (Good bye) Hawai'i

I left the islands for Fiji, feeling a little sorry to have to go so soon. I met some really nice people and had a very good time. I surfed in challenging surf and at a variety of spots around the island of Oahu. The rugged green mountains and the roaring ocean were so stunning that I had to pinch myself daily to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. Watching the pro surfers and local hawai'ians surf was a joy to behold and it also gave me more motivation to improve the level of my own surfing.

My personal highlights were the surf, snorkeling right along a beautiful sea turtle that was suavely flying along in the crystal clear warm wate, body surfing in Waimea, meeting new friends and being in the surf capital of the world.

And let us not forget the slogans from the local bumper stickers:
Eddie would go
Keep the country country!
Keep the ghetto ghetto
Defend Hawai'i (with a machine gun next to it!)
This ain't the mainland: slow down!