Beachfront Bliss
After willing ourselves to stay awake last night for the Manly vs Storm Preliminary Final (kickoff at 11:45pm!) our stamina wasn’t rewarded! We were listening to the game on live stream from 2GB and in the end it was only Sam and I that endured the humiliating defeat until the bitter end. It wrapped up at around 2am Hawaiian time so let’s just say we were a bit weary (and disappointed) this morning!
Today was our last day at Camp Homelani so it was with heavy hearts that we packed up and said our goodbyes. We’ve had such a great time staying in this beautiful part of the world, with its green mountainous backdrop, peaceful beach, frangipani groves and rolling green hills. We’ll miss it. It didn’t help that we weren’t too sure where we were going next. Well we did know what we’d booked but it was all done over the internet so you’re never really too sure what you’re going to get; whether the pictures would do it justice and whether it seemed too good to be true. It was really only about 10 minutes up the road from Camp, in walking distance to Waimea Bay, and as we slid open the heavy timber gates and took a look behind the rock wall fence, we realised it definitely was way better than any of us had expected! It is an absolute beachfront with a sea wall in the backyard and a little gate down some rock steps to our own private beach! Yes that’s right folks! No-one else can use this beach! We are the only ones with access! It’s absolutely amazing. From the backyard, gazing down into the crystal clear water, dotted with volcanic rocks, we were immediately able to spot several big sea turtles! They are perfectly camouflaged and easily mistaken for the rocks they blend in perfectly with, until you see a flipper gracefully start flapping and realise it’s alive! Molly and Ross grabbed their snorkels and were so close to these majestic creatures they were able to pat them! It was pretty awesome.
After going from our modest abode at Camp Homelani, sharing one bathroom between 11 of us, and having 6 of us all sleeping in one room, with a teeny tiny kitchen in Molly and Ebony’s bedroom, this house, known as “Turtle Cove” is like a scene from “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous”! We have SO much space and 4 bathrooms! Talk about luxury. We even have a dishwasher and a fridge with an icewater dispenser on the outside, which you can imagine is a massive hit with the kids (and the adults too come to think of it). We were delighted that Keryn’s keen eye uncovered the hidden gem that was the “Hawaiian Spam Cookbook” in the kitchen, amongst the other more mundane, run-of-the-mill cookbooks. It boasts such great recipes as: Spam Balls, Spam Chowder, Spam Slaw, Spam Quiche, Spam Sushi, Fried Spam, Stuffed Spam, Spam and Popping Peas and the fairly amusing Hawaiian favourite: Spam Fishcakes Pupu, just to name a few. It seems Spam might just about be the most versatile food around. The preface of the book states: “mention Spam in Hawaii and you are bound to get a favourable reaction..Spam is very much a part of Hawaii’s food legacy..and Hawaii holds the honour of being the Spam capital of the USA. Local residents consume 4 million cans every year, that comes out to 10,958 cans per day, approximately 3.5 times more Spam than any other US state. It is Hawaii’s soul food…king of the canned meats in Hawaii”.
With such a glowing reference, it was only fitting after all, that we put a little Spam on our shopping list.
The house is so beautifully decorated in classic Hawaiian style, with shells, palm trees, pineapples and surfboards featuring heavily in the decor. The wooden dining chairs have carved pineapples in their backs and the wooden ceiling fans are shaped like palm leaves. There are gorgeous modern Hawaiian landscape prints adorning the walls and French doors open out to the front and back of the house. As I write this, the doors leading from our bedroom to the backyard are open and I can hear the surf pounding up against the rocks. “Did you say surf?” I hear you say. Yes! At last there is some swell! The guy in the surfshop was right. Just beyond the rocky outcrop out from our back door there’s a reef and the surf was building for most of the day. As the afternoon wore on there were about 10 guys out and they entertained us with their manoeuvres until the sun set over the sea in spectacular style. A little sailing boat was just sailing across the horizon when the big orange ball of the sun had just dipped its bottom in the sea. The cameras were snapping away and the beauty of it really took our breath away! Ebony, Sam and Molly got some fantastic shots. There are plenty of body boards here but we’re hoping to hire some surfboards in Haleiwa tomorrow.
Having such a big kitchen is a luxury too and the sheer number of vodka bottles we’ve found, both full in the freezer and empty in the recycling bin, gives us the very strong hunch that the Russians we saw at Waimea Bay the other day (the ones that wouldn’t jump!) may have been our house’s previous occupants! We’re hoping the vat (no other word for it) of vodka in the freezer doesn’t explode on us!
We left all the kids at home to continue exploring all their new found space while Adam, Keryn, Ross and I hit Foodland at Waimea for some more supplies. It is so much fun browsing and spending time in an American supermarket! We could have stayed there all day! Their freezer section is about 4 times as big as ours and you can buy anything and everything ready-made and set to go. Everything comes in different forms than what we’re used to, for example, when would there be a call for cheese in a squeezy bottle, seriously? When in doubt, just process it and process it a bit more. We were impressed with the range of fresh fruit and veges available but groceries are much more expensive here than at home. Oh and by the way, I did manage to slip a quiet can of Spam into the trolley when no-one was looking.
Laden with our Foodland haul, we returned to the mansion (everything is relative) and set about enjoying the beach. I was still flagging from my late night footy antics and had to hit the sack for a couple of hours (only on holidays!) I awoke to more stories of turtle spotting, sandcastles and body surfing out on the reef and a lot of happy sandy little people. Adam cooked up a storm tonight, delighting us with some much-missed home cooked tucker in the form of spaghetti bolognaise, complete with garlic bread and lots of laughs. We ate it overlooking the sunset and feeling so grateful to be in this very special place. As has become our custom now, we finished the night with our favourite card game: Emperor Scum, enjoying the dulcet tones of Jack Johnson and sipping on hot chocolates. Aaahhh, the serenity……
