Beach bumming and the Grand Canyon

Hi everyone, sorry it's been such a long time between posts again, we were going to post the night before last, but we ended up spending all our time looking at quotes for rental cars instead! So we've finally found a minute to update you all again on what we've been up to. Luckily it's not too long for you, as we hardly did anything on our last few days in Hawaii!

SATURDAY 4th August

This morning we had a little bit of a wander around the town to see if we could find a bookshop (as Steve is getting really bored with nothing to read) and a few other bits, like looking at yet more camera films! But to our complete surprise, after having walked around the majority of Waikiki, we didn't find a single bookshop - so Steve is still bored! So we knew when to admit defeat and ended up going to find a nice shady spot on the beach to relax in for the rest of the day. We had a few dips in the sea to cool down and try to entertain ourselves a bit. Soon enough though we found that we had been out for most of the day, so we headed back to the scraggy hostel to make some dinner and watch a bit of TV!

SUNDAY 5th August

We ended up going straight to the beach today and finding a different location to laze around in the shade. Steve ended up going swimming quite a lot, but I stayed on the beach and read Lord of the Rings. To be fair, I don't think we did anything other than sit on the beach all day today, although we didn't stay out past about 16.00, as we were both getting quite bored of not doing anything! So we ended up at the hostel and lazing around there (at least it was a change of scenery from the rest of the day)!

MONDAY 6th August

We decided we couldn't face another day of sitting on the beach and not doing anything, so we decided to rent body boards and fins so that we could catch some waves. All started off pretty well, I managed to just about get the hang of things and rode a few really good waves. The only bit I didn't like was battling against the waves to get back into position to have a go a body boarding again - it was such hard work and you were constantly being pummelled! So for a few hours we were doing well, but in the end my beginners luck failed and I got dragged under by a wave and managed to get dragged along the really sharp coral on the sea bed and got a few nasty gouges in my knee and scratches on my arms etc. So after this, we decided to pop to the hostel to have some lunch and then went back out again in the afternoon. Again, everything was seemingly going quite well and I was just catching a wave, when I ended up being literally run over by another body boarder, so my face got smashed into my board and I had a nasty knock to the back of my head where their board walloped into me! I was pretty dazed and shocked after this and so I decided to give up for the afternoon. So I took my board and fins to the hostel and then ended up sitting and reading in the shade while Steve continued to catch waves. We ended up going back to the hostel fairly late on in the afternoon, as Steve was having so much fun in the sea! But the evening was spent packing up our bags (for the penultimate time), ready for our flight to Los Angeles the next day.

TUESDAY 7th August

We got picked up by the airport shuttle at 09.00 and taken to the airport. We ended up having to use a self-service check-in machine (it seems that only first class customers are privileged enough to be able to converse with a person when checking in) and found that our seats had not been placed next to one another. Neither of us were very impressed by this, but were told someone at the gate may be able to help us. So we got our bags checked in and then had to go through security - where we even had to put out shoes through the X-ray machines! We got to our gate, but as we were so early checking in nobody was there to help us yet. So we pottered around and sat reading before somebody arrived shortly before boarding. It turned out that they had already changed our seats for us and so we just needed to collect a new boarding pass. The flight was the worst we've had yet in terms of service, comfort and so on. So we were very glad that it was only a 5.5 hour flight and were happy when we touched down in Los Angeles. We ended up waiting quite a while for our luggage and then had to find somewhere to change some travelers cheques (for which they wanted to charge $4.95 a cheque). Finally we were able to find some transport to take us to the Greyhound bus station. It turned out that we could take a shared shuttle for $15 each, so we hopped on the next available one and got dropped off. After collecting our tickets we had some dinner and then boarded the bus that was to take us to Phoenix.

WEDNESDAY 8th August

We arrived in Phoenix at about 08.30 feeling very sleepy and groggy! But luckily we didn't have to wait long before boarding the next bus which would take us into Flagstaff (although we did end up with a very up-tight and slightly bizarre female bus driver). I managed to get some intermittent sleep, but Steve got hardly a wink, so we were both pretty tired by the time we got to Flagstaff at about 12.30. Somebody from our hostel came and collected us from the station and then we were finally able to have a desperately needed shower and brush our teeth! But we weren't able to relax yet. We went to the Visitor information centre and found out that there are absolutely no public buses that run to the Grand Canyon, or any of the other attractions around Flagstaff! The only way we could get around was to get the shuttle to the Grand Canyon, which would cost $60 per person per day! So feeling rather despondent, we ended up leaving and going to the supermarket to buy bits for lunches and dinners and then once at the hostel again we signed up to go on an organised trip to the Grand Canyon, as it was only $10 more per person than the shuttle bus. In the end though, after having looked at the costs of hire cars we found that it would in fact be cheaper to rent a vehicle, so we cancelled our places on the tour and decided to go to Budget first thing in the morning, we then promptly collapsed into bed!

THURSDAY 9th August

What a blooming marvellous day?! After getting a quote of almost $400 from Budget, for 4 days hire, we nipped across the street to Enterprise and managed to get 4 days car hire and insurance, for just $225 (we even got a free upgrade to an intermediate car) - so we got to drive away in a Mazda 3! We popped back to the hostel to make some lunch and then set out for the Grand Canyon. Steve feels a bit nervous about me driving, so he's done it all so far and we got to the Canyon in 2 hours (passing by the Red Feather Lodge in Tusyuan, where I stayed last time with the family, on the way)! We ended up walking along the rim for a few hours taking in the spectacular views and taking lots of photos (of course)! It was really cool, although slightly surreal being back and Steve really enjoyed it too and was glad we'd made the effort to get there. By about 16.00 we were feeling pretty tired and so caught the shuttle bus back to the car park and then made the journey back to Flagstaff.

FRIDAY 10th August

We've done quite a lot today, as we were up really early and had left the hostel by 08.00! We started off at Walnut Canyon and walked down into the Canyon to see the cliff dwellings that were built there hundreds of years ago. It's crazy to think that people really did live in the side of the cliffs, but it also seems to make sense too - natural defenses and it would be nice and cool too etc! So after wandering around for an hour or so we left the Canyon and made our way to Sunset Crater. We weren't able to do the Lava Flow Walk, but were able to drive down the road a short way and walk out onto a roadside lava flow and then we wandered up onto the Lennox trail, which took us up a small volcano. The landscape is really odd, as there are lots of pockets of green, but then between them it's completely barren and black, it all seems so alien! We then made our way to Wupatki National Monument (I'm pretty sure this is where Liz had declared that her sweat strap was all neckie when we came last time). The Pueblos are pretty cool, but there seems even less point of living in such a barren and inhospitable region than the dwellings in Walnut Canyon! There must have been something on offer though, as the community had thrived for many generations before being abandoned. Our next stop was the Little Colorado River Gorge. This was pretty impressive, as the cliff sides are so sheer and it's so deep as well. It was like a mini Grand Canyon (and so luckily nowhere near as busy as the 'real thing') and we could hear the Colorado thundering along below us too, even though we were so high above it! Our last stop of the day was in the Grand Canyon National Park - we drove along the Desert View stretch and stopped at the Viewpoint as well, before deciding we should make a move and head back to the hostel as time was getting on and we were so tired as well!

So that's about all for now - we're off on a flight over the Canyon tomorrow, which we're pretty excited about, hopefully we'll be able to get some really cool photos as well. In the afternoon we're thinking of walking down into the Canyon a bit as well, just so we can get a perspective from every angle! But it's a pretty steep climb back up, so we're not too sure if we're up to it yet!

Mum - Steve and I were just discussing jet lag today and we both think we've managed to cope with it pretty well so far and haven't really suffered past the first day after each flight. The last bit of New Zealand was good, we really enjoyed all of it, we just wish we'd had more information about what the KiwiExperience bus was like in the first place and realised just how cheap renting a vehicle would have been! The pony trekking was quite tame, apart from when mine was trying to gallop in the wrong direction and the cantering was pretty scary up the side of the volcano, as I never did much cantering in my lessons, so never got used to it in the first place! It was a pain that getting around Hawaii was so difficult, otherwise we would have done a lot more to entertain ourselves, other than sitting on the same naff beach everyday! When we missed the bus, we were lucky that Teresa already had all of our wedding outfits at the hotel and we'd taken bits to change into as we'd been swimming etc during the day, so it wasn't too bad and we didn't have to go back to the hostel for anything on the way, which was useful. Steve got a few photos, but felt he was getting in the way of the photographer and also didn't just want duplicates of all the professional photos. My outfit was nicer than I remembered and Steve thought it looked really good on me too, which was nice to know! We're trying to find out where the glass bridge is, we have a nasty feeling it's on the north rim, or near the Las Vegas end of the Canyon, so we're not sure if we'll be able to do it, but doing the flight over the top should be pretty cool anyway! Glad you're having a fun time with all your friends, it's nice you've got some time to do it at last, hopefully you'll be able to meet up more regularly with them at some point, rather than it being so sporadic. Glad the garden is coming along nicely, I'm looking forward to seeing it. We're still having a completely awesome time, but we're looking forward to being home too to see you all (and finally get to see all the photos)! Can't wait to see you, it's just 4 days away now!!!!! All our love and hugs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx