TRAINS AND CHERRY BLOSSOMS; PART 1

I am a chronic procrastinator. Everyday for the past 6 months I've intended to update my blog and yet I never seem to get around to it. There has definitely been ample experiences to write about. There was my trip to Oahu and Japan for all of April, a new job on Kauai and my first magazine article being published. But I guess compared to my usual jet setting, surfing, border hopping ways my past year has been pretty tame. Still, I'm going to start dusting out the cobwebs in my head and write a bit about Japan, one of the most quirky cultures I've ever experienced.

It had been a few years since I had seen my sister and my mum. I was living on the remote North shore of Kauai in Hawaii for a while without a car and was feeling pretty frustrated, so when the opportunity came to visit Japan with them I was stoked. My sister lives in a rural village and teaches English to all the neighboring schools. Mum was flying from West Oz to Japan as a birthday present to herself. I left Kauai and stopped through Oahu for a little bit to catch up with my photographer Dave Gregerson, which is always lots of fun, but bad weather and crappy surf meant no chance to get some more surf shots. So after that it was on to Tokyo.

I remember my mum and sister telling

me to pack my thermals because it was snowing.

I had a good laugh and reminded them I live on a tropical island! The flight was around 8 hours and I had a small Japanese kid throwing up on the floor in front of me. It was a long flight. As soon as I arrived we went straight to the cherry blossom park in the heart of Tokyo. The trees were in full bloom, a big mass of pink canopy. Thousands of people strolled, sat, drank and socialized beneath the trees. I hadn't been in crowds or cold in a year, I was freezing and grabbing onto my sister in the crowd of people like my life depended on it. As we walked in blur of people, darkness, glowing lights, scents and pinkness a huge gust of wind began blowing. It started RAINING cherry blossoms, like a blanket of delicate pink snow. I felt like I had stepped into another universe.

There is so much I could write about Japan. The food is awesome. My chopstick skills not so much, I was constant comical entertainment for the locals. Japan is the most polite, organised country I have ever been to. It's kinda a little scary. You almost feel like yelling out on the trains or dancing in the streets just to shake up the perfectly robotic machine of society. In downtown Tokyo there is even a method to walking and if you step out of line the w

hole balance is thrown. The people are incredibly polite and etiquette is very important. As a tourist it's important to learn the little things like no eating or blowing your nose in public. Teaching at school with my sister was great. I had celebrity status. I was mobbed in the hallways by masses of tiny Japanese kids. Everywhere I went I felt like a big, strange blonde giant! Even the hand rails were too small for me.

I have a lot more to tell about Japan, including solo snowboarding missions, bullet train navigations and weird toilets but it's time for a surf break. Trains and Cherry Blossoms Part 2 is coming soon!

Eddie, Pipeline and Flying: an introduction to Hawaii!

Ok I'm still in bed with the flu and figure I may as well put my time to good use. I've weaned myself away from the tv to devote a bit more love to my blog, which has been lacking a little lately. I remember when I first decided to travel, Hawaii was the place I wanted to go. My mum thought it was too far away for her liking though, and told me if I bought a ticket to New Zealand instead she would financially support me. So I caved, bought the ticket to NZ, then mum told me with a devilish grin that she had zero recollection of promising financial aid. So I paid my own way. But looking back over my past few years on the road, I wouldn't change a thing. It's nice to finally, two and a half years and around 10 countries later, land in the warm blue waters of Hawaii.

I really didn't know what to expect about Kauai. Dad always told me Hawaii was like LA on a small island and there was no way I would enjoy myself there, but I was sure there was more to it than that. And there really is. Kauai is a beautiful island. The mountains are amazing, the surf and beaches are great, and the Aloha spirit the people have shown me has been overwhelming. This island attracts such a diverse mix of people, ranging from the rich land owners to the feral hippies living out in the mountains on the Kalalau Trail. There are amazing musicians everywhere, and my creative side is definitely flourishing and growing here. I even feel safe enough to hitchhike almost everyday, as I don't own a car (only a beach cruiser bike). I was lucky enough in my first month here to be taken out hang gliding by a good friend of mine, Gerry, who owns the company Birds In Paradise http://www.birdsinparadise.com/ For anyone looking for a fun way to see the island, this is the ultimate! In return for a few hours of babysitting a terrible 2yr old for a client, Gerry took me on a flight to test out one of his new planes. We got up to 11,000 feet where he then turned off the engine, and we glided all around the island and then landed. It's an amazing feeling floating around up there, flying in the wind and enjoying the view.

I had been in Kauai for a little while when I woke up one morning bored. I had an unexplainable itch to go to Oahu. So I hopped online and booked a ticket for that afternoon! I left my boards behind, got a ride to the airport, and around an hour later landed in the Honolulu airport. I phoned a friend who said I could stay on her floor for the week, and set about finding the bus to the North Shore. I went up to some baggage handlers and inquired politely.

"Where does the bus to the North Shore leave from?".
They laughed at me. One guy replies,

"Sweetheart, there is no 1 bus to the North Shore, it's going to take you about 4 buses!".

Great I thought, but hey, if I can navigate the whole of Samoa and the Dominican Republic on the public bus system, then hawaii should be a breeze. About 5 hours later I made it, right before dark. I'll always remember when the bus drove past Waimea Bay. The bay was firing, there were people and photographers everywhere. I could see the huge wedging rights rolling through, with all surfers dropping in on their big gun boards. I think I had the worlds biggest grin on my face, I felt like I had finally made it. The holy grail of surfing. I was in the North Shore.

As lady luck would have it, the next morning the Eddie contest ran at Waimea bay. It was my first day in Oahu and the Eddie was running. People couldn't believe it. Some told me they had been waiting four years for the contest to run. It was so much fun. I managed to sneak my way into a private house right on the point, with a front row view that was to die for! The atmosphere was electric, the surf was huge, the day was beautiful, and I was on cloud nine! That evening a few friends and I went to celebrate the finish of the contest at a party at the Billabong house. It really is a very interesting pro surfing world over there, full of egos and girls chasing pros. My lucky streak continued, and a few days later the Pipe Master ran too. I was sitting with some friends watching some heats at Pipeline when I got talking to a photographing sitting next to me. As it would turn out he was a photographer for Women's Surf Style Magazine, and we had a great time talking travel stories. I spent the next couple of days doing surf shoots at Pupakeas, but you might have to wait until the magazine comes out to see the best ones :) To see more of Dave's photography visit http://www.20foot.com/ I had a wonderful couple of weeks over in Oahu experiencing the buzzing surf scene, but it was nice to come back to beautiful Kauai.

I've been over here for around 3 and a half months now. I have two jobs, a nice place to live and a few surfboards. I have a trip planned for most of April to Japan to visit my mum and sister which is very exciting. I am also probably going to head over to Oahu maybe at the end of this month for another photo shoot and to work on some stories. The question on my mind is as always, to stay or to go? I still feel like Kauai has a lot more to offer me, and I have more to see, but the permanently itchy feet of a traveller are in constant need of scratching! Tell me what you think!

Aloha and sunshine,
Tia xox

Tsunami!

It's been so long since I've written a post that I'm not quite sure where to begin! So I figure I'll start with today, seeing as it has been pretty eventful. I have been living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai now since mid November and am currently living on the North Shore in Haena, near the start of the Napali Coastline. This morning at around 6am I woke up to one very, very loud tsunami siren going off! It was still dark! I don't think that I've ever jumped out of bed that quickly! I was vaguely aware last night of a possible tsunami warning due to an earthquake in Chile but didn't take it all too seriously until my unexpected awakening. I quickly packed up my essentials, consisting of my guitar, favourite surfboard, computer and passports, borrowed my housemates spare car and headed to higher ground. It was pretty crazy, everyone living in coastal areas were evacuated and all the roads were closed off. On the bright side I got the day off work :) and the tsunami never amounted to much, just a few very minor tidal surges.

So starting on that note I better fill in some of the blanks of my past few months in Hawaii. I knew it was time to leave San Diego when I was wriggling back into my 4'3 wetsuit, and decided Kauai sounded like a pretty nice and warm place to continue on with my endless summer (yes I know it's winter here but it really doesn't feel like it). As usual I booked a one way ticket with no idea where I was going to stay! However the travel gods were smiling upon me, and a few days before flying out I discovered my cousins happen to own the only movie theatre on the island. One phone call and I was set with a place to stay, a truck to drive, and a loving family to look after me until I found a place of my own. I have a lot of stories to tell about the past few months here, including Oahu surfing shoots, watching the Eddie and hang gliding at 11,000 ft just to mention a few! But I'm down with a pretty ugly flu right now, and after todays excitement going to sleep is sounding pretty darn amazing so watch this space and I'll fill you all in on everything else and post some more photos. Aloha and goodnight! xox

San Francisco and a One Way Plane Ticket

Okkkkaaay. I have been one very lazy blog writer. I guess everyday California life has been repressing my creativity and will to write. I have about half an hour before it's time to serve the lunch rush their burritos so I better hop to it and fill in the blanks of the last few months. I will start with my week long trip to San Francisco around mid September.

As my grandparents live in the Bay Area I have visited San Francisco a few times growing up, but this was the first time I actually got to stay downtown and see the city. My dad very suddenly, giving me only a few days notice, decided to fly all the way from Perth to visit his parents so I hopped on a short flight North to join him. Family time was wonderful as always, but the highlight of the short trip was definitely staying downtown and exploring the city. What a neat place! It is just buzzing with culture, music, great food and more homeless people than I have seen ANYWHERE! I also really appreciated how culturally diverse the city is, with people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. We stayed in a nice little hotel in the center of town for two nights, which provided tequila shots upon check in (thanks mum), and apart from the shoot out on the street by my window at around 3 am it was a pretty good place to stay. Dad and I did all the typical tourist things, ate seafood at fisherman's wharf, zipped around on the cable cars, rode bicycles across the Golden Gate Bridge ect. One thing that really sticks in my mind though was the musical talent all over the city, especially the homeless people. Many of them were busking to survive with any instrument available, be it old guitars, drum kits, pots and pans or their own voices, and the amount of talent was unbelievable. I had one old homeless guy play me a song on his guitar with one string and sing, and he actually sounded really good!

Another highlight of my San Francisco trip was eating out in China town. Dad told me he had a certain restaurant in mind for dinner and that he hadn't been there in about 20 years. We were waking down the street in China Town when he announces "here it is!" and procee

ded to walk straight through a kitchen full of Chinese ladies cooking. I gave him a very confused look but followed behind as he headed up a flight of old stairs, thinking how could this possibly be a restaurant???. When we got to to the top it opened up into this tiny low roofed, old little restaurant with low tables and little stools. Dad told me the place had been around forever and he used to

take my mum there when she was my age. What a trip!!! And the food was really good too. The day before my birthday Dad and I parted ways with a Maori nose rub and I headed back down to San Diego.

I had a wonderful birthday. Possibly the best I've ever had. A few friends got me a camp site in Cardiff and we spent the evening surfing, drinking, playing guitar and hanging out. I felt very touched that although I have only been here a little while I have friends that know me well enough to plan such a perfect birthday! Thanks guys! When I arrived here I only intended on staying for about 2 months, and it has some how turned into 5 and a half! While there are aspects of American life and culture that I find frustrating over all I have had a

wonderful summer. San Diego is a very beautiful place and the waves aren't half bad either. A few days ago I booked a one way flight over to Hawaii, continuing on my endless summer. What can I say, I don't like to surf in a wetsuit!

California Life

Ok people, I am VERY sorry for how slack I have been with my postings. But seriously how can I follow on from almost being eaten by crocodiles and surfing amazing Central American waves? A bit over a month has passed since my time in Costa Rica, so I will try to briefly fill you in on what's been going on!

Coming back to the US was a bit of a shock to the system. It's been almost a year since I passed through here last. And after living and traveling through such amazing places like the Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic returning to a relatively normal life can be challenging. Not to mention the thought of going back to full time work. My aim is to spend the summer here working, build up some more travel funds then hit the road again. So I arrived in San Diego early May, hoping to find work straight away. My Auntie and Uncle live in Carlsbad and were kind enough to take me in. The first few weeks here were tough. I was out in the suburbs with no transport and the bus system here is appalling. It's funny that I find it easier to get around a third world country alone than I do in California! The weather was miserable as well, May gray was in full swing, and my poor body was softened from the warm Caribbean weather. For my first surf here I had to borrow a guys size medium wetsuit. It was a horrible rainy day and the wind was howling. On my first duck dive the wetsuit swelled up with water like a balloon and I felt like I was going to sink! I had forgotten what cold water felt like. Finding a job was also harder than I had anticipated, the economic crisis is being felt by all, with jobs scarce and so many homes being lost with people out of work.

Despite a rough start things started to get better after the first few weeks. The first stroke of luck came with finding my car. She's a beautiful old volvo station wagon that I picked up for an absolute steal, and she runs like a dream. It fits all my boards in the back, and pretty soon I'm going to put a mattress in too and some curtains up! Plus I drive like a grandma so I'm pretty suited to a volvo. Being mobile again and having freedom made everything so much better! I can go surfing everyday now, and it also opened up a lot more job opportunities. Next came the job, I scored a sweet job at a popular restaurant/bar in Del Mar called En Fuego.

The weather is slowly improving too. I invested in a 4'3 wetsuit which has made things a lot more toasty. Except the thing broke after only 2 weeks so I had to send it in for repairs, so now I am back to freezing again. Every couple of days I drive to chase some bigger waves at either Trestles or Oceanside. San Diego in the summer is pretty damn flat! I think I may have to take up stand up paddle boarding. Trestles is a quality wave but it gets very crowded. Still all things considered the surf has been OK. I did a day trip down to Blacks with my friend Vanessa and although the surf was terrible we had a great time. The hike down is beautiful and having to walk through the nudie beach to get to the surf is always entertaining. Had one guy wearing only a baseball cap, knee high socks and soccer shoes ask me to take a photo of him.

On that note I will wrap things up, over all I think San Diego is going to be a fun place to spend the summer working. The weather is warming up (although the swell is disappearing) and there are lots of fun things to do around here in summer. Still, it's taking me a while to get used to wearing a wetsuit again...

Crocodiles and Earthquakes

Journal entry 23 April


It was one very long day on the road traveling from Puerto Rico to Costa Rica. The countries seem pretty close together but somehow it managed to take me around 18 hours to go from San Juan to Playa Hermosa. Trying to carry a large backpack, two surfboards and a guitar really doesn´t make anything easier either. I left Puerto Rico with mixed emotions, being excited to get on the road but feeling very sad to be leaving the Caribbean. I found myself in Tortola completely by accident, having never heard of the place. It turned out to be the beginning of an incredible 7 months island hopping, possibly the best time of my life, coming to a close 3 days ago as I left Puerto Rico. Costa Rica seems just as I remember it; hot and humid with lots of tourists, fun waves and good food.

My first surf here turned out to be very eventful. A group of us got up around 6am for a dawn session. It was perfect conditions with no wind, making it beautiful and glassy. Too bad there was no swell! Still it was lovely to be in the water on such a peaceful morning. The marine life was abundant with stingrays leaping out of the water all around me, landing with "plops" like flipped pancakes. I was sitting on a peak alone quite a few meters away from the others. I paddled for a left, missed it, but noticed something floating in the inside. I thought it was a log and it took me quite a few seconds to realise it was a crocodile. It was cruising slowly through the water maybe 10 meters away from me. The two guys on the inside spotted it around the same time as me, and they had paddled to the shore before I could even blink. I calmly moved over to the others, figured that way the croc would have a choice of 4 for breakfast instead of just me. We had all started to paddle in together when I saw it thrashing on the inside to our left, just a few meters away. It was at that point I started to feel a little worried. A wave broke out the back and we all got ready to catch the white water in. Displaying my usual lack of co-ordination I missed the wave and watched as everyone rode away from me to the safety of the shore. Great. The water was really dark and I could not see anything. I just tried to stay calm and paddled the fastest I ever have in my life, making an effort not to splash around too much. I finally made it to shore, and I have never been so happy to have my feet on solid ground!

It was definitely an exciting first day in Costa Rica, there was even an earthquake that evening. I was sitting on a huge wooden bench outside when the whole thing suddenly started shaking pretty strongly. It didn´t last too long, and at least there was no tsunami! The waves were good yesterday, perfect conditions with a good swell. It was a solid head height, slamming down on the sand bank in barreling A frame peaks. Only about one third of the waves were rideable though, the rest closing out with a board annihilating "thump" on the shallow sand bar. I was sitting outside waiting for a set when the guy next to me yells out,"Wow, what the hell, did you see that?" Said he saw about 8 small sharks swim right below us, and judging by the look on his face I believe him.

Last night we were blessed with one of the most amazing thunderstorms I have ever seen. I went down to the beach to watch it. I have never witnessed such explosive electrical activity, it was beautiful. This morning my encounters with sea creatures in Costa Rica continued. Four of us took a boat out to a place called The Island, a fun left point break that works well on a big swell. It took us about 10 seconds after jumping off the boat to realise the water was full of jellyfish. I have never seen anything like it. There were literally hundreds of them. They were small and brown, maybe the size of my hand including tentacles. Almost every time I paddled I could feel them brushing against me, like acid on my skin. We would all be sitting out back waiting for a set when someone would start yelling,
"Oooooh, oh, ouch, AHHHHH", and start thrashing around in the water, trying to get away from the jellyfish. At one point I accidentally paddled through a group of about 50 and got stung on every single inch of exposed skin, and considering I was wearing a bikini that was a lot. I was yelping, and may have had more than a few tears in my eyes. The worst thing was that the boat had left us there, and was not returning for another 2 hours, so we were stranded in jellyfish infested waters. My body is still stinging and I´m covered in red welts. The things we do for waves! Still, I am feeling happy to be back in Central America and can´t wait to start heading up to El Salvador. Hopefully I won´t be eaten by any hungry sea creatures along the way.

P.S. Ranifly Bikini website is finally up and running, my fist official modeling gig! Go to http://www.raniflybikini.com/

FRUSTRATED!

Ok I just spent an hour or two typing up a post, it wouldn´t publish and I lost the WHOLE THING. I´m too angry to type it up again now but I will in the next day. Watch this space to find out more about encounters with crocodiles, sharks, earthquakes and jellyfish!