Today was an amazing day filled with beautiful art, lovely people, sun drenched beaches and delicious food - what more could you want? We started our day quite early and headed to the Contemporary Museum of Art to meet Maria's friend Ramona and her sister-in-law Lenore. The main artists exhibiting were the Biennial of Hawai'i Artists X, featuring Mary Babcock, Solomon Enos, Jaisy Hanlon, Jianjie Ji, Sally Lundburg and Bruna Stude. My favourite was Sally Lundbu...

I wanted to go to the Honolulu Zoo to see the live Hawaiian music, but we were told that the rain was island-wide. So, we decided to keep it local and took a leisurely drive around the area - stopping wherever took our fancy. Our first stop: a swim in the saltwater pool of a local condo where Maria has the keys to a place she looks after for a friend. We've been swimming there almost everyday now. Maria does a whopping 60 laps and I potter about with my makeshi...

Sunday's daytrip to the North Shore was a lot of fun! Jennifer, a fellow South African, came over to Maria's place and we all drove up to the North Shore Marketplace in Haleiwa where we met with Trisha. I met both gals on my previous trip to Hawaii and thoroughly enjoy spending time with them both. Lunch was at the Beet Box Cafe - adjacent to a health food store. We ordered delicious takeout food which we took to Waimea Beach to eat. In the summer, Waimea is ful...

Maria had a seminar in Honolulu so she dropped me off at Waikiki. I went for a morning swim at a small beach near the War Memorial called San Souci. It's known as the "gay" beach and it's off the main stretch of Waikiki - closest to Diamondhead. The water was calm and the beach was nice and quiet (in comparison to the craziness of the main drag further down the main beach of Waikiki). I bumped into Jennifer, a friend of Maria that I'd met on my previous trip to ...

Ate a packed picnic lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon with Maria chilling and swimming at Kualoa Beach Park which is situated across the bay from the Chinaman's Hat. There's a quieter section out back and we were the only people there except for a couple of fishermen and the local stand-up paddle-boarders. The water was turquoise and calm and we lay on the beach right at the water's edge. Aaahhh, this is the life...