Calcium - Which came first, the chicken or the egg (or From Kaua'i to O'ahu)

Calcium

Calcium, atomic no 20, is the core element in calcium carbonate which in turn is the compound that makes up egg shells. So in the long running discussion about which came first, I'm going with the eggs in my choice of element today.

This post picks up on two themes which have emerged in the last few days, as well as reports on our relocation from Kaua'i to O'ahu.

Kaua'i Chickens

A Kaua'i Chicken in a Car Park

The first item is one which came as a surprise to us on arriving in Kaua'i but which have been mentioned many times in previous day's blog posts - the Kaua'i wild Chickens

People who have travelled with us before on the blog will know that we are familiar with wild chickens from our stay two years ago in Key West.

However the chickens in Kaua'i seem more numerous and more vigorous. As well as being present in every built up area they are also present in every car park near a site of natural interest.

So what is it with the chickens??

In Key West the feral chickens are the outcome of hurricane's freeing captive chickens from their coops and the chicken's making a life in the wild. I'd wondered if this was the same here in Kaua'i, but it turns out it is much more complicated.

Both Hawaiian oral history and modern DNA testing indicate that the Polynesian voyagers (Kanaka maoli) on their arrival in these islands brought with them chickens (moa), pigs (pua’a), dogs (‘I’ilio), and rats (‘I’ole) to mix with the local animal and bird population. So the local chickens have an ancient heritage.

While the local population has been subsequently bred with domestic chickens which had escaped due to hurricanes, like the Key West ones, the core DNA of the chicken population remains that of the Asian Jungle Fowl. Indeed locals can tell the original fowl, the domestic chicken and the half-breeds by their colouring and build. 

A further factor in the domination of the Kaua'i chicken is that Europeans brought Mongooses from India to Hawaii to tackle the rat population. However the Mongoose never got as far north has Kaua'i, so the chicken has no natural predators.


The chicken are not edible, it is amusing to see them outside KFC, but they are safe. There is an old Kaua'ian saying I have heard a few times during these days:

If you like eat da chicken get a pot of water to a boil. In put da pohaku (lava rock) in the pot and then add  da moa (wild chicken). Once they are cooked throw the moa away and eat the pohaku!! 

Choosing the accommodation

The Lanai of Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn

The second topic emerges from a query by Robin on Flickr. This asked how I came to find, and choose, the Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn for this part of the stay. For a number of years now I have been satisfied with the experience of staying in a Comfort Inn or Quality Inn (both part of the Choice Hotel group). When I am planning a holiday I tend to look to see if there are any Comfort/Quality Inns in the area. For this holiday I wasn't very successful. Only in Anchorage did I find such accommodation and we will be staying in the Comfort Inn Anchorage in the next week (Wednesday). My next 'go to' places are the IHG hotels of the Holiday Inn Express style, a slightly more upmarket chain than Comfort, we first stayed in one of these hotels in Vermont 8 years ago and really liked it. For this holiday I was able to book a Holiday Inn Express in Honolulu and another in Fairbanks. 

Once these options are exhausted the process becomes more research based as I look at Trip Advisor and Time Out and other holiday sites to find a suitable accommodation. In Kuau'i this was more challenging than normal as many of the locations are beach resorts, designed for people checking in for a week or fortnight and not leaving the hotel and beach, I wanted to avoid such places. 

Having done this exploration I saw the Poipu Bed and Breakfast Inn appearing in a number of recommendations and logged on to their website. I liked the look of the room (and the jacuzzi for Drew) that I stopped looking and decided to book. I'm so pleased it has worked out so well. 

Friday - from Kaua'i to O'ahu

So on to our Friday report

Breakfast

I was awake at 3.30am so blogged and checked emails before showering etc at 7.00am.

Yogurt and Fruit

As usual breakfast was at 8.00am Today there was strawberry yogurt (and Drew helped out by having both, given my dislike for sugar) The lovely fresh fruit was the same selection as previous days, but was equally lovely.

Pineapple sausages and eggs

I've reminded myself that it is Friday, so no meat for me today. This worked well as today's offering was Pineapple sausages and eggs. So Drew went for the sausages and I went for the eggs.  

Pineapple Sausage is not a concept we have ever experienced, so I am expecting a Co-pilot's note to tell us all about them. <<Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, would like to start by saying I have no moral objection to pineapple sausage. I like sausage and I like pineapple; however there is something about having the two combined in the same substance that disturbs my sensibilities. It was fine, but it was very odd to have the experience. It was not unpleasant, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it again.>>

Eggs and Salsa

I had three lovely fried eggs. These were again served with croissant but this time one croissant between us, not the one each of yesterday. The homemade peach-mango salsa also reappeared and was very tasty when spread on the eggs. 

Between 8:30 and 9:00 we packed our cases and checked we had all our bits with us. 

From 9:00 until 10:00 Drew did final tidy up around the room, took off sheets and towels, emptied bins etc.

I sat and drafted some thoughts for today's blog. As we are travelling today we may not have much time to blog, so I thought some general themes on Kaua'I would be handy later, and you can see the results of that above.

To Lihu'e Airport

We packed the car and left the Bed and Breakfast at 10.00am exactly, driving up a now familiar route to Lihu'e. We stopped at the Shell garage in the town and filled the car with 8.3 gallons (NB US Gallons not UK ones) of petrol for $32.02 (for those who can't divide that is $3.859 per gallon or 84p a litre at yesterday's exchange rate).

We drove the two miles from the town to the airport and arrived at Alamo at 10:36am The handover was extremely smooth and we were on the shuttle bus to the airport by 10:40am and at the airport by 10:45am.

At Lihu'e Airport

Breezeway check-in

The airport was exciting to me for two reasons. First the fact that we have a breezeway check-in, something I have seen in hundreds of films, but never in real life, second, the fact that checking in beside us, in the first class line, was Jason Momoa and his two daughters. Drew forbade me taking his photo, but lots of other people were surreptitiously taking a shot, including some Hawaiian Airline staff. For those who don't know Momoa played Khal Drogo, a key role in series 1 of Game of Thrones and in more recent times has played Aquaman. Later in the day we found out why Momoa, a native of O'ahu, was on Kaua'i.

For those interested the cost of checked baggage on this flight was $25 each for this flight. I know I hardly noticed as I was eyeing up Momoa, hardly believing it was him, until I noticed others doing the same.

After check-in we went through security, this is not a problem in the UK, as most people have coats and jackets to put coins etc into. However in Hawaii many of the people flying are in shorts and t-shirts, so coins and credit cards etc have to be put in the bins and collected afterwards from the bins, one by one. Still we made it through by 11:15am. 

We went to a small coffee shop for a coffee and to write these words. We left at 12:15 to board for the 12:54am flight to Honolulu. 

Flying to O'ahu

The flight was on a Boeing 717 with 2 seats on the left and three on the right of the plane. We were in seats 12a and b on the left. 

The plane left on time 12:54pm (Jason wasn't on our flight, he must be going somewhere else, so carrying my phone in my hand just in case didn't work!) 

We were in the air for less time than the 132 takes from Cardiff to Tongwynlais on a weekday rush-hour when Drew is travelling home. 

Passion fruit, guava and orange juice

At 1:05pm we were offered juice or water, Drew noted that you don't get that on the 132. The juice was passion fruit, guava and orange. <<Co-pilot's note: I can now picture a valleys resident saying: "Hey Driv, what the **** is a guava!">>

1:08pm we have begun descent with the landing gear coming down at 1:17pm. We flew in over the Pearl Harbour bay and the old airforce base which were clearly visible below. We landed at 1:14pm and arrived at the gate at 1:23pm (not even a half hour in the air.)

From the airport to Waikiki

We waited a little while for the luggage which came at 1:45pm and at 1:50pm we were in a taxi to the hotel in Waikiki. Our driver, Le Duy, is an immigrant from Vietnam who has lived here for 26 years. He says he loves his job and works for 14 to 16 hours a day, so that he can have 30 days holiday in California in the summer (his parents and siblings live in Orange County) and two weeks in Vietnam in the winter (his wife's parents still live there). I like that way of thinking 

View from the Hotel Room

We arrived at the hotel at 2:05 and were checked in straight away and given the keys to room 3406 with its Ocean Views over Waikiki bay. 

Room 3406 before we open the curtains to see the sea

The room is large and airy with air-conditioning and a fan. Drew is afraid he is going to freeze as I set the aircon to 67F.

Walking Waikiki

A busy Waikiki Beach in the glorious sun

After settling in, taking our clothes out of cases and checking the opening times for the hotel's gym (for Drew) and laundry room - both are open 24 hours a day. It was 3:30pm when we left the room to go for a walk familiarise ourselves with Waikiki.

Call me Canute

From the hotel we walk straight through Fort Derussy Beach Park and down to Waikiki Beach. The beach is broken into 8 sections, some are easily accessible from the path, others are obscured by large resort hotels. All of it is exceptionally pretty. I even had the courage to get on to the sand, and at one point, with Drew trying to photograph me managed to get sea water into one of my shoes!! 

Walk along Waikiki Beach and back

We took lots and lots of lovely photos of the beach, to many to share here. Why not go to Flickr, start here and follow on through all 64 of them, and then follow our walk back along Kalakaua Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Waikiki.

The walk was 4.5 miles (10,200 steps) and we arrived back at the hotel at 6:10pm.

Dinner 

I have mentioned earlier in the blog that I booked quite a number of restaurants in advance. Well the very first one I booked with the place we are eating tonight. I had begun to look at eating places for the holiday, but not yet committed when I looked at the Waikiki restaurants and realised that on a weekend they were busy to the extent of being packed. When I first looked at tonight's restaurant, Arincino's, there weren't any 7:30pm bookings left. This prompted me to book here and elsewhere, though given the enormous range and variety of restaurants in Waikiki we wouldn't starve. 

So our booking tonight was for 8:30pm, when we got to the restaurant it was clear that booking was needed as there were eight people sitting on benches outside waiting for stand-by access to tables. We, having booked, were taken straight to our table on arrival.

I had chosen Arincino's because of its location to the hotel (0.3 of a mile) and its wide range of fish dishes for a Friday. It turned out to be a delightful, traditional Neapolitan version of an Italian restaurant. 

Focaccia 

While we were looking at the menu we were provided with two lovely fluffy pieces of Focaccia and olive oil to dip. This was delicious, we ordered three more baskets of Focaccia through the evening.

Insalata Caprese 

Drew's choose Insalata Caprese for his starter this came with a variety of different heritage tomatoes, each of which had a different taste, ranging from very sweet to very sharp. The mozzarella provided a creamy accompaniment to the tomatoes. 

Carpaccio di Polpo 

I opted for Carpaccio di Polpo, which was a lovely sliced octopus with a peppery flavour in olive oil with celery shavings and garlic olive oil. A taste I associate more with Spain the Italy, but delightful all the same.  

Rigatoni all’ Amatriciana

For mains Drew had Rigatoni all' Amatriciana. Drew likes the amatriciana sauce on all sorts of pasta. It worked well with the think tubes of rigatoni as the sauce covered both inside and outside of the pasta.  The bacon had a good crunch, there was a nice chilliness to the sauce and while it was not to hot, he says it had a good piquancy.  

Spaghetti alla Scoglio

I went all out on the seafood with Spaghetti alla Scoglio a delightfully el dente pasta with shrimp, octopus tentacles, scallops, clams, mussels, and calamari all cooked together is a rich unctuous garlic tomato sauce. Would I have ordered it if it wasn't Friday, I'm not sure. Would I order it again, yes. It was delightful and tasty and we were able to use the last of the focaccia to mop up the wonderful sauce. 

Panna Cotta

Drew finished with a fresh fruit topped Panna Cotta, it had just the right amount of wopple, so important to this dish. Drew was very pleased with it.

We left the restaurant at 9:50pm and got back to the hotel soon after 10:00pm