The Moped Diaries
Having been cooped up in Honolulu for four days I embraced Che’s vagabond spirit and hired a moped.
Embracing the Crusty Demons appetite for destruction I then rode that thing from Waikiki to the North Shore, via the Windward East Coast of Oahu - and back. For those not up on their Pacific geography, it’s roughly equivalent to driving from downtown Sydney to Gosford - on a moped).
Seeing as helmets are optional in Hawaii, I didn’t wear one (don’t worry, I had my thongs/flip-flops on for protection). Things started fairly well; I’m used to the right-hand-side of the road thing since I’ve been out of Oz for 3 weeks now; the traffic was fairly light; and the weather was positively balmy.
However, soon things started to go a little pear shaped. Firstly, those little mopeds do a top speed of about 50km/h (downhill with a tailwind and a 20kg child riding them). I had my backpack, it was super windy in places, and there were several long hill climbs.
Secondly, the roads are pretty narrow (1 lane each way with about 2ft of hard shoulder - if that). This means that when somebody wants to overtake you, which is frequently, you’re in for a heart-stopping perilous wobble on the ‘ragged edge’ - especially if the ’someone’ is a massive semi-trailer!
Thirdly, I can now state with confidence that a single tank of gas in one of those little mopeds will get you from Waikiki to Waimea Bay, and not a mile further/farther (more). By this time it was, of course, getting dark. I hitched a ride on to the next town in the back of a pick-up truck owned by some heavy locals, got a 8L can of petrol (which actually filled the tank), and hitched back to the bike. It wasn’t that I hadn’t check the level in the tank, it was just that everywhere was closed on Sunday evening.
Despite these obstacles I was able to find a really good sushi place and get some beta from the girl at the next table about a nearby backpackers. I crashed there, after partying a little with the other vagabonds and spoilt Irish tools from Cork, waking to this view of Pipeline - no swell, but a very gay rainbow.
After soaking up some rain (they’re not called rainbows for nothing) I started heading back (refuelling frequently). My mission was back on track until I noticed a noise and looked down to see a massive nail straight through my back tire! I was still 50km from home.
I managed to crawl the thing back into the rental place at about 15km/h. The guy didn’t care about the nail, so that was sweet. Then, just as I’m walking away from the rental place, feeling pretty cool about my domination of Oahu, this guy comes out of another rental joint on a moped. He crosses the footpath in front of me and shoots out onto the street. He’s totally out of control, weaving all over the road, perpendicular to the traffic, and unable to stop. He’s panicking; with good reason, 2 seconds later he slams into wall of the hotel on the other side of the road and nearly kills himself. Somehow he manages to walk away with only dented pride.
I don’t think I’ll be pushing my luck again for a while.
Aloha,
Tom.
There are a few more photos in the Hawaii gallery.
September 27th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
Thank you Tom for continuing to dominate whilst others of us are cooped up figuring out what the difference is between epipelic and eplithic periphyton.
On a business note though, how does the UH look? Is it kinda falling apart or kinda sweet?
September 27th, 2005 at 1:10 pm
Epipelic grow in the bottom sediments, the others grow on rocks. Not to be confused with epipsammic diatoms
UH is pretty laid-back and tromopical. Much less aggressive than UBC (two completely different schools). As for the literal falling apart, the campus is pretty nice, but the bio building hallways aren’t airconditioned (which is ridiculous in the tropics) and the whole thing is kinda old, but they have inserted new labs in some spots.
UBC on the other hand has a fat new multi-million dollar forestry centre. So I think it would be hard work and snowboarding in BC or full-on beach style with science on the side at UH. It seems like it would be very possible to work with one of the assistant profs. in his molecular lab. Even though I haven’t ever done any molecular work he said, “We can train you up”. That might be cool. Get into some indo-pacific goobidaeee/galaxidae dispersal v. vicariance work.
To get into UBC you have to get one of these Killam scholarships. 12 per year for internationals across all disciplines!!!!
September 27th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
All you need to do now is inculcate disent amongst the masses and kick start a revolution, comrade.
The bike looks like one I hired in BC and rode around the rockies. It was well slow too and didn’t perform that well along the Trans Canada Highway 1 amongst the semi’s either.
Didn’t you check Realsurf before heading to Pipe? Then you wouldn’t have bothered going all that way for nothing, bro.
September 27th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
They have the http://www.surfnewsnetwork.com here. It’s pretty sweet.
maybe we should get “Inculcators” jersey’s instead?
Also, I think that you’re not supposed to take the bikes out of Waikiki…
September 28th, 2005 at 8:58 am
You are obviously well practised in hitching to and from petrol stations from our Tassie experience (or lack of experience). In fact that Mazda 121 we were driving wasn’t much bigger than your moped either. At least they speak English in Tasmania, unlike Hawaii where they all speak funny like.