After being in Sheffield, before going back to Paris, it made sense to check out London
bye bye Sheffield :)
quick walk to the train station
St Pancras
After arriving, going for a Xmas lights bus tour sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately it was harder to setup than it should have been, with a despicable company, and the view was not always the best for pictures, but it was still nice to have a look:
West end tour at the same time:
More lights:
After a nice brazillian BBQ dinner, a musical that was available that night (pickings were slim on dec 29th):
The next day started with the canal museum as it was too late to get tickets for the tower bridge:
I tried to sign up for a canal ride, but they were also sold out
old tractor that used to pull the boats
Next, was a ride on the Thames and a walk:
Fun stores:
Then was time to see Faulty Power, the play. It was last minute, not many options available on Dec 30th. It was fun for me since I had seen the old TV show from the 70s:
The rest of the day was spent walking through neighborhoods with lights and go to winter wonderland in hyde park:
Going to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, it was nice inside but the security search detained me more than 5mn going through all the pockets of my scottevest, which is a lot of stuff, and the amount of things they prohibited, including hand sanitizer was such bullshit that it was very much a turn off, and enough for me not to go back had I been a local. The UK is really getting security wrong, at this level, I'm not interested in going back and dealing with such BS. It's a bummer because once inside it was very nice, but that doesn't make up for the level of ridiculous they are putting their customers, through (Paris was so much more reasonable in comparison):
yes, the rides were numerous and impressive
The last day and morning, I had a couple of hours before the train back to Paris, and used them to meet my good friend, Raster, for early brunch and catching up, that was a lovely time:
geeking out about enlightenment 17, he wrote and I still use
I had such a great time last year for Rebooted - Trance Made in Sheffield 2023 that I was excited to learn that Scott Bond organized another one for this year, and thankfully I was able to come back from Paris this year.
I was on the fence as to whether to get to Sheffield via Eurostar + 2 trains, or just fly to Manchester and go from there. Flying last year worked out well, but this year, very long lines in CDG, and terrible weather that caused icing and 3.5h delay on an 1.5h flight :(
Unfortuantely that caused me to arrive 2H late at network:
by then the line wasn't super long, but the searches were thorough and slow, welcome to the UK :(
Finally got in, just in time for the end of Craig Lee Bird:
Of course, got to meet some friends who had arrived a while ago already:
and I was able to properly meet Scott Bond this time around and thank him for his hospitality
Lange, was next:
hell yes!
great job on the lasers
woot!
Then Scott Bond and Charlie Walker took over:
ready!
Of course, excited to see Craig again :)
And Craig Lee Bird closed the night:
It was then time to migrate to record junkee for more trance :)
the bad news is the elevator to the top is now closed forever, bit downer :(
Beautiful sunset, selfie time!
A few more pictures of the beautiful weather and sky:
On Jan 2nd, it was time to go shopping:
that was yummy
chocolate dessert refill!
and my favorite, blood orange juice
heaven
just a few :)
this should do nicely :)
In the afternoon, a few hours to go in Paris:
Finally got to see Legay shock bakery:
The 1st arrondissement and nearby stores are always fun to visit:
Notre Dame was finally re-opened after many years to repair all the fire damage, although it still had scaffolding outside. Unsurprisingly, there was a ridiculous line (looked like maybe 2H) to get in, in the 'no reserved slot' line as well as the other line for people who had reserved slots (making them kin dof useless). It would have been nice to go back in, but I've been many times and it wasn't worth the wait:
Another year at Enchanted Xmas in San Jose, well done, plenty of LEDs again. If you put aside the pretty ridiculous price of parking or food and drinks onsite (but eh, if people are still coming, they are charging what the market will bear, I guess), the lights are beautiful indeed:
Things aligned for a 2ft+ storm just before Xmas, so I was able to enjoy the fresh snow, even if a bit wet. Drove up before the storm hit too hard, and roads started closing:
made it around 13:40, enough time to go enjoy some snow
charging in the snow
2 hours to go snowboarding friday
My favorite tree runs were still a bit bare, my board did get some hits
the wall was open, still a bit rocky but open
nice snow in the trees
snow got harder, vis went down
Chamoix still had a big rock jump
after the rock, things were nice
I rode until 16:00, last chair, went to check out the main lodge:
I had a bad surprise trying to get into Sun Maedows parking lot, which was closed, and the snow was wet enough that my Tesla M+S tires were not able to get enough traction to get back up:
good things I had chains, first time I got to use them
Saturday, almost 2ft
Saturday opened late as expected, Chair 6 opened at 11:10 when the blizzard wind had died down enough:
plenty of nice fresh snow
I used my car's defrost mode to limit snow accumulation on it
lovely snow
ran until 16:20, it was wet, got lots of ice on my facemask
got some help to get my car out and free up the charger
Sunday, bluebird
Cornice opened on tim (09:00), reasonable line of people wanting freshies
Snow was pretty packed
little bit of a line, but not terrible
the ridge was opened
not bad coverage
but still rocky in places
At some point I made a mistake, ended up here, and it was too much of a jump on snow that was too packed:
oops, I had to hike back up, that was a lot of effort
once the wall opened, pretty long line to drop:
only a short path down
I had a good time and ended around 14:00 as I wanted to make expensive mistake in trees with thin coverage:
Vasona Park did a great job with decorating the park. It was nice to visit but tedious to get in (via a long detour to get people in a very long line to get in, despite timed tickets):
Looks like I didn't plan the diving part of the Kauai trip enough, and trusted the first result I found on Google, when in fact I had notes from 15 years ago of not so good experience with the company that seems to have been the same back then. This time around, without telling a very long story again, I'm putting those clear notes for myself and others to make sure I never mistakenly go diving with them again:
the boat was way too small and had no room for gear
the crew was not geared towards advanced divers and were perfectly fine ending a 45 to 60mn dive after 15mn because one beginner diver was running out of air, penalizing everyone else (they didn't care)
Nick, the passive aggressive lying boat driver I got the first day, ended up behaving like a complete ass, and when I had to leave and go to another company, Fathom Five, that "wonderful gentleman" felt it was his duty to call them and badmouth me (thankfully they took my word for it that he was full of shit, and my diving with them was oh so much better)
Dive Kauai, continued their poor performance by giving 3mm wetsuits in 24C water when clearly 5mm plus is needed for most people unless they have a good amount of body fat. I had to get 2 wetsuits from them and put them together, which was uncomfortable
Multiple dives were ruined because of the complete beginners they mixed with me, including those 2 who were so unprepared that their mask didn't work, and then they were unable to go to the bottom (10m) and cancelled the dive for everyone. What a mess!
I mean beginners should be allowed to dive, but Dive Kauai sucks at handing them along with non beginners, which makes them a very poor choice for advanced divers. Of course they failed to admit that when I called and explicitely enquired about it, being happier to take my money at the expensive of a near guaranteed bad experience, but just for harboring Nick, the passive aggressive lying boat driver, that's a definitely a reason not to go with them as long as he works there.
Day1: 2 Boat Dives and 4 shore gives (downgraded to 2) with Dive Kauai
Yeah, so with that unfortunate intro aside, the diving in Kauai was what I remembered, not bad compared to many places, but probably not the best in Hawaii, Maui still remaining the best. But Kauai wins for the many many turtles, that part is definitely amazing:
cleaning station for turtles, there were 6 or 7 sleeping there
Afternoon was supposed to have 2 shore dives and 2 night dives, but the complete beginners I was paired with ruined the first dive, and then the guide said he didn't think night dives would be so good due to silt (that, he may have been correct on). Diving from the jetty was not super easy, kind of rocky and not easy to navigate, but the turtles were happy to come up for a rest:
Day2: 2 Boat Dives with Dive Kauai
Day 2, I went back on the Dive Kauai Boat, thankfully the other divers were more experienced, but Nick still found new reasons to be unhappy with me, and made sure to tell me on the way out that I could not bring my camera bag on the boat the next day because it would be full, lovely... That said he fixed the issue a few hours later by saying got knows what about me so that he would not be allowed on "his" boat the next day (not his boat of course). The 2 morning dives were decent:
Oh yeah, now I remember that the dive guide seemed a bit green and got anxious when I got just a bit ahead of him or went to check a small hole within easy reach of him, when he only had 2 divers to keep track of. Sigh... But that confirms what I was saying that Dive Kauai is definitely not for advanced divers.
Day3: 2 DPV Shore Dives
Day 3 was supposed to be 2 boat dives, but by then Nick managed to ruin my previous afternoon with hours on the phone to undo the mess he created on purpose, and ultimately failing. I ended up doing 2 DPV dives which were actually a lot of fun and, Jimi, the guide who came to meet me was awesome.
yes, it's pretty awesome
Despite all the crap and bad feelings from Nick, the DPV dives were lots of fun, even if the DPVs themselves had worrisome failure modes, including no maser shutoff of wrist deadman switch. I was even told that sometimes they get stuck on, that's not good... Thankfully they did not for me and they were definitely fun.
Before the dives, a dive Kauai manager/coordinator also came to meet me that morning to apologize about the mess created the previous day, which was nice of him and honestly I was ok enough walking away after that and burrying the hatchet, except passive agressive backstabbing Nick felt it would be good to call the next company I was going with to badmouth me and try to convince them not to dive with me, oh nice... So yeah, after that Nick made sure I let everyone know on every medium available to avoid him and Dive Kauai. I hope he gets fired....
Day4: 6 Dives with Fathom Five
Fathom Five was able to accommodate me for 6 dives in a day, 4 boat dives and 2 shore dusk/night dives, which was impressive. I got lucky with the boat dives that day, they were good:
the guide was good and gave us a good briefing on what we could see
not hard to find turtles, they are literally everywhere
I finally found where the lobsters were hiding in Sheraton Caves, took me a while to find the spot again
For the dusk/night dives, we were 4 divers, plus the guide:
Then, I found this beautiful Stary Night Octopus, but that also ended the dive as it got a bit too friendly with us:
Last time I tried to fly around Kauai, there were no rental planes available and the trikes I rented were barely able to keep up with the wind, so I didn't get very far. This time around, the one plane I could have rented was not available either, so I got a passenger flight. Sadly this time of the year, the weather around Kauai is seldom sunny around the entire island (it's the green island afterall), and the schedule for the week was inflexible enough due to many places having limited hours/days, I ended up opting to stay with the flight, even if it could not go around the entire island and missed the south and waimea canyon.
I got copilot seat, but was just passenger
The flight ended with the double/triple Wailua Falls close to the airport:
cool to see the parking lot I had just driven to a hour prior
It had been a good 15 years since I last went, so it was a good time to go back, revisit a few fun things, and check out a few new ones. Once planning and there, I got reminded that this is the least developed of the 4 islands, so lining up attractions and tours or even main national gardens, was not trivial as many things were only open a few days a week, and not all on the same days. Also many things were pre-booked tour only.
It took a lot of juggling to get everything to fit in a week, but after lots of shuffling, I managed to do so, although it did not offer any flexibility in changing things for weather....
One other thing I also found out was that of course the Hawaii islands are not cheap anymore (only the flight is cheap), but Kauai especially seemed especially expensive. Some tours like a simple garden and chocolate tour, would ask for $140 per person (!).
Anyway, here is the map:
after landing, had a quick drive to Wailua Falls while waiting for the flight time:
walked around a bit to burn time
quickly found a friend :)
happiest cat in the world
Day 1: Partial Island Flight
Then, it as time for the scenic flight, which sadly was partial due to weather, but realistically weather was not great for flying for over half the time there. It's the garden (green) island afterall, and that comes from all the rain... Flight details there
rode copilot
same waterfall
Smith Family Luau
After the flight was time for a nice dinner and show at Smith Family Luau
I then had to deal with the dive Kauai and their lying passive aggressive boat driver, Nick, who did his best to ruin my diving by showing how much of an lying p. he could be. Dive Kauai, only barely worthwhile for beginners, was totally not worth it. At least I'm making proper notes this time to make sure I never go back to those people (turns out I had old notes from 2008 saying I also picked them and regretted it, sigh...)
Despite the time wasted by them, had a bit of time to check out an evening art festival at Hanapepe:
Day 4: Diving, McBryde+Allterton Gardens, Koloa Zipline
I was supposed to start with 2 dives that morning, but with my previous night's injury and open wound, those were cancelled, so off to Waimea that was:
then it was time to drive up to Waimea Canyon:
the famous red dirt
beautiful scenery
After an mostly unimpeded quick drive down, and rental car brakes that didn't fade, and time for a few quick stops before the 2nd Luau:
Day 6: Aulii Beach Luau
how to open coconuts
yum
Day 7: North Island Tour to Road's End: Princeville Botanical Gardens
I decided to skip Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens & Sculpture Park as they required slow and painful tours that didn't happen every day, and instead opted for the Princeville Botanical Garden 3H tour which was worth the drive and time.
Day 7: Princeville Botanical Gardens
Day 7: Limuhali Botanical Gardens
From there, 30mn drive to Limuhali Botanical Gardens, which unexplicably also required advance reservations for a limited parking spot and self guided tour:
After that, there was some time for a slower drive back and stop at a few places on the way:
more shaved ice with ice cream
Day 7: Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and Nenes
Went to Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and its famous Nenes ducks:
babies!
unfortunately the tip is now open only certain days with advance tickets, WTF?
one used to be able to just drive there :(
boobie!
Day 8: Kauai Museum
Day 8: Kauai Plantation Railway and Rhum Tasting
Then, finished the half day and the trip with the Plantation Railway and Rhum: