Postcard #1 [6/23-26/21]: Trouble With Van Camping

Finally. We made it.

After 14 hours of ass-numbing plane seats, we pulled onto the palm tree lined tarmac. Honolulu smelled humid and sweet, like Coppertone. As we made our way through the airport, all the anxiety of traveling faded into excitement. We were finally here.

Our plan was to pick up our rented camper van at a self storage place. We talked to an uber driver for about 30 minutes about the insanity of Hawaii traffic. 6-7 lane highways, navigating weird exits and overpasses, he told us it's nothing compared to Boston. As daunting as these Hawaiian roads seemed, we had to agree. Nothing is as bad as driving in Boston.

Plus the views are hard to beat. No matter where you are, you can spot the beautiful mountain ridges in the distance. Especially when you take the H3 highway through the mountain. Fun fact: the original Jurassic Park was filmed in Hawaii, so we always expect to see a velociraptor poke its head out of the bushes every time we drive up to the Tetsuo Harano tunnel, the one that drives right through the Ko‘olau Range.

We've gotten plenty of chances to experience these views in the van, though paradise doesn't come without its drawbacks. As perfect as we had thought this van camper would be for us, we quickly realized that it was falling flat of our expectations.

First issue with the van was that when we first picked it up, the battery was dead. Since this was a contactless pick-up from the Airbnb hosts, they weren't there at all. We had to ask an employee of the storage unit to help, who kindly used his own personal vehicle to jump it. He had a light Hawaiian accent and cracked jokes with us about the old clunker. The hosts gave us a nights worth of money back for the inconvenience. It wasn't enough to freak out about, so we didn't. Though we keep hearing some unsavory noises.

Second issue we had was that we noticed a strange amount of ants up by the driver and passenger seats. They were just tiny little guys, and I don't think they bit us (though occasionally I found bug bites on my legs after sitting in the car). We couldn't figure out why they were there, or where they came from, so we just brushed it off as an old van problem.

The third, and possibly most energy consuming issue, was the fact that we had a hard time finding a place to park the van overnight. Initially when we booked the van, we were expecting it to be a lot like Maine, where there are usually some free campsites around that you can pull up to, or at least some Walmarts that had an RV parking area.

We were sadly mistaken.

In Hawaii it's illegal to sleep in your vehicle on public land, or on private land without express permission from the owners, as we were told at 1am by a police officer the other night. We were parked in a dirt lot by a remote beach, out of the way, no other cars around. He knocked on our window and told us we needed to move along elsewhere. He was understanding enough, and didn't give us a ticket, but we really had nowhere else to go. Walmarts here don't allow overnight parking like they do in other states. And everywhere else had strict hours to abide by. We ended up getting permission from a Walmart manager to park there until morning. The next day, we got a hotel room.

We later found out a trick that some people use to park overnight in Hawaii. Fishing is a native right, and is a protected activity under state law. Fishing is allowed anywhere at anytime (with some restrictions on what you can fish, etc.) So, as long as you show intent to fish, by say, leaning a fishing pole against your vehicle, the police can't bother you. Although we considered it, we're only here for a week, and we don't fish, so investing in a fishing pole didn't seem reasonable.

We're still using the van for transportation (a must-have on the island). It's nice to get to take the back roads and explore alternate routes around paradise. And it really is a spectacular place. The climate may be similar to places like Florida, but the culture and the lifestyle here is completely different and unique. And the food has only gotten better every single day. (I'll make a list on here later of the places we've eaten and what we had!)

We've only got a few days left until our work begins at the Mouna Arts & Cultural Village, so we're going to enjoy every free moment we have.

Aloha,

Nola

PS: Check out my Instagram for more pictures!