Friday, August 9

We have rented a bright red Jeep Wrangler for today and Monday from the gas station two hundred metres from our condo.

We have driven almost to the top of the island, up the right hand side, and hunger has struck. We pass through the small town of Kahuku and stop at the roadside diner, where we have chicken, rice and mac.

I watch the occasional truck driving north up Kamehameha Highway while I eat. The sun casts long black shadows. I think we can see the whole town from where we sit.

We will both find ourselves thinking something like, “I am sitting outside a roadside diner in Hawaii in the sun watching bright coloured trucks go by!” and smiling.

We will stop at Turtle Beach, a resort worse than Waikiki in its ability to destroy the very things that caused you to go there in the first place.

We will drive round to Waimea Bay, which will have no waves at all. Further along though we will see plenty of both, on a quiet unannounced strip of beach.