I was lucky to be on a university swim team who’s coach loved the sun. So every year we had training camps in Hawaii or California. Or sometimes both. The great thing was; it was paid for.

Once I figured out that changing my flight out would only cost fifty bucks I regularly left early or returned later. A holiday for fifty bucks was not something to turn your nose at.

The first time I did this I had an amazing road trip with the girl I was dating on the swim team. We booked an early flight, two weeks early, had a small amount of money, a couple of sleeping bags and a pup-tent. What could go wrong?

We arrived in Oahu to find out you couldn’t rent a car if you were under 25. We were five years short. One of the younger desk workers pulled me aside and told me about a ‘smaller’ car rental that might rent us a car. So into a cheap crappy rental vehicle we went! Straight to Waikiki beach.

Sadly the police gave us the news that you couldn’t sleep on the beach and definitely couldn’t put up a tent. So we slept in the car. Sleeping in a small car sucks really bad. So we decided to head out of town.

We took the highway up to the famous North Shore to try our luck with the surfer community. The drive up was easy but rather than go towards the small communities we took the road less traveled.

We were hoping to find a small beach or camp ground. We drove and drove. Nothing. No beaches free of homes or camping areas. We thought that we were sleeping in the car again as night fell, and it gets majorly dark fast there, then in the distance…we saw a shimmering light…we saw a tiny fire by a tent by a beach.

We stopped and gingerly approached. The surfer dude was happy for company, and explained that his tent was just beside a church camp ground which would let us pay daily. Their huge fee; $5per night.

The next day, after staying around the fire and sharing his green that night, we went to find an office. After a while we finally found a caretaker. He was annoyed that we found him and demanded a full week…in advance! I don’t think $35 came out of my pocket faster.

We stayed for two weeks, used the showers and toilet ‘facility’ and once the surfer got kicked off the property for nonpayment we had it all to ourselves. We camped just off the beach in the trees, had a small stream close by for water, watched surfers, watched parachute jumpers and airplane acrobatics (a tiny airstrip was only a mile away) and saw whales breaching every day far off on the horizon. We swam with turtles and other colourful fish. Beachcombing was my favourite pass-time so I made weird necklaces out of various flotsam and shells off the beach. No need to hope for a religious heaven. We found it. I can still hear the waves pounding the shore softly in my inner ear and have never been anywhere that had a sky so utterly full of stars.

I’ve been back a few times. I go back in my dreams regularly. A wonderful road trip.