A short trip to Hachijo Island: Pt 1

Good friends from NZ who lived up the road from me in Japan got married in Bali last week. I had organized time off work and cover teachers in order to attend and had thought everything was done, just a matter of finding tickets. How hard can that be, right? Unfortunately the wedding date was smack bang in the middle of a popular vacation week in Japan and it meant that anything within our budget was long gone.

Not one to waste an opportunity, my wife set about exploring options, given that we had organized time off. We looked at options in Okinawa, but that too was basically sold out. And then we remembered our friend, Fumie, living on Hachijo Island! A few phone calls later and things soon fell into place and we were off!
An early start to pack bags was greeted with a lovely sunrise in Kamogawa.
There were a couple of firsts, one was flying ANA (great service) another was flying out of Haneda Airport (a piece of cake to navigate) and the third was going to a Japanese Island!!! Very exciting!!!!Me at the departure gate...Hachijojima, here we come, surfboards, snorkels and all!
The first sight of Hachijo, a rugged, rocky shoreline with pristine water. A diver and fisherman's paradise!
These red Hibiscus line the streets around the island giving it a very tropical, almost Hawaiian feel to it.
Driving out around 'diamond head' (as some locals refer to it) to the south coast where the surf points await.

Aiko and Fumie checking the surf as waterfalls cascade down the cliff behind them in the afternoon sun.
Fumie and I making our way across the rocks to paddle out (nice and slippery on the way in on a higher tide!)
Me enjoying the super clean fun waves at Kaisers point on what the locals were calling one of the best days of the year to date. How lucky were we!
Sunset on what was a very beautiful first day in paradise.

Stay tuned for more....