Places to Dream About While You Live in Palos Verdes By Photographer, Author & Contributor Don Hurzeler
When I was a kid growing up on the hill, I fully understood that I lived in a unique place…full of beauty and adventure. However, two things expanded my vision of life…a world globe I got for Christmas when I was ten and my parent’s subscription to National Geographics. I would read the NatGo articles and then look up the places on the globe…and try to figure out how I might end up visiting those places. Well…dreams do come true. I have been to almost all of those magical spots…and I want to share some of that with you.
So, this is the first of several articles I will put on Palos Verdes Pulse on the subject of exotic or unique travel. I am a professional photographer and will include some photos. You might want to buy a world globe. I think you are going to want to visit of few of these spots.
By the way, I am the author of The Geezer’s Guide to Adventure…a book filled with ideas on how to make your travel dreams come true.
I will start with the Cook Islands. Actually, I had never heard of them until I got a note from Hawaiian Airlines offering me two first class seats in exchange for a whole bunch of their frequent flyer miles. I looked up the Cook Islands…found they were easy for me to get to (they will be a little more difficult for you as you will probably have to fly to Oahu first and then catch a direct flight to the Cook Islands). They looked like Tahiti, except fewer visitors and a bit cheaper. I jumped on the offer.
We started on the main island of Rarotonga. Flew directly from Oahu to Rarotonga on a big jet and in first class. The Hawaiian Airlines jet (as of today) flies there once a week and has a return flight a week later. Our first jump into the water looked like this…
You can hop on a bus for small money and ride around the entire island in about an hour. There is some hiking on the island, but mostly it is a spot to relax at a resort or hotel and enjoy the beach and ocean. I am sure there is golf and other things to do…but the ocean called to me each day and that is where we spent our time.
After about three days on Rarotonga…and wishing we had more time there…we got on a good sized prop plane and flew to Aitutaki…pronounced Eye two talky. Aitutaki is an atoll…an island surrounded by a barrier reef…and it is just pure magic. We stayed at a beautiful resort right on the water. Our days there were basically ocean adventures, relaxation at the beach or resort and great meals. We LOVED Aitutaki and plan to return often and with the rest of our family.
That is my beautiful wife, Linda, on Honeymoon Island in the atoll lagoon. We had on body suits to keep from getting sunburned. We would usually spend up to eight hours a day on or in the water. The water was warm, clear and amazing.
We went to the Cook Islands expecting to see, swim with and photograph big sharks. Well, that did not work out…did not see a one. They apparently do not come into the lagoon. Outside the atoll, in the open ocean, I am sure they are there in abundance.
What we did see was wonderful…
Turtles…lots of turtles.
Big fish that seemed very safe, friendly and used to people…
This ulua hung around in the shallows around One Foot Island in the lagoon. He was looking for a handout and stayed with me for as long as I wanted to photograph him.
And this guy is a Napolean or Bump Head Wrasse…several hundred pounds. He is being cleaned by those small fish near his top fin.
So much fun. We only snorkeled and the water inside the atoll was from five to 20 feet deep.
Lots of purple coral around the Cook Islands.
The beaches look pretty good…make that GREAT. No trash, sea weed, tar or mess anywhere…and very few people.
The view from our resort room…and a lovely place to snorkel each day for no additional money.
I took this photo right off our own little stretch of beach at the resort in about five feet of clear and warm water.
Shells everywhere.
At low tide, I walked out several hundred yards from the resort and watched fish swimming on both sides of the sand bar. A great place to be at sunset.
The Cook Islands are most closely related to New Zealand. The people are smiling and friendly. No language barrier. We always felt safe. The food was great and we never got sick. I suspect you could drink the water, but I never drink the water in places I am not 100% sure have safe drinking water. No visa required.
The down side…not much shopping…not a huge number activities other than ocean activities…bit of a trip, five hours from Oahu…and first you have to get to Oahu…and you are there for a week or multiples, no everyday flights available.
Dangers…if you have any kind of a functioning brain, there are few dangers. Linda and I make a living by pushing the limits and we did so on this trip and got ourselves in real trouble. Our trouble began with a wrong reading of the tide table on a VERY risky dawn swim we took for photography reasons. We ended up having to swim two and half hours back to the beach against a raging outgoing tide. I am 78 and my wife is 76…and we had one hand each filled with a big camera housing. And the reef in that remote area was filled with some scary and dangerous critters. One arm swimming against the tide for two and a half hours turns out not to be as fun as it might sound.
Now, before you write us off as complete fools, we did hire two big strong watermen on paddle boards to accompany us. They kept us away from the scary critters (but close enough to photograph them well) and were always close by if we gave up on our quest to do this swim without having to be towed in like a dead tuna. We made it back to the beach and only needed about a half hour of sitting on the beach before we could hike back to our car. Most of that time was filled with prayers of thanks and some world class leg cramps…and some unfair remarks about my ability to read a tide table.
You are highly likely to NOT encounter these dangerous fish…a stone fish…capable of killing you with his venom. This was taken at day break about a half mile out from the beach on the edge of the surf zone of the barrier reef. Don’t sign up for that trip…billed as a snorkel through a reef passage. I am glad we did it…but only because we survived. Dying on that swim would have hurt both my credibility and book sales.
I will leave you with this…the Cook Islands were 99% fun…1% stupidity on our part…and one of the most relaxing places we have ever been…and we live in Hawaii and have visited over 125 countries.
I included the “danger” part because we do live, like you do, next to a great big ocean. Any ocean has it’s dangers…just don’t sign up to find them unless you have a new book out and need a story to tell to help sell the book…and big strong guys with paddleboards at your side.
Here is a beginning list of places I intend to cover in the coming months…
Arctic Norway…Lofoten Islands (aurora paradise)
The Ice Hotel in Arctic Sweden
Mexico…Isla Mujeres (whale sharks)
Atacama Desert in Chile
Uzuni Salt flats in Bolivia
Yellowstone in Winter
Lava on the Big Island of Hawaii
Australia
Tanzania (safari)
Mafia Island off of Tanzania
Madagascar
If you want me to move one of those to the top of the list, let me know and I will do so. You can reach me at djhzz@aol.com. I will always be happy to give you my specific advice on all things travel…responding to any questions you might have…just email me.
And you do not need to be anywhere near a geezer to add adventure to your life…those things on TV and in National Geographics are real and they are spectacular.
Aloha.
Don and Linda are “lucky to live Hawaii” for the past seventeen years and claims to have never experienced an unhappy day on the island.
However, he does admit that he thinks of PV often…as it stands today and as it was. And what he misses most from those early days on the hill are growing up with a great set of friends and neighbors and the unimaginable freedom enjoyed in those days. He claims that he was raised like a free range chicken, able to hitch hike to get around town, to go out in surf that would scare any parent and to carry around a bow and arrow or small caliber gun to protect himself from rattle snakes when he hiked the canyons…not as a highly trained, accredited, licensed gun owner…but as a 12 year old kid whose dad treated guns like tools…there for protection and to be treated with respect and care.
And the best part of his freedom, no cell phones. Don was basically on his own and no one could track him or reach him until he decided to come home. Don always knew when dinner was served and he made sure to sneak in the door a few minutes prior. And, get this, dinner always included beer for Don…from about age 9 on. Or a milkshake made using 31 Flavors Baskin and Robbins ice cream from the Hollywood Rivera store mixed with crème de menthe. His dad felt the alcohol would whet Don’s appetite and help him grow from the skinny kid he was in those days. That did not work, but it did make him (temporarily) unafraid of orcas.
You can catch up with Don Hurzeler on Facebook. He is also on Instagram @donhurzeler. His book writing website is donhurzeler.com and his photography website is lavalightgalleries.com.
For a kid who grew up on the mean streets of Palos Verdes Estates, parented in a way that would land everyone in jail today, but supported, coached and loved…Don came out alright. A PV boy who fully understands how lucky he was that his parents built their dream home on a hill with a million lights sparkling below…or a fog bank a thousand feet thick.
To purchase Don’s books, please visit his Amazon page: