Truth be told, I didn’t know that it was actually forbidden to freely use your own Pokémon to travel from place to place here in Alola. I did see many people riding on water Pokémon at the beach and often in the morning saw someone on a Charizard in the sky above, but it never occurred to me that there might actually be regulations in this nature focused region.
I don’t have a Pokémon on me right now that I could use to travel from island to island but when I did transfer my Sharpedo over, I got a quick warning to register it first as official Poké Ride here in Alola if I wanted to use it in that way.
At the tourist office in Hau’oli City I could get myself a Ride Pager for free, as I was now officially recognised as participant in the Alolan Island Challenge. Wherever I go, people recognise the amulet I did hang onto my backpack. Rarely they however wish me good luck and mostly think I was a local who took is as kid. When I tell them that I’m currently taking part, they always light up and wish me good luck. After the initial surge of trainers, new participants were a rare sight again.
So I could register my Sharpedo and did get the whole set of gear for her and me to wear, so that we can easily be officially recognised. I actually like all that gear as it provides a certain level of safety.
The quickest way to get to the next island called Akala Island, is to fly or to take a boat at the harbour. Just as a side note, I’m already on Akala Island in the Pokémon Center where I’m writing this post from. Flying on the back of a Pokémon would be okay and I might will do that later. But you know that I’m not very keen to get on a boat or plane.
At the tourist office I however, saw another way to travel from island to island, Mantine Surfing!
I headed a bit north of Hau’oli City to Big Wave Beach. I wonder how I had missed this beautiful spot the other day when I was looking around the island. There are still many places on Melemele Island I did not see and I’ll definitely go back there again.
At one of the booths I simply could show them my Ride Pager and they allowed me right away to use a Mantine to travel to another island. Obviously I told them it would be my first time and they gave me a quick rundown. But I shouldn’t worry too much. The Mantine are well trained and will take care of the rider.
And what can I say? It was a blast! I hardly wanted it to end.
But every thing has to come to an end and once we reached Heahea Beach next to Heahea City here on Akala Island I could tell, Mantine needed a break too.
So I’m now on Akala Island and will first head south to Konikoni City to visit Kahuna Olivia at her shop. She did send me a message yesterday that she had finished all the individual parts and would now start to assemble the Z-Power-Ring. It would still take a few days but so far, everything looked perfect.
I wrote her back that I’m looking forward to the end result!