Aloha again - Holiday Postcard 4

I had an early departure from Vancouver for my flights to Hawaii, which may have explained my lack of neuronal functioning when I checked in for my first flight from Vancouver to Portland. Instead of checking in all the way to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, I only checked my luggage through to Honolulu, thinking that I would have to go through customs and quarantine before I could fly on. Halfway between Portland and Honolulu I realised that there was not going to be enough time for me to pick up my bags and check in for my next flight, at which point I realised my mistake, knew there was nothing I could do about it and so started to panic a little bit. By the time I had arrived and waited for my bags to come on to the carousel (they were pretty much the last to come off the plane, as to be expected) I was getting rather distraught, especially as the flight I was supposed to be on was boarding! Luckily I was able to get a standby seat on the next flight (which wasn't full) and made it to my destination 18 hours after leaving Vancouver, phew!

I got up early the next morning as I wanted to fit in a swim before heading on my full day Island Circle Tour. I managed to get up before the sun, very unusual for me, and enjoyed the early morning glow over the sea (1). Standing on the lava flow at the beach I noticed that I could see numerous tropical fish just below the surface of the water! Then a green sea turtle swam past! I rushed back to my hotel room to get my swimming goggles then promptly jumped into the water and swam with the fish and the turtles! I spent so much time in the sea that by the time I got back to my room I only had time to change and head to the foyer for my pick up at 7.15 am! Wondering when I was going to be able to get breakfast I was relieved to hear that the first stop after picking up the rest of the passengers was going to be at the Kona Coffee Plantation, free coffee and a slice of banana and pineapple cake served as a very adequate brekkie!

(1)

From the coffee stop we headed on to Punelu'u (black sand beach) and I saw some more Honu (green sea turtles) this time basking in the sun on the warm sand (2). After swimming with their cousins a few hours earlier I wasn't as impressed as I would have been otherwise, but it was still very cool!

(2)

From the black sands beach we headed to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and stopped at Volcano House for views over the Kilauea Caldera, in which is the Halema'uma'u Crater (3). This area is not the most active part of the volcano - the active lava flows are actually closer to the shore, however my tour didn't go to that part of the island, and all other tours which claimed they did were unable to as the road was shut due to recent seismic activity (which made me glad I'd chosen the tour I had rather than the Volcano tour I was tempted by!). Whilst in the park we drove the 11 mile road around the rim of the caldera stopping at the Jagger Museum, where you could see the seismic activity at various spots around the island - which I found quite exciting, must come from having a seismologist for a father!, a "close-up" viewing point of the crater which smelt pretty sulphurous then finally at the Thurston Lava tube (4) - which was created when the outside of the lava cooled at set creating the tube, then the liquid phase subsided, leaving a tunnel!

(3)

(4)

Once we left the Volcano national park we hit the road for Hilo, stopping for a short period at an Orchid Garden (5), where if you had the finances and the desire you could purchase a $20,000 orchid! To be honest I couldn't see what was so special about it, there were plenty of others that I liked a whole lot better! The last stop after the Orchid Garden was rainbow falls, where apparently you can see a rainbow if you look at the falls in the right way, I couldn't see anything but a couple of people on the tour claimed that they could see it.

(5)

So after about 11 hours on the tour I arrived back at my hotel in time to watch the sun set over the pacific (6), which was just beautiful. It was very serene sitting on the lava with my toes in the water watching the sun set over the horizon. I capped off my day with another swim in the ocean just as the sun was setting. All the beautiful tropical fish and the turtles had obviously found their bed for the night as I couldn't see any in the fading light.

(6)

The next day I was up early for my flight to Honolulu then on to Sydney and home. I thought it would be a pretty simple day, and should have been except for the check-in chick being able to check my luggage all the way to Sydney and not me! So I arrived in Honolulu international airport with no boarding pass for my next flight! After about 40 mins of trying to find someone who could tell me what to do I discovered I had to exit the departures area and queue up for check-in again! Luckily it was still 2 1/2 hours until my flight left so the queue wasn't too long. My heart stopped briefly again when I got to the counter and they said I was on standby for the flight! After explaining the situation I eventually got my boarding pass and made it home safe and sound

All in all it was a fantastic holiday! I had a great time in Hawaii and Canada and am already looking forward to the next opportunity I have to go and visit my brother and his wife again!