Hawaii

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Hawaii was always going to be one of the highlights of our trip. We spent 2 weeks here hopping between Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.

Oahu

Honalulu is a big US city and we didn't spend much time there. We visited Pearl hardbour and spent a day surfing in Waikiki.
We visited the famous big wave surf breaks on the North Shore of Oahu, Banzai Pipeline, Waimea and Sunset Beach but the swells only role through here in the winter - in fact there were no waves there at all, quite unbelievable when you see pictures of guys surfing 40ft mountains at the same beach.

Maui

The home of windsurfing! We visited the famous Ho'okipa beach and hired some windsurf gear for 2 days. The winds were really strong but it was great fun. They were having the US windsurfing nationals on while we were there so we were on the water with some of the big names!
We spent a day driving the road to Hana which is a small winding road hugging the coastline through lush vegetation and waterfalls.
We camped near the top of the 10000ft Haleakala volcano and watched the sunset & sunrise there which was amazing.

Big Island

This was possibly our favourite of the islands. We visited a coffee farm and sampled the Kona coffee. As you drive along the roads on the Kona coast there are mangoes, bananas, granadillas, guavas and avocados just lying on the side of the road waiting to be eaten - even the birds can't keep up with this abundance of fruit!
One evening we hiked 4 miles as the sun was setting to the spot where lava from the worlds most active volcano was flowing into the sea. There were huge clouds of steam as it hits the water and as it got dark you could see the red glow of the lava and every few minutes it would shoot up spraying molten lava - it was an unbelievable experience. We got to within 50m of the lava. We only got back to our tent at midnight after a long hike in the dark over the lava.

The Waipo valley was beautiful too, here 2000ft cliffs rise up from the black sand beach and waterfalls plummet down into the sea.

We finished off our Hawaiin trip by jumping off these 30ft cliffs into the sea below - very cool! We met a south african couple, Craig and Jill and their kids Max & Gabrielle while we were jumping and they kindly invited us to their house for dinner that evening.

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Photos

Sunset Beach, Oahu
Pen relaxing under a perfectly placed palm tree.

Wiamea, Oahu
Wiamea is the home of big wave surfing on the Hawaian North Shore. The big swells only turn up in the winter though, in summer it's perfect for lilos and snorkelling.

Wiamea, Oahu
Cliff jumping - when there are no waves the locals take up other extreme activities. Dave joined them for a jump.

Ho'okipa, Maui
Checking out the windsurfers at Ho'okipa. Our rental car would have given Magnum PI's Ferrari a run for
its money!

Volcano National Park, Big Island
The roud ends abruptly at the site where the lava flow crossed in 2003.

Volcano National Park, Big Island
Offerings to Pele, the volcano goddess. The crater behind was a lake of molten lava in the 1950's, still steaming sulphur gases.

Volcano National Park, Big Island
We got up really close to the lava flowing into the sea - a truly awesome experience.

Haleakala Volcano, Maui
At 10 000ft we got to witness a beautiful sunset at the top of a volcanic cinder cone and we woke up early to see the sun rise the following morning.

Black sand beach, Big Island
Black sand beaches. This island is so young that a lot of the beaches are black sand beaches or just hardened lava flowing into the sea.

Kanaha Beach, Maui
Pen shredding on Maui. It was so awesome to spend 2 days windsurfing on the world famous island of Maui

Wai'po, Big Island
This is a great beach, accessible only by 4x4, we hiked down to where the waterfalls flow into the sea.

Wai'po, Big Island
This is a great beach, accessible only by 4x4, we hiked down to where the waterfalls flow into the sea.

End of the World, Big ISland
Cliff jumping - probable 30ft high.

End of the World, Big ISland
Pen getting some airtime!

Waikiki, Oahu
We hired long boards at Waikiki for a days surfing.

Volcano National Park, Big Island
The unique lava landscape of the world's most active volcano.

Comments

[dad]

hawai
Hi what a great place. Must have been tempting to settle there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Shan]

Aloha......
Bren has been telling me so much about your updates so I though that I had best log on and tak e alook for myself! Needless to say that I think Bren is about to resign and join you guys!! Enjoy the rest of your 'trip' - looking forward to seeing you again :) Love Shan and Bren