Blogs from Maui, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 8

My 9.30am flight to Brisbane was non eventful and arrived on time. My bag was checked through to Honolulu, so said a prayer that it got on the plane as I did. By the time I got to the International terminal and through all the customs and security I had about 50 min before boarding. I sat next to a couple of ladies in their 60's, they were a scream, my neighbour had not flown more that 3 hours before so she was dreading 9.5 hours. Honolulu won't know what hit it when they arrive, they are going to have a ball. Slept on and off over the night. We had to take a detour around tropical storm Ana which made the flight a little longer and bumpier towards the end. As the sun started to ... read more

It was a couple of hours drive to Haleakala national park. It's the same park we'd visited on the Hana Trip when we walked through the bamboo forest, but as it's so big, today we were more towards the northern part which is more volcanic as opposed to the rainforest we were at on Tuesday. Bridget was our driver today and she dropped us to the visitors centre before parking the vans at the top and hitch hiking back down (something quite common here!) It was a lovely view already and we had a look at the Silversword conservation greenhouse which was experimenting with the growths of the plants with varying amounts of water. Apparently these plants exist nowhere else in the world and take approximately 50 years to grow before they die off. We had ... read more

I was awake quite early again so was up and about before Daryl (this only ever happens on holiday!) the cockerel woke Daryl up at about 4am (I was already awake) but he managed to get back to sleep. Just after 7am we headed for the nice coffee shop we'd visited the day before 'Wailuku Coffee Company' http://wailukucoffeeco.com/about.html it really does seem to be the most popular place in this quiet town, it's always busy, but has a really nice feel to it and the food is good. We shared a fruit yogurt and granola pot and then had a breakfast bagel (Daryl had 2!) and a cup of tea. We returned to the bungalow to get our bags packed for our Road to Hana day trip. There were 2 minibuses going, each with 11 people. ... read more

Aloha family and friends! After roughly 28 hours total travelling we feel like we have travelled to the ends of the earth, but finally we are here in Hawaii. We checked in ok at Heathrow, and lucky for us, sorted all our baggage labels in London so we didn't have to check in each time on the stopovers. Daryl was asleep before the plane even taxied to the runway, and we managed to have a nice flight to our first stop in Chicago. Immigration here was a nightmare, and with less than 2 hours to our connection to LA it was pushing it. We used the automated machines for photos fingerprints etc only to queue up to have it all done again at the desk. Daryl was ahead of me and gave me a wave as ... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677Today, we have decided, is going to be our down day - no plans, nothing to do except BE.We have chocolate macadamia nut pancakes (just add water) and coffee for breakfast - so decadent and so good!We eat out on the lanai where we can hear several little kids shouting "Big wave! Big wave!" There are three little ones, the oldest is maybe 7. They have boogie boards and are barely in the surf as it gently comes to shore. Every time at practically the instant the water is under their boards, their arms flail and they topple right off into the sand. Once, the little boy, apparently in anticipation of water touching his board, simply face plants himself into the sand. I am laughing so hard I can hardly stand up. Jeff takes ... read more