Aloooooha!

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We almost didn't make our flight out of Cairns; our shuttle driver first got caught doing an illegal U-turn, then after receiving a fine got pulled over a second time for not having license on his trailer. The police weren't allowing him to drive AT ALL with the trailer, but after a short debate they allowed him to quickly drop us off at the airport before taking it off the road. We thought that would be enough excitement for the day, but when we arrived at the airport we found out that our flight had been moved forward almost 3 hours, and was due to take off in 30 minutes! We were rushed through check-in, then told we could not push in at security, so stood in queues until about 2 minutes before our flight was due to take off, when they had already called us twice on the tannoy! Anyway, we made it eventually, and after a nights stop-over in Auckland, we arrived in Honolulu, O'ahu.

We really love Hawai'i, everyone is really friendly, and the bus drivers actually wait for people who may want to get on their bus, just in case! Everyone wears Aloha shirts...to the beach, to work, as formal dress! It makes the place appear very happy and relaxed!

We've spent quite a bit of time snorkeling whilst here, as there are 3 great marine preserves, and even around the regular beaches quite a bit of coral and fish can be seen. We swam with a giant sea turtle, at least twice the size of the one we saw in Australia! It was absolutely amazing to be swimming so close to it, and he wasn't bothered in the slightest that we were there! Another highlight of our time under water was swimming with a school of around 100 huge fish! We swam amongst them for a few minutes, watching them play with each other and munch on coral. We'll miss doing this in England!

We spent a day at Pearl Harbor, the site which forced America into the second World War. We had a tour of the USS Bowfin submarine which was really interesting, looked around the museum showing the life on each of the battleships, and visited the USS Arizona Memorial. It was an emotional experience, particularly seeing all the engraved names of those who lost their lives there.

No visit to Hawai'i would be complete without experiencing a beach Luau. Ours began with a traditional feast of ground-cooked pig (poi) while watching the sun set, a few exotic cocktails later and we were watching a dance show of several Polynesian cultures, including Hawaiian, Maori, Fijian and Samoan. We enjoyed watching the hula, although I think the highlight would have to be the Samoan fire-knife dancing. On the bus home Julia won a calendar for knowing the Samoan greeting, Talo Fa. Thanks to Will and Jules for all your cultural lessons!

We're now in the final fortnight of our trip. We have 10 days in mainland America, then flying back to London.

Love Julia and Dan xxx

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