Aloha!

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I don't have as much time as I usually do to write these, so I apologise (or say "you're welcome") in advance that this blog will be a bit shorter than usual. This is also slightly helpful, as the place I am blogging about is Hawaii, and it is quite hard to keep "we went to this beech" interesting after the 6th or 7th time. Anyway, we got aboard the last two seats on the Qantas flight from Sydney to Honolulu, and arrived 12 hours before we took off (thanks to crossing the international date lie). Well rested on the flight, we were able to head down to Waikiki beach, where half of all tourists to the state of Hawaii on any given day are, and catch some sun and visit a fair few of the souvineer shops that litter the beachside. The day passed fairly quickly, although I was left with the souvineer of a slightly sunburnt back - a reminder that after the cold days in Sydney, we were back to sunburn territory. The next day gave us a chance to explore a bit more of Waikiki, which gave us the chance to visit the aquarium where the (dreadful!) Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates was set.

The following four days gave us the chance to explore the island of Oahu a bit more, as I rented a car. The first challenge to get used to was that the car was significantly larger than the one I drive in the UK, and driving on the other side of the road meant I had to work out where to position the car in the road, all over again. I was very glad I had rented an automatic, as driving in the US meant I had a lot to get used to, and another clutch and gearbox would probably have been to much. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed driving the automatic - even if my driving style made it think I wanted to change down a gear most of the time! After getting used to everything, I found driving in the US surprisingly easy, and really quite relaxing, although I got slightly tense when there were 7 lanes in the carrigeway I was driving on!

Out and about in the car, we snorkled in Hanuma Bay, which had a great array of fish and coral, although after a while, it felt a bit like snorkling in an aquarium, especially compared to previous diving experiences. We took the chance to check out the specacular East Coast, and spent 2 hours trying to find the way out of the world's largest maze in the middle of the island. Having the car was really a plus, as we could see the real beauty of the island that's not so easy to see from Waikiki.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Im a little low on time, so this is all I have time for. Dad also tells me that the Sydney blog email might not have gone out when I finished it, so if you haven't seen it yet, make sure to check it out!

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