I dreamt I was driving a porcelain bus (Hawai'i - week 1)

Hard to believe I've been here a whole week, but it's true! Last Wednesday morning we got up bright and early and made our way to the airport, ready to go on our trip to the middle of the Pacific. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed, which induced many, many rounds of "eye spy" along with sentiments like, "Tiiiiiiiiiiph, how long is this going to take? I'm bored. I'm hungry. I don't like this. I don't want to go on a big plane etc etc etc".

Thankfully I was seated away from the two four year olds. While there was room to join them in economy plus (which means a little more leg

room), I didn't. Not just because 6 hours with those two can be trying, but also because I had a window seat, and the occupant of the aisle seat was the "fall asleep during the safety demonstration video and wake up in time to hear them tell us to put our seatbelts on to land" variety.

But we made it, safe and sound. It's kind of what you expect of Hawai'i and kind of not. It's not Continental US, but it's commercialised enough that you don't quite feel like it's the islands. It is hot for winter though. These are the low temperatures of the year, and in my opinion,

should be the warmest it ever gets.

To your left is a shot of snow covered Mauna Kea, that I would desperately love to take a trip up, but it just isn't going to happen thanks to my work schedule, and the fact that my employers have zero desire to spend any of their winter in winter conditions.

There's also a shot of me lying at the A Bay. It's very, very windy some days, and often you can't stay at the beach too long, because the wind picks up the sand and it starts stinging.

We made a trip to the other side of the island, where the tropical rainforest conditions are. We experienced a nice cool change in temperature, and lots of spasmodic showers. Thsi created a nice rainbow that the kids really liked. The coastline was quite impressive, due to all the cliffs and there were a couple of nice waterfalls as well.

The Kona Christmas Parade was on the cards. It was a great afternoon turned evening out. The parade lasted almost 2 hours, but the kids were well behaved and at least half of the 60 entries in the parade handed out lollies. Thankfully we talked the kids into letting us hold them, making the ruthless culling a little easier.

While in Kona, I had about half an hour to explore on my own. Hawai'i has some similarities to Queensland, so I've taken to it a little. The locals are really friendly, and I'm making an effort with some simple Hawaiian just to be polite. This sign isn't one you'd be likely to see in many places on the mainland, but I was wondering if I should investigate in finding something similar to take home.

Today we went to the Seahorse farm, which was quite fascinating. Since seahorses are now endangered, a couple here in Hawai'i decided to try and breed them in captivity, so they could be sold, rather than being taken from the ocean. They've been in operation for 9 years, so they've been successful. I also got to hold a seahorse, which is pretty exciting, I have to say.

So that's what I've been up to in the last week. I still have 2 more weeks here. There's plenty of interesting things on the agenda: a luau, a trip to Hilo on the east side of the island, not to mention Christmas and New Year's Eve. I've taken plenty of other photos as well, so there will be no shortage of those upon my return.

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