I haven't updated this in ages - mostly becausI was too stressed for the first few days in Hawaii and too relxed after that.
Adelaide
We continued to drink our way across Australia by visiting the National Wine Centre in Adelaide and then heading out to the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra wine areas. Mmmm..not much to report though apart from much wine tasting (and drinking).
Koala Spot
Eoin insists I include a section on his amazing wild koala spot. From a moving car he managed to pick one out way above us in the trees so we screeched to a halt and scaled the bank on the side of the road to get closer, though I actually spent half the time up there convinced I was going to get bitten by a snake. It's the only wild one we saw (despite our efforts) and it was actually awake, so we didn't have to throw anything at it to get it to move.
Great Ocean Road
We drove and drove and drove to get to the Great Ocean Road (one of the greatest drives in the world apparently) and even once we were on it, we didn't see the sea for about 35km. I was starting to think it was a bit of a rip off until we saw the sea, full of big stacks of rocks. Very impressive, all was forgiven.After that, there was loads to see, including London Bridge (much prettier than the original). We continued on the next day, and saw the Twelve Apostles and lots of other similar stuff in the morning - the afternoon we planned to drive the really scenic part to the Melbourne end of the Great Ocean Road, I'm sure it was stunning, we just had to imagine it because he couldn't see anything through the torrential rain. Shame, to cheer ourselves up we pressed on to the Yarra Valley to taste some Pinot Noir. We must be tasting too much, the guy in the winery we visited asked us if we were in the wine trade. Love it!
Melbourne
I loved Melbourne, what a great city, you cn just wander around it for ages and lunchtime there is brilliant, so many little cafes everywhere and the food was fantastic. We stayed in the posh suburb of Kew with some friends I used to work with - Emma and Ravi, entertainment provided by 15 month old Jasper. Poor Eoin spent half the time eying me suspiciously for signs of cluckiness. Anyway, thanks for having us guys, we had a great time.
Goodbye Australia
After pretty much living in the one jumper each that we possess for a whole week, sunny Sydney was brilliant. For our last night in oz we had a fab night out with Siobhan, Eimar and Darren, we stayed out way too late but managed to struggle to the airport in time to catch our flight to Hawaii.
Hawaii - Accommodation nightmare
We foolishly left our accommodation plans a bit late for our first night in Hawaii and ended up staying in a double bed, in a DORM, on the TOP BUNK, above another double bed with another couple in it. How hideous.Things didn't get much better when we shelled out for a "semi private" room - you share the bathroom and kitchen they said. What they didn't say was that you had to walk through someone else's bedroom to get to your room or that the kitchen was part of those people's bedroom. (Boys). Yuk. Anyway, we eventually sorted ourselves out, flew to another island and did what everyone else here does, rented a massive car and a condo. Height of luxury, dishwasher, swimming pool, the lot. Feels like the Ritz after the last few places, I love it!!
Culture Shock
I spent the first few days here adjusting to Americans. They are a bit strange- the barman who came over to us, introduced himself and asked our names when he came on shift; the girl at the juice bar who asked my name when I ordered, just so she could say "have a nice day, kay-dee" when presenting me with my juice; the competitve eating event on stage where the person who ate a whoppper fastest won another wopper. Also, if you order tea here, you have to say hot tea or you get iced tea and the prices on all the products in shops are wrong - they might say $7 but when you go to pay, they add on tax - mental! I also thought that I'd feel really thin here because everyone knows how many fat americans there are - not true! You do see the odd heifer here but there are tons more fit, toned, tanned joggers everywhere. And the cars, how ridiculous - people seem to buy jeeps here and then jack them up so they hover about 2 feet above the wheels.
Hawaii itself is lovely but Waikiki, the main commericial tourist area, is a bit mental. The islands are beautiful, flowers and palm trees everywhere, plus people everywhere in Hawaiin shirts or with flowers round their necks...I thought it was just for tourists but even the bus drivers are wearing hawaiin shirts, bank tellers have flowers behind their ears and you can buy refrigerated flower leis (garlands) in the fruit and veg section in supermarkets.
Volcano
We're currently on the biggets island which is where you can see an active volcano. We spent a day there, you can drive round the crater rim and see lots of steaming sections but the best bit was when we drive down what is now a dead end road. It didn't used to be a dead end but it got buried under lava a few years ago and it keeps coming so they won't rebuild it. You can see where the lava is going into the sea in underground tubes because of the enormous cloud of steam coming out of the sea - amazing.
Under Water
We've spent loads of time under water here, Eoin has done a couple of dives and we've both done loads of snorkelling. There's a bay near here with loads of turtles in it which is where we've been going - it's lovely. There are loads of tropical fish everywhere too, even in the main harbour in Honolulu.
