well, I think that i have to take back those words.... Hawaii is certainly a place i would choose to go to again!
I left Brisbane to catch up with Kyoko in Japan. She said it was cold, and it was. She met me at the airport with beanie, jumper and jacket. After cacooning myself in layers of cloth to protect myself from the icy cold wind outside we jumped back on the train to 'home'. For moments, as the scenery flashed by, i had feelings that i wanted to come back to Japan but then i realised that i was losing feeling in my toes and decided that its just too cold for me.
My bag; the one i bought before my first trip to Japan was considerabley lighter than 5 years ago. It only carried a couple of changes of light tropical cloths. We sat and caught up with what had been happening as it had been over two weeks since i had seen Kyoko.
That night was, of course, cold. A cold that can be endured if you have an incredibly think Goose Down quilt to wrap yourself up in after have a hot Japanese bath.... ahhhhhhhh
And the next day it was a quik shop and a pack and then back to the international airport for a red-eye flight to HAWAII!! And, this time it was the other way around - rug up on the way to the plane and strip off when you get there.
"This is your captain speaking. the current temperature at our destination is 70degrees..."
What! We are going to fry! But then you remember that this is land of the imperial measurement. The land that wasn't willing to comform to the rest of humanity who wanted to make it easy on themselves to calculate ... um ... stuff.
Resulting in a beautiful 21 degrees "Celsius" on arrive. An arrival that consisted of an old deserted building, an old clunky, heavy-set shuttle that was driven by an equally old and heavy-set Hawaiian lady to the next building to get bussed, screen, zapped and tagged through customs and immigration.
There was Kyoko and myself, her parents, her brother and sister-in-law and there litte 2 year old. We were tired.
But despite the sick feeling of jet lag in our stomach and the dry red eyes from being crammed in an economy class seat all the way across the Pacific like picnic folding chairs in the trunk of a car, we ventured to the tour desk and caught a tour around the southern part of the island.
Kyoko and I took photos. Everyone else slept. The scenery was beautiful. I will show it them later.
Returning to our hotel, driving on the wrong side of the road as all Americans do, to check in to our hotel, we enjoyed stunning views of reef, cliffs and sheer steep climbing active and extinct volvanoes. It was great. Get this - Level 26 of the Sheriton built on the beach!
By this time the sun was setting the horizon and there wasn't enough time to venture down onto the sand but from our balcony we could see five green turles gliding there was over the shallow reef below. I love this place!
We had booked a rental car and picked it up at about 7pm. After dinner and a late night we were all very surprised (but shouldn't have been ) when we slept in until 10am the next day.
