A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity

Go to Hawaii we said. Get some R&R before we go home we said. What a joke that turned out to be. In all honesty, neither of us would have coped with sitting on the beach for 6 days so we didn’t.

The views from our hotel room

Spent the first day wandering around Waikiki playing dodge the tourist. An impossible game but we had fun trying and were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.

The father of surfing, Duke Kahanamoku

Most of the palms have their coconuts removed to protect stupid tourists who like to sit under them

Beautiful Waikiki sunset

Next day saw us heading out to the Big Island – Hawaii – and Kilauea Volcano. Of course no organised bus tour in Hawaii can go directly to the main event without stopping off along the way at a couple of stores designed to part tourists from their hard earned cash. Had absolutely no problem with the Macadamia factory and their abundance of free samples – I adore macadamias but the orchid place??? Eating orchids isn’t nearly as enjoyable as eating macadamias. They were pretty though.

I wish macadamias did come in packs this size

Lots of orchids for sale including one with a $20K price tag

The volcano of course, was the star. No red stuff for us today but lots and lots of steam from various craters and holes in the ground. Kilauea’s current eruption has been ongoing since 1983. We visited quite a few sites of previous lava flows as well the crater rim itself.

Kilauea

Every time I go in a lava tube I am reminded of Maurice Gee's book, Under the Mountain

A'a lava - sharp and jagged

Pahoehoe lava - smooth and ropey

We also stopped off at a Japanese-styled garden and a waterfall which were just lovely so it wasn’t all about consumerism. All in all, it was well worth the 4am wake up call.

Liliuokilani Botanical Garden

Rainbow Falls

Got a sleep in the next morning – a mere 6.30am wake up call. Today was a trip around Oahu – just to prove there is more to Oahu than Waikiki. It took a while to clear the suburbs of Honolulu but we then we were in the country and it was just beautiful. Stopped off at the Halona Blowhole. The beach just by the blowhole was where the famous kissing scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr was filmed in From Here to Eternity (just change the colour to black and white and you can imagine you are right there).

For such a calm day we got quite a good show at the blowhole

Picture this in black and white and you are at the spot from the movie "From Here to Eternity"

Another beautiful place we stopped at was the Byodo-in Temple – a scaled down replica of the 950 year old Byodo-in temple in Japan. It is in such a tranquil location. Even the hordes of tourists can’t spoil the serenity. Then it was on to a teaser before lunch at another macadamia nut factory (I think they give you lots of samples so that you don’t eat too much at the buffet lunch – care factor if that is true = zero).

Byodo-in Temple

Jean about to ring the bell before entering the temple

Lunch was held at the idyllic Kualoa Ranch. Mountains at the back of the ranch, Pacific Ocean to the front. Entertainment was provided by a couple of hens and their large broods and the food … yep, once again, we ate too much.

Mountains to the rear

Pacific Ocean at the front

... and plenty of entertainment

Stopped off on the North Shore to check out the waves. A few surfers out there but no big waves. Couldn’t resist a few photos in the water, it was lovely and warm. Got a bit close methinks.

Sue checking out the water - just back up a bit more

Oops ... too far

Just kidding. The second one is a surfer heading out.

One last stop before heading back to Waikiki. The old Dole Plantation. There are still some crops grown here but it is predominantly a tourist attraction – train rides, giant maze, restaurant and (surprise, surprise) a gift store. Managed to resist all the pineapple-styled gifts on offer but not the pineapple whip. Yes, even on top of that big lunch. Waddled back to bus and headed back to Waikiki and a well deserved dip in the water.

Wednesday was Sue’s birthday so we celebrated by attending a luau. Yay, more food. More importantly though, several cocktails and lots of nice young men performing on stage. Okay, there were some young women too but who looks at them when it’s your birthday.

What's not to love about being greeted like this

Climbing a coconut tree

A little bit of home in Hawaii

Bring on the dancing boys

Fire dancer from Samoa

Front row seating was a bonus

Cocktails are beginning to take effect

Our last day of playing tourist was spent at Pearl Harbour absorbing some of the history. Had a wander around the exhibits then took a boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial then continuing on to the USS Missouri. All of you WWII buffs will know that the Missouri wasn’t in Pearl Harbour at the time of the bombing. It was the vessel where the Japanese surrender was signed and, after it was decommissioned for the second time, it was decided that Pearl Harbour would be a fitting final resting place.

USS Arizona Memorial - all but 3 of the ships bombed were put back into service during WWII

USS Missouri

The 16" guns on the USS Missouri

Dent where a kamikaze plane hit - luckily for the Missouri the bombs didn't explode

We decided to spend our last day relaxing at the spa at the Hawaii Hilton, so relax we did before the long flight back home. Before we know it we’re back in Napier. Where on earth did that year go???

Napier arrival - thanks for meeting us in Auckland Angelica & Glenda and for Mum, Dan, Graeme & Wally being there in Napier

Spent a few days in Arizona co-ordinating the sale of the pickup and 5^th wheel. In our big clean up of the 5^th wheel we discovered we now have a lot more gear than we started with. How did that happen?

Decided not to worry too much about that and made our way to Los Angeles where it was all to come together. Said goodbye to our trusty 5^th wheel. There were no tears but it was a little sad. We’ve come a long way in this baby and had some pretty awesome adventures.

Coming together for the first time

Our first meal in our new home

We had to think about height restrictions - I remember hugging the centre line through this tunnel

We camped in rest areas

We camped in Walmart car parks

We camped in rural campgrounds

We camped in scenic campgrounds

We took absolutely no photos of the crammed in urban campgrounds.

We went to great heights

We saw dinosaurs

We got snowed on

We braved hanging out at a biker bar

We had a close encounter at an iconic monument

We braved driving through a snowstorm

We went to prison (think Shawshank Redemption)

We found Al Capone's hideout

We searched for enlightenment at New Vrindaban

We visit the odd brewery or two

We get some local boys to clean our home

We weren't completely without mishap - yay for the AAA

Next to go was all our household goods. We found a worthy charity and dropped everything off. It was hard to let go of the deck chairs – they've done a sterling job.

You can see why we'd miss our chairs - we'd be sitting in the snow otherwise

Picked ourselves up a large storage bin and packed up all the goodies we purchased, freebies we were given, winter clothes and other assorted paraphernalia we picked up along the way and just can’t live without. You know how it is. This bin may arrive in New Zealand on the right side of Christmas … or not.

Last but not least was our mighty Ford F250, Chuck (we had to give him a good solid American name). Despite being temperamental on a couple of occasions he has served us well. In the 49 states we’ve been to, we’ve driven over 50,000 miles at an average of 155 miles per day. Would have loved to have exported him down under but don’t have any spare cash to freight him back and convert to right hand drive.

We drove through snow

We drove through tumbleweed


We drove on narrow, winding trails

We went on boat rides

We squeezed through here

We drove through more snow

We weren't afraid to get dirty

We went to some pretty remote areas

We didn't let obstacles in our road deter us

We developed a split personality - half Canadian, half American

We drove over (through) a covered bridge in Madison County

We can only imagine what Chuck is thinking while eyeing the Ford building

So now we are back to being normal tourists and can finally sit back and let someone else do the driving. Took a VIP tour around Los Angeles taking in such sights as Venice Beach (too cold for the weightlifting boys to be out at Muscle Beach dammit all), Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, Farmers Market and Downtown LA. Saw a few things we’d both seen on previous visits: Hollywood sign, Chinese Theatre, Rodeo Drive and Chinatown to name a few but what a great day out.