Hawaiian Holiday

It's already been three years since our last overseas trip together as a family, although Brian went to see his family and attend his 20th high school reunion last year, so it was with great excitement that we planned this holiday to Hawaii. Jetstar had a special deal on offer late last year, so we pounced on the opportunity to fly for under $1000 each.

It's been five years since we were last in Hawaii and the place hasn't changed much at all. In fact, looking at most of the architecture around Honolulu, it seems like there hasn't been any new development since the late eighties. Brian remarked that the airport looked exactly the same as when he went to College there. Its Wiki Wiki buses looked like they were from a by-gone era.

I suppose aside from looking a little run-down at times, this unchanged appearance didn't bother me. In fact it is somewhat of a respite from the constant change that is occurring at the Gold Coast. It's disconcerting to live in a place which goes through such rigorous change at such a frequent rate. If you spend a few months away from the Gold Goast, you will inevitably be met with a very different-looking home upon your return.

Honolulu has all the stuff we love: mild weather, beautiful beaches, diverse culture, great food, Japanese communities and a laid-back friendly atmosphere. It also has a lot of what I dislike about the Gold Coast: tourist cheesiness, congested traffic, completely unaffordable housing.

We're in Kona now, staying with Brian's parents in a rental property which they have rented at various times over the last fifteen years or so.

Yesterday we drove to Hilo to check out their open-air farmer's market and we stopped to explore the Kilaluea volcano crater and lava tubes on the way home. We ended up on a hike that was a few miles longer than we anticipated, because we took the wrong trail, but were quite happy with our error, when we discovered ourselves at the base of the crater mouth. There were cracks and vents all over the crater, letting off steam and the entire region looked like some alien landscape, so barren and black and smooth was the cooled lava surface.

It was an awesome experience, realising that at some time in the not-so distant past, the whole place had been a molten, pouring, exploding volcano mouth. There was a group of people who had walked out across to the middle of the crater, but Judy and I managed to dissuade Brian and Sage from dragging us out there too. Although we knew it was probably safe, we didn't really want to go out there, especially as there was so much steam and we had forgotten to bring our drink-bottles with us.

Tomorrow we'll go snorkeling in the morning and if we have any energy left by the evening, we'll head out to the Moana Kea visitor's centre to do some star gazing. It's been really foggy and cloudy the last few days here, so it may not be suitable weather for it. We'll wait and see and in the meantime, I think we're going to take it easy today.