Aloha!

Our Hawaiian experience began yesterday, when we lunched with a Hawaiian couple, part of a group returning home from Vancouver, who decided that this cruise was a great way to see their own country! Last night was the Talent Quest, which we would normally have avoided, but we knew that Chester and Shubby's group was performing, so we went (it was kept as a surprise from all other guests). They were a triumph!

We were really in the mood for Kahlui-Kona, on the Big Island - the island of Hawaii - today, and were up by 6am to prepare for our tour - very different to our lazy sea days! This port has no jetty, so we had to be tendered in in some of the lifeboats - now that's an experience! Once on shore, we set off for a tour around half the island - the dry half ... and wasn't it dry! Almost all our journey was on the slopes of the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes - lumps of lava all the way. We're told that a few years ago that's all we would have seen , but now African Fountain Grass has covered a lot of the lava, the seeds having escaped from hotel landscaping.

We visited a wonderful national park, with King K******'s fort (sorry, any word with 17 vowels and 3 consonants defeats me!!), then continued on to the Parker Ranch, a huge cattle ranch in the north of the island, owned by 6 generations of Europeans intermarried with Hawaiian royalty - and they lived like kings! This was interesting in itself, as was the nearby town, but above all we appreciated seeing the countryside, which looked a bit like the (Australian) New England plateau in a drought - brown grass and dying gum trees. Further on we came upon a forest of Queensland Silky Oaks - growing better here than they do at home. So many plants were familiar - we felt quite at home!

A little shopping later, to prepare for Hawaiian Elegant Night tomorrow - a clip-on frangipani for my hair, and what I described as a "cheap lei" for John to wear around his neck ... OOPS!!! Let's just say, it will be unusual to see John with a necklace of flowers ... and from here on, I'll be careful with my descriptions!!

Aloha!