Pineapples & volcanoes!

Volcano-watchers!

Where the lava crossed the road, the previous week....we could still see it steaming.

Yeah, we'd really love to live here!!

Where the lava meets the sea.

The lava fields

Think Jurassic Park!

Where we stopped for lunch

In the rainforest

Rainbow Falls

Arrival at Hilo on The Big Island

Last morning view of Pearl Harbour

BBQ time

Our last evening view of Pearl Harbour

Dole Pinapple Plantation

Bananas? On a pineapple plantation?

We are only 7,230 Miles from London!

Pineapple fields

Dole Pineapple Plantation Visitor Centre

Is that what you look like after eating here!

Shopping in Waikiki

Yes Trevor is right, we've just been so busy & so tired at night, I've just not been able to catch up, so now we're on the island of Maui, where we're planning to do some serious chilling, I'm now going to do a quick catch-up.

The day after Hanauma Bay, we were supposed to do our Volcano trip to The Big Island, but when we got to the airport, we were told our flight time had changed & we'd missed it!!
The tour company had even phoned our apartment & left a message giving the same check-in time that we'd been given previously.
Needless to say, Trev got on the case & apparently we should have got an email to tell us the change, but it never arrived.
Anyway they managed to get us on a trip the following day, so we had to quickly revise our plans & I went into panic mode as I'd planned our last day to do a bit of shopping & packing of course!

We drove straight to Waikiki for some quick retail therapy then back to our apartment for lunch & a bit of packing, then we decided to visit the Dole Pineapple Plantation, which was actually very interesting....had some pineapple ice-cream, which was yummy!

We'd already bought steaks for a final night BBQ, so had them that night instead......gazing at that wonderful view.

We were up really early on Tues for our 30 minute flight to The Big Island for our volcano tour.
It was a very full day, but actually a bit disappointing as a heck of a lot of time was wasted viewing a Japanese Garden in the main town, Hilo, then a visit to a Macademia nut plantation & factory.....& guess what....a shop!
We were then taken to a golf club for lunch (not included in the cost, which we thought was a bit naughty, considering what we'd paid), then finally on to the Volcano national park.....by now nearly 3pm!
To be fair it was very interesting to see the steam coming from the crater, to walk through a lava tube & to see the acres of black hardened lava, but we didn't see any glowing lava, or any serious activity, but we knew it was happening all the time, as when we walked up a road to the viewing platform, we discovered that it had been wiped out the week before with another lava flow.
This volcano just oozes out lava & doesn't erupt like the Icelandic one.

Unfortunately you see more at night after it gets dark, but sadly we had to leave for the airport at 7pm....another complaint, as when we booked it we were under the impression it was to be a night tour!
Most of the group had the same complaints & Trev has posted a review on Trip Advisor!

It was good to see another Hawaiian island & a very different one....very uncommercialised & totally different scenery.......can see now why Jurassic Park was filmed here!

Now we're on Maui, we will be doing some touring around, but most important, we're going to have some serious chilling time!

As they say in these Islands, Hang Loose!

Aloha...... from Hawaii, is anyone out there still following our travel blog?

If so I must apologise, Marion has been very remise in not updating the blog over the past couple of days, but to be fair they have been very hectic for her, as we have visited the Volcano National Park on Big Island (Hawaii) for a day and have now travelled onto our next island, Maui.

I will ensure Marion downloads some more photos tomorrow, if not I will have to do them myself in between practicising how to make Mai Tai cocktails, we now have all of the ingredients.

Trevor (Hic)