Laniākea

Packed and left without too much bother, our flight scheduled for 9.15. Coming around the coastline toward the central plain of Maui, there was Haleakala in all its splendour with not a cloud in sight! Pete turned to me and said "wouldn't it break your heart?". Within a few seconds, the same thing went through both our minds - if we could delay our flight to the Big Island, we could drive up there this morning.

Our timing was tight, but we managed it without a hitch, and were soon in McDonalds ordering a quick breakfast. We were now booked on the 2.26 flight which was in 5 hours time, but Pete was anxious to get going in case the cloud decided to roll in and spoil our plans once again.

We were excited as we began to climb the mountain once again, especially as we could see the clouds were nowhere near the summit. We were to be rewarded. The view of the crater was as we remembered - awesome, with beautiful browns, oranges and reds, dotted with cinder cones and very very big. Much warmer today. We walked down into the crater a little way along the Sliding Sands Trail, but only for about 20 minutes.

On the way back we stopped in McDonalds again, this time in Pukalani, where we realised we were cutting it fine to catch the plane. It was now about 1.15. We arrived at the Alamo check-in and anxiously awaited the shuttle bus. We walked into the terminal at 1:55 and the queue was quite long. Pete went to the counter, explaining our predicament and we got a porter to check us in. We rushed to gate 17 just before the flight was called.

We had a nice view of Haleakala from the plane and then looked toward the Big Island where we would be spending the next few days. After arriving at Keahole airport - small by comparison with the others - Pete and Sean went off in search of a car while Joel & I looked after the luggage.

After a few minutes they returned in a blue convertible, our big splurge for the last island we would visit. We had driven for about 3 minutes before it started to rain! So there we were trying to work out how to lower the roof and make it air-tight.

Found our accommodation in Kona. Not as spacious as the previous two; older with fewer conveniences. However, it was quite adequate. The boys were excited about the pool and went in almost straight away.

We were within easy walking distance of several eateries, but decided to cruise in our vehicle. Then we parked it back in the hotel carpark and walked the shops. Looked around the shops a bit, with Pete getting more and more bored. I bought a hat as I needed it for the open car.

Had dinner in Stan's - a reasonable sort of meal, but the cocktails lift the price a bit - Pete had a Mai Tai and I had a Chi Chi. Time to turn in and write diary and postcards.Read more