Aloha,
We left the mainland USA headed for Asia and stopped on the Big Island of Hawaii.
What an amazing week. Of course, we had a much needed rest on the beautiful beaches - the girls played, snorkelled and Anahita expanded her shell collection. Kats had an accident and gashed her ankle on some lava rock, so had to stay out of the pool for a day.
The Big Island is a place of contrasts. 11 out of 13 climatic zones are represented here. In fact you can go from arid lunar landscapes and bone dry beaches, to green pastures and snow capped peaks in about 2 hours. Via tropical rainforests and lava fields. It is really stunning. We drove the55 mile Saddle Road from Hilo to the Kohala coast - and you get to see all 11 zones and the point where Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea meet. And a lot of cows and cinder cones.
The beaches are gorgeous and varied. We were also lucky enough to see a lot of green turtles on the beach of our hotel. They are very cute and even the 100 year-olds are quite small - the size of a carry-on bag. They are called 'Honu' and Anahita has a large collection of Honu souvenirs - keychains, a box and a honu made out of shells.
The highlight of the trip was the volcano. We drove round the island and reached the active areas by road - and it was quite dramatic driving through miles of lava fields. The girls were amazed at the steam vents and 'Chain of Craters road'. There is something primordial about the whole experience. We complemented this view with an aerial one - a helicopter view of the active areas. This was very memorable indeed - we saw red lava lakes and rivers of lava moving quite fast and very slowly, eating up trees and roads along the way. We also saw where the lava hits the sea - releasing smoke and steam plumes visible for miles.
Nina also got one of her birthday presents - a trip to the summit of Mauna Kea. This is the world's largest mountain from base to summit - 32,897ft - though 19,000 or so are below sea level. The drive up and the view from the top were really breathtaking. For a non-stargazer, she also saw Jupiter and its 5 moons plus our moon and a few other stars she can't name any more....
Alessandro and Nina managed to find a Tanzanian mask in a gallery in Waimea (the same place years ago where they had passed on a Korean chest). It's a pregnancy 'belly mask' to be worn by men while the women were pregnant as a sign of empathy... Yeah right, if only it were that easy! But it is very striking and it had our name on it.
Apart from that we just chilled, drank fresh iced passion-fruit juice and ate a lot of Ahi and pineapple.
On the licence plate front we made no progress on the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska and Arkansas - unsurprisingly. Anahita outdid herself by spotting California in the car park in Hilo, just seconds after Alessandro said he'd give $10 to anyone who got an out of state plate - that car came a long way! Katayoun and Alessandro spotted surfers from Oregon too.
We had one day in Oahu where we crashed by the beach had naps in the afternoon and had a fabulous dinner at Alan Wong's. It was quite simply too hot to move and we have a long journey ahead. As an example of Alessandro's talent for approximation, he told us the flight was 5 hours long - turns out it's 8! Which also fits with the visual distance on the map. We are hoping for an upgrade on this one!
Aloha and Mahalo!