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Here we are in the Big Island!
We had a bit of a panic about catching the plane from LA to Honalulu, as the LA rush hour traffic was more than we had anticipated. I had to fill the car with fuel, take it back to the rental place, get a shuttle bus to the airport, check in at Hawaiian airways, and get through security, all in under three hours! What was i thinking? In the end we were okay, and made it through security just before they announced the first call for the flight. That meant that i didn't have time to shop, but seeing as we'll be spending five hours in LA airport on the way home, i am sure i will get time then.
Our flight from LA to Honalulu took 5 and a half hours. You had to pay extra to watch movies, so we watched the free channels (about hawaii history and interesting people from the islands) and the flight didn't seem that long. As we came into Honalulu airport, we could see Pearl Harbour. We'll be visiting that near the end of our holiday. We landed, but i have to say that it didn't really feel like a tropical paradise, as the airport was a concrete jungle! We caught the Wikki Wikki shuttle (cute name) to the other aiport terminal, and caught our next flight to Kona (Big Island). I had given David the window seat, but the price to pay for that was that the air conditioning kept on dripping on him. When we were taking off, the air conditioning was so bad, that it almost felt that we were taking a cold shower!
It was a very short hop and we touched down at Kona airport before we knew it. Now that did feel like a tropical paradise airport. None of it was indoors, as far as i could tell. You got out of your plane and walked to the exit, then there was an open courtyard, and you walked to the opposite end of the courtyard, through another door, and you were out of security and into baggage claim (which was open to the public, so anyone could take your luggage (worrying).
We found our case and wondered how were were going to get to our hotel. We hadn't hired a car (they were all sold out online, due to the Ironman Competition). The shuttle bus seemed non-existant so we decided to take a taxi. It was a bit pricey at $52 for 12 miles, but the taxi driver got confused when i gave him $60 dollars and thought i was including a big tip. I was not assertive enough to ask for change, so i left it at that.
Our hotel is nice, with an unusual ground floor that has no windows, so the reception, lounge and restaurant are all open air. We knew we had an ocean view room, but we have never before been this close to the ocean. Its about 20ft away from our balcony. We are also overlooking the pool, so it feels really nice.
We wandered up to the local shopping centre, which was not really tourist oriented. It had a couple of supermarkets and a bank (and some fast food restaurants). After the day we had i was a bit bushed, so we had a quick burrito from the mexican fast food place, and headed back to the hotel. We sat on the balcony for a while and soaked up the atmosphere and i went to bed at 7pm, which is ridiculous, but i was so tired.
Tomorrow we go up to the top of Mauna Kea, the worlds highest mountain!
- comments
Tony Hudson I think Everest will have something to say about your last sentence ! Hope there are no eruptions.
Tony Watching IRONMAN on http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=035aaa7a-3c4d-49fa-90f2-845ca20de1cf.html#2011+ironman+world+championship