Aloha and welcome to Hawaii. Quick note on that it's Hawa-ee not Ha-why-ee. Turns out i've been saying it wrong all my life and now it's totally confusing me as to where i am. I've tried saying Hawa-ee and end up getting funny looks from everyone so have given up and am calling it Oahu instead.

Well the backpacking is really difficult and we are struggling to be honest. The huge, air conditioned, 5th floor bedroom overlooking a beautiful golf course and canal, viewed from our incredible balcony is not easy to put up with, and the complimentary internet makes it worse. The free breakfast is really the last straw. Oh and the 5min walk to the crytal clear waters of the pacific are making this leg of our trip a real strain.

We went for a long walk yesterday and saw some incredible banyan trees, amazing views of diamond head and loads of surfers, well, people with bleached hair carrying surfboards. I think it's largely for show and just like school-run 4x4s never see mud, i'm sure many of these "gnarly dudes" never get wet. Could just be jealousy though as they do look very cool.

In the true American spirit we went for an all-you-can-eat lunch and had steak and lobster for dinner. It was unbelievably cheap, even with the exchange rate where it is. No wonder every second advert on TV is for gastric bands!!! We're off for a swim now and are heading off to Fiji tomorrow at the crack of dawn for more fun in the sun. I am not sure that we'll have internet on the island we're staying on but we'll keep the journal going and update the blog as and when we stumble across electricity again.

Hope you are all well

The Whitest guy in Hawa-ee...and Leanne