News
Hawaii 2009
Posted October 21, 2009 04:01 PM
Well we're back safe and sound after a marvellous 4 weeks in Kona. We stayed in the exact same condominium as in 2007, and it really felt like "coming home" when we walked through the front door and looked out the windows at the lovely view of the ocean and pool.
Getting to Hawaii from Australia was quite an involved process. In order to save $800 per person on our airline tickets we opted to not fly directly from Sydney to Honolulu. We ended up flying from Sydney to Auckland on Sept 16 and overnighting there. The next morning was my birthday and we continued on our way to Honolulu. We crossed over the international dateline and fell back a day, so once again it was Sept 16th. Arriving in Honolulu late at night we had to overnight in the airport hotel - quite the long process to finally get to Kona but the $ savings were too great to pass up. Finally the next morning, on Sept 17th (my birthday once again), we were able to board the Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kona. It was very intriging to celebrate my birthday twice (a friend asked if I had to now say that I was 108 years old!) However, it didn't result in me receiving twice as many presents. Hmmmm, there's something wrong with that scenario!!
For the next couple of days we hung out pretty close to the condo, either by the pool or at one of the beaches nearby snorkelling. We had an Endless Pool session with Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen which was amazing and also swam with her swim group a couple of times a week at the open air public swimming pool. One night we swam between 6 - 7pm while the sun set and the stars shone above us.
A week after our arrival our wonderful friends, Jan & Ken, arrived to spend the remaining 3 weeks with us. We headed out early one morning to rent kayaks and paddle across the bay to the Captain Cook monument where there's the most incredible array of colourful tropical fish to be seen while snorkelling. It's one of our favourite spots to visit while on the Island.
Another day we all checked out a new tourist attraction - a zipline canopy tour at the north of the island. This was an absolute blast - 8 ziplines progressing in length and difficulty. The entire tour was 4 hours with two guides driving the group in a 6 wheel drive army vehicle literally over hill and dale through the rainforest. This was a real highlight of the trip and I'm sure we'll do this again in the future. After ziplining we had lunch in Hawi and headed to Polulu Point and hiked down into the valley to walk along the black sand beach there. It's a wonderfully remote spot on the island.
That weekend Jan, Bob and I took part in the Kukio Blue Water swim which is held one week before Ironman. It's a 1.9km point-to-point ocean swim and this year I saw a pod of dolphins swimming directly below me, all lined up in a formation. It was so incredible I almost stopped to watch them longer, then realized I was in a race and had better get going... Our good friends from the States, Shell & Keith, plus another American friend, Mary Lou who we had met at Ironman Western Australia last year, also took part in the swim and afterwards we all lazed around enjoying the sunshine and the incredible brunch that was laid on by local restaurants. Yummy!
The next day Bob and I ran a 10km race on Ali'i Drive and both ended up winning our age groups. Bob's win was well deserved whereas mine came almost from default as there were only 2 of us in the age group and the other woman must have walked as she came in 20 minutes after my finish time. However, we both ended up with a bag of local coffee as a prize so that was very nice. After the race there was a silent auction and I managed to be the successful bidder for a trip for 4 on a Kohala waterfall tour which we did at the end of the week. Regular price was $600 plus tax and I snagged it for $175 - yessssss!!! As Jan and Ken were off diving that day we went on the tour with Shell and Keith. This was a 7 hour tour which included lunch and time in Hawi. Once again we were in a former army vehicle wending our way through amazing scenery and rainforests. We hiked for about 3 hours and saw many incredible waterfalls. We also had a chance to have a swim in one of the pools and to have the waterfall cascade down on our heads and shoulders. It was so beautiful there but the water was sooooo cold!
We also volunteered at Ironman Hawaii preparing the goody bags that would be given to the athletes on race packet pickup day later in the week, and then spending one full day handing out race packets to athletes from around the world. On race morning we were up at 3:30am and down at the pier ready to body mark. After the athletes were all done we quickly popped over to the primo viewing area on the side of the pier and watched the start and finish of the pro race, and the start of the age group race. I felt quite emotional watching the athletes in the water prior to the race start, envisioning myself in the same position just two years prior...
We spent some time watching racers go out from T1 and onto their bikes and were able to cheer on our friends who were in the race which was great. It was then off for breakfast at a nearby restaurant. We could hear the announcer calling in the final swim finishers who have to be out of the water within 2 hours 20 minutes of the start of the race. One fellow, who had received a heart transplant 3 years to the day, missed the swim cutoff by 8 seconds and was absolutely devastated as one can imagine. There were 2 or 3 others who also missed the cutoff - their day was at an end...
After breakfast we headed back to the condo for a nap and then in the afternoon we were able to watch the lead racers running past the condo complex plus our friends in the race (much later in the day) heading by. Around about 10:30pm we headed down to the race finish to watch the final 100 or so athletes finish. Once again there were 2 or 3 people who missed the midnight deadline by mere minutes - so sad after such a long day of extreme effort.
The final week in Kona was quite a lazy one. Jan and Ken were off for two days sightseeing in Hilo and Volcano National Park. Bob came down with a bad cold after Ironman and spent a couple of days in bed, so I just hung around the condo and the pool which was just fine with me.
Our final morning started with Jan, Bob and I swimming part of the Ironman course. The plan was to swim 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back. At about 18 minutes out I spotted some snorkellers just ahead of us. This struck me as extremely odd as snorkellers are generally close to shore looking at fish on the reefs or swimming over the sand. I stopped to see what they were looking at and realized there was a huge pod (probably 50+) of spinner dolphins heading towards us. I shouted to Bob and Jan who were a few feet behind me and we all marvelled for the next 10 minutes as dolphins swam below us and all around us, jumping up and "spinning" for what appeared to be the sheer joy of it. It was magical and something we'll never forget. It was the perfect end to a wonderful holiday.
Jan and Ken flew home at lunchtime and Bob and I spent the last afternoon at the beach and watched a golden sunset before showering at the beach facilities and heading to the airport. By the time we grabbed a quick sandwich, returned the rental car, checked our bags and cleared security we just barely made our 9pm flight. We literally were the last people on the plane and as we came up the stairway, entered the plane, and took our seats the engines roared to life and we were taxiing down the runway. Whewww - I knew I didn't want to leave Hawaii but that was a very close call...!
