first days 2009

Oct. 30 took a walk to the train station and took the train to schiphol airport. Flew to Frankfurt, from there to San Francisco. From there to Kona – Hawaii…..

Shelly picked me up from the airport, and after a Subway meal we headed to the Manago Hotel. The Japanese room. The hotel was founded in 1917 by some Japanese people.

Day after , south coast road drive to Shelly s place, visited the Pu’uhonoa o Honaunau , a sort of refuge camp. Wounded in battle , or fled from danger , people could hide safely in this holy safeplace. Battles only lasted a few days in those days , so they didn t have to stay very long.

Next day: just relaxed and went to the farmers market. Tuesdays we went to the hot pond again , floated and soaked around in the naturally heated very salty ocean water.

More pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.nl/walterhaenen/Hawaii

all flowerpictures:
http://picasaweb.google.nl/walterhaenen/Bloemen

waves....... thanks for your interest.....

Thursday - travel home

LOOOONG travel. Starting at Hilo, took the bus there. And made a overview shot of Mauna Kea.

in the distance an overview of Mauna Kea

To Kona airport with bus. Climbed there in the Boeing 737 - see pic. Kona is a nice little airport where they still use steps to enter plane.

Flight to Seattle, there a 7 hour stop (!). Then directly to Amsterdam. Arriving there the trains to utrecht were cancelled due to a railway maintenance.... So i had to take bus to Utrecht, from there the train to Eindhoven..... Back home again.... Saturdaymorning.


But Hawaii has definately a BIG place in my heart.... thank you Shelly.....

Wednesday - the ocean

A nice sunny day to relax. We went to the ocean, lavarock beach. Much life in the puddles near the ocean. Little fishies and crabs. Since coral is forming in the puddles there were already reeffish and we saw some hermitcrabs....

So i will bring back a suntan from this day... and some scratched-up mosquito legs...

Tuesday - lavatrees

Lavatrees: when trees are in a lavaflow, the lava flows around it and covers the trees with lava. It cools down, partly or entirely burns the tree, and leaves a empty shell, a print of the tree inside a tube. Its an impressive, interesting and a bit fantasy like sight....

Monday - Mauna Kea

picture above : silver sword, a plant that only exists in Hawaii, at higher altitudes...
Facts: Mauna Kea, a mountain that is 4205 meters ( 13796 feet) high.(source-wikipedia) The Mont Blanc, Europes tallest mountain is 4810 meters ( 15774 feet). That is ABOVE sealevel. If you measure the Mauna Kea from the base, under sealevel from the seabottom you come to a total of 10200 meters (33000 feet ) which makes it the largest mountain in the world!
How was this huge beauty born.... well , vulcanic eruptions built layer after layer after layer, first under sealevel, untill it reached the level and then further on , up, up, up.... together with the slightly smaller Mauna Loa, a vulcanic mountain too, the big island of Hawaii was formed.

Well, we went to the top of that high mountain. On top there are astronomic observatories. As we dutch say, being there is no catpee. The temperature is slightly above freezing point, the wind is cutting off the breathing....
Air is very thin and every move you make is very exhausting . We went to see a lake near the top and i found myself fighting to get some oxygen in my lungs every 10 steps or so. Though i think my physical condition is quite good.

Being there on top of that mountain is a moment i will never forget.....
We saw the sun set there....

Saturday / Sunday

Saturday: a drive on the eastcoast again, to the north this time. Beautiful cliffs, waterfalls, little towns, lovely views of the ocean. We saw some turtles swim....
We drove 180 miles....

Sunday: a day to relax- shopping - go to the market - cook some chili....
And Shelly seemed to be a little tied up...