Sunday+Jun+21+-+Monday+Jun+22

Jun 21 - Father's Day

We knew it would be the never ending day...and it was. We got up a leisure on Father's Day. (Actually - they don't celebrate Father's Day in Aussie until September) We had to check out of our hotel in Cairns by 10:00, but we didn't have to leave until 12:30. So we lined up our suitcases and hung around the hotel or walked into Cairns to grab any last minute snacks or gifts. Once we loaded the bus, we gave our goodbyes to Sean, our amazing Aussie guide. We send him off with our "Top Ten Reasons Why Sean Can't Go with Us to Hawaii". He took us to our gate and then he left for Melbourne. Poor bloke - he had to go back to his real job on Monday. We left Cairns and flew to Sydney. The best part of the flights is the amazing icecream. Yum. We arrived at Sydney and had to transfer to the International Terminal. We took off around 8:30 pm. We had dinner and tried to sleep. After our 13 hour flight to NZ, the 8.5 hour flight to Honolulu was a peice of cake. We arrive in sunny Hawaii at 9:30 AM on Jun 21. Thus we started our next day.... we meet with our new guide, Hank, who presented us with real flower leis. After moving our suitcases to our interisland flight and juggling ideas, we left Ms. Monahan and Miss Zimmerman to watch the suitcases while the rest of us jumped on a bus to Dole pineapple plantation. On the way we passed Pearl Harbor and the Wheeler field where the Japanese bombed us to start WWII for the United States. Unfortunately there wasn't time to stop. We enjoyed the Dole Plantation, eating Pineapple Sherbert, playing in the maze or just sitting in the shade and looking at the unusual birds. We finally got back to the airport where the 41 of us boarded the 50 passenger plane. We had one memorable stewardess, Lacie, who had funny lines like "at least pretend to play attention to me", "be careful when you open the overheads because shift happens", "if we crash into the ocean, the seat is your lifevest, consider it our gift to you". The 1/2 hour flight was uneventful. Finally we got into Kona and to our lovely hotel. It was the never ending day.....

Monday Jun 22 Today we loaded a bus to take a circle island tour. We drove 286 miles - stopping for 15-20 minutes here or there. We stopped at coffee plantations, bakery, Volcanoes National Park, lava tubes, Orchid nursery, and swung through Hilo and the Parker Ranch. It was a very long day. Our driver was a non-stop flow of information. We look forward to tomorrow - our free day. About 20 have signed up for snorkeling on a local beach. Other wise we are going to lounge around the hotel or shop in town.

[|DSC_0272.JPG] AT the Esplanda Pool in Cairns [|DSC_0300.JPG] Arrival at Kona Hawaii with Leis [|DSC_0307.JPG] Black Sand beach in southern Hawaii