Next day we woke up and the ship was anchored outside Kona on the southside of Hawaii, the big island. Kona is were they grow and make the Kona Coffee which is considered one of the premium specialty coffees of the world and is home of the world-famous Ironman Triathlon. We had planned to go on an excursion, Rainforest & Waterfalls, with Beth and Lewis. We got to ride in small groups in SUV's around the western/north parts of the island. On the way out from the city of Kona we got to see big lavafields from past eruptions.

The first stop was to get a snack, Malasadas, in the village of Honoka'a. They are gooood.
Next stop was at the Umauma falls inside the World Botanical Gardens. As seen in the pictures Umauma falls is a tripple fall.



After a walk in the rainforest we drove to the site of the Akaka Falls which is 445ft tall (135m).
After the spectacular views of Akaka we drove to a coffee plantation for some tasting and a picnic above the Rainbow Falls that we had seen the day before. Now it was time to drive back to Kona and the ship.

The drive was across the "saddle" of the island formed between the 2 volcanos, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.


It was foggy foggy up there but we made it back just in time to stand in a long line to get back on the little boat to the big boat. :-)

After leaving Maui and the port of Kahului the ship set course for Hawaii, the big island and the port of Hilo. We now realized that we had been lucky to get cabins on the "good" side of the ship. We had a full view of the island as we came in to the port. After breakfast we got to see the crew practice launching the lifeboats and some emergency drills.
We had nothing planned for the day so we just took a shuttle to one of the the local malls and the Hilo Hattie store. After that we found a local bus to take us down to the little downtown area which was much nicer. We decided to go and see what is called the Rainbow Falls which is a 2-2½ mile walk up a hill. Unfortunately there was not much flow in the Wailuku River so it was not much of a water fall at this time. After walking back down to the city we got a taxi back to the ship for some relaxing and the next cruise to Kona on the other side of the island.

So we arrived in Honolulu on friday evening and checked in to the hotel. The next morning we realized that we were right on Waikiki beach, pretty amazing.
We wanted brekfast and picked the place on the corner (LuLu's) and it was pretty good. Sarah liked the Corned Hash Beef and got some extra from Aaron who joined us (left). The rest of the day was spent with some shopping and a walk on the beach.
We also met up with Beth and Lewis at the Waikiki Sheraton before it was time to go over to to the port and board the Pride of America for the cruise. It took a while for us to get our luggage to our cabin so we had to have dinner in the clothes had been wearing all day but the cruise was finally on the way as the ship set sail 8 pm for Maui. We slept well after a long day but woke up early because of the timechange. Hawaii is 12 hours behind Sweden but we were glad we had stopped in North Carolina for a couple of days of getting aclimated to new time zones. Next day we're coming to Maui. We had booked an excursion that took us to the summit and crater of Mt. Haleakala. Up there we got to see some rather spectacular views. The drive is also spectacular with vindy road up the side of the volcano. After getting back to the ship the rest of the day was spent on board with buffets and pool life. The next day we just got on a shuttle to the shopping mall.

Here are som more pictures from the Mt.Haleakala excursion, click for larger versions.

Long time no blogging here... well now there will be a few posts about our vacation in the US. First we went to Charlotte, NC to visit 3 month old Jacob Evan Barner seen below here.

We also got to see his parents Matt and Megan and their new house. We stayed for 3 days and were just blown away by the cuteness of little Jacob but we managed to get som shopping and a botanical garden in as well. We had a great time and it is always a good time when hanging out with Matt and Megan and now Jacob. Next up was a long day flying from Charlotte to Honolulu more about our experieances in Hawaii soon...


Here are some pictures from the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (http://www.dsbg.org/)

Jacobean lily

Sarah in a water tunnel

Sarah and Megan at the botanical garden