HAWAII - The Big Island

So I headed to the Big Island and found myself in a ghost town. Hilo, which is the main town on the East coast, was dead. I guess cos it was Easter Sunday. I was staying in a really nice hostel with Derreck who I had met on Oahu. We decided to rent a car and somehow I ended up being the only named driver!

The next day we.......I mean I drove to the North coast. I thought it would be difficult getting used to the other side of the road, but it was more difficult getting used to an automatic. I couldnt even find the handbrake!

We drove to a scenic point, which was ok, but we had to drive straight back for our trip to Moana Kea. The summit of Moana Kea is 13000ft in the sky and it is scattered with huge observatories from different countries. The drive up through the clouds was stunning and it really felt like another world being above the clouds.

We watched the sunset and I think I can say it is the best sunset I ever saw ( and the most bloody expensive!). The next day we drove to the volcano park and saw lots of steam and loads of hard lava, but none of the fresh hot stuff. It was good having the car and Derreck to keep me right, however if I had been on my own I would have hiked a few hours just to see the fresh stuff. We then drove round the South coast which was stunning. However, not so stunning when we stumbled across a nudey beach!

Hilo was beginning to get a bit busier for the build up to the Merry Monarch festival (hula stuff), but I got the bus to Kona to do some diving.

Kona is on the West coast and was so different to sleepy laid back Hilo. Kona was more like a tourist resort. I dandered about between the dive centres to see if I could do the famous Manta Ray nite dive, which was the only reason I went to Kona. I could not believe when they looked at me as if I was an alien when I asked if the dive centre would pick me up. None of them were willing to pick me up even tho I was about to pay 60 quid for one dive! I gave up and was pretty p*&#ed off! It is ridiculous that for everything there you need a car cos they cant be bothered having a decent bus service! No wonder our planet is going downhill with all those fumes.

I met Derreck again who had 5 hours to kill in Kona. It was nice to have a bit of company, but I think I'd rather have taken a long walk down the coast than hung about in Kona with him. I ended up just wasting my time in Kona and spent most of it at the hostel watching TV! There was this guy staying there tho that really made me feel uncomfortable. He would just sit and stare at me when I was watching TV or talking to people and then when I left he kissed my hand. I cant explain how wierd he was. It was like he had no confidence with women and someone had told him when you say bye to someone you kiss them on the hand. Really freaky!

Anyway I nearly missed the plane back to Honolulu cos I was supposed to be getting a ride to the airport from a girl who worked at the hostel, so I ended up getting a taxi. Back to Honolulu (after my one hour busride for a distance of 15miles!) I treated myself to a Mexican.

I ended up leaving Hawaii in a bad mood. You waste so much time there. In Oahu there is a great bus service, but you end up stuck in traffic all the time and a normal 30min journey in the UK takes 1hr 30 in Hawaii. Not joking! They really need to get cars off the road.

Anway moan moan, back to New Zealand for some chocolate and to see the Bay of Islands.