ALOHA!

Aloha to everyone!

This morning we embarked off the cruise ship Pride of America. I am still trying to get my sea legs back onto  land. The floor still feels like the swaying of a hula girls hips. Brian and I enjoyed our trip however, we had strong trade winds which caused the seas to somewhat rough. We finally got smart and bought acupressure bands so we could eliminate the side effects of oral medications for motion sickness.

The sights we saw were truly remarkable on Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai. In Maui we docked at Kahului and went to a luau that night with Polynesian crafts, foods and dancers. The next day we went on a tour to the Haleakala Crater. On the island of Hawaii at Hilo we took a tour to Volcanoes National Park and Rainbow Falls. We also stopped at a Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory, a orchid nursery and candy factory.  Unfortunately there was not much activity from the Kilauea volcano when we sailed by at night. Also on the big island of Hawaii we stopped at Kona where we were tendered in on boats from the ship to the port harbor because it was too shallow. Brian and I took a excursion on a glass bottom boat where we could view the coral reefs with fish, octopus, and bottle nosed porpoises. At the last island of Kauai we took a journey to Waimea Canyon which looks like the Grand Canyon with foliage. As we sailed off around the coast we were privileged to see the most beautiful sunset and rainbow view of the otherwise inaccessible Na Pali Coast. The views were breath taking and I saw a humped back whale breach itself just like the pictures and movies!

Brian and I are back to my sister's home and believe or not, we are all going out for Mexican food tonight. It must mean we are getting a little home sick. Brian sees his acupuncturist Monday and we are still planning to go snorkeling before coming home. We should be home around April 2.

Mahalo (thank you ) for all the travel thoughts and prayers!

A Little Bit Of Irish in Hawai'i

Corn Beef and Cabbage, hitting the Irish pubs and enjoying Celtic music is this Irish spirit's way of celebrating Saint Patrick's Day today. We are going to the Irish part of town tonight.

Last night Nancy, Brian and I did the Polynesian Magic Show dinner down on Waikiki. Other than sitting by a overly friendly Canadian the show was excellent. Cars, helicopters and people disappeared and reappeared. There were Tahitian dancers that Brian particularly enjoyed; the men weren't too bad to look at either. We have also traveled to the east side down to the north shore then back through the middle of Oahu. We have eaten at a shrimp shack, shopped at Hilo Hattie's, swam in the ocean at Waikiki, and listened to Hawaiian music while sipping on a cocktail. What a life!

Today Brian is going to have an acupuncture treatment with a person Nancy has recommended and has gone to in the past. He continues to have neck, head and right ear pain at various times. Hope it will help relieve the nagging aches and pains.

We are getting geared up for the cruise and meet our Alliance friends on Saturday when we board the ship.

Aloha to all!

Tsunami

Can you believe this, a tsunami in Hawaii when we were traveling to Honolulu? Earthquakes, volcanoes and now there has been a tsunami. Brian and I sure have had a trip to remember! Exciting and definitely scary at times.We did arrive safely to Honolulu after a two hour wait in Sydney Australia for the all clear on tsunami warnings. There has not been too much damage in Honolulu, but the big island Hawaii and Maui has some substantial damage to coast line. My prayers are with those poor people in Japan!

Brian and I are resting here at my sister's place and rejoicing that there is no bags out at 6:30 am and out to the bus by 7:30. Also glad there isn't buffet food here. Ha! We are going to do some site seeing with my sister and her friend Jim. It is 80 degrees and Brian is glad to warm up. He was a little cold in NZ.  We will keep you all posted this week due to free access to the Internet. Aloha!

Mt. Cook

Here we are on our last leg of our New Zealand journey. We are at Mt. Cook where Sir Edmund Hillary practiced climbing on the mountain in preparation in climbing Mt. Everest. It  has an amazing view out the window of our hotel of the alpine splendor of the mountain. We are very fortunate that it has been so clear the last few days and we are able to actually see it clearly. Our tour manager Randy stated he has been here 13 times and has only seen the mountain 3 times due to cloud cover. Today Brian and I are taking a small boat trip to the base of the glacier under the mountain to see the ice that broke off during the earthquake at Christchurch.

A couple of days ago we flew from Mildford Sound in a five seat prop plane over the Southern Alps to Te Anue. It was just unbelievable! I can't down load any pictures because the Internet here is so slow. I will do so when I get back to Honolulu on Friday or Sat. We only have two more nights here in New Zealand and then we start on the Hawaiian part of our trip.

Brian and I got to sleep in this morning for a change. The food here is quite wonderful with buffets with sooo much food!! It is hard to see food and not partake. Well, will put more pictures up when we get to my sister's condo. Bye!

Queenstown

We have seen marvelous vistas and sites! The views are almost surreal and now I have seen why the call this the land of the long white cloud. We have stayed at Franz Josef near the Franz Josef glacier where the glacier is in such close proximity to the subtropical rain forest on the West Coast. We are currently staying in Queenstown where we ate on top of a mountain after taking a gonadal up to the top. The restaurant overlooked Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, and the Remarkable Mountains. It truly is God's country. We took a safari road trip this morning in 4 wheeled land rovers and drove through rivers, panned for gold and took treachous roads to see beautiful views. We are staying here for one more night and then we are going to Milford Sound for a boat cruise to see the fjords. Thats all for now folks!