Nancy Street - Gallery

After years of failed topical holidays in cold, rain and wind (see Cook islands and Lindeman Island) we stumbled into a reasonably successful holiday in Hawaii. Deliberately burning all of our frequent flyer points we purchased Jetstar Star Class (business class) tickets on the new direct route between Melbourne to Honolulu. It's a 10.5 hour outgoing trip and 11.5 hours on the return, but the time passed tolerably well thanks to the personal entertainment systems packed with movies, TV shows, music and video clips. the Star Class food is acceptable but not impressive, however the wine and champage selections were fabulous.

On arrival at the central Honolulu airport on the main island of O'ahu we transferred directly via Aloha Airlines to Kona on the "big Island", picked up the white 2006 Mustang and drove about 9 miles down to the Outrigger Royal Sea Cliff

hotel. Our modest room was not ready, so out of sympathy were given deluxe room 601 shown in the first photo. At 8am on Monday morning we were woken by concrete griding machines and we demanded to be moved, so we were given a smaller beach front room 201.

Hawaii Part-01 [6 Photos]
Kailua hotel room 601	View east inland from the hotel	View west seaward from the hotel	View towards Kona from the hotel beach	Half-sized dove in Kailua	Unidentified birds in Kailua

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The primary reason for a trip to the "big island" was for an amateur astronomer's pilgrimage to the top of Mauna Kea to see the world's highest and most modern optical and radio telescopes. The 7 hour trip starts at 3:15pm from the Kings Shops in Waikoloa

and winds up through the bizarre landscapes of cinder cones, dirt roads and black lava flows to a meal stop

at 6700 feet altitude to acclimatize to the thin air. The next stop at 10560 feet is for a scenic view

south east where you can see the clouds and craters below, the gigantic shadow of the mountain stretching out sea and the sibling mountain Mauna Loa to the south. Close to the top we take a short side trip to see a radio telescope

(unidentified). About 30 minutes before sunset we reach the top of the moutain and are surrounded by a ring of observatory domes.

Side story coming soon about Greg and Bill's trek to the highest point at 13697 feet.

After a spectacular high-altitude sundown we descend back to the Ellison Onizuka Visitor Centre

for a "sky tour" with a telescope our tour guide has packed in the van. It's a long and strenuous trip to the top of Mauna Kea and back, but if you like astronomy or geology you'll have a memorable time.

NOTE: ATTENTION BILL WILKESON (of North Carolina) - If you find this page, please email Greg. The hotmail email address you gave me is invalid and I'm unable to send you the full-sized pictures of you at the summit as I promised.

Hawaii Part-02 [28 Photos]
Noa calling us aboard
At the meal stop	Scenic point montage (right)	Scenic point montage (left)	Noa our guide at the scenic point	Craters and clouds below the scenic point	Mauna Loa from the scenic point
Leaving the scenic point	Unidentified radio dish			The Keck domes	The highest point
Shine at the highest point	Greg at the highest point	Bill at the highest point
Marcia imitating 'Kenny'

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The following group of photos were taken while wandering around the main street

of Kailua-Kona. The town is a bit run-down and seems to have a permanent traffic jam and no free parking. A lady from Arizona working in a pizza restaurant said to us "I don't know where all the beggars come from, we think they ship them in before dawn each morning".

Hawaii Part-03 [5 Photos]
The white Mustang (for Paul)	North end of Kailua-Kona main street	Zoom back towards our hotel	South towards our hotel	A mock native village

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In the evening I tried to use the Canon EOS 400D to catch a sunset. I'm still not skilled at getting the right settings, but overall the shots aren't too bad. The oddly shaped "bumps" directly in front of the setting sun are tour boats, directly lined-up by coincidence.