Hawaii 2000

An OAUG (ORACLE Applications Users Group) took place in Honolulu in the fall of 2000.
Several people from work went ... and we took our spouses ...
and we booked an extra week of annual leave to do some "tourism".

Honolulu, Oahu
We drove around the island.  It took all day but it was worth it.

Sunrise over Diamond Head .. from the hotel window
pineapple demonstration plant
Polynesian Cultural Centre
papayas (seen near the trunk)
 apple bananas - still green - look just above the wooden box
Sunset at Waikiki

The Big Island of Hawaii
Day 1 - the North Kohala Coast
After landing at the Kona airport .. on what looked like a moonscape,
we headed north and found petroglyphs carved onto a lava dome,
an temple dating back several hundred years, beautiful seaside hotel/resorts,
and the awesome Pololu lookout with the black sand beach at the bottom of a very slippery slope.

petroglyphs carved into a lava dome
temple made of lava rocks ... mind you that's the only kind of rock they have
view from the Pololu lookout ... black sand beach
and everywhere, bird-of-paradise flowers

The Big Island of Hawaii
Day 2 - Snorkelling at Kealakekua Bay

Kealakekua Bay and the Captain Cook monument
state fish - Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a-a
coral and a bird wrasse
moray eel with its mouth open (see the white in the middle of the pic)
yellow tang, ornate wrasse, and coralscape
school of yellow tang
saddleback butterfly fish

The Big Island of Hawaii
Day 3 - Volcano

old volcano crater
sulphur vent
lava flows from 1970s
lava flows from the 1980s
the gang on the lava flow that crossed the road
 entrance to Thurston lava tube lava often cools quickly in strange formations What a contrast
to the undersea world
of Kealakekua Bay

and to the lushness
of the foliage
and the colour
of the flowers
that we would see
the next day at the
botanical gardens.
this seems to be the first plant to take hold in lava flows
away in the distance is the white steam where the lava is flowing into the ocean

The Big Island of Hawaii
Day 4 - Botanical Garden

variety unknown ...
heliconia
tiger orchids
The day started out raining,
we were provided with umbrellas
for the self-guided tour.
The flowers were incredible
for their variety,
for their colours,
for the lush foliage.
Then the sun came out.

An incredible day
that I highly recommend
to anyone going to Hawaii.

 fire torch ginger blue ginger
orchids
Akaka falls
Charles and the BIG leaf
more orchids

The Big Island of Hawaii
Day 5 - Kona coast

cruise ship sitting outside Kona harbour public beach at old airport

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