Lava and coffee

My story on Hawaii's Big Island is published in the Flight Centre blog (click here to read). 

Hawaiian food

My story on a food walking tour of Honolulu is published in the Flight Centre blog (click here to read).

(Pic credit: iStock.com)

Mr first ever Listener story

I grew up reading The Listener magazine so it's a particular thrill to have my first ever story in this week's issue, a travel piece on Hawaii (click here to read).

Photos, of course, by the Animator.

Welcome to Lava Land

Another of my Hawaii stories is published in the NZ Woman's Weekly (click here to read).

All good things come to those who wait

This time last year we were in Hawaii, doing stories, taking photos and celebrating the Animator's birthday.

One of my pieces from that media trip was published in the current MAS Magazine (don't laugh, another one is still trapped in purgatory with an editor who is particularly bad at holding onto stories). Anyway, better late than never (click here to read). 

  

Hawaiian Melting Pot

Taste Magazine runs my Hawaiian food story from the media trip we did to these glorious isles back in September (click here to read).

Rewind to 32 degree heat

We fiddled with the clocks and lost an hour today but that didn't seem to bother the God of Shite Weather who had us switching on the central heating. This afternoon the internet called to say it has no room left for me to whinge about the rain and cold.

Just looking at these images below makes my shoulders drop a few centimetres; they were taken by the Animator during our last few days on O'ahu a couple of weeks back. The first few are from a glorious pool-side event at the swanky Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, which I was covering for a food magazine. The last couple of images are from a guided hike up to Makapu'u Point Lighthouse, built in 1909. 

If it was possible to step through a tardis and transport myself back to Hawaii, I would do so in a nano-second.

    

Smile, you're in ukulele country

The first story from our recent Hawaiian media trip is featured in the Christchurch Press and the Dominion Post.

Click here to read.

Pix by the supremely talented Animator.

Walking on the moon

I'm not sure what the the end of the world looks like, but the Kilauea Iki Crater probably comes close.

We spent most of the morning trekking across a rippling sea of ebony rock, the product of one of the world's most active volcanoes (Kilauea, since you asked so nicely).

It was hot work but beautifully barren; kind of what I imagine astronauts must see when they bounce around on the earth's surface (an assumption I base solely on the movie Apollo 18).

Then we drove for an hour or so to where the volcano meets the Pacific Ocean, to see huge gashes in the landscape created by the Big Island's lava flows. And through some of the most diverse weather changes I've ever experienced. Forget Welli's four seasons in one day - Hawaii boasts 11 of the world's 13 climate zones and today we experienced 32 degree heat, rain of the gently misting variety, heavy downpours (and subsequent cooling) and a pea soup fog like the ones I saw in London (once, when I lived in Finsbury Park, I literally walked into a man walking his dog, so impenetrable was the fog).

But I digress. Hawaii is an amazingly diverse cluster of islands and today's premium hunk of volcano was one of the highlights of a trip so far packed with them.

A carnival of calories/early morning flight

Yesterday we ate and drank our bodyweight on a fabulous Aloha Food Tour through Honolulu's Chinatown.

There was delicious vegetarian pho and mung-bean felafal, an authentic New York pizza from a Jersey expat who could have been Tony Soprano's younger, better looking brother, Korean BBQ (tofu, in our case), crispy Thai garlic shrimp the size of my fist and, to finish, a slab of mint chocolate cheesecake that is going to take a month of running group to work off. Sadly all the pics are on the Animator's flash camera (and he is shooting raw files for my stories, so none of those are available yet).

Later, as if we needed any more calories, the PR organised for us to visit Eat the Street, Oahu's monthly collection of food trucks. The sun shone, people were in high spirits - in part because it's a long weekend in the US - and we drank mimosas and pale ale, rocked out to Bob Marley and enjoyed the cool island vibe.

This morning featured another stupidly early start - for the schlep out to the airport and the 45 minute flight to Hilo. We picked up the rental car (the Animator insisted on a look-at-me bright red convertible Mustang - you can take the boy out of the Hutt, etc) and, remembering to drive on the 'other' side of the road, we headed to the Hilo farmers market (pix below) and then onto the Volcanic National Park which is home for the next two nights. Apparently one of the volcanoes is having a bit of a moment so we shall go investigate. Stand by for a full report tomorrow.

Someone has ripped apart the time/space continuum

How do you get another day in the week?

Leave Auckland at 11.00am Thursday morning, fly eight hours across the Pacific, and you'll arrive in Honolulu on Wednesday night.

Today we had our second Thursday of the week - in temperatures nudging 32 degrees. I am in meteorological heaven.

Only two pics today as we were busy checking out Waikiki Beach and a nearby outlet centre; it's the only day of our trip we have free so we squeezed in as much as we could. Tomorrow the PR activities start with a food walking tour so our time is pretty much other people's from now on.

Two quick pix - the view from our room on the seventh floor of the charming Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach.

Scorchio!

Here's the temperature where we're going tomorrow...

Or around 31 degrees in our currency. I cannot wait to get to Hawaii. It's been particularly cold the last few months and it's high time winter packed her bags and got the hell out of Dodge. Here's hoping by the time we get back, Spring will be busting a move.

At least the Animator is coming with me on this media trip, so between eating and drinking (for a food story), visiting volcanoes and playing ukuleles (for two more stories), we will get some down time to chill.

See ya'll on the other side...        

The amazing Shaqaila

My story of this amazing Kiwi woman - and her even more amazing musical ability - features in the current issue of North & South Magazine (click here to read).

In other news, I spent an hour in the dental hygenist's chair this morning, which was worth it simply to hear the magical words, "We don't need to see you until November". Bliss.

There was also a dog walk with Lorna and Dobbie, the completion of a couple of stories that have been annoyingly difficult to put to bed and, later, there will be the Wednesday running group.

I also had a long chat to a lovely PR about my next media trip (to Hawaii in August/September). Yeah I know, I have to make it through the European one first. But emails and plans have been zipping across the globe and I think I am almost sorted for the week in Vienna/Budapest and the following week in London/Bristol. Now I need to go lie down in a darkened room for an extended period...