But first - yes! the Dunbars have arrived - got in mid afternoon after spending last night at the Vancouver children's hospital - Joella (18 months) having taken ill on the way from Red Deer to Calgary and getting worse on the flight to Vancouver.But all is well now and they are all exhausted and have crashed for the evening. Soooooo good to see them all. Seems like only a few weeks not 14 years since I last saw Fraser & Lori - and I am sure by tomorrow the fact that there are 4 kids will seem totally normal too (although it is a little weird just at the moment!)
So while waiting for them to get here I did an official Island tour and have been all over Oahu! I even saw some turtles on one of the North Shore beaches (but only as we drove past - so sorry no photos of that - but lots of others to share!) And while it did feel like too many gift shops (enter and exit via the ...) & not enough time to really spend in any one place, it did give me a good oveerview of the place.
Although I still feel like I am in Queensland - today there was surfing beaches, pineapple plantations and macadamia farms! But there were also Hollywood locations - like that beach in From Here to Eternity; and the valley where they filmed George of the Jungle, Lost, Jurassic Park; and of course lots of Hawaii 5-0 (book him Danno! Good thing I have Radio Birdman on my ipod!) We also stopped by Kualoa Ranch, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, the Byodo-In Buddhist Temple, drove along the coast road (which is so close in parts that it has been reinforced by boulder to stop in falling into the ocean) past Sunset, Pipeline and Waimea Bay (cue: Wipeout). We also drove past Pearl Harbour - and along the route (over what were once sugarcane fields and is now highway) that the Japanese took when coming in to attack.
Got back in about 6.30pm to discover a message on my phone and the Dunbars installed right across the hall. So 2 hours of non-stop talking later + a swim at the pool, I have left them to crash (it being past 11pm Canadian time) and we are reconvening tomorrow morning and probably heading early to Hanumea Bay for snorkelling. (and to marvel at Fraser exercising his parenting skills!)
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