TWO DAYS ON HAWAII - IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE - AND STILL.

After 6 great days at sea it also feels good to hit land again. Esp. when it's Hawaii! 

First, you have to learn how to pronounce it:  Hawai-i  -  with the stress on the last i !  Not Hawaj :-(  

And we also understood that the Hawaiian language only has 13 letters, most of them like our vowels. Only the W has been imported from outside.

Hawaii is part of Polynesia. It consists of 8 bigger islands and a number of small ones. James Cook was one of the first European discoverers on the island. He was killed in 1779, because he tried to kidnap the king, after one of his ships had been stolen. One of Cook's British officers, George Vancouver, came back with a small fleet 12 years later and became a close friend of the king. Also because he brought the first cattle to the islands as a gift to the king.

The king was so happy that when he later made the flag for the Hawaii islands he placed Union Jack in the upper left corner of the flag. This is Hawaii's flag still today.

Hawaii was an independant Polynesian kingdom from 1810-93. After that the US took over. But only in 1959 Hawaii became the 50th State in the United States.  As a state with 1,4 million inhabitants in has two Senators and two members of the House of Representations. All 4 of them are Democrats. So is the Governor.  So we are very happy to say that Hawaii is definately not Trump land !!

Two years after becoming a US State the later president Barack Obama was born here - called Barry when he was a boy. He continues to be very attached to the islands.

Statistics tell us that out of the 1.4 million about 135.000 are fully native Hawaiitians.  But there are lots of people with a mixed background. Our guide yesterday told us that she is 68,2 % Hawaiitian.

We spent two very interesting days here. The first one on the main island Oahu with the capital Honolulu. We made a very scenic bus tour into the hilly surroundings with a nice guide Ken, who got excited by the fact that we were Danes. Why? Because he is a soccer fan and in particular keen on the brothers Laudrup! 

The second day we made another bus excursion - this time a 6 hours trip to the top of the dormant volcano on the island Maui. Our lady guide - who was also our very skilled driver - was talking ALL the time. Yes, she knew a lot - impressive. But six hours continous talk was a bit over the top. I am sure that she was the only one in the bus listening all the time, and the only one laughing of the jokes. Perhaps except Liselotte, who is very attentive at such occasions.  But - chapeau: it was a lady with drive (good for a driver!), initiative and energy. She also told us about all her seven children. And I fully understood the point when she told us that her husband was SO happy, when she came home from a tour like ours. Why? Because she did't said anything the rest of the day :-)

And the excursion: very interesting, not least the upper part of the volcano, which is now a national park - with very unique plants and animals. The elevation was about 3000 meters. And we were told that they got more snow last year than Chicago did.

The two cities we visited on the two islands are very different. Honolulu with Waikiki is a real capital city with what that implies.  Waikiki is a very "hyggelig" and entertaining modern city, which we enjoyed doing by foot and by bars :-)  Lahaina, the main town on Maui, was in its own way very charming indeed. It reminded us of towns in South Africa like Stellenbosch and Franshoek.  And while it was rather chilly and only had 75 % oxygen on the volcano it was boiling hot outside, when we came back into downtown. It is very understandable that they are Very proud of their huge, protected and world famous Banyon tree in the centre of town.

Finally, how do you explain how far away Hawaii actually is from everywhere ? Los Angeles is 4000 km away. Fiji (where we are heading to now) is 5000 km away. And Sydney - the final destination of our cruise - is 8000 km from Hawaii.

So yes!  They are quite alone here in the middle of the Blue Eye of our Planet!