After enjoying our time there so much we reluctantly left San Diego and headed to Las Vegas for a few days. Vegas was on our itinerary for a few reasons. Firstly it is a good flight hub for getting to Hawaii. Secondly the Californian national parks we really wanted to visit further north (Yosemite, Sequoia, Redwood etc) are too cold and snow covered for the meagre contents of our bag at this time of year. Finally, to satisfy our mild curiosity as Vegas seems to be on a lot of people’s bucket list. It’s not the sort of place we’d ever make a special trip to visit so since we were in the area we thought we’d see what it’s all about.

Thanks to the generosity of some of our colleagues and friends at Hastings Direct our stay was made much more comfortable and fun than it would have been otherwise. Caesar’s Palace, Cirque du Soleil and our posh (relatively when you have become accustomed to rice & beans) dinner were fab guys, thank you.

Before we left for Hawaii we decided to splash some cash and take a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and into the Grand Canyon. Throughout the trip so far James was adamant that he wouldn’t go in a helicopter but some gentle persuasion convinced him to give it a go. Of course he loved it and was added to the growing list of truly memorable experiences on our trip.

Next, onto Hawaii and if we had known we would only have one week there we would have approached it differently. We were expecting 3 weeks and had planned time on Oahu, Big Island and Kauai.

Leaving Vegas for Hawaii we thought we had timing on our side once more and had out run Coronavirus. It was only when we landed in Honolulu we saw that the US had extended its travel ban to include the U.K. and even then it appeared that having been away from Europe for 10 weeks would mean we were good to stay. More on that in our next blog!

In Honolulu we had just 2 days and so headed straight to world famous Waikiki. Time for some sun and surf. It turns out that the world famous beach in Waikiki is man-made and suffering from terrible erosion. In the early 1900s sand was brought in from California and this has continued along with donations from nearby beaches on Oahu. We didn’t love it – the beaches of Roatan, Belize and even San Diego rested heavy on our minds. Thankfully given the early ending of our trip we did head out to surf whilst we were there – it was an intimidating crowd that surf Waikiki which definitely impacted our form!

We did quite like the food in Waikiki and found a fab cafe serving healthy food and smoothies, some of it was even accidentally vegan! Poke, cured raw fish bowls served with rice and other veg, nuts etc was also favourite.

What we were really waiting for was our trip to Big Island. Although flowing lava was no longer visible since Kilauea stopped erupting in 2018 there remained lots to see and we were excited. Purposefully we started on the less popular east coast. With plenty of rain and no stereotypical golden beaches it was short of resorts but right up our street in terms of slightly run down tropical charm.

We based ourselves in Hilo and headed a few miles out to Robertson’s and Carlsmith beaches. They were directly off an unassuming road but were totally spectacular.

We visited Robertson’s because it was a black and green sand beach, created by the lava eruptions. It was dramatic, rugged, chilled and stunning. A small walk across some rock pools and we found 4 green turtles just chilling out!! The waves were lively and John couldn’t resist a dip. The variety of fish he saw were quite amazing although I think the fresh water seeping up from the rocks beneath were a surprise and kept the tropical waters a bit nippy!

The following day we went to Carlsmith beach just next door. This time a tiny yellow sand beach set in a dramatic black lava rock secluded bay which was perfect for swimming. Crystal clear waters and more turtles were once again joined by rising cold ground water. John loved it but James and I only managed a short dip.

In our time in Hilo we also made visits to an eerie lava-tube cave, spectacular waterfall and a grove of huge banyan trees all just on the outskirts of town.

We were sad to leave the east coast but excited to be heading to Volcanoes national park on the slopes of the Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. We stayed in a small apartment nestled in the rainforest surrounded by giant ferns and dripping moss covered trees which was like a scene from Jurassic Park. We didn’t know it yet but our time there was to be very limited. We did however manage to take in the views from the crater rim and visit some steam vents where ground water seeps down into the volcanic rock and returns to the surface as slightly stinky (sulphurous) steam. There was also a trip to a vineyard to sample the local produce which was of dubious quality.

It was at 6am the next morning when things rapidly started to unravel…