Here We Go Again

May 2017, Port Macquarie. Kim qualified for the Hawaiian Ironman.
Again.

 So our trip this year is sorted - we're off to the big Island for some beautiful Hawaiian pineapples.  And some hot, windy, hilly training and a huge day out for Kim on the second Saturday in October.

 The days before we left were normal.  Training for us in the morning, leisurely retired-man's breakfast, sort out the day's work, work for a couple of hours, home for lunch when Kim arrives home from training, another coffee and back out to work.

 Much less stressful when you are going somewhere where you have been.  Not such a challenge finding you way around the airport.  Or town.

 It's exciting flying into Honolulu.  

Waikiki.  And a plane wing.

 It's not exciting having to lug bags and bike to the departures terminal and negotiate the thousands of other tourists clogging the terminal building.  And the customs lady took our bags for inspection and assured us they would end up in Kona.  And after waiting for the gay oversized-baggage guy and fishing for Kim's spare gas canister to give to him we had a few reservations about Kim's bike ending up in Kona too.

 But we all arrived together.

 Forgot how spectacular the 30 minutes from Honolulu to Kona is.  A chain of islands, dry on the side we flew down, huge volcanic mountains, craters and windswept ocean.  The airport in Kona has been ground out of a lava flow, as has the Queen K Highway that winds its way around the coast.  You can almost see the heat radiating off the lava as you come in to land.

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