Final Step

Hi Everyone,

   I am writing this entry on Monday, October 17, 2011, but I won’t be able to post it until we arrive in Australia Wednesday. 

Working on Karate while enjoying Hawai'i

   On Friday, Mom and I did some more hiking and sight-seeing.  We climbed up Diamond Head, which is on the rim of a crater.  The view was beautiful, we could see all the way down to the water, with all the different shades of blue, and we could see the whole south side of the island. To climb up to the top we had to follow a rough trail, and then we climbed lots and lots of stairs.  The trail and stairs are part of an old gun battery that over looked the coast.  After Diamond Head, we took a scenic drive up the eastern coast to another trail head.  This trail was paved and led to the top of a mountain overlooking parts of the eastern and northern sides of the island.  From the top view point we could see Rabbit Island, and look down on a small lighthouse.  This lighthouse is probably the shortest lighthouse in the world.  The top with the light is the same size as a regular light house, but the body is only about five or six feet tall. 

Shortest Lighthouse

Our climb down the cliff to the tide pools below

Colorful parrot fish that was swimming in the tide pools.

 On the way back down the trail, we stopped at one of the vantage points and saw that there were some very large and very neat looking tide pools at the bottom of the mountain.  So we climbed down the side to check them out.  There was one tide pool that was particularly deep and had some of the most beautiful fish.  Some of the fish were pink, some yellow, green, blue, and black and white. 

As I write this I am sitting in the Honolulu International Airport waiting for our commercial flight out to Australia.  The military flight we wanted to be on left Saturday/ early Sunday morning.  We waited in the terminal for roll call for the flight until one thirty in the morning on Sunday, but when they finally did roll call there were no seats available. Bummer.  So we have purchased tickets on Japan Airlines.  Our flight will take us to Tokyo first, where we have a two hour layover, and then we proceed to Sydney.  From Sydney we will take the next train out to Cootamundra, and from there we take a bus to Tumbarumba.  And our host, Kathrin, will pick us up at Tumbarumba.  If you would like to see where I am staying, you can see the layout of the land on Google Maps.  We are staying near the town of Tooma in New South Wales, and the cattle station is called Jagumba.  It is right next to a Kosciuszko State forest preserve.

More when we get there.

Hana