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oct. 7th-16th, 2006: hawai'ian vacation

I spent a week on a Hawai'ian cruise with my family and shot tons of photos with my (relatively) new Olympus Stylus 600. Due to popular request, I've scaled all the images down to 800*600 for quicker downloads. I still have the high-res photos, which are available upon request.

Most of the photos were taken on land, as it was simply far more interesting than what was on the cruise ship.

I don't remember all of the islands that we visited, nor do I remember which photos were taken on which island, but hopefully the descriptions are useful enough.

The (planned) day of my departure was Sunday, October 15th, 2006. This was the day when a 6.6 earthquake off the coast of Kona rocked Hawai'i and knocked out electricity and water. Needless to say, my flight was delayed. I got some good shots of Hawai'i during the blackout, which are at the end.

Check the ALT text on the image thumbnails for descriptions. If you're using IE, you can see these ALT captions by hovering your mouse over the images. If you're using Firefox, download the Popup ALT Attribute extension.

 

Oct. 7th, 2006: Honolulu and the Ilikai

Touchdown! We're in Hawa'i. Honolulu looks a lot like Vice City. We stayed at the Ilikai before we got on the cruise ship. It's a really nice hotel, and apparently the one where part of Hawai'i 5-0 was filmed. In the show's intro, the camera zooms in on Jack Lord standing on a hotel. That's the Ilikai.

Dad on the pier. The Honolulu shoreline. More of the pier. A cute little garden near a chapel at the Ilikai.

 

Oct. 8th, 2006: Honolulu and the Ilikai

We woke up, and we're ready to cruise (but not before some photos!).

Outside our balcony at the Ilikai. Dad and I on the balcony. Mom and Dad on the balcony.

 The fountain outside the Ilikai.
The fountain outside the Ilikai.    

 

Oct. 9th, 2006: The valley

We took a tour around Kona. It was advertised as a 4x4 tour and I expected it to be a lot rougher. Turns out it was basically a drive in a van, but it was still beautiful.

The Kona coffee fields. Into the valley. Into the valley. Into the valley.
Into the valley. Into the valley. Close-up on a plant. My Olympus Stylus 600 takes great close-up photos, so I made use of that. Into the valley.
Into the valley. The Hawai'ian landscape. Nice tree. Another close-up of some green plant.
Into the valley. Into the valley. Check out the waterfall. Into the valley. Into the valley.
Into the valley. The waterfall.

 Into the valley. Gene, our tour guide, took this photos.
Into the valley. This is a Nene, Hawai'i's state bird. It's endangered. If you're wondering why the photo is washed out, it's probably because I shot it through a window. Nice plant. Don't know what it is. Pretty dirt!
Check out the landscape and the colours. Looking into the water. Wow, what bright colours. It's like Far Cry. So pretty.
A tree. Me and my wannabe homie bro.

 Into the valley again. Looking onto the grass.
Neat shot, with a piece of wood up close. Looking into the distance. Close up on a blue flower. It's probably an orchid. There seem to be a lot here. The blue flower again.
Down into a canyon. Is that a goat? Down into a canyon. Down into a canyon. Down into a canyon.
Down into a canyon. Down into a canyon. Another goat. Down into a canyon. Chickens are all over the place in Hawai'i. Apparently chickens interbred with a protected species, so people aren't allowed to kill these chickens. There's tons around.
A close-up of a chicken. More of the valley. More of the valley. More of the valley.
Jerk. Pretty flower. A path dug through the mountain. The palm trees above the tunnel.
This was above the tunnel; look at that green! More green. Mom thought this low shot would look really neat. Canopy.
More flora by the tunnel. More flora by the tunnel. A gate by the tunnel. In the tunnel, looking out.
Does this landscape look familiar? It should - this is where one of the scenes from Jurassic Park was shot. Another look onto the plains, with a big thing for perspective. Plains again. We went across a really bumpy road to get here.
Not as lush as the rest of Hawai'i, but still nice. What a neat fence. Nice tree. This should give you an idea of how bad this road is.

 

Oct. 10th, 2006: The Mr. Sexy Legs competition

There were no excursions today, so Matt and I relaxed on the cruise ship. He participated in the Mr. Sexy Legs competition.

Matt competed in a "Mr. Sexy Legs" competition they were holding on the ship. Matt lost the Mr. Sexy Legs competition. This guy won the prize for "Mr. Knobby Knees."  

 

Oct. 11th, 2006: The crater and lava tubes

Today we had a long tour with one of the worst tour guides I can remember. But the scenery was great. We saw a giant crater caused by a volcano, and went through lava tubes.

Nice shot of the water. A large crater left by a volcano. Berries; don't know if they're edible. Ferns.
Another shot of the crater. Apparently this is a crater in a crater, caused by a volcano which erupted and then erupted again later. The crater. The crater. This turned out pretty well. I shot the photo through the bus window.
Black lava. Black lava. Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes.
Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes.
Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes. Flora outside the lava tubes. It's Mom!
Inside the lava tubes. Inside the lava tubes. A self-photo in the tubes. Why does he keep doing that?
Inside the lava tubes. Another self-portrait in the tubes. Back outside. More flora.
Check out that muscle tone. At least he's not acting like a homie in this one. More flora. The parents.
More flora. More flora. More flora. An orchid garden.
What a pretty garden. Plants. A purple flower. I imagine it's an orchid. Not sure what this is.
Another white flower. Probably an orchid. Probably orchids. Lots of little waterfalls. Again, another orchid? Some dude told me that orchids are the only asymmetric flowers.
Flower. Flower. Flower. Flower.
Flower. Matt and Mom. Trees. Tree. These captions are starting to get quite unimaginitive.
The garden. A photo of Matt trying to take a photo. A meta-photo. Palm trees. Palm trees.
Trees. Tons of flowers. A pond. A cool little Oriental gazebo.
Very ornamental. Text on a bell in gazebo. Mom. Even when I'm ugly, I'm cute.
Rainbow Falls. Neat shot. Doesn't that look like a bloom effect? The waterfall.

 Mom and Dad.
Me. Some old bag outside of Rainbow Falls was protesting cruise ships. She didn't seem too thrilled to have her photo taken.  

 

Oct. 12th, 2006: The volcano

At night, the cruise ship passed by an active volcano. After many attempts, I got a decent dark shot of the volcano.

It doesn't look that amazing in a photo, but you should have seen it in person. Reminds me of Beth.  

 

Oct. 13th, 2006: The Road to Hana

A very famous road in Maui, known for its beautiful scenery and awful paving - or lack thereof. This was a very long tour, but well worth it.

Rainbow Eucalyptus. Check out the technicolour bark. A closer view of the Rainbow Eucalyptus. Chickens all over. Another chicken.
They're everywhere. This is where the scenery gets really good. Pretty. A female peacock that bit my finger when I fed her a peanut.
Here's an unimaginative caption. The road and the green. Down into the water. Matt.
Isn't that beautiful? A good shot too. What a great sign.

 It's purdy.
Myself, Mom and Matt. A little wooden house. What purpose does it serve? Mom and Matt walking back to the bus. A waterfall.
Closer view of the waterfall. Isn't that fantastic? This is my favourite sign. Strong current.
Man-O-War. Jellyfish.

 The famous Hawai'i black sand. Black sand under water.
Black sand underwater. In my opinion, this is one of the best scenic shots I took. Green. Some sort of greenery.
A water fountain. A spider orchid. Dad at a restaurant. Matt at a restaurant.
Mom at a restaurant. Birds on a tree. Look close; they're hanging on the bark.

 Birds on a table. Birds on a chair.
A waterfall.

 Green. A neat little swimming pond.

 One of the locals.
This is a great photo, especially considering that I shot it by sticking my hand out of the window. Looking across Hawai'i. A fountain at a winery. The winery.

 

Oct. 14th, 2006: The Lu'au

We attended a Lu'au. I thought it would be a more intimate affair, but tons of people attended.

Matt and Big Daddy. At least, that's what he calls himself.

 A shot of the stage. There were a lot of people here. When I thought "Lu'au," I thought an intimate campfire dinner with a few dozen people, not a banquet of hundreds. A dance girl teaches Steve to swing balls.
The parents. If I had a nickel for every time a girl gave me that look. I was quite smitten by her.

 El piggo.
Part of the show. Part of the show. Mom at the table. Mom at the table.
A palm tree at night. A photographer taking our pictures. I figured I'd take his. Not a great shot, but Matt, myself and Dad. Mom. I took tons of photos trying to get a good one, and this was the best - but still not good.
A purple flower. Fire lamps. Fire lamps. Dancers. Not a very good photo.
Dancers. Not a very good photo.    

 

Oct. 15th, 2006: The Hawai'ian earthquake

The day of my departure, I woke up to find that a 6.6 earthquake off the coast of Kona had knocked the electricity and water out. It was more of an inconvenience than a crisis, and the services were back before the end of the day. However, my flight got rescheduled for a day later.

The earthquake knocked out most of the power in the Honolulu area. Buildings off in the distance had their power restored before we did. The earthquake knocked out most of the power in the Honolulu area. These lamps were the best source of light outside after the quake.
These lamps were the best source of light outside after the quake. During the aftermath of the Kona earthquake.

 The earthquake knocked out most of the power in the Honolulu area. These lamps were the best source of light outside after the quake.
Honolulu, after the power was finally restored.

 They gave me this flare at the Ilikai hotel because the electricity was off. They gave me this flare at the Ilikai hotel because the electricity was off.  
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