Chilling out in Hawaii!

I've wanted to go to Hawaii since I was about 8 and seeing in on a Saved By the Bell episode special, where the gang goes there to work for the summer! So finally get to visit the islands of Aloha! After a painless 10 hour flight, I arrive, and head firstly to Pearl Harbor to check out the scene. Totally amazing to see what happened all those years ago.

First island was the beautiful isle of Maui, and the early morning adventures are what I'll remember about Maui! Started off by going up a volcanoe and biking down it for sunrise - gotta love the cheesy pics, then getting my open water SCUBA certificate the following morning, after getting yelled at by American boat driver for being late. Man she was fierce! The rest of the time was spent chilling out on the beaches, driving along the Road to Hana (Great Ocean Road of Maui) and visiting a traditional Laua - where they cook the pig in the ground and put on a show! Lots of hula hula dancing going on, I even went up on stage to perform! haha! Obviously after a couple of cocktails!

After 4 lovely nights, it was then off to the isle of O'ahu where Honolulu and Waikiki beach are - the most touristy spots on the group of islands, and boy was it touristy! Spent the 4 days driving around the island to get away from the touristy beaches, and find peaceful quiet beaches, however since its winter, the waves are massive up on the north shore, so spent a couple of days watching the sufers and lying around on the sand in different beaches all over the island! Managed to fit in a massive shopping spree, gotta love Discount Premium Outlets, and eating and drinking cocktails, gotta love Cheesecake Factory and International House of Pancakes. Those places must be to blame for obesity in USA!

Totally amazing trip, just so relaxed and chilled out the whole time, would highly recommend a wee visit to Hawaii, so worth it!

No more hating January!

Normally in the UK you just hate the month of January, cos of the snow, the cold, the scary credit card bills, the dark nights and the thought of it all continuing for months on end! But here I reckon January is the best month of the year! Guaranteed to be sunny, always outdoors and so much going on, that you need to chop yourself into bits to do everything!

The highlight have to be the return of the Melbourne tennis open, and Big Day Out. The tennis was enhanced by getting front row seats to see the Police have to use capsicum spray (yeah its really called that) on a bunch of greek fans to calm them donw, while the greek player watched on in amusement! And Big Day Out's lineup, although dissappointing, was still one of the best festivals I've been to in Melbourne, with the atmostphere and the choice of bands to hear amazing! As always I think its the craziness of the people at BDO that make it so much fun. Makes me value my pals for being normal (ish!)!

Had a whole new experience too with a group of mates by having a weekend on a houseboat up in the Hawksbury River, just south of Newcastle. Top weekend, once we got used to using dingys and getting our hair wet, and being filthy. The highlights were Andrews very public display in the shower, taking a koala bear with us and watching it in an unnatural habitat, watching people fail the mighty impossible tim-tam challenge, and watching macca and knoxville almost getting swept away out to sea..... And I won't go into the traditional game of charades here!!

The month was topped off by a multinational Burns supper bbq down at Albert Park, with French, Malaysian, English and Welsh peeps. Luckily we didnt get into the poetry! Was a truly unique event Burns supper tho as there was not a sniff of haggis in sight.....!!!!