11th wkend => farewells n jenolan caves

11th wkend back in sydney was spent on farewells as well as the first and last road trip by the family of 5....

Jenolan Caves
Here's the passport to the wonder of the underworld...

some pix of the jenolan caves surroundings taken while waiting for the start of the cave tour...

as we reached the jenolan caves at abt 2plus, we only had time to go for 1 cave tour... n we chose one of the more popular cave to visit ->LUCAS CAVE... length -> 860m / number of stair step -> 910...but it didnt feel that long when we were inside the cave... din prove too strenous... jus a veri chill n relax walk through the cave... it was a good choice as LUCAS is supposedly the best general cave, offering the largest and widest chamber amongst the Jenolan Caves.... And also, we had a glimpse of the underground river in LUCAS....

pictures inside LUCAS "Cathedral Chamber".... The highest chamber at 54 metres with scene of many weddings and concerts in the Caves.The Cathedral Chamber has arguably the best acoustics of any performance space in the world....

the famous "Broken column"... a column is formed from a stalagmite (might reach the roof one day) and a stalactite (must hold tight to the roof) meets... but this column is later broken when the plates holding the stalagmite shifts....

a glimpse of the underground river as we walk through the LUCAS cave...

and finalli pictures of us inside the cave...

at last, after 1.5 hours in the dark, it was us out in the bright daylight again =)

~ Hawaii ~ Maui ~

the last 2 daes in hawaii was spent on the island of maui... the highlights of the maui trip are the hana road drive (drive of a lifetime) and the gorgeous sunrise at haleakala volcano top...

posing with our convertible!!! damn cool to be driving one... n the engine is indeed POWERFUL!!!

day one after we checked in at our hostel, we started on our HANA road drive... this drive is indeed the drive of my life.. it's a DRIVE or PUKE drive... 52 miles in a 2-lane road with more than 200 hairpin turns and crossing more than 50 bridges... zijia was the driver... n i was the pale, white-faced, going-to-puke-anytime passenger at the back....

random shots along the road in maui at the start of the hana road drive...

the first pit-stop of the hana road drive is the twin falls... as the name suggests, the waterfall starts with 2 sources and thus named as the twin fall... had to trek for about an hour b4 we finalli see the fall... n dun be fooled by the low water level... we had to walk abt 5 mins at knee-height water level before reaching this spot to take pix n abosrb the full view of the TWIN FALLS.... making our way through the water to get to the waterfall....

pictures of us making our way to reach the twin falls...

us in front of the twin falls... see the 2 sources of water at the top???

another pix of mi n zijia posing with the twin falls...

jus as we were walking out from the twin falls, we saw this lone ranger prawn which is super huge... wondering how it managed to land on the rock... n it's jus this ONE prawn thr... mebbe someone brought it in?? who noes....

we were so thirsty after trekking out from the twin falls... n there's this small drink stall jus at the edge of the forrest which the twin falls is hidden in... took some pix while waiting for my pineapple sugercane juice... the pineapple is so mini... hawaii's pineapples are realli veri nice.. the level of nice-ness is probabli comparable to the grapes i had in japan... veir random.. but yar... i miss the grapes in japan...

after the twin falls, we continue to drive on to our next pit-stop (black sand beach)... along the way, we saw some random waterfall along the HANA road drive... this is more magnificent than the twin falls.. n more importantly, this is just along the main road.. so no need trekked... jus stopped, take pix n den proceed on...

our 2nd pit-stop >>> the WAINANAPANAPA black sand beach.... the sand is REALLI black.... why so?? cos it's a volcanic ash beach... thus giving it the black pebblery feel... i like this beach a lot.. feels veri special.... the sight-seeing along this beach includes the lave hole and the blow hole with its periodic spurt of water....

check out the PETER RABBIT stone along the black sand beach...

pix of us at the black sand beach..

the 3 of us taking a shot inside the lave hole... it's a small entry along the black sand beach which leads to a hole huge enuff for us to stand straight inside... a good shelter from the sudden shower... n the other end of the opening leads to the gushing waves of the sea....

day 2>>> we woke up REAL earlee to go catch the haleakala sunrise...realli worth it cos this's another highlight of the hawaii trip.... here are some pictures we took while waiting for the sky to light up.... the combined number of photos we took during the entire sunrise process amounts to about 150!!! n ur truly contributed to close to 50% of the 150...

pictures of the nice sunrise....

we got some pictures of the volcano when the sun is high up in the sky...the reddish surface looks like pictures of Mars or some outerspace planets...

pictures of us on top of the mountain~~~ =)

after the sunrise, we took a quick nap in the car before driving off to LAHAINA TOWN which is a veri chill plc to nua.... we spent the whole dae thr, waiting for our flight back in the evening...

some pictures along the streets of lahaina town...

taking pictures outside our lunch / dinner place >> the cheeseburger shop...

inside the cheeseburger shop.... the decor of the restaurant was veri relax n funky... n check out the yummy food as well...

cheeseburger.. chilli cheese fries.... coconut shrimps... yums~~~ definitley will recommend this plc to ppl who are heading to maui for a holidae....

cheers!!!! yet another pina colada... but the one i had in oahu at the polynesian cultural centre is better... =)

this marks the end of our 1 week in Hawaii~~~

~ Hawaii ~ Oahu isLand ~

cant believe tt i realli manage to take 1 week off to head to hawaii... we have been talking abt it a great deal but din expect it to eventualli crystallise... been a wonderful break... but jus too short... effectiveli it's abt 5 days onli... 5 days for 2 islands... way too short!!! but still it was a wonderful dream....

this's our nice rainbow chervolet who served us well for the 3 days we were at oahu island.... but check out the NICER convertible in the next blog (for maui island).....

first stop was the factory outlets... not cos we were shopaholics.... hahaha.. but cos was raining when we reached... so not realli a good idea to head down to waikiki beach or pearl harbour... so in the end, we spent 2 hours at the factory outlet... but never be-little our shopping speed... check out the damage done within this mere 2 hours... we each clocked abt USD 300 to USD 500!!!

when the skies started to clear, we headed down to pearl harbour - USS Arizona memorial site as planned... USS Arizona was the biggest war ship at Pearl Harbour which the Japanese attacked.... now it lies in peace with the memorial built on top of it as it was never possible to retrieve it back.... n along with it lies all the glorious warriors that went down with it....

Pearl Harbour - USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Centre

the memorial sitting on top of USS Arizona...

the various medals, flags and the list of brave ones who went down with the ship...

bare glimpse of USS Arizona which remains afloat, the torpedos used by the navy, USS Missouri which was used during the signing of the Japanese surrender treaty....

mi n jing with the sailor... wonder if he is a real one??? but he certainli looks like one...

Hiking up Diamond Head State Monument
Day 2 went spent on hiking and snorkelling... the weather was crap in the morning jus as we were abt to start our hike up the volcano crater - diamond head.... but luckily it started to clear when we started our climb...

a nice lady took this pix for us.. the first one was not so good so she offered to take another one... first frenli person we meet in hawaii (hawaiians are not as frenli as we tot... eheheh)....

on the way up... n no, we din have to do rock climbing up the crater... there was a path to walk on... this pix is just for camwhoring... hahah... but nice one hor??? i like this pix... looks natural...

the hike up was through tunnnels n stairways...

nice picture half-wae up the hike.... we realise this pix combination is the nicest... 1 on top n 2 in front...

n ta-daaaaaaaaaa..... we've reached the top... this is the magnificient view at the top of the diamond head crater.... a combination of mountain view n sea view...

this is the valley n mountain view to ur right....

n as u turn to the left, it's waikiki beach view....doesnt this pix look like some condo adver???

n to the left of waikiki, it's an aerial view of haunama bay...see the massive corals??? n the afternoon, we spent snorkelling at haunama bay....

Snorkelling in Hanauma Bay

here's a nearer picture of haunama bay...

these jap gals were like the tourist attraction of haunama bay.. they were bussee snapping photos with their colourful bikinis... n these gals are realli good at it... wonder if they are professional models... but on closer glance, they dun look tt pretty... hehehe... =p but they are realli veri veri good n naturally with their exotic poses.... n basicalli they were thr onli for camwhoring... n after lots of snapping (both by the japanese gals and the tourists taking photos of them), they jus packed up n left... they din even get into the water at all....

mi with my snorkelling gear....

see how clear the water is... can see the fish so clearli...

Koko isLand

it's jus a random stop along the highway as we were driving back to our accomm....

Magnificent sceneries of Kualoa Ranch

Day 3 was spent in the north-west of oahu.... the kualoa ranch was a spontaneous add-on that we decided to go when we saw the adver on JETSTAR... this was realli well-worth the $$... din regret making this trip... it's probabli one of the highlight of oahu island....

the bus that took us to all the filming sites... n we were mistaken twice for japanese..... thr are soooooo many japanese tourists over there that they have an english bus n a japanese bus.....

various views along the drive... n the photos are NOT edited.... damn nice!!!!

n this ranch is the filming site for lots of movies - jurassic park, pearl harbour n even the romnatic 50 first dates....

the 3 of us (zijia, jing n mi) ....

that's the pacific ocean behind mi!!

Polynesian Cultural Centre

After the Kualoa ranch, we headed further west to the polynesian cultural centre where we experienced the lives of each of the 6 different tribes (tahiti, samoa, aotearoa, fiji, tonga and hawaiian) n even feasted on the "luan" - traditional hawaiian meal...

the canoe pageant - the 6 different tribes will put up a short performance as the canoe floats past....

the venue for our yummy feast!!

the "luan" served buffet style....

to complete off the meal with pina colada.......... yumsss~~~~

n this marks the end of oahu island... but not the end of our hawaii trip... check out the next blog with more highlights from the trip.....