The couple upstairs will probably not be partaking in breakfast this morning as they appear to be satisfying their hunger in other ways, again.
We shared a breakfast at Manago Hotel and were ready to leave at our chosen time of 08:30. That gives us an hour to get to Kona International Airport and drop off the Chevrolet before checking in for our 10:55 flight to Kahului on the island of Maui.
We refuelled in Kona and Ian took me back to Borders so I succumbed to my temptation of yesterday and bought the book with the nice pages! Outside I warned a guy who was about to park his car on a pile of broken glass. He seemed grateful for the friendly advice.
Returning the car caused no concern and we then proceeded to check in. We were asked to join the queue that were waiting for their luggage to be security checked. The queue was fairly slow moving and when I realised the cause I ws quite surprised and annoyed. Behind a screen, a glass window, our bags were being screened by x-ray in the usual manner but at least one bag from each party was being thoroughly hand searched, even if it didn't raise alarm through x-ray. It struck me that the x-ray was ignored as they had already chosen their items to be searched before they passed through the x-ray machine. After everyone else had been cleared from the queue, people who were before and after us in line, I was still waiting for clearance when a lady asked for a key to Ian's bag. She then proceeded to search it thoroughly out of sight from us. Eventually she gave me clearance although she was still repacking it and hadn't returned the key to us. Amazingly, other people had seen their bags disappear from the area but hadn't been given clearance. How much effort does it take to communicate to people? Still, I was grateful that my backpack hadn't been selected for inspection out of my view. Not a single item had been weighed to our knowledge. We shuffled along to security where I was informed my bag was going to be searched. 'Okay' I acknowledged. Then the guy turned around and proceeded to search my bag while I was escorted to a tent away from my bag and valuables, and wasn't allowed to collect my wallet or anything, having set off the highly over sensitised x-ray machine. As in Dubai I had to remove my boots and again my joke about smelly boots fell on a pair of ears belonging to a person void of a sense of humour. She just marched them off and resent them through x-ray. My watch also caused the x-ray to bleep. The zips on my trousers caused the x-ray to bleep. And as an example of how incredibly sensitive the x-ray machines are, my underwired bra caused the bloody x-ray to bleep! Are American people paranoid? I'll leave you to consider that. I was finally allowed to retrieve my boots and collect my valuables. My bag had been searched in my absence and discarded at the end of the bench. Ian had been allowed to remove the rest of my pocket contents from the tray. I really don't feel it is necessary to treat innocent tourists like criminals. Only, if they really have to, at least let them do things by the book and ensure that the passenger is present at all times.
Angry, hot and frustrated, I absently viewed some souvenirs and sat down by the gate watching the playful birds and contemplating what just happened. It pissed me off. And to confirm our suspicions that the security staff doubt even their own thoroughness and integrity, they have even more duplicate, if not triplicate, checks before you board the plane. What a huge waste of time, money and energy!
The Aloha Airlines flights operate like budget airlines in England and do not allocate seats. Ian and I patiently waited for the mad mass to form an elongated queue thus ensuring themselves a seat on the plane. Surely there are enough seats for everyone who has checked in...
Ian found an aisle seat and I saw a centre seat in between two fat people behind Ian's row. I asked the lady in the aisle if the seat next to her was free and she got up, awkwardly, without uttering a word. I squeezed myself into the vacant seat and strapped myself in. Within a couple of minutes I was surprised to see that a packet of chewing gum was being thrown across me to the male passenger's lap, sat by the window. So, the two fat people were actually together, were completely and utterly rude and ignorant and too selfish to sit next to each other! I couldn't believe it! And then, after she made a point of putting a surgical face mask on I saw the vacant aisle seat the other side of her and thought about switching places...
At 11:56 we departed from Kona International Airport on Hawaii and spent the next 19 minutes being tossed around onboard the 737. It was a horrific flight. Very unpleasant. In mid air it felt like we hit a strong headwind and were noticeably slowed down. The plane was rocking about and I felt a twinge of fear. The moment passed and we began to make our descent. It too was revoltingly bumpy and although I had a wonderful view of Haleakala above the clouds, her cinder cone volcanic peak standing proudly, the landing that immediately followed was possibly the worst I've ever experienced and the long, frightening, bumpy, bouncing, 'did we forget to apply the brakes?' landing that ensued was courtesy of Captain Smith. I also had some trouble getting out of my seat on the plane. The rude, obese, mute woman seemed quite inconvenienced that I didn't want to stay on the plane to Honolulu sat between her partner and her chunky self. It was another experience to be noted.
Glad to be off the aircraft, albeit 19 minutes later, we stood around for an age waiting for our bags to appear on the carousel and hoping that they wouldn't be removed by the bag throwing queen in baggage reclaim. We soon arranged a hire vehicle from Avis for three days and set off on our way out of the insane world that is American airports.
We arrived at Maui Seaside Hotel after driving straight through Kahului town without noticing and took a room for USD 99 per night for two nights. It's not cheap but we don't think we'll get anything cheaper and this is very easy. I insisted on spending the next 30 minutes scribbling the days events so far while Ian tested the television and rested his eyelids. I then checked my bag and found that part of it had been left open and one of the bags inside had been left untied also. Well done again the airport staff at Kona International Airport and Aloha Airlines today, a poor quality service.
We drove to the very popular Iao Valley State Park which was very lushious and green, tall ragged cliffs standing strong surrounding great deep ravines. The park is home to Iao Needle which stands at 2,250 feet amongst the West Maui Mountains besides Pu'u Kakui.
We then established that we wouldn't be able to do a circular drive around the island of Maui because some of the highways are secondary roads or there are actually gaps in the road where the maps indicate a road exists. With this in mind we drove part way up one of them before getting scared, turning round and taking a photograph of the view back to Kahului Bay.
Ian decided to drive around the western reach of Maui to the point at which we couldn't continue due to the state of the road. We stopped at a renowned whale viewing spot for views across to Molokini and Lanai and Kaho'olawe and passed by some stunning mountain ranges as we drove beyond Lahaina to Honolua bay, which receives such perfect waves in winter that make it onto the covers of surfing magazines. Just beyond the bay we could see Lanai and Molokai.
We sat at Launiupoko Wayside Beach Park and filmed the sun setting behind the island of Lanai. The moon set directly above the sun in its crescent shape.
We had eaten a fairly hefty Mexican earlier on and so didn't feel like eating again. Given that we aim to be up at 03:30 we opted for a coffee and a snack and eventually found a Starbucks Coffee after much searching. As we left to repair to our hotel a small girl raised her head as she ate her dinner outside, smiled at me and waved at me so sweetly. I returned the kind gesture. She made my day. She was so endearing.
On Hawaii today we travelled 23 miles and on Maui we drove 100 miles from Kahului and back again. Our total travelled distance on Hawaii is therefore 2,041 miles.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.