7 December 2007 - end of an era..

..we woke up fearing what the day had in store for us..there was definitely potential for disaster. We would have to carry our heavy luggage about a mile to get to the bus stop and then weren't even sure if the airport bound bus would let us on as they have an 'only one small item of handluggage per person' policy. In case the 1st bus wouldn't take us we had to make sure the next bus would still get there in time for us to make our flight. As luck would have it, we made it about 30 yards out of the hotel and someone pulled over and asked if we needed a lift! He happened to be going all the way to Lihue and said he'd drop us off right at the airport-to say we were relieved is definitely an understatement! He was a cool Spanish guy if a little eccentric. He sparked up a mammoth joint whilst driving which was a little worrying but he managed to get us there safely!

When we got to the airport we looked at the time and we were 4 hours early for our flight (the bus would have taken 2 hours and we had to allow for a second bus should the first not take us). Luckily there was seats available on the flight before which we were able to transfer our tickets to. This meant we were able to check in straight away! We couldn't believe how well everything had turned out.

We arrived in Honolulu which is where we'd be flying to Vancouver from at 9am the next day. We had to sort out a hotel for one night and so rang one from the airport who offered a free shuttle to come and pick us up. It wasn't much, just a stopover hotel in the industrial area only 5 mins away. That night it kinda hit us that this would be the last night left we'd have to fend for ourselves-the whole of Canada was booked up with staying with family..our gritty travels would be over when we woke up-replaced by free food, drinks and digs! We felt like it was the end of a chapter in our travels which was a little sad but we were both looking forward to all the creature comforts especially in such a cold place over Christmas. It was also nice to have someone waiting at the airport and not to have to go through the usual hassle of sorting out and getting to a hotel..

They gave us a free shuttle back to the airport in the morning, but when we got there we were greeted with some bad news-our flight had been canceled! Some kind of communications malfunction..They decided to put us on a different flight but that wasn't leaving for another 6 hours! D'oh! They did give us a free lunch voucher which helped cushion the blow a little. We emailed John to tell him what had happened but via the magic of the internet he was already in the know and told us he'd be there at 10pm when we touch down...