so we went for another walk around the same kind of area. We were both looking forward to getting a car and heading out and about around the island. Stef’s friend Dean from Preston had arrived and they were heading off the next day, so we arranged to meet up with them later to have dinner and some wine. We had a really good night, Stef was totally on form and had us all rolling around laughing. It was a most enjoyable and memorable night.

Hurray!! The day of trip to Mauna Kea had arrived. After the usual early morning stint of football we said our goodbyes to Stef and Dean. I called Mum to arrange our meet up in San Francisco as they were heading to Atlanta in a couple of days time. Our trip started at 3.00 pm and we were due back around 9.30 - 10 pm. The trip was fairly busy and 2 minibuses headed off, we had a brief stop at the shop to pick up supplies then another quick divert to Rainbow

falls which weren’t that impressive then headed off towards Mauna Kea, the home of the world’s largest telescopes. I’ll hand you over to Rob now as he knows more about the telescopes than me.

On the way up the Saddle Road, the road that crosses between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea we passed a few lava flows from Mauna Loa’s eruptions. Unlike Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa is still active, and erupts around every twenty five years, the last one being in 1982, so it’s due again pretty soon!! Mauna Loa is widely considered to be the world’s largest mountain, if you include the (larger) undersea part. One of the strange things about Hawaii’s volcanoes is that they are shield volcanoes, so unlike the traditional cone volcanoes, they are shaped like a warrior’s shield. They are very gently sloping and are spread out over a large area, and from looking at them you would never guess that they are