This trip has just been one magnificent sight after another, and HI is no exception. It is a beautiful island, there are wallabies everywhere, the flowers and trees are magnificent, and we see birds that we’ve only seen in pet stores flying by all over the place. Just incredible. Now I do try to keep in mind that we ARE in Australia, after all, and a lot of the things we see here may want to harm us, but I am tyring not to worry about that too much. 😂

Examples:

1) It’s quite cute when you wake up in the morning and there are lorikeets in your porch

But… not so cute when your lorikeet brings back his cockatoo friend. And he brings his cockatoo friends. And next thing you know, your drying laundry is not safe anymore, you are carefully watched when you are eating breakfast, and there is a LOT of cleanup needed on your porch!!

Example 2)

You find cute little hermit crabs on the beach and pick them up to play with them

… and then find out one of the shell critters your daughter picked up is actually a venomous cone snail that could have sent her to the hospital (but luckily didn’t). 😱

Coffee with Koalas

We had a great start to our day with the beautiful birds on our porch (above) and then breakfast at the little cafe around the corner at the tiny on-island wildlife park’s cafe. They had a koala out in a (gated) tree in the open air coffee house, which was a cool sight to enjoy with my mocha! After breakfast Connor and Jenna dropped Rob and me off at the beach and they took the golf cart to explore the island on their own. Learning to drive on the left while on a golf cart island is a great way to practice, and Jenna did great! Connor decided to enjoy just being a passenger.

While they were out exploring, Jenna and Connor headed to the Wildlife Center on the Island, and did a bit of shopping and island exploring.

We all met up later down on the beach, and spent a great day hunting the tidal pools, and swimming in the ocean and nearby swimming pools.

After cleaning up in the afternoon, we took the golf cart and headed up to “One Tree Hill,” the local sunset spot, and found a rocking sunset party going on up at the top of the mountain. There was a live singer, some bars set up, a ton of people, and a whole flock of white cockatoos all hanging out and dancing and watching the sunset. It was a great sight!

After a lovely sunset, we were driving our cart down the hill on our way to grab dinner when the whole flock of nearby flying foxes released and came out for their post-sunset feeding. It was awesome (and a tiny bit creepy) to be right in their path.

Another wonderful day, made even more magical by having Jenna and Connor here to share it with us! And you, too, family and friend readers… thanks for adventuring with us!