Aloha Hawaii, Hello Canada

Diamond Head Crater at Sunrise
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Todays update is (relatively) small as there was not much action. Our pickup at the hotel was a very early 6:15. It should be a crime to have to get up that early on a holiday. Just before leaving our room, I managed to get a photo of Diamond Head Crater from our balcony, the first time we had set eyes on it since being in Waikiki. It was amazing just looking out and seeing the crater there - and for me was the first real feeling that we were close to volcanos.

We boarded the shuttle bus which took about 30mins to get us to the airport. It was a very quick track through immigration and customs, and then off we went to the Qantas club to wait for our flight. The club here had nothing on the club in Brisbane. I headed out downstairs to the local Starbucks to get a large coffee to kick-start my day.

Over land and sea...

We were scheduled to board our Air Pacific flight at 8:40am - but this didn't happen till nearly 9:10am. While waiting, we walked through a newsagent and Joe noticed a black briefcase just sitting unattended. When we went across the way to the boarding gate, Joe mentioned the briefcase to the Airline gate crew. There is a continual message played across the P.A. system at the airport saying that any abandoned or unattended baggage will be confiscated and distroyed. We soon saw a Transport Security guard turn up, and an announcement was made over the P.A system about the briefcase. A man sitting quite close to us, resting his eyes and trying to sleep got up quickly when jabbed in the ribs by his wife when the announcement was made. We watched as his briefcase was searched thoroughly and forms were filled out with his details. I am sure he'll have a black mark against his name next time he travels to the US. Joe felt he had done his day's good deed.

The flight to Vancouver was really good, better than I expected. We travelled on a smaller 737 that had only two rows of business class. We were served breakfast then we settled back to watch some movie/tv items that Joe had on his Laptop. We arrived 20 mins early in Vancouver and hopped on the AirTransporter for our Hotel Drop-off. Our room at the Fairmont Vancouver is very nice - an very upmarket hotel. We were both really hungry by now, so went to the hotel Griffins restaurant for dinner. Here I ordered the porterhouse steak, and I must say, it was the absolute best steak I have ever had in my life!! I slowly made my way through this inch thick high cut, savouring every mouthful. After dinner we helped ourselves to the dessert buffet, which was included with our dinner. We both ate way too much, but enjoyed every mouthful. Neither of us wanted to see another morsel of food!