4. Leaving there
Part 1, Sunday 21st June
Oh dear, the day had arrived. We had to get home. We had all been dreading this as it was going to take us 3 days! We were out of the condo by 11:00am, and, as our flight from Kona back to Honolulu wasn't until 3:00pm, we had an hour or so to spare and didn't fancy spending that time in the doom and gloom of Kona, underneath the vog. So we drove up as far as Hapuna Beach, but there was nowhere to park near the beach. We just took a few photos, including one of the tsunami siren!
So, we drove to the gloom and filled up the car at a gas station near the airport. Kona airport is even quainter then Hilo's! It consists of a string of native huts! T had to go through security four times as he kept beeping. And then he left his boarding pass behind.
The flight was the same as the Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to Hilo - comfortable, short and one quick serving of orange juice. Bye-bye Big Island - hello again, Honolulu.
Our bags were already there, waiting for us! They were sat together, to the side, off the carousel - they must've arrived on an earlier flight - anybody could've picked them up! So, here we were with all our luggage, but how did we get from the Interisland terminal to the main International terminal?
There was a shuttle bus, but we couldn't find it. So we had to WALK to Terminal 7, which was a looooong way in the heat!
First, we had to have our bags checked through the horticulture (or something) scanner - then we checked them in with American Airlines and were promised that we wouldn't see them again until London. We walked to departures (this is a very nice airport - mostly the walk was outdoors) and had something to eat in the food court there (you guessed it - burgers).
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:30pm, so we didn't have to hang around too long. Our pilot introduced himself before we even embarked! 'Who's going to Dallas? Yee ha!' It didn't exactly instil confidence!
The flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was boring. No views (only ocean - in any case, it was dark for most of the way) - no food (unless you paid) - no sleep (apart from a little, but I woke with a stiff neck). But we arrived at DFW at 7:58am as scheduled and disembarked, sleepless, into Texas.