Yesterday was my first port, Hilo, Hawaii! As you may know, there are eight islands in Hawaii (actually, there were many other islands in Hawaii thousands of years ago, but they have since slid into the ocean. A new island will emerge in Hawaii in about thirty thousand years). Hilo is on the Big Island. Did you know that Hawaii is the only state in the USA that has a royal palace? That's because it was once a monarchy, ruled by a king named Kamehameha and his descendants.
When we were arriving in Hawaii the full moon was just setting at sunrise. It was beautiful. Those mountains you see in the distance are two volcanos named Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.
'Aloha' means 'hello', but it also means 'goodbye'. It can also mean 'friendship' and 'love'. It is a very happy word! Another important word is 'mahalo'. That means 'thank you'. The state fish is called 'Humuhumunukunukuapua'a'! Try saying that out loud!
Because we only had one day in Hawaii, it was very busy! I visited a famous waterfall called Rainbow Falls. It is 24 metres tall.
My friends and I spent the afternoon at Richardson Beach State Park. It is a black sand beach because the sand was formed by volcanic ash! On the rocks, you can see the folds where the lava cooled and hardened many years ago.
Because there were many rocks, it was quite difficult to walk around in the water. That didn't stop me from doing some swimming though. A friend and I (always swim in buddies for safety!) went a little out into the ocean. When the waves came in we would be pushed forward and when it went back out we were pulled out away from the beach. I have never felt the ocean move so strongly! There was also a tide pool where we saw sea turtles. They were huge! If you got Mr. Freeman (or someone equally tall with long arms) to make their arms into a big circle, that's approximately the size their shells were.
My legs are very sore from all the walking I did. I am very excited for Japan but it takes us 9 days to get there! Today we are in Honolulu, Hawaii, but we are not allowed to get off the ship. We are "bunkering", or refuelling - imagine how much gas it takes to get from Hawaii to Japan!
Something very cool coming up on the MV Explorer is our "Lost Day". Can you guess what that is? I'll tell you next time I write!
Until then,
Rebecca
Hey Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteSorry it has taken so long for us to respond. We promise that we will be better after this!!!!!!!!
We went on the internet and searched information on volcanoes and we found out that Mauna Loa is the 10th most dangerous volcano in the world.
We have some questions for you:
1. How did you take a picture of the turtles in the water so that you were able to see them without scaring them?
2. How many gallons of gas do you think it will take to get from Hawaii to Japan?
3. How many turtles were in the tide pool?
Thanks for writing to us, we hope you have fun in Japan:)
成句・複合語：
Gr 3/4