Honaluchi Boogie - Mott the Hoople

Hawaii

Well, so far so good with just a few of the expected small snags. It's currently 05:30 and I'm arrived safely at Los Angeles LAX, and there is now a 4 hours wait until my flight to Honolulu, which is welcome giving a chance to stretch the legs. National Express were, as usual, 'spot on', but the first hitch came as the Departure Board announced "gate will open at 15:00" followed by a simple "please wait". This we did until past departure time with no indication of what was causing the delay, and even though there's precious little anyone could do about it surely an explanatory 'inbound flight delayed' we would at least have been in the picture?

Over one hour late, there was some concern about the connection Washington DC to LA and knowing the US security system even more worry crept in as there was just 90 minutes to complete transit. At Customs and Border Agency there were 2 queues, US National with 6 officers attending, and Other Nations where there was only one. Luckily, having travelled to the States on a number of occasions I already hold a lifetime border code so my eventual process was fairly swift, but the old cheeks were pursing as once again you have to go through the whole rigmarole of searches, off boots etc. To make matters slightly worse the air temperature on landing was 91°F.

Anyway, without putting you through any more moaning I'm here, without having recorded a bird yet, but as daylight breaks I'll be at the window binoculars close to my eyes. We should arrive Honolulu, via a 2 hour stop at the sister island of Kahului (which may have its avian benefits) at 14:51 local which is probably 10 hours behind GMT.

It is hoped to do an update before the UK day is over, otherwise manana!