On Friday 17 November, I hauled my sorry arse out of bed and headed for Mahai‘ula Beach in Kekaha Kai State Park for my second attempt at accessing Makalawena Beach.

This time, I was successful!

The drive into Mahai‘ula Beach was … interesting.

By the time I left Uila Records in Waimea on Wednesday night, I knew I was on the verge of getting sick with a cold. Thankfully, it was a fairly easy hour-long drive back to Kailua-Kona.

I had started my road trip at around 3:30 pm heading north up the Kohala Coast Road and then down the Kohala Mountain Road, before stopping in at the record store for a couple of hours to hear some live music, and then heading back to where I started.

A 120-mile roundtrip altogether.

Thoughts (OK… anxiety) about driving on the “wrong” side of the road — which, ironically, is the right side of the road as opposed to the left — became my Roman Empire in the lead-up to my trip to Hawai‘i.

So how did it go?

Waaaay easier than I expected.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know the main male character in By the Eye, By the Hand — Shep “Herd” Stanley — lives in the Kona Cloud Forest on the slopes of the dormant Hualālai volcano. Herd is a former building contractor turned artist who specialises in volcanic landscape paintings. His home in the book is an important part of who he is, so I was keen to experience the forest first-hand to see if I had captured it accurately and to make sure it worked as a backdrop to Herd’s persona.

After waking to an early alarm on Tuesday, 14 November 2023, I filled my daypack with everything I needed for my 10½-kilometre around the rim and across the crater floor of Kīlauea Iki, which is a pit crater next to the main summit caldera of Kīlauea. It last erupted from 14 November to 20 December in 1959 and produced lava fountains measuring an impressive 580 metres (1,900 feet) high.

As I sit on the lanai watching the sunset (again), I’m reminded of my trip to Southern Africa about fifteen years ago and how connected I felt to that place. I feel similar feels for the Big Island. It hit me at Kua Bay a couple of days ago and again on the drive to Kīlauea today and again while I was hiking across Kīlauea Iki crater. It probably would have hit me last night on the summit of Maunakea, but it was so cold I couldn’t feel anything… 🤣

I am writing to you from yesterday. And yesterday was a looong day because I lived it twice. You see, Hawai’i is almost a full day behind ADST. When it’s midday back home, it’s 15:00 in Hawai’i, but… yesterday. It also means that jet lag flying in this direction isn’t too bad. I went to bed around 21:00 last night (18:00 ADST) and woke up at 05:30, had a coffee and set off on my morning walk; although hills, heat and humidity meant I cut my walk to six kilometres, but I’ll try for the full eight next time.

It’s almost time, folks! I’m leaving for Hawai‘i tomorrow!

I can hardly fathom how quickly the past six months have passed since I booked the trip.

My checked luggage is packed, and a daypack will double as my cabin baggage. First, I fly to Sydney with Qantas tomorrow morning, and then tomorrow night, I fly with Hawaiian Airlines to Honolulu, which takes about 9½ hours. From there, I will connect to a domestic flight across to Kona on the Big Island.

In a bizarre demonstration of how timezones work, I’ll arrive in Kona before leaving Sydney.

It’s no secret I’m heading to the Island of Hawai‘i in November for a writing-retreat-slash-research-trip, and that I’m a bit feckin’ excited about the whole thing! According to the countdown app on my phone, I’m leaving in six weeks, two days and seven hours.