So SFFF has been somewhat AWOL through March so apologies
for that. You may have seen that we have been busy on a Big Egg Hunt mission
and celebrating our 3 year anniversary. As Spring has officially arrived and
March draws to a close it’s party time. Our friend Martha turned 30 earlier
this week and is having a Hawiian themed party so in honour of this SFFF has
taken a Hawiian twist!
The state of Hawaii consists of eight main islands: Niihau,
Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and the Big Island of Hawaii. It is
the most isolated population centre on the face of the earth. Located 2,390
miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China; and
5,280 miles from the Philippines. Or in my language a 17 hour flight from
London, 11 hour flight from New York or a 7 ½ hour flight from Boise. And from
east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.
Hawaii was first ‘landed’ in 1778 with the arrival of British
explorer James Cook. Originally he named the islands the "Sandwich
Islands" in honour of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. He
published the islands' location and reported the native name as Owyhee. This
spelling lives on in Owyhee County, Idaho, after three Hawaiian members of a
trapping party killed in that area. Check out the Idaho link!!!
Cook only visited the islands twice. Upon his departure
during his second visit in 1779, a quarrel ensued, involving Cook's men taking
temple idols and fencing as "firewood" and The natives then took a
small boat belonging to Cook’s ship. Cook then abducted the King of the Big
Island of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, and held him as ransom aboard his ship for the
return of the boat, a tactic that had worked for Cook in Tahiti however
Kalaniʻōpuʻu's supporters fought back and Cook and four Marines were killed as
Cook's party retreated to the beach and launched their boats. Not the best
ending!
It was down to Cook's visit and the publication of several
books about his voyages, that the Hawaiian islands received a lot of European
visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a
convenient harbour and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen
in the design of the flag of Hawaii which has the British Union Flag in the
corner. Heck yes to the British link!
Nowadays more than one-third of the world's commercial
supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii- you know your tropical when that’s true.
There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Vowels:
A, E, I, O, U Consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W!
The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest
mountain range in the world. Not something I ever knew! In fact they were formed
when under-sea volcanoes erupted thousands of years ago to form the islands.
And it currently sits on Haleakala Crater (Ha-lay-ah-ja-lah), the world's
largest dormant volcano!
Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the union on August
20th, 1959 and it has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time.) The time runs
two hours behind Pacific Standard Time and five hours behind Eastern Standard
Time. And for anyone in the UK the clocks will go forward by one hour on Sunday
25 March as British Summer Time begins for another year- yippee! The official
time changes at 1.00 am, moving forward to 2.00 am across the UK.
There are four counties in Hawaii (Kauai; city and county of
Honolulu; Maui; and Hawaii). Each city has a mayor and council in charge.
There are no racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii J Everyone is a
minority. Caucasians (Haoles) constitute about 34%; Japanese-American about
32%; Filipino-American about 16% and Chinese-American about 5%. It is very
difficult to determine racial identification as most of the population has some
mixture of ethnicities.
Honolulu is the largest city in the world -- at least it has
the longest borders. According to the state constitution any island (or islet)
not named as belonging to a county belongs to Honolulu. What that really means
is all islands within the Hawaiian Archipelago, that stretch to Midway Island
(1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii) are part of Honolulu.
Then there’s the whole reason why people LOVE Hawaii and that’s
the beaches! More than 100 world-renowned beaches ring Honolulu. Kind of makes
my stay in Manly seem a million miles away. The island of Oahu draws more
visitors than any other to Hawaii. One-third of the state's best surfing beaches
are on Oahu.
So I hope where ever you are I hope you wake up to sunshine
tomorrow…..
Enjoy you weekend
Love
Sarah
xoxo
Hawaii is on our list of places to visit....it seems and amazing and beautiful place xx
ReplyDeleteAnd the snorkeling is amazing! :D xxx
ReplyDeleteUgh GOSHHHHH do I miss Hawaii!! :(
ReplyDeleteM x
This made me miss Hawaii! I need to take Cori there eventually. xo
ReplyDelete