SFFF - We've Got That Hawaiian Feeling!

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