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Take a Ride on the Hawaii Blog Train

Once again Evelyn over at Homespun Honolulu has done it again! Hop on board her latest Hawaii blog carnival with a Menehune train ride.

The virtual train tracks start at the leeward coast of Oahu, chugs on over to the island of Maui, and then like a good reporter, goes to where the other stories about Hawaii are.

Say goodbye to the old year, and ring in the new year Hawaiian Style.

Haoli Makahiki Hou! (Happy New Year!)

Win a Free Trip to Maui, Hawaii Sweepstakes Contest

Win a Free Trip to the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii courtesy of Eastbay Acne & Skin Care Clinic.

To enter this Maui Sweepstakes without purchasing any skin care products, you can sign their guest book at EBAC for a complimentary entry into the Hawaiian sweepstakes to Maui. Only one guest book entry per person.

This Maui Contest Giveaway ends on March 31, 2008.

Eastbay to Maui Sweepstakes Grand Prize:

A trip for two, including airfare and rental car, to the magical island of Maui, Hawaii with ocean-front accommodations at Kahana Reef Condominiums!

Championship golf, mountain hiking and beaches are only minutes away;
fine dining, shopping and more in
Kapalua, Kaanapali and Lahaina are
a pleasant walk or a short drive.

Relax for for eight tropical days and
seven stunning sunsets;
enjoy breathtaking views of
the islands of Lanai and Molokai from
the privacy of your lanai.

It's the perfect combination of
privacy and accessibility, with
incredible sunsets and
ocean views!

Enter to win more Hawaii sweepstakes contests by visiting our Hawaii Sweepstakes blog category.

Win the Ultimate Pro Bowl Getaway to Hawaii

It is the end of the week, and that means it is time for our special weekly Hawaii Sweepstakes Sunday post!

This Hawaii sweepstakes contest is really is an ultimate getaway to Hawaii for football lovers. You can watch the Pro Bowl in Hawaii with your family or friends, relax in style with first class accommodations, and have $1000 in free spending money!!

Hawaii Pro Bowl Sweepstakes 2008 Grand Prize:

Round trip flight for FOUR people to Hawaii
FOUR tickets to the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl
First class accommodations in Honolulu (5 days/4 nights)
Mee-and-greet with Howie Long and Anthony Munoz
$1000 Visa Gift Card
And more!

Enter to win one of five free trips to Hawaii for 4 people to the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl from State Farm Insurance.

A big mahalo to Sheila at Go Visit Hawaii for sharing this contest link. If you are planning to vacation in Hawaii, Go Visit Hawaii is a must read blog. I live in Hawaii and I enjoy reading her Hawaii blog:)

To enter more Hawaii contests and sweepstakes for a chance to win a free trip to Hawaii, visit our Hawaii Sweepstakes blog category.

Should You Be Afraid of Flying During a Lightning Storm?

I was watching 20/20--the ABC television show last night and they did a story called, "Lightning Can Crash an Airplane: Myth or Truth?"

Do you know if it is safe to fly in an airplane during a thunderstorm with lightning?

It turns out that lightning has crashed many planes, but that happened during the 1940's to 1960's. Thanks to scientist at NASA who worked on a project to study lightning strikes on airplanes, NO commercial airline has crashed in the United States because of a lightning strike since 1963!

The NASA Storm Hazards project had scientists purposefully fly into nearly 1,500 thunderstorms and experience more than 700 lightning strikes so they could study the effects. Due to the project's discoveries, engineers that design airplanes were able to make improvements and develop new methods to diffuse the destructive force of lightning strikes.

Read more details at ABC News: Can Lightning Take Down an Airplane?

Read our other related lightning post, "Did You Know You Could Lose Your Computer from Lightning?"

Kona Coffee Farmers Don't Kill Elephants

Kona coffee farmers in Hawaii don't kill elephants--easy to do since Hawaii does not have any wild elephants--but coffee growers in Sumatra do kill elephants.

I saw this story on ABC news today about elephants in Bukit Barisan Selatanit, a national park on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The news reporter went there is search of the 'lost herd', an elephant herd that used to be 60 strong, but now is only a group of 4 struggling elephants due to the lost of their wild habitat.

Although this national park is a protected forest, much of it has been burned and cleared to grow Robusta coffee beans. (Robusta coffee beans are commonly used in America and Europe to make instant coffee.) As the elephants habitat shrinks, more leave the forest and trample crops like coffee, so the farmers kill them.

The Nestle corporation buys 40 percent of their coffee beans from coffee growers in this region to make their Nescafe brand instant coffee.

"How does a coffee producer in Europe or North America know that the coffee they're buying hasn't come from here? They don't," said Tomasek. "And that's actually the root of the problem."

A Nestle spokesman told ABC News, "It might come -- we have no way of knowing -- from illegal sources. Law enforcement is not our task. … We are working with local farmers to increase output from legal, existing plantations."

Tomasek said that "a consumer can have absolutely no confidence in what they are purchasing."

We are proud and confident to offer pure Kona instant coffee and 100% Kona coffee beans online. Coffee grown in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, USA, does not harm any indigenous wildlife. Kona coffee is also a fair trade coffee meaning growers are paid a living wage for their labor. This makes Kona coffee is an environmentally friendly and socially responsible coffee, so you can feel good while you drink delicious 100 percent pure Kona coffee.

Remember to buy 100 percent Kona coffee and not a Kona blend with only 10 percent Kona coffee beans and 90 percent coffee beans from who knows where--Sumatra?

For Kona coffee recipes and Kona coffee information, read our Kona Coffee blog category.

Hawaii Thunderstorms Kept Us Offline Again

Aloha Everyone! I'm back!!

I have not been online much due to the awful thunderstorms on the Big Island we are experiencing.

The weather has been really terrible all week for all the islands in Hawaii with flooding, downed power lines, no electricity service, etc. The storm system is slowly moving away but it is still wet and rainy on the Big Island.

Last night the thunder was so loud and so close that I saw the walls and windows of our house shake! My husband saw a large lightning bolt strike the ground near our house. We heard a loud crack and this morning found two large Ohia tree trunks and branches that had cracked off from the tree top. They were both about 35 feet long and grazed our telephone line so that it was lying on the ground.

Since our phone still worked, my husband was able to secure the line back where it belonged. (I did call the phone company first just to make sure it was safe.)

It was also super windy and we have Ohia tree branches all over the driveway and everywhere. While in Keaau last week around 2:30 in the afternoon there was a black out for a couple hours due to the windy conditions. Many businesses closed down and everyone got to go home a little early. I was extra careful driving through intersections with no traffic lights.

Earlier in the week we were also experiencing vog (which I will post more about later).

Note: I wrote the above a few days ago, and was not able to finish because I heard thunder and quickly unplugged my computer and moved it to the other room again for the umpteenth time! Read my post, "Did you know you could lose your computer from lightning?" and you will understand why I do this.

It has been raining hard all day and night here, but thankfully no lightning for now.

Evelyn from Homespun Honolulu and
Kailani from An Island Life, what was Oahu like last week for you?

Life is Sweet--UH Warriors in the Sugar Bowl!

Life is Sweet for the University of Hawaii Warriors football team and all of their fans in Hawaii and the world! After winning their last game against Washington State 35-28 on December 1, the next day it was officially announced that the UH Rainbow Warriors (12-0) would be playing the Georgia Bulldogs (10-2) in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in Louisiana.

This BCS or Bowl Championship Series will be played in the Super Dome in New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl football game will be played on New Year's Day, January 1, 2008. We are so happy that we will get to actually watch UH (my alma mater) play a whole game for the first time! Even though the last 4 games have been televised on ESPN, we don't have cable service in the boonies of the Big Island where we live. This time FOX will be broadcasting the game at 8 pm EST, 5 pm PST, and 2:30 with 3:30 pm kick off time in Hawaii on channel KHON. I can't wait to see the Hawaii "underdogs" beat the Bulldogs! I am so happy that my prediction from the last UH Rainbow Warrior Fever post came true!

Besides winning the 2007 WAC Conference Championship title outright for the first time, I predict that we will also beat Washington State on December 1 and have our first undefeated season in the history of the University of Hawaii! Next up, an invitation to a bowl game.

I am still getting lots of searches for people wanting to buy UH football shirts, or UH Wac Champions T shirts-- see link above for where to buy University of Hawaii official logo wear. Read my other post on why Hawaii loves Colt Brennan. He is a also a 2007 Hesiman Trophy candidate--see Colt Brennan's official UH Athletics web page -- and really deserves to win the Heisman Trophy award this year. Talent and breaking records is one thing, but what make everyone love him and the rest of his team mates is their genuine respect and aloha or love for each other.

All of Hawaii is buzzing about this magical team where everything came together this year. There were some butt clenching moments, but in the end their heart and hard work paid off in a perfect winning season--the first ever for the University of Hawaii! Mahalo Guys!!!

Win a Free Trip to Hawaii Contest with Aloha Airlines

Hawaii Sweepstakes Sunday is still going strong, with a new Hawaii contest for you to enter every Sunday! If you are feeling lucky, and even if you aren't, do not miss out on the chance to enter this super easy Hawaiian Sweepstakes to win a free trip for two to Hawaii.

This Hawaii contest is sponsored by Aloha Airlines and they will be giving away 3 prizes in a drawing on January 4, 2008. All online entries and mail in entries must be received by January 2, 2008.

Prize package includes:
• 1st prize: WIN A TRIP FOR TWO TO HAWAI‘I
• 2nd prize: WIN AN INTERISLAND GETAWAY PACKAGE
• 3rd prize: Win a $200 Dining Gift Certificate

Enter here to win a prize trip to Hawaii from Aloha Airlines.

Photograph by Brett Uprichard on the Aloha Airlines site.

If you want to enter more contests to win a free trip to Hawaii, check out our Hawaii Sweepstakes Blog Category.