One of the more difficult things about travelling is choosing what to take with you. In 2011, I travelled to Hawaii with only hand luggage, and we’re not talking about one of those suitcases on wheels. I took a small tote bag with one change of clothes for the day we arrived, because I knew I would be buying a lot of awesome stuff while there. I wore a pair of old – and I mean old, I’d had them since the 80’s – leather shoes on the plane flight over and threw them away because they were way too worn to donate..

In 2013, we had planned a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii so the star-obsessed other half could visit the Mauna Kea Summit at sunset, and then do some star gazing a little lower down the mountain. This meant we would not be shopping right away and therefore I needed to pack items to suit two completely different situations.

The heat of Hawaii at sea level, which is like a hot summer day in Australia, and the super cold conditions on top of Mauna Kea at night time. At the time of year we were visiting, it is not unusual to see snow there and it would be below zero at night.

I chose my good friends the Steve Madden Batell Combat Boots which are super comfortable, I can hike in them and my feet are not tired at the end of a long day.

These shoes gave me an amazing and unusual experience during our trip to the Mauna Kea summit. Our tour stopped at a lava flow for a closer look and a geology talk. While standing on the lava, just after taking that photo above, under my foot I felt a piece of the lava break off. I bent down and picked it up.

Looks like just some crusty black stuff, right? Wrong.

When I flipped it over, I saw a sparkly paradise. It was like someone took a rainbow and embedded it in the lava. What if I had not turned it over, and just put it back down?

I so wanted to take that rock home with me but we have this life rule –

take only photographs, leave only footprints

I called the other half over and we took a lot of photos of that rock and I hoped that maybe one of them could do it justice. However though you get an idea of the beauty of it, not a single photo comes close to the amazing brilliance I held in my hand that day. Sometimes the rules we live by are difficult to keep to but we have to live by them. Sure I could have made an exception for this but where would that end?

And for this experience, I have to thank my favourite combat boots. Nobody else had this experience happen to them on the tour, with their sneakers and flip flops.

Where have your shoes been?

Write a shoe post and link up here! ;)

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