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Aloha means hello and goodbye
In 2010, a friend of mine told me about a new series coming to Australian television, Hawaii 5–0. It was a remake of the 1970’s original series which ran from 1968–1980
At the time I knew I had seen it advertised, but because I wasn’t a fan of the original, I wasn’t really interested in watching it.
Anyway, she persisted and told me it was new and that the main character was an Australian.
So I thought, okay I’ll check it out.
Still do this day, I remember that was episode four of season 1. I was immediately drawn in.
Australian TV is a little behind the U.S and other countries with airing shows, so it was further along by than in other countries.
So naturally, I went onto Facebook and found groups already set up for fans of the series and joined. Pretty soon I was online friends with many other fans around the world. We would compare notes on our thoughts on storylines and characters. We learned through the series of Hawaiian words like Ohana, which means family, and aloha which means hello and goodbye.
I went on eBay to buy the DVD boxset so I could catch up on the first few episodes that I had missed. I loved it and was thrilled to be part of the fandom.
Ten wonderful years and over 200 episodes. Sadly the very last episode aired last night on Australian TV, no TV series I’ve ever watched has run that long.
I remember earlier this year when the fans learned this year would be the last year. We were all hoping it was a hoax as we all found out a few days before April fools day and we clung to the hope that it was an early prank.
But sadly it wasn’t to be.
This series carried fans through a journey, and we were all part of it. We all shared the same tears over its end. There had been so much character development and growth over the years that these characters felt as real as anyone in real life.
I actually saved up and traveled to Hawaii by myself in 2018 as a belated 40th to myself, I called it my Hawaii 4–0 trip. I researched places and prices and made the dream happen. Once I had everything booked and paid for all I had to do was enjoy the countdown.
