Day 4 Friday 31 October

Diamond Head, a volcanic crater dominating the skyline east of Waikiki was this morning’s adventure. The drive was simple & we managed to get one of the last of the available parking spots inside the crater of the volcano, reached by driving through a tunnel through the crater wall. It is very lush & green inside the crater, with lots of acacia trees. The crater used to be a military base with gun emplacements around the crater rim. The walk to the top of the rim started out easy enough with an easy gradient concrete path, however after about 5 minutes walking this turned into an eroded track & got steeper as the many switchbacks up the slope were negotiated. About ¾ the way to the top we climbed up a long steep flight of stairs then entered a long, narrow, uphill tunnel, barely wide enough to pass the people coming the other way. There were lots of tourists walking the track. After exiting the tunnel we were greeted with a choice of an even steeper, longer set of stairs plus another tunnel, then a long spiral staircase or a more relaxed walk with open stairs to the top. Lots of young people chose the hard way. The spiral staircase exited through a concrete gun bunker which had a viewing platform on top at the highest point of the crater.

The view from the top of Diamond Head is spectacular, looking down & past Waikiki to Honolulu & beyond in one direction, down onto Diamond Head lighthouse & out to sea in another, far up the east coast & back up over the inland mountain ranges. It was a lot easier on the way down & a pleasant walk, chatting to others as we walked. The drive back to our apartment was straightforward.

The afternoon we spent walking on the Waikiki beachfront, ate lunch from a “shrimp wagon” on the grass at the Hilton Hotel lagoon. We walked into downtown Waikiki, past lots of very expensive shops, again the Gucci, Fendi, Cartier, Rolex, etc. and some of the old & new elegant hotels. There certainly are a lot of up market shops & high rise hotels & apartment blocks in Waikiki. (so far we haven’t really seen any average peoples shops other than the ABC stores – a mish-mash of groceries & cheap clothing etc.). The beaches at this end of Waikiki were very crowded. After the walk Tereza went for a swim & then back to the apartment where we had a snooze before re-emerging to look at the Friday night fireworks display put on by the Hilton at the lagoon. Both the first fireworks & the last had me jumping as they were so loud, the concussion from the blasts set off a number of car alarms parked in the parking lot behind us. After the fireworks we walked to Ala Moana plaza for dinner. You have all these expensive shops, hotels/apartments & flash boats moored in the bay yet there are many homeless sleeping on the streets. One thing we have found strange is that the price displayed then has tax added when you go to pay & then a tip is expected by the people serving you as their wage rate is very low & they need the additional income from tips to supplement their pay so that they can survive. It feels embarrassing for us to slip money/tip to people, we feel very uncomfortable doing it but understand the need to do so. We are so much more civilised about basic wages etc. in Australia.

So far we found the people friendly & courteous (even drivers), the service is good. The food is excellent whether from food court, road side shrimp shacks or good restaurants. We have been having a great time in Hawaii.