Day 16 Wednesday 12 November

The Mustang was returned this morning. Before dropping it off we refuelled, it is certainly thirstier than the other car we had. The rental place is not that far from the apartment & after dropping the car off around 8.30am we continued walking into Waikiki shopping district, passing all the expensive places like Tiffany, before they opened. Down at the beach we walked out along the breakwall & watched the surfers for a while from under the shade of the gazebo at the end. The water is crystal clear & we watched some fish swimming in the water. We walked slowly along Waikiki Beach, stopping now & again to watch the surfers. There was one group in a Hawaiian outrigger canoe that kept on going out & catching waves back in all the way to the beach, certainly looked like a lot of fun. Most of the surfers on the longboards were catching waves for such a long distance.

We checked out the place that we are moving to tomorrow. We went afterwards down to the beach for a swim. Firstly, another lunch from the Shrimp Shack near the Hilton lagoon, it was delicious this time. The water was reasonably warm, I had a short swim & Tereza stayed in for a fair while. While laying in the shade we were entertained by the constant stream of Japanese brides & grooms arriving to have their photos taken near us. Unbelievable there were about 17 couples that we counted, it is almost like a production line & they nearly all look the same in similar hired clothing artificial bouquet & flower lei on brides head & one around grooms neck.. They all seem to go to almost the same place & same poses – there is absolutely no creativity. I hope that these poor couples won’t ever meet & show their photo album – the whole thing is like a production line. I was sleeping under a coconut palm, Tereza told me that the bride & groom were right next to me when they were taking photos. I was blissfully unaware (may be interesting sight to see a Westerner sleeping under a coconut tree – something different). We struck up a conversation with a retired Canadian couple & their life seems remarkably similar to ours in Australia.

Back for a shower & freshen up as the sun was starting to set & we were treated to another glorious sunset from our balcony.

As we have seen most of the attractions on the other islands , we decided to stay in Waikiki/Honolulu as there are a few more things that we would like to see & do here may be even find some time to veg out instead of being always on the go.