Trekkin

Day 20 Sunday 16 November

The sailing boat wreck does not look like it moved during the night, so after breakfast we wandered down & had another look at it. It has gotten lower in the water again. I have since found out from the local news that it is 31 feet long & called “Love Boat” & had four people on board when it struck the reef. One swam ashore & the other three were rescued. Then it was time for a swim. The sea bottom is full of little pieces of coral & rock, so it is not that pleasant to walk on, though the water is warm as compensation. No waves near the shore, only some small ones out on the reef. After a long swim, back to the apartment for a shower. I am so missing my 2 swimming partners, Jackson & Austin. Poppy Ron only lasts a short time in the water so I have to swim by myself & that’s no fun. In Hawaii there are no Sea Gulls but the pigeons (they are mainly white) sure make up for it

Monica told us to try the “Dukes” restaurant because she & Charly ate there when they were here on their honeymoon. Today was the day for lunch at “Dukes” – the Outrigger Hotel, on the beachfront, where we had the all you can eat buffet. You can’t really eat very much but the buffet had a lot of salads & fruit, what we are missing from my home cooking. We took our time, filled right up with nice salad/food, finishing off with a big platter of fruit. The pineapple is so sweet in Hawaii. We walked down to the end of Waikiki Beach & came across some emergency vehicles attending to someone. Something amazing, the fire trucks carry surfboards here in Hawaii. We then walked slowly back to our apartment, browsing through a number of shops. The number of Japanese tourists is amazing, though we didn’t see any brides today, time on the beach is not the same without them.

A quite afternoon with our windows wide open to catch the cool breeze & dinner at Snapper’s (again) – they served him such a huge rib eye fillet that I cannot imagine how he managed to eat it all. Ron was hankering after a big steak, he even looked down from our window & counted at least 24 people waiting at the “Out Back” restaurant so we walked down to Snappers – it has a pub atmosphere. I didn’t feel like anything. Snappers were very full too. There are 2,400 Jehovah Witness’ in town so a lot of them were eating in there as well.

Day 19 Saturday 15 November

The sailing boat that was wrecked on the reef last night was our first destination as we had seen from our apartment that overnight the waves & wind had pushed the wreck further across the reef & the mast was leaning in the other direction. It is a fairly large sailing boat, somewhere between 30-35 feet long. After breakfast we became adventurous & caught the No.2 bus to the Bishop Museum. Ron enjoyed the ride because he could look out & enjoy the scenery, no stress driving on the right hand side & trying to find the place.

The bus stop was only a short walk from the Bishop Museum & after paying admission we lucked in on the start of a tour which flowed into another tour of the garden & then another tour inside the museum, all very interesting & worthwhile. The Bishop Museum holds historical artefacts from the Hawaiian culture & various Polynesian cultures. The Hawaiians had four main gods & there was an interesting explanation on each of these in Hawaiian culture. The fishing god, Kaneikokala , was especially handsome. The main display hall is set over three levels, with the skeleton of a giant sperm whale presiding over the gallery. The displays are very well presented with good explanations. One of the highlights was standing next to the Duke’s wooden surfboard.

Other parts have displays of colourful beetles, butterflies, shells & fish. There was an interesting display on volcanoes & the formation of the Hawaiian island chain, complete with landslips & tsunamis & the resultant effects of each. Another building in the museum grounds held active hands-on displays designed for kids to interact with & learn more about physics. All in all it was very interesting & before we knew it closing time was near & we caught the bus back to Waikiki. If Ron ever asks you to go to the museum, think about it twice – 6 ½ hours & he still could have stayed.

Back in our apartment we looked for the wrecked sailing boat & finally found it, it had moved further inshore & was nearly submerged. As night fell we saw a flashing light near the bow as the wreck was nearly in the channel leading to Hilton wharf. Later on the Pride of America sailed past on the start of its next week long cruise. We spent quite a long time looking out the window & enjoying the boats out at sea & the lights of the city. We will miss the million dollar views, but not the noise from the traffic. There is a lovely breeze comes off the sea, but you have to close the windows & turn the air conditioner on (as it is too hot) to be able to sleep. There is an international Jehovah Witness Convention – they are everywhere – that is the reason why we had trouble finding accommodation & nearly joined the homeless (I could think of a lot worse places to sleep under the stars than in Hawaii). Two ladies even invited us to go along to share the wonderful experience.

We think that the weather is great, around 25-30 C, but here the locals think it is cool, their shops windows look just like in Canberra late Autumn (Fall) – jumpers, coats, scarves & even Ugg boots. The Christmas lights & decorations are going up in the shops.

Day 18 Friday 14 November

Submarine day. An 8am start with a walk down to the Hilton Hotel beachside to book our tickets for the 11am adventure underwater on the Atlantis submarine. Atlantis operates two submarines out of Waikiki, an older 65 feet 48 passenger & a newer 100 feet 64 passenger submarine. We chose the newer larger submarine as it had larger viewing ports. After we booked we wandered back through the grounds & shops of the Hilton Beachside complex, they have done a great job with the landscaping, with ponds & waterfalls & tropical plants with pathways meandering amongst them all. After breakfast at Snapper’s again, it was another leisurely stroll through the Hilton gardens, out onto the Hilton wharf & await the transport boat out to the submarine, a vessel called, naturally enough “Atlantis”. Mostly Japanese passengers disembarked from the ferry boat Atlantis & most of them looked decidedly seedy, as though they had a touch of seasickness, there was hardly a smiling face amongst them. When it was our turn to board the crew told all on the speaker system that the water was a bit rough & they recommended people come onboard & buy some Dramamine, a motion sickness tablet. We were the first two on board as I thought it better to buy insurance than suffer.

The ocean was a bit choppy & once the boat stopped & waited for the submarine to surface it got decidedly rocky. The submarine looked spectacular as it surfaced, seeming to leap out of the water. Boarding was a straightforward matter, a near vertical ladder fore & aft & seating inside looking out either side through large portholes. The submarine was a lot more stable than the ferry boat on the surface & once we submerged all sense of motion disappeared, apart from the tilting down as the submarine dived to the ocean floor. As we descended a few large trevally (fish) came into view, investigating us. We followed a path on the ocean floor at about 80 feet past a collection of artificial reefs that had been built & deployed by the University of Hawaii as fish holding structure. They certainly had a collection of fish around each of them, with some large moray eels poking out of holes around the base of the structures. Next we passed the ends of some old lava flows that had some coral growth on the upper parts, with subsequent fish holding around the coral. We then passed the wreckage of an old aeroplane, then the wreckage of two ships that the Atlantis company had purchased & sunk on location to provide some interest & structure for fish to hold to. The aeroplane had some very large trevally holding under both the wings & both the ships had masses of a huge variety of fish all throughout the structures, there were some really big moray eels visible. A special treat was seeing two huge green sea turtles on the rear deck of the large sunken fishing boat. We touched the bottom a couple of times at 110 feet underwater. Amazing to see so clearly that far down, however, some of the colours were washed out because of the depth & the filtration of the different wavelengths of light. All too soon (aprox. 45 minutes) it was back to the surface with a rush of bubbles & back onto the ferry boat. We stopped & watched the smaller submarine surface & did the passenger swap over before heading back to shore, accompanied by the big Hilton sailing catamaran. It was still fairly choppy & a lot of people were violently seasick, I am glad we took the Dramamine.

We wandered back through the grounds & gardens of the Hilton complex & came across a collection of South American Macaw parrots, large & very colourful birds, sitting on perches next to the pathways. It was great to see them so close & get a real appreciation for the beauty of them. We browsed through a few of the Hilton attached shops before stopping for an outdoor lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the Hilton grounds. Back to our apartment & the drowsiness from the Dramamine overtook us (my excuse) & we had a siesta.

At 7.30pm we joined the large crowd that had gathered at the Hilton lagoon to watch the firework display (this was the second time for us). Again it started & ended with a thunderous bang, only setting off one car alarm this time. The firework display was fabulous & over all too soon & we joined the throng trudging back home. Walking past the Red Lobster Restaurant there were lots of people lined up outside waiting to get in, it must be really good but we have given up on it as it is always so busy.

Our excitement for the night didn’t end there, on our walk back to the apartment a fire truck went past heading to where we had just come from with sirens blaring, I thought it had something to do with the fireworks. Back on the 36^th floor of our apartment we could see a helicopter over the sea with a searchlight on. A sailing boat had run aground on the reef not far from where we were sitting & there were a couple of other boats nearby. I can only assume they rescued the people on the sailing boat as the helicopter & boats left after a while. The surfers in the morning are going to be upset with a sailing boat on its side in the middle of their favourite surfing spot, on a Saturday morning at that when it is extra busy with surfers.

Day 17 Thursday 13 November

Snapper’s was our breakfast location this morning, their breakfast special of bacon, eggs & pancakes. Then it was packing time as we were moving apartments this morning back to the same apartment block we were in before our cruise. This time we are on the 36^th floor exactly underneath the apartment we were in the first time. The place we are in was only available for 5 nights after our cruise. We moved out at 11am & just outside the apartment building watched in amazement at the tree loppers scaling coconut palm trees & lopping old palm fronds & coconut fruit branches off, hanging on in what seemed a precarious manner. These are really tall coconut palms. We walked the short distance with our bags & checked our bags in at the new place as we could only move into the new apartment at 3pm. We still have fantastic views .Then off to Ala Moana Plaza for some retail therapy & lunch.

Back around 4pm, moved into our new apartment & settled in, then dinner at Snapper’s with really good food & live music – good singer & keyboard player. A quite day, peaceful & relaxing.

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.

Day 15 Tuesday 11 November

This morning was spent looking for a place to stay for the next week in Waikiki. We eventually found an apartment in the last building we stayed in, just a short distance away from where we are now. After booking & securing the place (rather than sleep on the street with all the homeless) we headed off to the Iolani Palace.

The Iolani Palace was built by one of the last Hawaiian Kings, David Kalakaua in 1882. After the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown the use of the palace changed a number of times & over the years the condition of the building deteriorated, with termites, weather & man, all having a profound impact on its condition. The restoration of the building has now been completed & the trust have spent many years trying to relocate from all around the world the furniture & artefacts that once belonged there but were sold at auction in the early 1900s. The trust has located many items, some even from Australia, with the rooms being refurbished with original items where possible.

We arrived just in time for a tour, picking up tickets from inside the old guards barracks & starting our self guided audio tour nearly straight away. The tour took us room by room through the two story palace & the restoration work has been very good, particularly the timberwork, the staircase & doors are fabulous. Some of the items of furniture are very fine & detailed. In the main reception room the crowns are on display. The tour was interesting & well worth it, we finished by looking through the basement where the kitchen & storerooms were, where now there are more displays, with some exquisite royal jewels, including a 17 carat diamond. There is also a collection of royal orders, including two from the former kingdom of Serbia (a bit of trivia).

The king was way ahead of his time & the building had all the latest mod-cons, running water, electricity, telephones & flushing toilets. Apparently visiting dignitaries & royals were very impressed by the fit out of the palace & the story told by the audio guide is that some European palaces had these modern conveniences fitted after visiting the Iolani Palace.

The grounds outside also have the original pavilion constructed for the coronation of King Kalakaua plus a gated garden containing his crypt holding the remains of a number of members of the royal family. While we were inside the palace a collection of fire trucks & fire ladder trucks arrived with a host of firemen. Once outside we found they were in the middle of a photo shoot, they all had on their dress uniforms. It may have had something to do with the day being Veteran’s Day in the USA, it was a public holiday.

Our Mustang was parked under a giant spreading strangler fig & when we got back to the car it was covered in dropped figs, dropped no doubt from the birds feasting above. We had a quite night updating our blog.

Day 14 Monday 10 November

This morning we decide to give the Mustang another long run & drive up the west coast of Oahu as far as the road goes, ending at Kaena Point State Park, below the satellite domes of the military installation. We got out of the high rise jungle, we came along to some areas without the majestic rugged mountains & normal suburbia, no high rise buildings to be seen for quite a long time, even then only a few hotels, I think. We have driven along the water’s edge for a fair distance when the beautiful mountains came back. We really admired the beauty of the West Oahu coast. We saw a small group of surfers & got out of the Mustang & watched them surfing for a short time. The surf is certainly different than in Australia, with the waves ending in a sharp shore dump.

On the way back we stopped at Makaha Point & it was packed with surfers enjoying an 8-10 foot surf, breaking from the point about 200 metres to shore. We sat under some good shade, talked to a local surfer & watched the surfers for a few hours, there were some really good men, women, girls & boys having a great time on the big waves. Most of the surfers were riding long boards & handling them very well. As before, these waves dumped fiercely onto the beach. I did think about a swim, but the reef comes right up to the beach & there is a fair current taking all that water back out. It looked pretty dangerous, particularly with all the surfboards in the water. About 2pm we headed back to Waikiki, taking about an hour on the freeway.

When we got back we changed into swimmers & headed over to the Hilton Lagoon., firstly stopping at the shrimp shack for a feed of prawns. This meal was not as good as previously. Tereza went for a swim while I kept an eye on our belongings & told me the water was fairly cold, so I didn’t go in. W e saw some more Japanese brides getting photos taken with Diamond Head as the backdrop, with ocean behind them, these brides even change into shorts & T/shirts I suppose to make the pictures look like after wedding on honey moon, some enterprising people are making a lot of money out of these weddings. I took the opportunity to get us an ice cream before heading back to our apartment & another beautiful sunset to top off another nice day.

Day 13 Sunday 9 November

Slept in this morning, it was almost 9 am when we got up. We had breakfast at a small cafe & then we went to the ABC Superette to buy some washing powder. We did our washing, down loaded photos, Ron had a snooze. We had a (late) light lunch & went for a lovely walk along Ala Moana Beach Park. We enjoyed the balmy weather, the many families out having picnics & were entertained/amused by the hoards of Japanese brides, grooms & their photographers hopping out of the stretched limousines & posing with backdrops of the park, the jungle of high rises or more especially with the ocean & the beautiful sun set. Time went too quickly it was getting dark. We were so close to the Ala Moana Mall we thought of having dinner in one of their restaurants – we couldn’t believe it that every one of the places were so full that we would have had to wait for at least 15 minutes. We decided to go down to the food court but by then it was 7 p.m. – closing time. Close to the apartment the “Out Back Steak House” (where “blokes, sheilas & Joeys” were advised to walk through the other door) was chocker block full, next the “Red Lobster” – at least a dozen people waited outside. We had 3 other options across the road (that we knew of), Golden Arches, Subways or Snappers Bar (very noisy with the walls covered in TVs showing American football). From this fantastic lot we chose Subways (we are really slumming it). We ate it at the apartment looking out at the million dollar view, night lights. We had a good chat to Ron’s youngest sister & Mum & Dad. Ron mucked around with posting some of our blog (it is already written up) – he soon tired of that & went to bed around 10pm. We had another beautiful day in Hawaii.

Day 12 Saturday 8 November

We got up at 6.30 pm & watched our arrival at Honolulu & marvelled how expertly the Captain moored the ship (he has been doing it for about 9 years so he should be good). We went for breakfast & said our goodbyes to Francisco, our favourite waiter & Thomas. Back at the cabin we collected our luggage, found Ramasom (who has an enormously busy day to get the cabins ready for the next onslaught of cruisers) & Jose. The debarkation was just a walk off & since we carried off our luggage no delay at all. We waited for while for a shuttle bus to take us into Waikiki to the car rental place. They didn’t have many cars so we ended up with a Mustang, now we really feel like “the Aussie tourists” in America. We drove around the north coast, even going off on some beaten tracks, stopping at some beaches & admiring the scenery. We stopped at a shrimp shack for lunch, we were disappointed this time (may be our taste has changed). Back in Waikiki we found our new apartment – it is an older place but clean, well appointed with king size bed (may be that is the norm because there are so many big Americans) dining area, lounge (huge T.V.) lovely kitchen, bath room & washing machine & dryer. We are on the 13^th floor, the building is right across from the marina so we have a million dollar view. We watched the Pride of America sail out. We phoned James, Monica & Ron’s sister Vicki. We went out for an adventure to find a place to eat. Everywhere it was so busy – we ended up in the Ala Moana shopping plaza where it was so busy too. After some wait, Ron had some seared Ahi fish & I got fruit salad from the food court (not cruise standard but not bad at all). Back at the apartment Ron crashed, he was so tired from all the driving, concentrating as it was a week-end with all the locals out, busy traffic & not to mention driving on the right hand side of the road.

Day 11 Friday 7 November

The McBryde & Allerton Gardens was this morning’s bus tour, with an early 7.15am start. Our driver Sam took us first ly to see some blowholes spouting. There was only a small swell, so the small blowhole was spouting nicely, with a great exhalation of air each time it exploded out. The large blowhole needs more swell to get it pumping. We were also treated to the sight of some sea turtles feeding in a small inlet near the blowholes. More feral chooks in the car park, they are everywhere.

Our next stop was overlooking the gardens where Allerton had his house & private beach, with a customary grove of coconuts. This was once the site of Hawaiian Queen Emma’s home & apparently Allerton had her house moved down the hill & re-erected next to his house after the death of Queen Emma. This beach has also been the site used in many movies. We continued on through the electric gates & wound our way down the hill with great views of many of the trees & distinct gardens. At the main machinery building we disembarked the bus & started our walk, first looking at the water lilies & fish in the old concrete water reservoir, complete with fat cane toads sitting on the water lilies.

The garden is full of fruiting trees, including breadfruit, there are orchids all over & all sorts of different tropical flowering plants. There are shaded pathways throughout the gardens, with several formal garden rooms, such as the “Pineapple Room”, the “Deer Room” & the “Diana Room”. The entrance to the pineapple room is flanked by two large pineapple sculptures, with a small pond & two cherubs standing spouting water into the pond. The Diana room has a statue of the goddess with some reflection pools in front of a gazebo, with views down to another garden. They are very tastefully created. We continue the walk coming across many flowers we have never seen before. There is also an extremely effective mini-forest of mother-in-law tongue.

The garden also has some very effective waterfalls created that lead the eye off in another direction again. Down at the bottom of the garden we are treated with a vista seen in many movies & TV shows. Sam told us that here was the lagoon from Gilligan’s Island, also various scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, etc. We also saw the spot where the egg was discovered in Jurassic Park, amongst the large roots of an Australian Morton Bay Fig tree. There is also a very pretty bamboo grove here, it is very restful to hear the wind gently swaying through the leaves. There is an astonishing rate of growth of the bamboo given the high rainfall.

Another water feature we enjoyed was one that had a mermaid at each end with a basket on the head, with a long, squiggly, slightly downhill water feature that pulsed water into the small pond at the bottom with a heartbeat rhythm, it was extremely effective & intriguing to watch it working. I was fascinated by the design.

Back into the small bus & off to see the natural waterfall with its swimming hole. This is where Queen Emma used to bathe & Sam told us that this site was off-limits to any Hawaiian man, if he was caught here the fate was death.

All through the gardens Sam told us about the medicinal value of many of the plants & what they were used to treat. He also told us which of the plants were used for food, clothing, making rope, weaving for sails & which ones were poisonous, including the strychnine vine, fatal if eaten. We were treated to a lunch of turkey/vegetarian wraps followed by a treat of fresh sweet Hawaiian pineapple, it is so tasty, can’t eat enough of it.

All too soon it was back to the ship for a 2pm departure & we spent the time watching the captain navigate the ship expertly out of the harbour, he is really skilled manoeuvring this large ship out of such a small harbour & around the tricky channel, from our veranda we can see the jutting out part of the bridge, it is fascinating to see (sometimes) the captain in action. Our butler delivered some treats to us again as we settled in on our balcony chairs for the next part of our cruise. We sailed along the coast of Kauai around to the section called the Na Pali Coast, an extremely pretty mountain range that is so scalloped with erosion & with such rugged beauty. Unfortunately when we get to the Napoli coast the clouds are hiding the sun so the full beauty cannot be seen. As the ship turns to head back the other way along the Na Pali Coast, a rain front comes through, the sun sets & the coast is obscured by cloud & rain. Lucky that we have seen it all by helicopter.

Dinner on the last night was in the Liberty dining room where our waiter was a very happy & chatty young girl called Tracy that really put a smile on our face. The dinner was very nice, as usual & we followed that up with a little bit of retail therapy, where we found out that now we were sailing, all items were duty free. Afterwards we finished off a great week by listening to Tim Dion on guitar again before heading back to our cabin to pack ready for departure tomorrow.

What a wonderful week, we have seen so many natural wonders & beauty. The excursions made it all complete, well worth the expense. The ship cruise was WOW, WOW, WOW such luxury, thanks to the chefs, waiters, our smiling young Ramasom, the cleaner. The butler, Jose doing his best (with people who didn’t know what to do with him). Thomas the Concierge, smiling every breakfast chatting to us about our plans for the day & never missing to find us whichever restaurant we dined in to check if we were happy. We know that this is their job, but they have good people skills to make you feel special. How will we go back to being Mr & Mrs average?