The Rest Of Hawaii...

OK, its been three months since my last post and I need to finish up the 'Hawaii' series. Our last day in Hawaii we did more of the same, hanging out at the beach, wandering the shops on the main street, and in the evening we did probably my favourite thing in Oahu, the Maitai Catamaran...

The catamaran departs from the Northern end of Waikiki beach and sails out along the water. It basically goes back and forth parallel to the sand for 90 minutes, but is manned by an amazing two person crew who are loving life and really friendly and relaxed and the super tasty mai tais flow non-stop.

 Diamond Head.

 People on the catamaran.

 Another few catamarans were out, as well as lots of sail boats.

 Another catamaran doing a similar cruise to ours.

 We did the sunset sail so we got some amazing evening views.

 Yep.

 The sun begins to set over Waikiki.

Heading back in to shore after a relaxing, enjoyable, fun, and slightly tipsy 90 minutes out at sea. What a great way to spend our last night in Hawaii!

I would highly recommend the Maitai Catamaran for a trip in Waikiki. It was under $40 per person (plus tips), which when you consider beers/mai tais/soft drinks were unlimited along with the relaxing and amazing sightseeing sail, it was definitely well worth the money. Make sure you book in advance, they tended to book out several days ahead and we went in the Hawaiian 'Winter'.

Do you like to go on sailing/boat trips when you go away?

Next up, my California photo series...back into blogging, I promise!

Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri Tours...

One thing in Hawaii my mum was keen to do (myself not so much, I was more neither here nor there in terms of how I felt about going) was go to Pearl Harbor. Booking tickets on the government site was confusing with many different options. Our hotel had a tour desk and we booked tickets to go to the Arizona Memorial and a tour on the USS Missouri ship, both in Pearl Harbor, as well as return coach transfers. It was over $70 per person but was an informative day. Too bad they sent us this coach:

Yep, the bus is on fire.

We started off with a pretty early pickup, around 6:30 A.M. outside our hotel. The drive was just under an hour and the bus driver gave a running commentary on all kinds of things on the drive to Pearl Harbor. The bus driver was the most laid back guy ever, just yakking away casually and not too panicked by traffic, and had a bit of a sarcastic nature, but in a humourous manner. As it was early and I hadn't slept well the night before, I begun to doze on the bus, half listening, half in the land of nod. I was gradually bought back to attention by an odd, strong smell, accompanied by someone behind me saying "Is that smoke? It smells like smoke". The bus pulled to a stop on the side of the freeway exit ramp outside the Aloha Stadium (where gridiron is played), and I looked out my window to see not only the stadium beyond but billows of smoke rising up next to my window. We were seated about 5 rows from the back of the bus. The bus driver got off the bus and a minute or two later casually said over his headset "I'm gonna need to get you all off this bus." Cue panic. We all got out of our seats and tried to get down the aisle but the aisle wasn't moving as there were a couple of absolute gigantic whoppers, the morbidly obese people you really only see in America with tyros around their midsections, sitting up the front and were taking ages to haul their gigantic selves out of their seats, let alone get into the aisle, and down the front steps and out the door. A guy a row or two behind me really started to panic, yelling "MOVE!" and then other people joined in as the smoke and smell got worse and the queue wasn't moving, "HURRY UP!", "WE GOTTA GET OFF THE BUS!", "MOOOOOOVE IT!" and so on. It was starting to get worrying as the smoke was getting bad and, being at the back of the bus, we would be the first to blow up if the engine totally went up in flames. Just as I was thinking of suggesting to the guys to break an emergency exit window, the slow poke huge people finally got off and the rest of the busy quickly got off the bus, to stand on the nature strip by the freeway. This is what we saw:

Yes, the engine is on fire. Yes, it looked worse in real life.

 Traffic was banked up and soon enough we heard the sound of sirens.

The fire truck responded very quickly. Anyone know why fire trucks are yellow in Hawaii??!!

 Two firefighters calmly walked over together and extinguished the blaze. They then spent considerable time hosing the whole back and underside of the bus.

 Soon, the police were on the scene talking to our super chilled out driver.

 It took about 30 minutes for a replacement bus to come (from the time the original bus caught on fire), so that was pretty good. The same bus driver got on the new bus to carry us on to Pearl Harbor, only a 2-3 minute drive away! The funniest bit was that when the bus driver got on the new bus and begun speaking into his headset, there was no 'sorry about that folks', no 'the bus overheated but thanks for your patience', nope, no pleasantries or apologies. Our laid back bus driver just continued on his commentary (he was discussing the upcoming Pro Bowl at the Aloha Stadium) like nothing had happened at all. Haha. All the Aussies on the bus liked his attitude and had a bit of a laugh at that one!

So since I didn't die on a bus blowing upon the way to Pearl Harbor, we made it there with only a couple of minutes to spare before our movie begun. My Mum had to check her bag as they don't allow any baggage (so I left my DSLR in the hotel and just took my trusty little Canon IXUS). The movie was a documentary about the events leading up to and of Pearl Harbor's bombing by the Japanese, and was narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. It was well done with footage from the event, and informative without being information overload. After, you walked out to a boat captained by a military officer which shuttled you to the USS Arizona Memorial.

The shuttle boat.

The USS Arizona Memorial sits perched on two beams above the USS Arizona shipwreck.

The roof of the memorial is open - no glass. 

You have about 15 minutes inside the memorial. Whilst in there you can look into the water and see the ship below, and sometimes just above the water. 

Looking across Pearl Harbor from the memorial. 

Markers like these dotted the Harbor, showing where different ships lie beneath the water or were sunk but later raised.

The names of all those who died on the ship. Amazing. 

The USS Missouri to the right was to be our next stop.

Upon leaving the memorial, the shuttle boat takes you back to land and you can look in some small museums/. 

 After, we got back on our bus and were driven over to the USS Missouri, where we had a guided tour.

We were driven back to Waikiki and arrived back at our hotel around 3:30 P.M.

Have you been to Pearl Harbor? What was your experience? How did it affect you? Have you been to any other war memorials across the world?

Diamond Head Hike...

During our stay in Honolulu, I was determined to go do the Diamond Head hike. I had heard the reviews and seen photos of the amazing views so knew I needed to get myself up there. Having read the reviews, we set out a little after 7 and were there and hiking before 8 - it gets hot fast, and was already really busy, with several people already coming down from the summit.

Getting to the base of the hike was a walk in itself. We bussed it from Waikiki to the Kapiolani Community College. From there, it was about a 5 minute walk along the road to the driveway entry for the state monument. You walk about 10 minutes up a hill and stop in a small lookout car park and see this:

View of the sunrise by Waialae.

After stopping here for photos and water (the sun is hot, remember), you walk through a tunnel into the crater where you pay your admission ($1 per pedestrian, $5 per car load). You then walk across the car park and up to the base of the hike. The beginning of the hill is up a paved road so is pretty easy, and there are toilets and a vending machine before you get started.

The tunnel you may just be able to see in the hillside leads cars and pedestrians into the car park from the main road. 

 The paved pathway quickly turns into an unpaved, rocky, dirt path, and you walk and walk and walk and you drip with sweat and you walk some more, around twists and turns, ensuring you keep right to let people coming down get past, stopping at one or two lookouts on the way up. Just when you think you're nearly there you have to walk through a really dark tunnel. You then think you're surely there, and then you hit a steep set of steps. After you haul yourself up these, you turn another bend and there is an even steeper set of stairs greeting you. To the left is apparently an easier option but it's apparently longer, so you clap a few times to motivate yourself and, after a giant swig of water, you haul ass up to the top of these steps. Then you turn the corner and you have a spiral staircase and then you duck under a ledge and you finally get to the top when you don't see the view. You wipe the sweat pouring off you, air out your sopping wet t-shirt, and collapse against a railing to finish your water. Then, and only then, you see this view:

 After a few minutes, you decide it's time to head back down. On your way down you are met by several parties of Japanese tourist of all ages walking up the mountain, many in sandals or thongs. Then, around a bend, coming towards you is a group of big burly men, RUNNING up the hill.

When you get to the bottom you see how far you walked. You take a photo which doesn't do it justice.

The summit is the tiny white speck you can see at the top of the first peak there - that is the platform you can stand on.

 The Diamond Head hike isn't easy. It's not super hard, but although I'm fitter than I was a year ago, I'm not the fittest out there. It's worth it for the great views at the top, but you definitely need to get there around 7 so it's not too hot - possibly earlier in the Summer. It's about 35-45 minutes to the top so allow 2-2.5 hours for a round trip from Waikiki. Bring plenty of water - I took a 600ml bottle as I was carting along all my photography equipment but I could have easily had a litre. It's a nice way to start a day and something completely different from everything else on offer in Waikiki/Honolulu. Just a tip - once you've done this in the morning, don't go spend the afternoon trawling the Ala Moana Center for 5 hours. Instead of shopping your heart out, go sit on the beach instead and relax!

Holidays...

So it's been a couple of months since my last post. I didn't get any comments on my Fiji trip post so I didn't think anyone was reading anymore so it felt kind of pointless to keep blogging. That and the last few months of the year at work are always super busy. Anyway, it's holidays now and this time in one week I'll be traveling to Hawaii with my mum! I'm looking forward to the trip. I've been to Hawaii once before but I was by myself and got bored quickly and spent half the day sleeping with jet lag from coming from the East Coast of the US, so I changed my flight and went home early.

Things I'm planning on doing in Hawaii:

Sunset sail on the Maitai Catamaran, which includes free mai tais in the price!

Shop like a boss at the Ala Moana Center.

Hike to the top of Diamond Head for an amazing view like this.

Visit Pearl Harbor.

Snorkel at Hanauma Bay and then drive around Oahu.

Sunset yoga.

Go parasailing - I booked this last time I was in Hawaii but then I went home early so never did it. I did this in Cairns and it was amazing!

Overeat at The Cheesecake Factory.

I'm a bit concerned that I will be effectively going to Hawaii to escape the heat of Melbourne. Ugh.

Have you been to Hawaii before? My mum and I are there for a week. If you have any suggestions on things we should do then please suggest away!