Weeks 55 & 56 - Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

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I am way behind on publishing my blogs but I blame my mate Joy who has been travelling with me for the past 4 weeks. These catch-up editions will probably be a bit lightweight but should include the highlights of what we have been up to - they certainly should include a ton of photos as I took thousands of shots, most of which were rubbish but some are decent enough to go public.

So, I took a 30 minute internal flight from the Big Island of Hawaii back to Oahu on Sunday morning and checked into our Waikiki hotel, where I watched a multi-denominational church service held on the beach, featuring a group of women prisoners from the local correctional institution singing hymns. Then I went back again to the airport to meet Joy who had a tiring journey of 12 hours from UK to LA, then a long wait between planes and another 5 hours to the island. With this in mind we had booked the most luxurious stay at the beginning and had 6 glorious, relaxing days being pampered in the Hilton Hawaiian Village in a tower block that had an additional private pool that overlooked Waikiki Beach. The rest of the property was great with several pools, beautiful grounds and a range of bars, restaurants and shops, so we took it easy for the first few days and did nothing harder than reapply sunscreen or order another cocktail.

For the first couple of days we hung out sunbathing around the main lagoon pool that was surrounded by tall, thin, elegant palms - we chose seats under the only one without a top and no shade underneath - just a trunk with character that we named Stumpy. We visited the penguins (stinky), flamingos (pretty but boring), turtles (constantly shagging) and koi carp (huge) in the hotel grounds, watched a couple of weddings and private parties on the Village Green area beneath our balcony, where we could be found at sunset each night having a few liveners and watching the buff guy in a loincloth run around the enormous property lighting the hundreds of flame-torches. We then found the private pool with its lush thick padded loungers and amazing view over the beach and hardly moved for two days. The sunsets from Waikiki were amazing most nights as the beach faces due West and I took shots most nights for the whole 10 days we were in town, as you will see from the photos. Another free bonus was a far-off view of the Luau Show held most nights in the hotel as it was staged on a open roof-top opposite our balcony. It was a bit too far away to fully enjoy the show but we could hear the music and make out some of the dancers and got very good views of the fire dancer act towards the end when their torches whirled brightly in the dark as we sipped drinks on the balcony.

Waikiki is a prime wedding and honeymoon destination but there is a high percentage of Japanese who book a honeymoon photograph package with a stretch limo and a photographer. This entails them getting redressed in their full wedding outfits and being shuttled around to a list of prime settings that make great backdrops in their photos. Some of the packages must be quite tight on time as you see them being rushed around from one shot to another with the bride hiking up her dress and train for a quick run across a beach covered in oil-slicked tourists just to get the shot of Waikiki and Diamond Head peninsular, then a scurry across several busy streets to get a shot by a particular waterfall, etc. It goes on regardless of the weather, so a couple of times during really heavy tropical downpours we watched as the couple got soaked and the white dresses started to get splattered in muddy water or the long trains acted like floor mops - shame. They start at dawn, and whoever is running those packages must be a multi-millionaire. One of the favourite settings was by the koi-carp ponds in the Hilton so we saw different brides posing every hour beneath our room.

We finally could not blame Joy’s jet-lag for our inertia any longer so booked a couple of tours. The first was to Pearl Harbour and the Punchbowl Memorial Ground with a brief city tour thrown in. The whole thing was well organised and efficient, with a brief boat shuttle ride out to the Arizona Memorial that floats above the remains of the ship and its entombed crew. It was moving and poignant and obviously is a must-do tour. We were lucky as our tour company had prebooked tickets and we only had a 20 minute wait - there were some people queuing for several hours. After touring the land-based exhibits Joy bought a book in the gift shop where we were told that the author was outside doing signings. After chatting to him and having him sign her copy he pointed us to 3 veterans from the Pearl Harbour bombings who were also signing sheets of paper containing their profiles - well one of them used a rubber stamp signature as he was pretty frail - so we went to get their autographs and listened to them answering questions and sharing their memories of the day, which was very interesting. We spend a while touring the main city sights with a couple of stops then finally visited the Punchbowl military cemetery with its rows of grave plaques inlaid into the grass and great views over the city and ocean.

Our next venture was the long drive to the Polynesian Cultural Centre on the Northshore (thanks for the recommendation Mum) where we had an hour to visit a couple of the replica villages before the luau feast and show started. Our guide was Samoan and his nephew was starring in their country exhibit so he took us there. The demonstration of stripping, opening and shredding coconuts and starting fire from rubbing wood was hilarious and the guy should have had a prime-time show on TV. He was entertaining, incredibly funny and mercilessly took the mickey out of the Chinese group that were in the audience. He presented me with a very stupid hat made from palm fronds and flowers that I wore for a while but when we also got fresh flower leis (necklaces) at the dinner, I decided that I was looking to much like a florists window. Our leis and the hat eventually decorated the edges of the TV in our hotel room for a few days.

We had paid for upgrade tickets so got the front table at the luau where we were entertained with singers and dancers while we ate a very ordinary buffet dinner. We did get a couple of ridiculously large drinks in fresh pineapples that you had to leave on the table as they were so heavy to hold. We had an hour to kill around the shops before heading to the arena for the main show called “Ha, Breathe of Life”. Again we had great seats and watched a truly amazing, colourful, well-delivered show. It was the story of a couple’s life where they visited, lived or were attacked by people from every Polynesian island culture possible. The story was cheesy but the costumes, music and dance were fabulous, as were the lighting and sound effects on an imaginative stage set. The whole evening was great and we even got to have fresh pineapple and icecream during the interval. The bus ride home was long but we all snoozed most of the way. Although its not cheap and its a long tour, we highly recommend this show for anyone visiting Oahu.

We moved to a new hotel further down Waikiki Beach for the second half of the trip, right in the centre of town with a large array of shops and restaurants within walking distance. It was half the price of the Hilton and obviously not as nice, so we got our daily hit of luxury by visiting various posh hotels in the area during our stay to either have a cocktail or use their bathrooms. I think we managed to have a drink or pee in every 5-star establishment in town and many of the 4-star properties too and we visited some very plush loos. We tried the Blue Hawaii cocktails and both hated the taste, we got the famous wooden back-scratchers at the Moana Surfrider’s bar even though we didn’t order mai-tais and visited some of the other well known bars such as Dukes in the Outrigger - this bar made us feel very old and invisible as it was packed full of young beautiful people and the barman didn’t seem to notice us. Joy had a couple of massages at a luxury spa and treated me to one too, which was fab. They had an amazing roof terrace where you could chill out looking over the ocean or the highrise cityscape. Waikiki and the main city of Honolulu are very built up with loads of high rise buildings but the landscaping is generally beautiful with manicured grounds and lots of public parks. Its very busy with constant traffic and noise and not really what you think of when you imagine the Hawaiian Islands. We would definitely recommend that you either visit some of the other, more natural islands or at least get out of Waikiki during your holiday to see some of the rural areas on Oahu.

Our new hotel had an ocean-facing balcony that gave us the best view in town, although the room and bathroom were very cramped. We spent hours perched up there, sipping drinks (including gallons of tea) and watching life on the streets below us and on the beach opposite that had a seawall protecting a couple of large lagoon areas that were safe to swim in. We also watched the hundreds of surfers. These guys spent ages floating about chatting behind the wave-line before they went for the surf. The conditions varied considerably with some windy days producing impressive high waves while other days saw them waiting ages for a decent ride. The surfers were out there from predawn to after the sun had set and we saw lots on the longer stand-up type of board. The really high waves that make the island a surfing mecca occur up on the Northshore where in winter they can reach heights of over 70 feet and its where many professionals come to compete in riding the vertical walls of water and the pipelines through the vortex tunnels under the wave edges. Joy and I took a dip in the protected area opposite our hotel and rode a lilo.

We wanted to see as much of the island as possible so we took a snorkel catamaran boat trip along the West coast. Sadly the day was overcast and chilly so the snorkelling was not great and the boat trip was not very good. They try to squeeze three trips in per day so everything is done at break-neck speed, including the long stretch with the engine flat-out up to the “Lost” valley where many of the scenes from the TV series Lost were filmed. The speed made for an uncomfortable ride which was too windy to stand outside and too cold to lie in the front nets. The food was OK but the whole thing was a disappointment, made worse by a long boring bus ride at either end.

We did learn some interesting facts though. Bet you didn’t know that Hawaii is the Spam capital and 3 out of 4 tins sold Worldwide are eaten here. They have 13 different types of Spam on sale and its eaten at every meal. All the cafes, diners and fast food outlets have various Spam dishes on their menus, including McDonalds.

The following day was windy but we got a bus to the Eastern side where there are some fabulous beaches. We picked up a boogie board and settled ourselves on Kailua Beach that had lovely soft golden sand and dozens of kitesurfers to watch. We found a sheltered area where the sand-blasting was manageable and enjoyed the views of the bounty-advert beach, the multi-coloured blues of the water that ended in crashing surf and the fit male kitesurfers with their bright sails and buff bodies. There was a teacher on the beach communicating by radio as he coached beginners learning the sport who wore helmets with headsets in them - very clever. We both tried boogie boarding with mixed results - both fine when using it as a float in deeper water to gently bob over the roll of the waves, but both crashed and burned when trying to ride the waves to the shore, picking up various grazes and bruises in addition to ears and eyes full of water and total loss of dignity.

All too soon our break in sunny Hawaii ended and we headed for our next stop of San Francisco

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Comments

[Kim]

Love the pics!
Hi Mum, Looks like your having a great time and I love the pictures they are great, well done. Glad to see that you have found yourself another human shield LOL made me laugh seeing you behind Joy reminded me of you and me in Bali. How was the Hibachi? Better then the one in Bali? Can't wait to see the next blog but really loved this one, great pics, great tour and fell in love with the place just from your blog. Keep up the great work. Love ya heaps, travel safe. xx