Advertisement
Published: July 18th 2014
Edit Blog Post
The Big Blue Beasty
This was fun to drive in this magnificent climate Aloha for possibly the final time!!! (BooooooHooooooo)
Thursday here dawned very wet and overcast but still very warm. It looked like it had been raining for quite some time because the Ala Wai Canal over the back of us was very brown and dirty compared with its usual colour.
We were a bit concerned because we had a helicopter flight booked for 3pm this afternoon and the weather level was very low but we assumed that it would pick up…..and it did!!
We had decided that we would get up, have breakfast and head out to Hanauma Bay to do some snorkeling at this famous ‘marine reserve’. So we got into our togs and headed out about 8am thinking that would be early enough.
Drove the 45 minutes there only to find that the car park was closed off because it was already FULL and they were waving everyone away. ‘Come back every 20 minutes or so to check’ the attendant advised us!!!!
YEAH RIGHT. The chances of there being any car parks were very slim as there were literally hundreds of cars being turned away
and there was no where to park up and wait.
So plan B.
Back to the condo and showers taken and we then headed out to the Dole Plantation…..AGAIN…..as Joy wanted to buy some special souvenirs that she had seen when we were there the other day but didn’t buy at that stage. It was a ‘roof up’ drive as the windscreen wipers were going a lot of the 45 minute drive out there.
Got the ‘thingys’ Joy wanted and then headed back into town and the condo to have some lunch and then wait for our pickup for the helicopter ride.
Got picked up around 2pm and were driven out to the Honolulu airport to the base of ‘Blue Hawaiian Helicopters’ for our 3pm flight.
Went through their rather long and involved ‘flight safety’ video and briefing and headed out to the chopper. Not exactly sure what make it was but the tail rotor was fully enclosed and it looked like a really nice machine. There were only 4 of us on this flight, us and an Aussie couple about our age, so we
The actual Waikiki Beach
Waikiki Beach itself is tiny! The Pink building in the middle is the Moana Sands Hotel (I think) and it was the very first hotel built on the Island to kick off the tourism trade back in the early 1900s all had window seats in the 7 seater machine.
The flight was MAGIC as it took us right out over Honolulu city centre and Waikiki beaches and then over Diamond Head. We finally got to see Hanauma Bay…..from the air…….and the car park was still full.
We then headed up the east side of the island seeing all the spots we saw and visited yesterday on the photography tour so we got it all from a completely perspective again. We flew right up to the Turtle Bay Resort and then flew back down the central valley over all the horticultural land….Dole pineapples, coffee plantations and corn etc. etc.
We also, during the flight, flew over several of the large military bases on Oahu and there are quite a few of them including Army, Marine and Navy. One is called the Schofield Barracks and is apparently the largest Army base in the USA and it is huge. We had driven past it a couple of times during the week and realised it was big but to see it from the air gave us the whole picture. It is like a huge city
all on its own with all of the amenities and facilities that any city has. Full Olympic size pools, a dozen tennis courts, football fields, baseball diamonds etc. etc. MASSIVE!!!
The flight finished with a pass over the Pearl Harbour Memorial area where we could see the Arizona memorial with the oil slick that still comes out of it and the Battleship Missouri where McArthur accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945.
It was another highlight on a trip of many highlights.
By the time we got delivered back to the condo it was getting for 5pm so we wandered just down the road to a Burger King that had free wifi and completed the Blog for the previous few days by adding the photos and publishing that blog….number 12 in the series!!!
Wandered back to the condo and now sitting typing up today so hopefully will be able to get it online at the airport TOMORROW while waiting to board our flight HOME!!!!!
Until next time…Mahalo for reading our stories.
Hello again from us.
We are now at Honolulu
Airport after checking in early for our flight home.
We got cracking about 7.15am with showers etc and then breakfast and then pack up!!!!!
What a mission.
Started 3 weeks ago with 2 bags of about 20kgs each.
We are heading home with 4 large bags all with average of 23kgs each. Thank goodness for Hawaiian Airlines baggage allowance of 2 x 32kg bags each.
We obviously did some SHOPPING!!!!while away didn’t we???
Packed up and made 3 trips down to the basement carpark to load the Mustang up. The boot (or truck for our American friends reading this) only holds 1 case, the backpack and camera bag which are carryon luggage. So if you can imagine what a Mustang convertible looks like with 3 very large suitcases standing on the back seat, that was us. I left the lid up, needless to say!
We headed off to the airport a bit early to hand the car back as I wasn’t sure how long that would take but it went very smoothly and we arrived at the check-in counter
Hanauma Bay
Our only view of it this time!! early as well. They did at least check us in and we went through all the security so we could get through to the lounges and get a seat for a few hours.
Security was the usual over here, everything out, shoes off, Joy setting all the alarms off with her stainless steel knee and other metal insertions, and requiring the usual frisk search.
I decided we would head to our gate to sit it out but after walking there for over 10 minutes they wouldn’t let us in because it wasn’t ready for our flight yet, it was for a Korean Airlines flight.
Back to the main terminal area again, but this time on a shuttle bus!
Found a seat and been trying to get wifi connection without much success so far so decided to type this up to get right up to date just in case we finally get something somewhere in this massive place.
Joy’s gone off shopping again!!!!
So that’s us up to date again. Just requires the flight home now which is always a little bit sad.
Not really looking forward to the winter temperatures again but I suppose that’s life!!!
I’ll try to get this published before we head out of here and then do a final blog once we get home just to finish everything off.
Once again, Mahalo for following our journey. Hope it hasn’t been too boring. We’ve had a great time as usual but are starting to feel a bit jaded as you might expect from all the things we have been pushing ourselves to.
Catch you all later.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.326s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 15; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0592s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb