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Published: August 14th 2015
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The mission for today was to purchase trolley bus tickets. We had looked at this online and found a 7 day pass for $59- per adult which included all 4 lines. Stop and go and get on and off as you please. Pink line was shopping, red historic, green scenic and blue line panoramic coastline.
But when we went to purchase them online it said it would take 2-5 days to process the tickets. We have only 7 days left so we decided to purchase them on foot at the depot. Well this was a search and a half, but eventually we found the depot in T Galleria off Kalakaua Ave up near the Royal Hawaiian centre. Two very slick sales ladies then lead us through a power 5 minutes of a speed dating version of Trolley Bus knowledge of when, how, where and why.Phew! NThey very kindly gave us one senior pass and one normal counter sale totally $119- so only $1 dearer than our on line bargain.
By the end of the slick sales pitch Martin was looking at the map all befuddled and seeking a more detailed search so we set of for some air
Polynesian dance show
This was a Maori dance, the dance company is part of the Mormon run centre on the north shore. This centre employs 1/3 of the 3000 students at the Brigham Young University. con and a cold drink. Almost midday and the Cheesecake Factory was beckoning. If you thought this was just made up for the BBT well wrong. It is a restaurant franchise, which specialises in cheesecakes for desert and everything in between.
Midday cocktails just because it is holidays also seemed a great idea. So the trolley map was studied and the green line chosen for a round trip. This one takes you past the diamond head lighthouse built in 1899, into the suburb of Kahala where the most average sea view house is 10million, and one block of beachfront land was selling for 65 million. They looked a lot like the houses on Hamilton Island.
Diamond head lookout is also one of the destinations on this tour, you can take this if you want to do the hike to the summit of the crater which takes about an hour, this is a 230 metre volcanic tuff. $1- is all this costs for the entry fee.
The driver kept up a delightful patter of informative chat about this and that, telling us that it rains often up in the mountains where you always see it shrouded in clouds.
This becomes the rain which supplies the aquifers and then supplies the water for the island. 25 years from rain drop to water in the tap.
Returning to the Waikiki strip we went on a Irish bar hunt settling for Kelley's ONeil's on Lewer st, serving the usual Kilkenny with girls in tiny kilts! Free wifi is a common thing in most bars, anything to keep the punters drinking and happy.
The red trolley historic tour was next chosen, taking us in downtown Honolulu, past the spot that Barack Obama was born and went to school, past the eternal flame to commemorate the servicemen, historic buildings, china town and one block away from the marina featuring boats worth millions is a huge homeless people's shanty town.
There is evidence everywhere of homeless in all the parks with people lying down surrounded by a trolley or bags of stuff. Or in the main streets of Waikiki you see people collecting recycling from bins. Jessie from the hostel said there were a lot of people with mental health issues as well as drug problems.
But the shanty town that was set up on the footpaths
today was so sad. Tents and tarps with makeshift rooms, cooking gear, bicycles, couches, homes for whole families. Permanent set ups, a 10 minute drive from the Waikiki strip of Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Versace and all those other names. I'm not sure what sort of welfare they could get, or would want, if any effort is made to support and house, or feed them. Yes there is evidence of the Salvation Army, loads of Catholic Churches and The Mormons are a huge presence also. But do they do anything?
Tonight we are chilling at the hostel, tomorrow morning we are catching a before 7am bus to the USS Arizona and Pearl harbour. They give away 1300 free walk up tickets each day provided you are early.
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