Our cosy room at the hostelWe're in Waikiki and only 5 minutes from the shops, restaurants and the beach, so thats' really nice. We've found some nice places to eat in the International Market Place, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, All kinds of different foods in one place, and at good prices to.
August 17th (No. 2)
We spent the first day feeling very sleepy, and looking around the local shops and the beach, but we were soon back at the apt and sleeping soundly
August 18th
We took a 1 hour bus trip to Pearl Harbour, to visit the memorial and museum on the site of the 1941 attack. The whole experience was quite moving, there was a 20 minute movie about the attack, then we took a launch out to the sunken hull of the USS Arizona, which has become a memorial, and also cemetery for the 1,177 souls that died when she sank. Also any surviving crew are interred there when they pass away. This was a solemn experience, and very well presented and organised. The only weird thing was the 100's of japanese tourists, taking there group photos in the memorial, which seemed strange. But Hawaii wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Japamese tourists, the palce is a swarm with them, shopping and snapping pictures 24 hours a day.
USS Arizona Memorial - Pearl Harbour
1,177 lost souls
Submarine MuseumAugust 19th
Beach day, we hit the Waikiki beach for about 4 hours and swam in the sea a little, careful to avoid the mass of surfers, boogie boarders and snorkellers.
The most famous beach in the worldAfter giving the tan a boost, we went into the Alo Moana shopping Mall to look round and pick up a few essentials. We took the 'Free' bus with the Japs, and also took it bakc again, apparentley we are supposed to then go and spend money in a duty free store, but we skipped that part.In the evening we sat in the courtyard of the hostel and played a few games with the other people staying here. Then at about 1:30am we took a walk down the main street to see the weird night life, with drunks, transvestites and our old favourite prostitutes all making an appearance. And the clientel round the Gay bar next to our hostel were also quite visible
August 20th
North shore was the place to visit today, and possibly a new location for us to stay. We took the $1 bus, and 2 hours later we arrived, there was a small beach a hostel, which wasn't much better than ours, and more money, and not much else. So we decided not to stay here, but did spend a hour or so on the beach, before the rain came. The bus ride back was mostly in absolutely torrential rain, so much that cars had stopped on the freeway, waiting for it to stop. After reaching home, we had dinner, then went out into town to try and find new accomodation for the next week. This proved un-succesful, so we stayed another night at the hostel, along with our new hostel mates, the rats, and the cockroaches.
August 21st
Up early and off to find a new place to stay, we fell really lucky at the Hotel Royal Grove, they had a budget room available for $250 a week. It is a fairly old hotel, but the room is clean, and the staff are all very friendly, and it has a small pool. We returned to the hostel, packed our things away, and moved.
The Royal Grovew Hotel
Our small, cozy (and Hot) room
and from another angle
The room is quite small, but it has a kitchenette, bathroom, TV and it's 100% better than the hostel. We visited the local food store and stocked up on goodies for the week. In the evening we were totally knackered, and had pizza and watched some TV.
August 22nd
Spent most of the 'cloudy' morning at the shops, and visiting the Air NZ office to book our flight out for next Monday. We took a walk down to the beach (2 mins) in the afternoon, and watched some really good 'boogie-boarders' showing off their skills.
Crazy boarders
It takes a lot of practice
We had a lovely steak dinner in the evening, and a rather large bottle of wine.
August 23rd
Spent the morning on the beach, and managed to catch about 2 waves on boogie boards (from the hotel), but we decided we really need flippers to catch the waves properly.After about 3 hours we needed to shade from the sun (or I did), so we headed back to the hotel. I relaxed in the shaded room, but Maria was eager for more sun, and headed off to lie by the pool. We ventured to the International Market Place for evening meal, where we had some lovely Japanese food.
August 24th
A late breakfast, and then a day on the beach, followed by an evening meal in, with a little! wine.
August 25th
Moped day - We hired mopeds for the day (only $15. First time I have ridden anything motorised on 2 wheels, so a little edgy, but after about 5 minutes it was easy. Maria had been on one before, so she was speeding off staright away.
Easy Rider!
Can we buy this one Kev?
We set off along the south coast, until we came to Diamond Head, a volcanic crater, that had a man made climb to its peak. As it was midday and hot we declined the walk (maybe later). We continued along the coast, where it was really windy, and the scenery was quite beautiful, including a lovely golf course, which I managed to ride past (just). A few miles along we came to a beautiful long sandy beach, with about a dozen people on it. We parked up the mopeds and spent a couple of hours in the azure sea (that IS blue isn't it), it was the nicest beach we have seen on our travels, and the huge surf made it even better.
A beautiful beach
But alas we had to be moving on, and we set off back to Waikiki, via the 'Scottish Restaurant' This was a ride along some main roads with the increasing rush hour traffic, but it wasn't so bad. We stopped at the far end of Waikiki to see the 'Baywatch Hawaii' filming, not close enough to spot anybody from the show though. Then we slowly made our way back to drop the mopeds off. Walking back to our hotel (with achy bums) we arrived to find the Baywatch crew vehicles all parked outside our hotel, they had reserved all the street parking, but again no actual cast members were about.
August 26th
Up fairly early, called my brother (no reply), and then my mate Ed, caught up on the home news, which is always nice, even though nothing ever happens. Took a walk to the beach to catch it on video, and also picture some of the streets around Waikiki, before heading back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. We got talking to a couple from Frome (Somerset) called Leon and Kerry. They were also on a tour round the world, in the opposite direction. We got on really well, and agreed to meet up for some food later. So we headed to 'Smorgys', an all-you-can-eat buffet about 5 mins from the hotel. Where we were all very polite and didn't stuff our faces, and had a good laugh, I also found out that Leon was a keen golfer (single figure handicap). After eats we walked into the market area and Coconut Willys for a couple of beers, before heading back to the hotel.
Waikik street
it's a 'Dogs Life'
August 27th
Up earlyish (is that a real word), and down to the pool for a dip. Leon came down and said he had found a golf course we could possibly play, outside Waikiki (the local course here has more tee times than any other golf course in the USA!, V.busy). The girls said that they would go to the beach (next to the course), and we all set off on the bus. We hired clubs, a buggy and set off. We were both a little rusty, but I managed to sink a few and after 8 holes Leon was 4 shots behind . Then i had a chipping nightmare and triple bogied, Leon found his form and soon we were level, and it stayed that way, until the 18th, where he had a 4ft putt to win, and promptly sank it. It was a great game of golf though, and we both enjoyed it, and I also came away with 5 extra balls I had found en-route. Back at the hotel we decided to stay another week, so we called Air NZ and changed our flights to the following Monday.
August 28th
Sorted out the room for another week, and headed out to a large supermarket to stock up with food. Then the four of us struggled back on the bus loaded down with bags. Then we headed for the beach, and some boogie boarding, the boards came courtesy of the hotel, and this time we hired fins, which made things a lot more fun. Kerry and I did get swept over a coral covered wall at one point, which cut Kerrys thigh, and only scrazed my leg. By about 5ish we were in the hotel pool messing around on li-los and stuff until the sun dissapeared and it was cooling down.
Grown ups!
!
!
Pizza and alcahol was the evening activity, so we went round to their room and ate and drank plenty. I asked Leon if he could trim my hair, as it was getting a little long at the back, and he had a set of trimmers. He agreed, so I sat down, and then in a moment of madness decided to have it all off. So we turned the video on, and Leon pushed the trimmers through the center of my hair, no turning back. It took about 20 minutes, and you can see the result below
Are you sure about this?
Who stole my hair
I wasn't sure what my head was going to look like, but it isn't to bad really. Maria doesn't like it, but she says it may grow on her. Early in the morning we staggered back to our room.
August 29th
Web cafe first to upload some more pictures, and answer E-Mails then back to the hotel for lunch. It was looking a little cloudy, so we headed to Diamond Head for the climb. It wasn't as cloudy as we thought though, and the walk was quite tiring, more for me than I would have thought, for some reason I was really struggling to walk. A pain was developing in my chest, and by the time we had come back down again, we had to get a taxi (limousine)
There as common as muck in Hawaii
back to the town. I spent the afternoon lying on the bead, but still the pain wouldn't go away, and by 8:30 it was really bad. We asked reception where we could see a doctor, and luckily it was about 2 mins away, so we went there. It cost $110 to see the doctor!!!!!!, I told Maria to forget it, but she reminded me that my health was more important than money, so I stayed. The doc was nice enough, he gave me a G.I Cocktail (no idea!), then diagnosed 'acute gastritis' and gave me some tablets to take, which only cost $67. But by about 10 I was feeling a little better, and went to sleep.
August 30th
Woke up feeling much better, in fact a whole lot beter. We caught the bus to Manuana Bay to do some snorkelling, after hiring some equipment from a local shop. We got there and found a small patch of sand on the crowded beach. Then we hit the water, which was full of fish, all different types, swimming amongst the coral. Wer stayed there most of the afternoon, before catching the bus back to town. More drink and food in the evening.
August 31st
We talked Leon and Kerry into coming to 'our beach' that we had found last week. So we caught the bus (all bus fares in Hawaii are $1) to it, again stopping at the 'Scottish Restaurant' for a burger on the way. The beach was almost empty again, and this time we walked a little further up nearer to the only life guard stand. There was a new addition to the beach today, signs, lots of signs warning of jellyfish, not just jellyfish, but Portugese man-o-war! We checked with the lifegaurd, and he said there hadn't been any 'victims' today so far. The waves were really good, so a little hesitantly we jumped in and soon we were riding huge waves into the beach. I rode one in and then noticed something on my arm, yep it was a man-o-war, luckily iy hadn't stung me, so i flicked it off, it left a slight itching senstaion, but nothing more. We did see lots of them in the water, but no 'victims' today. The evening was spent around the International Market Place, and we had some more Chinese quisine.
September 1st - Day 170 of our trip
Spent most of the day on the beach, boogie boarding, but keep hitting my legs, and feet on the rocks, as the water isn't to deep. Maria has become quite proficient at this baording and was catching loads of waves, I think she's a natural. We cooked up a mexican feast between us in the evening and drank a few more beers and wines.
September 2nd
Got up late and called Leon and Kerry, but Leon had been up all night with some back pains, so they weren't planning on doing much today. We spent the afternoon by the pool. Had a large pizza for dinner, and then looked in a few of the shops and I bought a cap. My hair isn't growing on me, if you know what I mean, so a cap seems the best answer.
September 3rd
Leon is feeling better today, so we all hit the beach for the last time. Maria wanted a last go on the boards, so she borrowed a little fin from the hotel and we set off.
Maria (the Boarder) and her fin
In the water I managed to catch one wave, but the tide was really strong, and by the time I had swam back out I was absolutely knackered, so I collapsed on the beach, and left Maria to it. Packing called now though, so we headed back to the hotel, and slowly packed our stuff away once more. We returned to 'Smorgys' in the evening and pigged ourselves out, not so polite this time. Said our farewells to Leon and Kerry, and then hit the sack.