Blue Hawaii

We have been looking forward to our stop in Honolulu ... we have been here before so wanted to rent a car and explore the island ... as well as spend some time shopping at our last American port ... dinner in Waikiki ... a perfect plan for the day ... originally we had an all aboard time of 9.30 pm. but when the Princess Patter (our daily schedule) was delivered .. smiles all around .... the all aboard time was 11.00pm. ... could this be a typing mistake ... quick trip to the pursers desk .... no definitely 11.00 pm. 

Unfortunately, the late onboard time was eroded by a late arrival into Honolulu but as we were lined up in the chaos which was the disembarkation process in the atrium, the chief purser announced that the all aboard time was changed to 12 midnight - one of our longest port calls on the trip. We had planned to rent a car with four others, spend our time touring around and shopping for those last minute ‘bargains’ at our last American port before we head off for the relaxing Pacific Islands on our way to Auckland and home.

We quickly found the meeting point for the shuttle to Hertz for our rental car - but unfortunately Hertz wasn’t as motivated to provide good service and we wasted a lot of time waiting around - many phone calls later - we finally got  under way - and a strongly worded letter about our experiences has been sent to their head office - say no more!! 

The Yukon ‘truck’ that we rented was supposed to seat 8 passengers with three suitcases - a gross overstatement - unless they were six children - the rear seat was so small that only small children could be comfortable. Arnold quickly adjusted to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and the size of the vehicle - not easy to park. Luckily ‘Miss Neverlost’ was located on the dashboard and so she was able to help us find our way around easily. 

Waikiki - busy despite the ominous clouds

Our first stop was at the famous Waikiki beach - I know that I am biased, but I don’t think it is anything like the fabulous beaches of the Gold Coast.  However Waikiki does have a different vibe and a lot of appeal created by the characters who gather there as well as the multi coloured umbrellas and beach gear for hire. Unfortunately there was a very heavy cloud cover with rain and showers passing over for most of the day.

Since, our early start to the day was thwarted, it was now lunch time, we had shared a pizza and drinks in a cafe just across from the beach under tropical umbrellas - unfortunately it started to rain - and the overhead umbrella wasn’t large enough to shelter everyone - Joanne created chuckles as she calmly sat outside eating her lunch while holding up her own umbrella.

Our next stop was at Diamond Head, that iconic extinct volcano overlooking Waikiki. We expected a lookout from the top with great views back over Honolulu - but after driving through a tunnel which took us into the actual crater and paying $5 to enter - we discovered that it was a two hour roundtrip walk to get to the lookout - up quite a steep staircase in places - since it was starting to rain and our time was limited - we decide to push on heading further along the coastline. The coastal drive is very picturesque and the Hawaiians have created lots of parking areas where cars can pull off the road to enjoy the scenery along the way, with great lookouts.

The spectacular rugged cliff faces of the windward coast were enveloped in low cloud which cleared and then reappeared as the rain passed over - at the Blowhole we waited patiently for it to blow its top - while also watching an optimist who had pitched his tent on the rocky outcrop and gone off to fish - hope he wasn’t washed off as the waves were crashing over the point. 

Almost in the clouds

The Pali lookout is located high up in the rugged range - when we looked up from the coast road, it was covered in heavy cloud - but amazingly - it cleared as we arrived and we had spectacular views of the coastline. The vegetation was very lush, green and tropical with colourful flowers reminiscent of North Queensland.

Spectacular coastline

Everyone had shopping lists of purchases to take home - as this was our last large port before home - so ‘Miss Neverlost’ ably guided us firstly to an outlet centre on the outskirts of Honolulu where I purchased another pair of Skechers shoes and some gifts. We headed back to the main Oahu shopping centre, Ala Moana, for a couple for hours of retail therapy.  

The American lecturer on the ship commented at his talk that he had requests from the Australian for directions to Wal-mart - he couldn’t believe that people would actually want to go there on their vacation. It is really just like an oversized K-mart - but the free shuttle to Wal-mart was definitely kept busy for the day.

Arnold wanted to buy another pair of magnifying reading glasses and so we headed to Longs Drug store, a massive pharmacy combined with a souvenir and $2 shop. While he was trying on glasses, I noticed a do-it-yourself tooth repair kit with painkiller and a powder and tools to make the filling - only in America!! 

Dennis has been suffering from severe toothache because his filling had fallen out, so I invested $7 for the kit and gave it to him. Anthea played dental nurse as he mixed and filled the cavity. Always full of helpful suggestions, the other men advised him to have a couple of swigs of whisky ‘for medicinal’ purposes’ of course!! At last report, the filling was good and the pain was gone - at least it may last until he gets home to his own dentist.

We had planned to have dinner at the Hawaiian village - but it was Saturday night and everywhere had a line of people waiting with buzzers for tables - since the wait for a table at most places was about 45 minutes - and, to be honest, we were all feeling tired, we decided that we would head back to the Aloha Tower centre - located at the pier where the ship was docked. We arrived just as the resident singer was onto his last number, and the waitress said that they didn’t take customers after 9.00pm. It must have been our hungry, thirsty, begging looks cause she relented and let us in.  

Although the restaurant was called Chai’s Island Bistro, the food was mainly Asian, and our choices of Jumbo Shrimp with green papaya salad and the Green Thai Chicken Curry were both crowd pleasers. As we were leaving, our head waiter Maurizio arrived at the door, but he was turned away without food. We joked with him that he could probably still get a meal in the Horizon Court on the ship.

We watched the clock on the tower pass midnight as we enjoyed dessert and a final nightcap on Deck 14 - the ship was scheduled to sail out at 1.30am. but we were all tucked up in bed well before that time.

Now we have five sea days until our next port of call - Tahiti.

Cheers