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Everywhere in Honolulu you are greeted with Aloha!
We arrived bright and early at 8am after 4 pretty rough days at sea - thought it would never end. Force 8 winds and a 4 metre swell don't make for a comfortable ride. Quite rainy too so we couldn't even sit outside - all the chairs etc. were roped down and all decks closed outside. Mr Giggle app on the iPad got a bit of hammer but I am breathing down Claire's neck for a top score very soon!!
Nine homeland security officers boarded the ship soon after docking and every person on the ship had to go through face to face immigration checks even if they were not leaving the ship. As usual it was a shambles. We managed to leave for our day in Honolulu at 11.10am - good job we hadn't got a trip planned eh??
Honolulu weather is a perfect 25c all year round with 75cm of rainfall, and although breezy, it was lovely.
We took a local hop on/off tram which covered all the major sights round Honolulu and Waikiki. There was a definite feel of Florida to the place and the main street in Waikiki could so easily have been Orlando.The city is modern and lively with soaring skyscrapers downtown surrounded by extinct volcanoes and beautiful beaches. Captain Cook landed here in 1778 in his search for the Northwest Passage and was well received; however 8 months later the islanders changed their mind about him and he was killed.
The economy is built very much on tourism now but in the early days it was centred around the sugar and pineapple plantations. All the major points of interest were pointed out on our trip - Waikiki Beach, a well known cafe, The Cheesecake Factory, lots of statues of King Kalakaua and family, State Capitol, some of the notable older buildings such as the Iolani Palace and the Aloha Tower which is the Liberty Statue of Honolulu.
Leaving the built up area we climbed to Diamond Head which offered spectacular views of the reef and ocean, apparently very famous and featured in many of the Hawaii Five-O episodes. It forms one of the sides of the crater of the now extinct volcano which is closest to the city. A tunnel has been built through the side of the volcano so that it is possible to drive right into the crater. Many of LA's rich and famous have homes overlooking Diamond Head where you can expect to pay $US5 million for a property on the cliff top. Wouldn't be hard to wake up to that view every day!
On our return to Waikiki the driver of the tram had a close(too close, in fact) encounter with a wing mirror on a van parked at the side of the road so rather than wait for her to make phone calls and deal with the owner of the vehicle we headed to the beach at Waikiki.
A walk along the beachfront is a must at Waikiki and didn't disappoint, anymore than did our next stop. In our earlier lives some 30 years ago now one of our favourite restaurants in North Virginia had been Red Lobster. Part of a national chain they have extended to Honolulu, and we found them. Shrimps to die for, proper huge shrimps, more what we would refer to as prawns. We had quite forgotten how massive their portions can be, a shared starter of nachos, melted cheese and shrimp with the "side salads" of the main course was a main in itself, but to be followed by maybe 20 prawns in garlic each! We persevered, just.
Back on the beach the surf dudes were giving it large. Whilst I guess the waves were not as large as they could be we were certainly impressed. The beaches might be enhanced by offshore dredging but they are clean, wide and very inviting and allied to the almost ideal climate it is easy to see why this is such a popular holiday spot, unfortunately about as far as you can get from UK.
We caught another trolley, this time one which didn't think it was a dodgem car, and completed the interrupted tour, taking various of the remaining sights, not least the Assembly Building. Interesting to think that Hawaii only became 50th State in the 70s, having originally been annexed (please note the USA doesn't build an Empire like us lot, they simply "annexe" island chains thousands of miles from their coast because of their "strategic importance"). Departure was at 10.30pm so we had time to take the shuttle bus to Ala Moana shopping centre where we found what's best about McDonalds -free wifi! This enabled us to book car hire for San Francisco much cheaper than walking in off the street, as we want to head out of the city for the first day.
So we are off towards San Francisco, a 4 day journey across the Pacific Ocean. As we write it is day 3. Currently the ship has altered course slightly to avoid a depression along the US west coast which forecast storm force winds and a sea swell of 7 metres, and in fairness we are travelling flat out at 24 knots to try and sail round the south of the storm. The weather is cooling off as we head north east and there have been a few showers. We always saw other shipping on the first part of our trip but there is nothing to see except miles of ocean, a whale or two and some dolphins and the Officer of the watch insists on reminding us that there is approximately 2.5 miles of water beneath Oriana's keel - know just how isolated the Ancient Mariner felt! Tonight is the last piano recital by the very talented David Schofield, but there have been others we have enjoyed too. Last night we were transported back to the 60s by the Platters, 2 of the original group still going strong and a couple of days ago a very amusing comedian, Peter Piper raised a few titters with his send up of the Captain, who has an unfortunate speaking manner - he sounds like a Dalek. There were shades of Billy Connolly's ability to see the absurd in everyday life, in this case aboard Oriana - plenty of material there! Michael Howard and his wife are on board, Michael giving a couple of talks on life in politics and his wife signing copies of her latest novel. Think we'll give those a miss.
- comments
Derek Sounds like timber-shivering weather! Keep an eye on the wooden peg!! (Notice I avoided the all too obvious eye jokes!) Honolulu sounds largely spectacular - that's onto the list. Michael Howard ?- isn't he Frankie's brother - should be worth a pound of anyone's on-board allowance. Blimey I'd better stop I'm catching the "Blog"