Hawaii - Oahu

I'm finally writing about Hawaii. Mike and I went in early January right after New Years.

We went to the Oahu island where Honolulu the capital is and Waikiki beach is. It is also where Barack Obama is from.

We stayed in a nice Hilton just a block away from Waikiki beach.

It had lovely newly renovated rooms. Very crisp and modern looking and it had a roof top pool which was great for a change from the beach.

The first day we got there we arrived in the evening. We explored the shops and streets around us and took a little walk on the beach.

The next day we got up and headed straight for the beach and spent most of the day just walking around the beach.

I was surprised by the amount of shopping that was on the street just before the beach. Tons of high end designer shops and then the same ones a block down. It was like being on Robson street except it was all bigger and newer looking and more American.
That first day we just sort of relaxed, ate and drank and just decided how we would spend our vacation.

I knew that I wanted to try surfing and go to a luau and Mike wanted to hike Diamond head (an inactive volcano seen in the background here) and visit Pearl Harbor.

Waikiki beach is the beach where all the resorts are built on and there are tons of tourists and beach goers.

On the beach there are catamarans that you can take you out and you can try snorkeling for a pretty good price of around $20.

I think around the second day when we had our bearings we decided to go surfing as that was the thing I wanted to try.

There was a place just down the street from our hotel that had pretty good rates.
So we went over and we got a little lesson on land first. They get you to lie on a board that is on a lounge chair and pretend you are paddling, popping up, etc.

When the instructor was satisfied we were ready we took our boards and headed in a group for the beach.

The boards are really big and awkward. Mike and I carried ours one on each side, me at the front and him at the back.

Once we had walked to the place the instructor showed us how to push out and start paddling.

The hardest part of surfing for me was paddling. It requires a lot of upper arm strength and I just felt like I'd paddle and paddle and then a big wave would come and push me back right to where I was before.


So the instructor, bless his heart, would come over and hook his foot on to my board and basically pull me out.

I'd paddle to help, but my arms were tired! I found out that he was doing the same for Mike later, so I didn't feel so weak after that. So we'd get to a good place and he push us and we'd stand up for a bit and then crouch back down. I did it right a couple of times, but I also fell off, drank a lot of salt water and got scraped up on the rocks and so did Mike.

About 45 minutes into our 2 hour lesson we were done. We are not surfers, we are too old for this noncense, I'm afraid. Hang 10 is not in our blood. So I swam over to the instructor and told him we were heading in early. He was pretty very nice and I just said that we tried it and got out of it what we wanted and were done. We walked our boards back, went back to the hotel for a shower and a beer and then got some lunch at this great cheeseburger place at the corner to the entrance of Waikiki beach.
The cheeseburgers were awesome! I got one that was loaded with a fresh pineapple slice, swiss cheese and sweet sauce and fresh guacamole on the side.

We shared the fries and the place was also famous for their Mai Tais and I can see why.

The place is called Cheeseburger Paradise if you're ever in Waikiki, check it out.




We paid, went for a walk and came back to the hotel to hang out at the pool for a bit.

We had some drinks and watched the football game with the bartender. There was a commercial for Vegas and it was interesting to find out that the number one destination place for Hawaiians is Las Vegas.

They looove to gamble. It must be true as the commercial was actually geared towards Hawaiians. Another thing in Waikiki beach that was different were these convenience stores called ABC stores. They have tons of stuff from towels to clothing to alcohol and groceries. We found our self buying groceries often because there just wasn't tons of places to eat and they were pretty pricey, but I don't mind buying groceries on vacation. Eating restaurant food for 6 days straight plays havic with my digestion so eating normal food was welcomed.

One day we hiked Diamond Head. It is an inactive vulcano that is the backdrop for Waikiki common in many of my photos. You see it in the photo of the pineapple tree above.

We took a taxi to the base and then started out. You have to pay a couple of bucks for a ticket and there are public washrooms and a parking lot etc.

The mountain was also a look out during the war. There were bunkers carved out in it and you actually passed through them with getting to the top.

It is not a difficult hike. I think it was maybe 30 to 45 minutes up and the same down.

When you're used to the Grouse Grind, this was a walk in the park.

I recommend it to anyone going to Oahu. It's possible for everyone to do it and there are some nice views.






Part of the hike is a tunnel that is dimly lit.

The tunnels are short though which is good. I have a bit of a fear of them. I always try to get through one as fast a s possible.

I'm happier being closer to the ends than the middle if you know what I mean.

There is also quite a few steep stairs that are part of the hike.

It wasn't quite what I expected due to the amount of human intervention that had obviously happened to create the trail, but still it was a fun outing.








Here is one of those great views and the water is nice too (ha, ha).

Behind Mike there you can see this little light house that you can actually visit if you drive














around the parameter of the island. It was really a gorgeous view the the turquoise water, the big waves breaking and the little red and white lighthouse.
We also went to a luau, which was the activity that I wanted to do.

We walked to a nearby hotel and a touring bus picked up to take us to Paradise Cove. It is a resort and specializes in luaus. The first picture in this post is of the luau. When we got off the bus they gave me a lai, and Mike this necklace of some kind of nuts that are for the men.

They also handed us our first Mai Tai. Remember to bring your id people in the states. They are very strict about carding and the drinking age is 21.
The card people who are obviously 40 or so.

So of course what did I do? I didn't have a license at the time as I'd just had to get a new one on Van and I'd just had a piece of paper. I left my passport in the hotel as I'm kind of worried about losing or damaging it and it is kind of big for the purse.

But Mike got my drinks for me so everything was fine. It would have really sucked to pay for these tickets and then they won't give you your included drinks.

So there were all these activities before the dinner and the show.

First they had this girl in costume give hula dances. She was dancing to Hawaiian music that this couple were playing on a stage.

When she was done, there was traditionally dressed young man who gave a demonstration on how to husk and break open a coconut.

Then in a picture above, you see the guy climbing waaaay up a pine apple tree where he threw flower petals. If you caught them, they were supposed to be good luck.

There was also a bit where there was a little fishing boat lit with torches and a fisherman who cast his net into the ocean to catch prawns.

During this piece they also had all these male guests who had volunteered to be part of the entertainment dressed up in grass skirts, no shirts and doing this ridiculous little shimmies and gestures at the command of their leader.

It was prestty funny. During this time the sun was setting and it was very beautiful.

Finally they did this ceremony where they had actors dressed up as the royal family and they gave people samples of poi. It's kind of a puree of taro root.

It is not that apetizing, but neat to get to try it.

During this time, they also dug up the roast pig that had been baking in coals wrapped up in burlap and buried in the sand.

Then it was time for dinner so we went over to our seats.

Mike had decided to treat us and got us gold tickets. This meant that we got to sit very close to the stage, we had a waitress rather than standing in line for the buffet and bar and we got some framed photos which she brought to us and a photo mug which I thought was kind of ironic as I was thinking about how PhotoChannel might be able to do this.

They served us a white fish, chicken with a nice white cream sauce and pulled pork (hence the roasted pig). I love pulled pork, it is my new favourite food right now.

There were tons of costumes and different dances. Different people came out to sing and dance. It was very entertaining and there was a little explanation about what each dance was.

The one above with the men was a fertility dance....yeah, I can see that being a fertility dance for sure ;)






There was also a fire dancer. He was great.

They served us dessert. There was a yummy coconut cake, with frosting, a coconut and pineapple gelatin and fresh pineapple.

Very yummy. When the show was over we collected our bounty and loaded on the bus for the trip back.

Some other cool things were the wild roosters and hens.









This treasure collector with a metal detector that I saw and couldn't resiste snapping.

This is a statue of a surfer at the entrance of Waikiki beach.

He is supposed to guard the surfers of the beach from harm.

Here is Mike next to a tank outside the army museum of Hawaii. We didn't go as I refuse to go to any attraction that has the word museum in it while on a tropical holiday and we planned on going to Pearl Harbor.
There were also the big Hawaiian trees that have many trunks and these vines hanging off them.

They are called Banyan trees and are all over the parks.

We saw lots of great sunsets too. No sunrises mind you as we were on holiday, but sunsets.

Nothing makes a sunset complete in my opinion than a couple of big palm trees flanking it.

On our last day we decided to rent a car and drive around the island. We had a late flight and would go home on the red eye so we had to figure out something to do for the day.

By renting a car we had a place to put our luggage after checking out and we made a day out of it.

We had planned on going to Pearl Harbor at the end of the day, but we just didn't make it. We (Mike) got up a bit too late to make it, but he was more interested in that than me so, if it didn't bother him, it didn't bother me.

There are all kinds of great little beaches around the island to see.

They are no where near as populated as Waikiki beach and the sand seems whiter and the water bluer.

If I come back to Oahu, I may consider renting a cottage around here and a car rather than a hotel room in the city.

On the North of the island is also where the big waves are this is where the reals surfers go.















This may have been a better place to take a lesson. I think there weren't any big old rocks here either.

We ended up back near Honolulu. We parked the car, walked around for a bit and had a couple beers at an outdoor bar before driving to the airport and dropping off the car.

We changed into our Canadian garb for getting of the plane in Van, had some dinner at the airport and checked out the duty free.

We were happy to get home and pick up Unos and Tala and they were very, very, very happy to see us as I'm sure they were not feeling as though they were on vacation.

Aloha,

Andrea