Honolulu 2

 

We got up early so that we could see the sail into Honolulu, but we could of had an extra half hours sleep in as were running a little late....  This didn’t matter too much as our departure time was extended from 10 pm to 11pm and whilst we queued to leave the ship an announcement was made that all aboard was now not until midnight.

When we first ventured up front you could see Honolulu off in the distance....  We stood there as we sailed pass Diamond Head, an extinct volcano and around pass Waikiki.  As it was a Saturday we passed the Pride Of America, a cruise ship that runs the 7 day cruise of the Islands.

We docked right next to the Aloha Tower. There we 6 of us travelling together today and Ros had hired a car to get us around.  Once off the ship you had the Aloha Tower Marketplace right next door and whilst we waited for our shuttle to take us to hertz we saw a heap of free shuttles taking prospective clients to such places as Wal-Mart, Hilo Hatties and there was a shuttle with a Jewellery and Pearl shop advertised on the side....

Once again here we had the United States showing us their wonderful organisational skills we spent nearly and hour waiting for our shuttle.... Eventually he turned up claiming he didn’t know we were waiting for him... this was after the 5 phone calls that told Ros he was always “on his way”.....

We were picking up the car from the Hilton in Waikiki.... we found the queue and again we waited.... At one stage with the scare that they might not have a car big enough for us....   By now our morning start turned out to be a lunch time jaunt.

Our first stop was Waikiki... well, we were already there!!  Once Arnold got his driving legs in what seemed to be the widest vehicle we had ever driven in, we parked by the beach and us girls and garry  ran around and took pictures, the other 2 boys stopped for coffee.

We took photos of the beach bums and surfers and of course a Waikiki visit is not complete without a photo opportunity with the Duke.

We decided to stop and join the boys for coffee and a bit of lunch.  The weather up and down all day a little overcast with the occasional drop of rain... Unfortunately while we were trying to enjoy our al fresco lunch!!

We drove around to Diamond Head and drove into the crater which is known as the car park... We decided against the 2 hour return trip up to the edge of the volcano, so we drove back out and found a nice lookout just outside.

We then drove to the Halona Blowhole, here you could look down on the Beach made famous by the movie “ From Here to Eternity “ .  We walked around to the blowhole and waited patiently for it to build up enough to spurt... it took a little while but once it did it repeated the performance several times.

The skies were looking fairly ominous now and we debated whether or not  the trip to Pali Lookout was going to be worth it... but we soldiered on.... Lucky we did as the views were quite clear.

We made the small loop back into town and headed out to the first of the shopping sprees.  As we had the car we could travel out to the outlet centre for an hour or so and then back into Al Moana for a little more retail therapy.  We decided to head back to the ship for a late dinner and just outside the ship we found a little bistro where we enjoyed a lovely chicken Curry and a well deserved drink.

When we headed back to the ship our hearts sank as we saw Maurizio our head waiter racing past with a suitcase.... We thought he was leaving the ship in the cover of darkness without telling us.... But we breathed a sigh of relief when he told us that he had just bought the bag and was just after a quick bite before heading back on board....phew..

Deciding that our well deserved drink at the restaurant was not enough we met up on deck for a night cap..... and longed for a plate of hot chips but had to settle for leftover cakes....