How do you spend your last few days in a place that has become like a second home? You are aware that soon you´ll be in dorms again, sharing your personal space with strangers, that you´ll become a master toilet inspector and a connoisseur of bad smells. So you want to make the most of ´your´ apartment and your friends company, but you like to balance it with the best of the remaining sights that Hawaii has to offer.
You have a think, and then realise you can´t see all of the sights, that you have to be content with what you can see and afford. So you buy some oil paints, refuse the use of your friends car and enjoy your remaining solitary bliss on his balcony. As soon as your friend gets home you have to make up for it - so you do the tourist must do´s: the yard house (the worlds largest selection of draught beer), the cheesecake factory (raspberry chocolate truffle, yum yum), eggs n things (eggs n things - a Japanese mecca and a bizarre sight to behold). You walk around the people watching delight/freak show of Waikiki at night, you play table-tennis until you drop, trying to beat your competitive friend (I never did win), you climb diamond hill for sunrise, you check-out a waterfall and you snorkel in the magnificent Hanauma bay.
Diamond hill is a crater/ex military position and offers great views over Waikiki. Except for 2.1 bus loads of Japanese tourists (strangely without their warm safe buses) and a runner with a cow bell it´s a serene experience. Hanauma bay is a former royalty only, half-filled in volcanic crater that´s now a national park. Darren and i took our snorkeling gear and headed out for witches brew, a notorious spot that offers great visibility and the chance of strong currents to take you on a trip to open seas. We saw several eels and green turtles and 100´s of the usual reef fish - a pretty amazing selection and quantity for a snorkeling just off the coast.
So my time is up, my heart felt thanks to Kalei and Darren for a great time - i hope i can repay the honour one day. For now i have to chase Bob down. It seems my backpack is either in Phoenix or Charlotte, i´m now in Costa Rica and i should have been in Mexico....I love travelling :-)
