Carrie's Adventure

Aloha Waikiki

crjcarrie — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:24:00 GMT

The first stop in my 2008 adventure was Hawaii. After a long and boring overnight flight to Honolulu via Sydney we arrived at 7am in the morning on the 4th of January. After dropping my bags at the Hostelling International Waikiki, I proceeded to find things to do for a few hours until I could officially check in at the hostel and get some sleep! So I found the beach and wandered up and down the main shopping strip for a while, ate food, found awesome coffee and tried my very best not to fall asleep while sitting on a park bench in a public place!

Day 1 having been pretty much a write off due to jet lag, but the rest of the holiday was nice and relaxing! Plenty of sun baking and swimming... the water is oviously a little warmer than the Antartic waters of Victoria, but the sun is just as hot!! Waikiki beach is always a hive of activity at any time of the day. There were people out on the beach, in the water and surfing from sunrise until after sunset each day. Went to Hanauma Bay, the island of O'ahu's best snorkelling spot. Saw some beautiful fish, but unfortunately due to the sheer volume of people that come to this area each year the coral reef has taken quite a hit, and is certainly no where near as spectacular as the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Did a whole island round trip in a hire car. Amazing to see the enormous volcanic mountain ranges, went to Sunset Beach and saw to huge surf. Tried to sunbake there, but was rudely interrupted by rain showers!

Climbed the Diamond Head Mountain. This is a spectacular peak that provides the back drop to the Waikiki scenery. It is acutally a perfect circle volcano crater that was utilised as a lookout and gun point during the world wars. The walk in itself is as amazing as the view I was rewarded with from the top! A combination of steps and tunnels, and a spiral staircase, to zig zag the way from the floor of the crater to the top edge that overlooks the ocean and Waikiki/Honolulu. See my photos to get a better idea of the magnificence of the place!

Spent the better part of a day at Pearl Harbour. Visited the USS Arizona memorial, which was quite haunting to think of over 1000 sailors who are entombed still in the hull of the battle ship. Took a slef guided tour of the USS Bowfin, a submarine which is part of the Navy Museum alongside the Arizona Memorial. To finish of the day I took a tour of the enormous USS Missouri, a battle ship which was decomissioned in the 1980's. It is quite amazing to see how Navy personel live and work in such small spaces!

The rest of my time in Hawaii involved drinking locally brewed coffee from the Honolulu Coffe Co., spent plenty of time on the beach in the sun, and swimming. Did a bit of shopping at the Ala Moana Centre and just relaxed!! An awesome time!

Gallery: Tasmania December 2007

crjcarrie — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Hiking trip with Dad

Hiking adventure

crjcarrie — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:17:00 GMT

On the 13th of December 2007 my Dad and I head off on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry from Melbourne to Devonport. After a bad nights sleep in an "ocean view recliner" we drove the Subaru to Launcestion to collect Mum and Sam after they got the good deal and flew to Tasmania rather than the bumpy boat. After scouting out our meeting place for a food drop later in the week, Dad and I set off up the hill to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. After a tough slog up the hill we made it into the eden that is the Walls area. Such a wonderland of pencil pine trees ans creeks and lakes. Rocky hills wall the area on each side as we walked through to Dixon's Kingdom Hut. We dropped our packs to take the walk up Mt Jerusalem, which was well worth the effort, as the views we were rewarded with were spectaculr. We could see Cradle Mountain to the west, and accross to the east was an amazing maze of small lakes and rocks for it seems as far as the eye can see. The following 2 days were walking around the lake areas to the south to meet up with the Overland track. The shortcut involved hard walking, leeches, rather wet conditions, and crossing a suspension bridge that had been recently washed away after flooding. Our efforts were rewarded with a rest day at the New Hut on Pelion plane. Efforts to climb Mt Oakleigh were foiled by some super cloudy days, so we had a big day and hiked to Windy Ridge Hut via morning tea of biscuits and peanut butter at Kia Ora hut, while the others there packed their packs for the day! We risked the weather and took the side trip up to Pine Valley. Climbed the Acropolis... worth every drop of sweat shed to get up the seemingly vertical walk up the hill! After 9 days and 8 nights hiking and camping, we arrived in at the Lake St. Clair visitors centre into the open arms of a hot coffee, and a well earned shower. Flew home on the 23rd of December, worked Christmas eve, and had no time for my Christmas shopping!! What an awesome trip, definitely will go back to the Walls of Jerusalem area to have more of an explore and climb some more of the peaks in the area!