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!
