Thursday 9 April 2015

Oahu, Hawaii

Oahu, Hawaii - Being a Beach Bum

Day Fourteen

After my jam-packed time as a tourist, I decided to do what the locals and Americans do while in Hawaii... Go to the beach. I spent most of my time either reading or swimming.


I also had the pleasure of sampling some of America's finest cuisine... The burger. I think I went to about four or five restaurants while in Hawaii where the only dining options were fish or burgers... Or fish burgers. As I don't eat fish...


Day Fifteen

Today I spent the whole day at the beach, it was excellent. I got there at about 10am and stayed to watch the sunset. With out a doubt one of the most relaxing days of my trip so far!


Day Sixteen

Today I did washing, which was a bit boring, but unfortunately very necessary, as I ready for the next stage of my journey. After all my clothes were clean and packed away, I headed down to the beach for a relaxing afternoon. At around 5pm I realised I hadn't eaten anything today, so I headed to Lulu's Bra and Grill for... A burger!

While eating my dinner I watched the sunset from the deck, which was absolutely beautiful. And then all of a sudden...


There was a parade! Obviously celebrating my last evening in Oahu! It was great, there were marching bands, beauty pagent winners and even Ronald McDonald McDonald.



Day Seventeen

And now, after checking out of the hostel, I am lingering in their lounge area, stealing their wifi... Waiting for the bus to take me on the next leg of my adventure!


Sunday 5 April 2015

Oahu, Hawaii - The Ultimate Tourist

Day Nine

I got up early in the morning and walked along the main strip until I found the Activity Centre that corresponded with the discount tourism card that I had bought. Sitting down with the travel consultant, I planned the next three days with tours and activities, making myself the ultimate tourist. After that very strenuous half an hour... I decided I needed to take a break....

 
I spent the rest of the day sitting at the beach reading my book. It was excellent. I managed to read 3 teen fiction books about a dystopian society before my kindle decided it was too tired. Luckily this was around sunset, so I watched that before heading back to my Hostel dorm for an early night. If only I had remembered to put on sunscreen....
 
 

Day Ten


Today I got up at stupid o'clock (6:30am) to go on a tour of Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. The tour consisted of families with young children, older couples and a fair few Japanese tourists. There is one thing about the experience that I've just got to point out quickly... The Japanese tourists going to Pearl Harbor kind of weirded me out... Especially when they posed infront of the signage explaining the historical significance of Pearl Harbor with thumbs up or doing the peace sign. I just though that was all a bit odd...

 
 First off on our tour around Historical Honolulu was 'Iolani Palace, which was the official residence of the Hawaiian monarchy. It is also the only palace on United States soil and was the first building in the US to have running water, inside toilets and a basement. The Hawaiian's are quite proud about that one...

 
The next stop on our tour was the statue of King Kamehameha the Great who is the man who united the eight islands of Hawaii and established the Kingdom of Hawaii. He has a pretty interesting History, fighting to unify the islands with wars and then later legislation and trading routes with Europe and America.

 
Next on our tour we stopped at Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery where many of America's servicemen are buried after the various wars America has fought in, including some of the fatalities from the Pearl Harbor attack. The tour guide explained that the cemetery was now at capacity with 48,000 buried there. Wikipedia says there are 36,000 buried there. Regardless of which number is correct, the number of memorial plaques that I could see was astounding. The atmosphere was very similar to what I experienced at Lone Pine.


On the way down from Punchbowl to Pearl Harbor, there was an amazing view of Honolulu, Waikiki and in the distance Diamond Head Crater, one of the islands dormant volcanoes.


At Pearl Harbor I decided to take an audio tour which included personal accounts from survivors, historians perspectives and mood music... The best bit.... It was narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. As I had already done some of Pearl Harbor with Paddy, I spent more time reading the plaques and information boards as I wasn't worrying about seeing all the sights. For me, the most poignant displays I saw, was donated by a Japanese family. The display consisted of over 1000 paper cranes made by an 11 year old girl who died of cancer after the Hiroshima bombing. In Japanese mythology folding 1000 cranes will grant you one wish... This girl was dying of cancer, she didn't wish for her recovery but rather peace.


As part of our tour, we then caught a ferry, run by Marines, out to the USS Arizona Memorial.


The largest donation to build the USS Arizona Memorial was Elvis Presley, which I found very interesting. The memorial is a long rectangular room that sits above the USS Arizona's final resting place of 1,102 servicemen. Most of the bodies were never retrieved. For me, the memorial really emphasised that architecture can influence environment and mood. The structure creates this feeling of reflection, respect, serenity and sadness. It is beautiful.


After my early morning start, what better way to finish the day than with a late night luau! I was picked up from my Hostel with thirty something other people and we made our way to Germaine's Luau, where we met up with the other 600 like minded people. Everyone was given a shell lei before we watched the sunset, watched the many different Polynesian dancing techniques and feasted on roast pig and other local delicacies... like macaroni and potato salad :P


The show was fantastic. I enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere, right on the beach, the high energy entertainment and the chance to meet new people... Who happened to be staying at the same Hostel as me!



Day Eleven

Once again I was up at stupid o'clock to go on another tour! This one was going to take me around the whole of Oahu in one day. The big plot twist being... The actual route was up to the drivers discretion! My driver was really into film, tv and food, So that is what he focussed on while we drove around the island. I loved it, but I'm not sure the rest of the tourists (all Japanese and Korean) got much out of it.


As well as learning about every show and film that was shot in Hawaii, we also went to all of the touristy lookouts. I saw so many selfie sticks.



We ended up going to a macadamia nut farm, I'm not a huge fan of macadamia nuts but the roast macadamia coffee I sampled was pretty excellent. We also got to crack open macadamia nuts from their shell, which was fun! This was one of the signs at the farm... Apparently I am 2/3 of the way to mainland USA!


This island is just so damn pretty.


Below is a picture of North Shore beach. Absolutely stunning.


Our next stop was the Dole Plantation which sold all things pineapple. I sampled the highly recommended pineapple whip. Which is a pineapple soft serve, no lactose or gluten, no added sugar or preservatives.... It was delicious. Sadly it was one of the only things made locally. Pretty much everything else pineapple related came from Thailand.


Another highlight at the Dole Plantation is the opportunity to go on the Pineapple Express, which takes you on a train ride around the pineapple farms. I am seriously considering coming back to the Dole Plantation so I can do the pineapple maze, go for a train ride and eat more pineapple soft serve.


After I got back to Waikiki after my tour, I met up with the three Californian Mexicans I met the night before at the Luau. We somehow ended up at a Gay Karaoke bar before coming back to the Hostel on some pretty sweet transportation.



Day Twelve

Today was high end shopping day at the outlet stores. As Oahu has height restrictions on buildings outside of Waikiki, the layout was not like a traditional mall but rather a single storey building sprawled over several blocks. Also, when I say high end, I mean high end.... There was nothing in the entire complex under $60 easily.... Which is why I ended up at the K-mart around the corner buying the bathers I promised I would buy myself on the first day I was in Hawaii.


Despite the high price tags on everything....People went crazy. The couple shown below had a small stash of bags compared to most of the crazed tourists running from store to store.


Despite my complaining, they were actually really good deals, just really out of my price range... Take the bag shown below, you can find it on the Kate Spade New York website for $225 USD, or on eBay for $298 USD. In the outlet store it was priced at $145 USD, but then there was a 40% sale ($87 USD) in store, with a further 20% off ($69.60 USD) hand bags. Then add the 10% discount ($62.64 USD) because I had booked the shuttle from Waikiki... That's a huge saving, from $225 to $62.64 (that is 72.16% off in total) ... still more money than I have ever paid for a hand bag once you take forex into account though ($82 AUD).



Day Thirteen

It's Easter Sunday and there are no chocolate eggs in sight! So I made do with some high end chocolates from Godiva (to give you an idea, 36 truffles is $75 USD). Mine only cost $4.50, don't stress! The drink was amazing too... $6 salted caramel iced chocolate. YUM.

 
And now, I must get ready for phase three of my Hawaiian adventure... The life of a Beach Bum!