Aloha Hawaii! - Blogabond

Zooming back over the Atlantic after 2 days in England, I was reunited with my partner in crime at LAX and we hopped straight onto a plane to our last US destination, the beautiful island of Hawaii.

It most certainly lived up to its reputation, and although we only had a short time to explore, we made the most of our time on the main island of O'ahu. The hostel we stayed in was in a lively part of town, minutes from Waikiki Beach and the tropical surroundings were really impressive. We were surprised at how picturesque the high rise hotels looked as they bordered the sandy beach,

especially as we had been spoilt with idyllic Costa Rican beach hideaways, but Hawaii seems to work very well as an island city paradise. We had arrived into Hawaii late on the first night, and as Sup had been living it up in LA and I had a serious case of jetlag, we decided to get some proper rest to maximise the enjoyment for the rest of our stay – sensible creatures that we are now!

Our first adventure started with Diamond Head, a large crater that we climbed for the promise of incredible views of the island. It was a steep old climb, and every time we thought we had made it, there seemed to be another level to conquer! At last, at the very top we were rewarded with a vast expanse of ocean along with a birds eye view of the island (photo above). The water appeared to be a shimmering silver in colour and was unlike any water we had seen before, almost like a pool of mercury – very impressive indeed. We spent some time on Waikiki Beach later that day soaking up the sun and enjoying a performance of Hula dancers in true Hawaiian style. I later attempted my own version but decided perhaps I needed more practice!

Any visit to Hawaii would of course be incomplete without taking some time to discover more about the history of Pearl Harbour. Naturally, I was a fountain of knowledge already thanks to a certain epic film of the same name, so I knew it all (!), but we also took the audio tour to gain deeper insight into the tragic day. After spending some time looking at the battleships and torpedoes displayed on the shore, we took a tour boat out to the Arizona Memorial. Interestingly we learned that many of the ships that were hit by the attack on Pearl Harbour

were recovered and back in action soon after, however sadly the Arizona was not among them. The ship remains under the water where it fell, along with so many of its men who did not make it out. The Arizona Memorial, a giant bright white monument built above the sunken ship, was built to mark the loss of the fallen men, and to represent the crushing defeat and the subsequent triumph of World War II. Standing in such amazing surroundings, it was hard to imagine the devastation brought on by the savage surprise attack on the harbour.

We decided to stop by Chinatown on our way home from Pearl Harbour, and we were very glad that we did. Our rumbling bellies were filled with a giant portion of cuisine from the Philippines and it was so delicious that we contemplated adding the country to our list of places still to travel!

Our final experience in Hawaii was an exciting road trip in a loop around the island, all the more exciting because I finally got to get behind the wheel of a car again – hooray! Sup was exceptionally brave sitting beside me navigating as I manoeuvred the streets and tried hard to remember which side of the road I should be driving on...!

There were so many wonderful sights to see along the way, and we were hopping in and out so often that we were worried we wouldn't return the car in time. We had a lovely picnic on one of the fabulous beaches we passed and played with the Aerobie (frisbee) in the water before continuing our journey as the sky started to darken with the threat of rain. A real highlight was seeing some huge turtles swimming up to the shoreline at the beach – they were too fast for our camera, but we managed to capture some great images on video.

After returning the car we enjoyed our last night in Waikiki, walking through the town and admiring some art galleries with beautiful images of Hawaii which we would have loved to buy, had we a spare couple of thousand pounds or so!

Our experience in Hawaii was fantastic and we would have loved to have had more time (and money) to enjoy it for longer. We promised ourselves that we would return one day with more money to burn and travel the islands of Maui and Big Island for the volcanic parks and stunning scenery. It is always a good thing to leave wanting more though, and with Fiji as our next destination, we had a feeling we would be just fine...

written by

SupandNic on May 30, 2010 from Honolulu, United States

from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!

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