Well it's been a while since I've posted, but seeing as I recently returned from sunny Hawaii I guess I at least have something to say.
I had a good, but exhausting holiday. No relaxation whatsoever. We took 500 photos. We managed to get used to tipping, but I couldn't get my head around all the coin, it was too hard to tell what was what, especially when I didn't add on the tax when I worked out the money before going to the cashier. I'm sure I thought it was stupid when Australia got rid of 1c and 2c but now that I can easily compare, I'm glad they did. I was disappointed with the range of chocolate bars over there as they mainly involved peanut butter, which I don't like. I missed my violet crumbles, of which they have no equivalent. Cadbury chocolate is made there by Hersheys. It tastes better than normal Hersheys chocolate but not as good as ours. Although since getting back I've had normal Cadbury and maybe it tastes the same. Maybe I'd just forgotten how it tasted.
Honolulu is a lot like the Gold Coast, only less feral. It was very clean and seemed to be very well coordinated. Public transport was easy to use and there were also free trolley buses that ran all the time. Every evening everywhere was lit up with torches. It really looked beautiful. I'm glad that we were able to get away to another island though. We went to the Big Island, which I felt stupid saying but that is actually what it's called. Although I think its official name is actually Hawaii. Another thing I noticed is that there were no bugs! No mozzies, and very few flies. So our hotel had its reception area and restaurants all out in the open.
Day 1 - The first day we arrived we stayed at Waikiki. We wandered around for a while, having arrived at 8am. Fortunately a room was available at our hotel, so after some brunch (I discovered that Subway tastes different here even when it's the same menu item. I think the honey mustard sauce was different) I pretty much crashed for a few hours. I had bought a small leather backpack for the holiday so imagine my annoyance when I discovered my top covered in black stuff. So that's one less tops I have to wear on the trip and I had to buy a new bag. We went to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach. I even had a Blue Hawaii, which was nice.
Day 2 - we headed off the the Big Island (the one with the volcano). I left my Ray Bans in the foyer of the hotel. Argh! I rang them from the airport to see if they were still there in the foyer but I guess someone took them. So had to buy some cheapies at the hotel. The hotel was beautiful. It had its own lagoon which had a population of turtles. So there was some relaxation in the bar overlooking the lagoon.
Day 3 - started with an introductory session on what there is to do, which came with free breakfast. The catch was it was at 7.45am! The activities lady asked us a few times if we were on our honeymoon as apparently we're a cute couple. We had nothing else planned for that day so we booked a submarine tour of the reef. It was good, but not many fish, which surprised me. But there were a couple of cool shipwrecks to look at. Unfortunately we didn't hire a car (stupid of us) so transport became an issue. We discovered a shuttle between the town and the resort but it didn't seem to follow the timetable we had. That night, my partner dragged me to the local cinema to see 1408 (stars John Cusack). It was a supernatural horror and really had no plot. They just stuck him in a room and had the ghosty thing do as many creepy things as they could fit into the time. After the movie, we went to a pizza place, where I discovered that pizzas are better there than they look in the movies. Didn't have a Hawaiian pizza though. The locals were quite friendly. As I went to the restroom (which was outside the restaurant) a guy said hello as I walked past. I spent the time in the restroom fearful that I was going to be pounced upon as I left as it was pretty deserted. But I actually think he was just being friendly.
Day 4 - we did a tour of the island, starting at 7.30am and went for around 12 hours! Highlight was the volcano. Unfortunately, the week before we arrived, the lava flow, that has been going since the 80s, had stopped flowing! That was OK as I don't think we would have been seeing the lava anyway as you have to take a different tour for that. The uncertainty was around whether we'd see anything as the volcano started doing weird things and they had closed the national park. Fortunately the day we went was the first day they reopened it. We got to see lots of steam, and sulphur, and black stuff from previous lava flows. It was kinda cool though. Apparently the magma chambers were swelling and volcanologists from all over were coming to check it out as they think it might blow soon. Having dinner that night I realised that asking for a lemonade does not get you a sprite. It gets you the home-made lemony sweet stuff. Sprite here is described as lemon-lime.
Day 5 - Snorkelling trip. We went on a boat to a marine sanctuary. It was at a bay where they have a memorial to Captain Cook. I hadn't realised that the Hawaiins killed him. Sounds like he deserved it though (from their telling anyway). Where the monument stands is officially British land so nobody was allowed to go onto the monument itself. I wonder if people from the UK can. Anyway, there weren't many fish here either. well, not as many as I would have expected in a sanctuary. Still, it was nice to go for a swim (we didn't do much swimming at all). My partner had fun going off the slide that was on the boat. As we were about to leave for the day someone yelled out that they could see a shark. Apparently it was a hammerhead. I didn't see it though. We saw dolphins earlier.
Day 6 - back to Honolulu. We stayed at the Hilton. Checked in the day Paris checked out of her digs. :o) My partner was the most excited he'd been all holiday because our room had a 42" plasma, and HBO. It didn't have many other exciting channels though. That night we went out to an italian place which was fairly average, and then wandered along waikiki. By this point I had had enough of walking.
Day 7 - we went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. It has mini villages of all the polynesian cultures. My advice is not to get a guided tour. We went around to villages and arrived at the right times for the scheduled activities, but we didn't have any time in them to find out anything. For example, in Tonga, all I found out about them was that they have a King, and that he died last year so they have a new one. We didn't get to look at any of the displays in our own time. The funniest thing was that for days we had had americans ask us where we were from. We'd say Australia and then they'd ask where in Australia. I don't know why as they only seem to know of Sydney, so once we told them we were from Canberra we'd either be met with blank looks or be asked how far away from Sydney Canberra is. The guy in the Fiji village asked us and we gave the answer of Australia, and he asked where so we said Canberra. His response was "Go Brumbies". Awesome! He became my favourite person.
Day 8 - I slept in until 9.30am! Woohoo! We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. This is where we found the massive serving sizes we'd been told about. My coffee cup almost covered my entire face. My partner ordered pancakes and was told they were 14 inches in diameter (or was it 16). anyway, he felt confident. But he was beaten by the pancakes. I think he made it about 2 thirds through, which is a good effort. Then we went to Pearl Harbour. It was definitely worth going to, especially as it was free which was nice. Learnt a bit, felt suitably moved. The bus system in Hawaii was good as it they told you what things were at the next stop so if you were a tourist, as most of us were, it was easy to find your way around. After Pearl Harbour we went to a shopping centre that my partner claimed was better than the main one advertised. The reason for this was they have a cinema. So we saw Die Hard 4. It was very good. Lots of things go boom!
Day 9 - this was to be our last day. We went shopping at the main shopping centre. I felt like I should buy stuff but didn't find too much of interest to me. Went to a pizza place and had a Hawaiian pizza as I felt I couldn't leave without doing so. It was made with bacon rather than ham. But apart from that, pretty standard. I saw a life size cardboard cutout of Capt Jack Sparrow, but couldn't work out how I'd get it home. Disappointing. We spent that night doing our souvenir shopping. Bought lots of t-shirts.
Day 10 - hometime. Had to get up at 5.30am to get to the airport 2 hours before our scheduled flight at 9.15am. Arrived to be told that our flight was delayed until 11.30pm. They claimed they had endeavoured to contact us, but I had no e-mails about it and my phone was on and I had no calls. At least they put us up in a hotel (across the road from waikiki beach). We had checked in our luggage so didn't really have any beach wear. So we went to the movies (again). This time we saw Knocked Up. It was funny. Then we came back and had dinner in the restaurant of the hotel (also paid for by Jetstar), which had a huge aquarium, and I had been keen to go but we hadn't gotten around to it. 2 kids lined up behind us (also Australian) saw a huge stingray and seemed quite distressed as it was what killed Steve Irwin. Poor kiddies have been traumatised. Anyway, the restaurant was nice. I filled up on desserts mainly as it was a lot of seafood (yuck). Then we were taken back to the airport where we waited for 3 hours. I collect snow globes and I bought one for myself. Unfortunately I forgot about the whole liquids thing at airports so I had packed it in my carry-on to avoid damage. But because it was liquid security confiscated it. She gave me the option to go back and check it in but seeing as my luggage had been checked in 12 hours earlier I couldn't really do that. So my snowglobe was lost to me. :o( Because of the delay we were given meals on the plane (which you normally have to pay for) and a $100 voucher for Jetstar. I'll probably never use it as it has to be used by January 2008 and Jetstar don't do flights to or from Canberra. I was so tired I slept all the way. I had hired a movie viewer thingy but I didn't even turn it on.
Photo 1 - view from our hotel on the Big Island
Photo 2 - sunset at the bar of our hotel on the Big Island
Photo 3 - Waikiki beach - taken from the hotel the airline put us up in on the last day
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