My week in Hawaii …

… was awesome!

Part 2 - Planning and a Luau - 3/7

We got up ridiculously early, as our bodies were four hours fast for Hawaii. We went round to a nreaby hotel for a ‘free’ breakfast. The catch was we had to spend two hours listening to an ‘orientation’. Basically a Hawaiian guy told us about how we should spend our time in Hawaii. Don’t spend it at the beach, you can do that at home, get out and see Hawaii. While I totally agree with him, I had to laugh as he procedeed to recommend the activities we should try.

In all fairness we did some fantastic stuff, but it was funny at the time. After doleing out alot of moolah to organise these activities, we had pretty much the day to bum around and relax, until the afternoon.

Our first activity was to be taken all the way to the south-west of the island to a Luau, a Hawaiian feast or party. As our funny guide Riley told us, its Luau; a party. Not a lua; a potty.

The Luau was pretty massive, there were bus loads of tourists, and we were treated to a fairly nice night. We got plenty of food to eat, including the traditional luau food; pig cooked in a pit. It was quite nice, and we also got cheap drinks too. I had several Mai Tai, Blue Hawaii and Long Island Ice Teas, and was feeling the worse for it when we went home. I also introduced some of these beauties to Andrew, who turned 18 two weeks prior. I had no regard for the yanks 21-is-the-legal-age BS.

We also saw some local dancing and fire-twirling, which I mostly missed talking to some Ukrainian girls from California.

Funniest moment of the night, travelling back quite tipsy and Riley told us to watch our step as we left the bus; ‘yeah I had the lady the other day, she wasn’t paying attention and she fell and broke her legs in two places’ …

… quiet horror from the bus …

‘I had to shoot her’ …

… they were rolling in the eisles. I guess you had to be there, and boozed up.

(Funnier thing was that this joke seems to be a favourite, and popped up several times on our trip, however Riley had the best delivery)

My week in Hawaii …

… was awesome!

Part 1 - The Travelling - 2/7 - 2/7 (Screwy Date Line)

Flew out of Sydney at 8:30pm, which is a good time to fly, got all day to get ready, have time for a real dinner and relax before squishing on a plane for a nine hour journey.

I was a bit disappointed that Qantas didn’t have an entertainment on demand system, like other airlines I’ve flown recently. Still the flight passed quite well, thanks to some Dimetapp Cold and Flu Night-time tablets. Those things work a charm everytime.

The security getting into Hawaii (I can’t really call it the USA) really shocked me. I had to have both my index fingers scanned, and my photo taken at the Immigration checkpoint. Andrew told me that when they were scanned, the guards screen said ‘No Match’. So my real identity remains unknown, excellent.

Mum and Dad told us ‘absolutely no joking around’, but Andrew couldn’t help it and was a complete smart-arse as we entered. The guy at the counter was obviously one of those rare good-humoured Americans (they do exist!) and had a nice little chuckle at him. Dad was biting his nails as only he can do.

Leaving the 15 degree cold in Sydney, I was pleasantly greeted by 28 degrees in Honolulu, and a kiss and a lei from a beautiful native. That’s a lei, a Hawaiian flower necklace for those wondering.

We made the short trip from the airport to our Hotel, the Princess Kaiulani Sheraton. On the way, Andrew and Nyssa were impressed by the size and number of large buildings. Their first time really outside Australia (Fiji doesn’t count). Having seen some enormous cities across Asia, I was sitting smugly as they gasped.

Waikiki was pretty much what I imagine the Gold Coast to be; a short narrow strip of beach packed with high-rise hotels and apartments. Sorry condominiums. Our hotel was pretty fair, and was just one street back off the beach. Unfortunately our fifth floor vantage point wasn’t high enough to see over the other hotels to the see.

We hit the ‘beach’ in the afternoon to get some sun, sand and ’surf’. Ok, let me analyse these two features in more detail. The so called Waikiki beach is quite long but only about 3m wide in some places, down near the Rainbow Hilton there is a big flat area, but I reckon that’s probably a small field covered with sand rather than a beach, it was way to flat.

I generally rate beaches on the quality of their sand. Waikiki is probably on par with some southern Sydney, or some northern beaches. Pretty nice but not up to mid-north coast and above beaches.

However the water looked just fantastic. It was a beautiful tropical color of blue, taht you can only get from shallow water over white sand. Love it. The bay area was very calm, and the swell almost non-existant. Perfect for lounging, and indeed there were hundreds of beach-goers floating on blow-up mattresses.

The calmness extended for several hundred meters I’m sure, right to where the sea deepens. Out towards the back was the ’surf’. But I only say this half tongue in cheek, because they were the most perfect waves a noobie surfer like myself has ever seen. They were no more than 2ft, but they formed and just held up for 20-30 meters.

I saw guys out there casually paddling into them and getting up and just having this long ride on the swell, before it died down in deeper waters. I was cursing my shoulder as I watched these guys, old an young having a ball. I tried to do some swimming but it painfully clear that my shoulder still doens’t have the strength to paddle, so there was no way I was going to get on one of those babies.

Damn.

After some swimming and sunbaking, we had dinner in another of the hotels along the beach. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. It was okay food.

I don’t remember the rest of the night, not sure if it’s my gold-fish memory or if our body clocks were a bit screwed up.