Day 6-7 - Honolulu (Log)

With the whinging out of the way (on looking back, I was probably a bit harsh), I'm going to quickly summarise my last 29 hours in Hawaii, from where I left off.

20:00 Sat - Found good sushi at the 7/11 about 5 blocks from my hotel (the Ohana Maile Sky Court, the tallest hotel in Waikiki at 44 storeys) and then turned in for the night, watching a couple of US TV shows and chatting to my parents and friends before doing so.

Sun morning - Slept in so missed the Pearl Harbor tour I had booked and paid for. While I couldn't get a refund, the helpful lady downstairs informed me entry was actually free and I could get The Bus to it. After breakfast I did exactly that.

10:30 - Reached Pearl Harbor and entered the visitors centre. Was given a ticket for the 1:30pm boarding of the Arizona Memorial.

11:30 - Decided not to wait, but got some good shots and read all the displays in the visitors centre. It was quite stunning seeing the actual Japanese missile which downed the USS Arizona, the original anchor, reading about not just the story about what happened on the American side, and the personal stories and letters of many of those who died as well as survivors, but information from the Japanese side about how the attack was planned and coordinated. The place itself is quite scenic and it's horrifying to think such a beautiful spot was the site of over 1,100 deaths.

12:00 - Went back to Ala Moana, and checked out the Abercrombie & Fitch store. Although the last week has reduced my build a little, I sadly do not fit their XL t-shirt size and the XXL is way too big. The music and staff in this store are very young and hip - even compared to the Gap store next door - and it was one of the few places I encountered genuine friendliness (especially when the girls found out I was Australian). Walked around window-shopping for a while, went to a food supermarket and ended up with a (hard, non-juicy) nectarine, a lump of (stale) bread and a very nice blackcurrant mineral water. The Vitamin Water (click top right circle, then Vitamin Water, then a bottle down bottom to see the labels) had cute, silly labels that reminded me a lot of Nudie juice back home.

13:45 - Got the Route 52 Wahiawa Circle Route, which basically follows the Kamehameha (KAM-ay-ham-AY-ha) highway up the centre then along the North Shore and down the east coast. For information's sake (it confused the hell out of me until the driver explained it), the 52 and 55 are the same route but the 52 goes clockwise and the 55 goes anticlockwise.

The first part of the journey was a bit strange as an old black guy from Cincinnati who lives on the North Shore was trying to give us all rum, beer and peanuts and even weed, and he had a habit of talking very loudly. There was a couple of loud, middle-aged tourists in our section as well. After what seemed an eternity getting out the west side of Honolulu via Dillingham Blvd and the freeway, we passed over some very beautiful spots but I couldn't photograph them due to the bus's speed. The towns of Mililani and Wahiawa are pretty much urban residential, although looked nicer than Honolulu.

15:15 - Got out at the Dole Plantation. I was told this was a must-see, but when I got there it was full of tourbuses and very expensive merchandise. As I planned to be back in Honolulu by sunset (~7pm), I could only spend half an hour there, so didn't get to do the pineapple maze, but I did photograph some pineapples and some landscape shots nearby on the road.

15:45 - Onward to Haleiwa (which looked a lot like both Margaret River, WA and Lorne, VIC - surf towns for the non-Australian-initiated) and then to Waimea, which another tourist had told me was a must-see. This time, they were right about something. For probably the first time since arriving in Hawaii, I've found a place which is genuinely enjoyable and fascinating, split between the awesome surf beach on Waimea Bay and the river and rainforest starting very close inland and working outwards. I got some amazing shots - was an excellent way to wrap up my Hawaii trip.

17:45 - Left Waimea Bay, which had started to heat up quite suddenly, and we drove down the east coast of Oahu, which reminded me of the Great Ocean Road from Anglesea to Apollo Bay back home, except the vegetation was greener and lush and the path was neither as windy nor as hilly.

19:45 - Arrived back in Honolulu, bussed back to Waikiki and ate at the 7/11 again. I made a point of getting a 2L bottle of spring water as I was completely dehydrated.

20:35 - I arrived back at the hotel, where they let me use a courtesy room for 30 minutes to shower and go to the loo. From then until 22:30, I sat in the hotel lobby repacking my baggage, attending to my many and varied insect bites, and frantically trying to locate my Canadian currency which I appeared to have lost, but had just hidden rather too well as it turned out.

22:30 - Got the Airport Island Shuttle back to the airport. The airport is an amazingly open building with little airconditioning - a bit strange for a tourist resort with so much money. Considering how paranoid the US are about security, I was able to view my Air Canada plane as it was loading, with 10m and no glass whatsoever separating me from it. I finished the night talking to some other travellers from Australia and Canada and enjoying a Kauai icecream courtesy of the icecream bar, the only thing still open in the airport.

It is hard to explain, but as I was sitting on the plane waiting to take off, this feeling of intense happiness and excitement grabbed me. I was actually on a plane to Vancouver! I had been planning this for over a year, and now it is but hours away.

01:20 Mon 26th - Left Honolulu Airport aboard Air Canada flight AC034. We drove nearly 5km along various runways and the like before we finally took off - in the meantime having to endure the safety video in both English and French. I slept for the first part of the flight after watching CBC Inflight News.

**Note** About the times on my entries - the times I type in in bold are local times as indicated, but the time and date on the blog itself is ALWAYS GMT+8, i.e. Perth time. Sorry to any people this has confused.