We seem to be winding down a little this week. We had a really busy time when we first got here, sight seeing and shopping, but this week we both just seem really tired and are finally just enjoying some hard earned rest time.
We went to see the Aloha Tower on Tuesday and then spent some time in down town Honolulu followed by an hour or two in the hotel pool. Aloha Tower was certainly very scenic with greats views of the docks and beautiful ocean, but like a lot of the shopping centres here, it was filled with the usual designer places. Downtown Honolulu was very busy, it reminded me of the square mile in London and I suppose it's really the Hawaiian version. The sun was scorching on Tuesday so we didn't spend too much time roaming around in it and were pretty glad to get into the nice cold hotel pool!
We spent Wednesday afternoon in the Hotel Laundrette washing our clothes, this always seems much more exciting when you're on holiday for some strange reason. Maybe it's the waiting for cockroaches to fly out from behind the washing machines, as one did on our first trip to the laundrette. The fact that I returned to the laundrette a second time is testament to how much the laid back polynesian lifestyle affects me when we're out here!
Fairly high waves had been forecast for Thursday so we spent a couple of hours watching the surfers on Waikiki beach. It was an overcast day but very hot due to the lack of trade winds and we ended up in the hotel pool by about 5pm just to cool down. Despite the heat, the hotel pool was absolutely freezing and we soon ended up dressed and eating pizza in the bottom on the Big Kahuna shopping centre.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Broken Toe
We've had an interesting few days here in Waikiki! The weather has been absolutely glorious, in fact a little too glorious for my liking! I prefer things a little cooler and have spent a lot of time hopping from shady tree to shady tree or wrapping myself up in big scarves.
On Friday we spent some time looking around Honolulu zoo. We just loved it there when we came in 2006 and they've made it even better for 2008! We spent a lot of time trying to figure out which animal Paul had (very) recently evolved from, but it was a little difficult to tell. He seemed to resemble the bear quite a bit, but then there were definitely similarities with the warthog, of course it could well have been the orang-utan as they apparently use tools and make themselves a bed to sleep in at night. I guess we'll just never know. We visited the Honolulu Aquarium on Saturday, again we've been before but it's just too good to miss. We got some great shots of fish and other sea life before the kids drove us away.
We thought we'd have a restful beach day on Sunday (yesterday), so headed on down to Waikiki beach. Unfortunately the rest of the Waikiki visitors had the same idea, so it was really crowded, but we did eventually find a spot to rest the beach mats on. Paul went straight down to the sea with his underwater camera and I wrapped myself in scarves and sat under an umbrella on the beach (it was very, very hot!). Paul came back from the sea about half an hour later and we decided to move on as I wasn't feeling too well and Paul had hurt is foot. Basically the waves had pulled him down onto the reef and he had one black and swollen toe and another with spines embedded in it. We assumed the black toe was broken so did our best to dig out the spines then rested the other foot on some pillows for most of the day. After much badgering Paul saw a quack this morning who told him that it was just a bad sprain. Anyway, we cheered him up by going to the Harley shop and buying him a really nice leather Harley jacket, but it looks like we're staying off the beach for a few days until the toe is better again.
On Friday we spent some time looking around Honolulu zoo. We just loved it there when we came in 2006 and they've made it even better for 2008! We spent a lot of time trying to figure out which animal Paul had (very) recently evolved from, but it was a little difficult to tell. He seemed to resemble the bear quite a bit, but then there were definitely similarities with the warthog, of course it could well have been the orang-utan as they apparently use tools and make themselves a bed to sleep in at night. I guess we'll just never know. We visited the Honolulu Aquarium on Saturday, again we've been before but it's just too good to miss. We got some great shots of fish and other sea life before the kids drove us away.
We thought we'd have a restful beach day on Sunday (yesterday), so headed on down to Waikiki beach. Unfortunately the rest of the Waikiki visitors had the same idea, so it was really crowded, but we did eventually find a spot to rest the beach mats on. Paul went straight down to the sea with his underwater camera and I wrapped myself in scarves and sat under an umbrella on the beach (it was very, very hot!). Paul came back from the sea about half an hour later and we decided to move on as I wasn't feeling too well and Paul had hurt is foot. Basically the waves had pulled him down onto the reef and he had one black and swollen toe and another with spines embedded in it. We assumed the black toe was broken so did our best to dig out the spines then rested the other foot on some pillows for most of the day. After much badgering Paul saw a quack this morning who told him that it was just a bad sprain. Anyway, we cheered him up by going to the Harley shop and buying him a really nice leather Harley jacket, but it looks like we're staying off the beach for a few days until the toe is better again.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
North Shore
We've had a rainy morning here in Hawaii but the weather is brightening up again this afternoon. It's still hot though even when it's raining and sometimes the break in the sunshine is a welcome relief.
We've been for lunch at Chilli's this afternoon but were left less than impressed. Everything on the menu is full of grass so it was really difficult to find anything to eat. I guess we're just very, very English, I would have been much happier with yorkshire pudding and gravy! It wasn't all bad though because they do stunning margaritas, I had a huge blue one which was enough to get me a little tipsy for the afternoon.
We had a great day yesterday exploring the North Shore of the Island. We caught a circle island bus which drove us directly across the island to the old 60's surfer town of Haleiwa. The town was just as you would imagine a 1960's surfer hotpsot to look, down to the little wooden stores and the shrimp shacks!
From Haleiwa we caught the bus to the turtle beach where wild turtles live freely in the waters and sand. We got some great shots of a large green "honu" just sleeping on the beach, completely uninterested in the tourists taking pictures.
The buses here run on Hawaiian time, so we ended up waiting nearly an hour for the next circle island and were a little tired by this point, so we stayed on a while driving along the coast past all the best Hawaiian surf beaches and then jumped off at the windwards mall, known as the local's mall. This was a little smaller than the Ala Moana in Honolulu and obviously much more catered to locals than to tourists. It had some really interesting shops and was well worth a visit.
We're having a well earned rest today doing a little washing and chilling out by the pool!
We've been for lunch at Chilli's this afternoon but were left less than impressed. Everything on the menu is full of grass so it was really difficult to find anything to eat. I guess we're just very, very English, I would have been much happier with yorkshire pudding and gravy! It wasn't all bad though because they do stunning margaritas, I had a huge blue one which was enough to get me a little tipsy for the afternoon.
We had a great day yesterday exploring the North Shore of the Island. We caught a circle island bus which drove us directly across the island to the old 60's surfer town of Haleiwa. The town was just as you would imagine a 1960's surfer hotpsot to look, down to the little wooden stores and the shrimp shacks!
From Haleiwa we caught the bus to the turtle beach where wild turtles live freely in the waters and sand. We got some great shots of a large green "honu" just sleeping on the beach, completely uninterested in the tourists taking pictures.
The buses here run on Hawaiian time, so we ended up waiting nearly an hour for the next circle island and were a little tired by this point, so we stayed on a while driving along the coast past all the best Hawaiian surf beaches and then jumped off at the windwards mall, known as the local's mall. This was a little smaller than the Ala Moana in Honolulu and obviously much more catered to locals than to tourists. It had some really interesting shops and was well worth a visit.
We're having a well earned rest today doing a little washing and chilling out by the pool!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Cold
Right now I think I must be the only person in Hawaii with a cold. Paul managed to locate some cold and flu tablets in a local supermarket and these were helping a lot in the first day or two, but they're not really touching it this morning.
The hotel is performing some maintenance on the water supply today, and so water will not be available from 8.30am to 4.30pm. We've decided that this seems like a great opportunity to hit the North Shore for the day. Most of the locals live on the North Shore and it's much more rural than the Waikiki / Honolulu side of the island. There are also some great beaches that are worth investigating including Turtle beach where huge sea turtles live naturally.
It should be a good day despite the sniffles.
The hotel is performing some maintenance on the water supply today, and so water will not be available from 8.30am to 4.30pm. We've decided that this seems like a great opportunity to hit the North Shore for the day. Most of the locals live on the North Shore and it's much more rural than the Waikiki / Honolulu side of the island. There are also some great beaches that are worth investigating including Turtle beach where huge sea turtles live naturally.
It should be a good day despite the sniffles.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Ring
After a couple of very subtle and well placed hints Paul decided that he wanted to buy me an eternity ring in Hawaii as a symbol of his undying love and devotion (he also offered me a noose but I declined).
We'd had a look around a few jewellery counters during the day but I hadn't really seen anything that was quite right. We decided to have a walk through the Waikiki market this evening which is bit like the Hawaiian version of the Eastgate market at Skegness. They have a truly remarkable selection of tac ranging from penis shaped ash trays to knock off sunglasses. There are also a few really nice stalls selling Hawaiian gifts, lei's, clothes and bags and also a couple of nice little jewellery stores.
I found a beautiful ring in the Maui divers store, just the kind of thing I was looking for. It's a double white gold band containing orange, yellow and blue sapphires (to signify the rainbow state), set in a design of 3 flowers and decorated with diamonds. The ring fits perfectly, it had obviously just been sat waiting for me to come and buy it.
We'd had a look around a few jewellery counters during the day but I hadn't really seen anything that was quite right. We decided to have a walk through the Waikiki market this evening which is bit like the Hawaiian version of the Eastgate market at Skegness. They have a truly remarkable selection of tac ranging from penis shaped ash trays to knock off sunglasses. There are also a few really nice stalls selling Hawaiian gifts, lei's, clothes and bags and also a couple of nice little jewellery stores.
I found a beautiful ring in the Maui divers store, just the kind of thing I was looking for. It's a double white gold band containing orange, yellow and blue sapphires (to signify the rainbow state), set in a design of 3 flowers and decorated with diamonds. The ring fits perfectly, it had obviously just been sat waiting for me to come and buy it.
Monday 07th
I was a bit concerned that we'd picked a really bad time of year to visit on Sunday because it rained a lot during the day, at one point the road outside our hotel was like a river with running water and my feet and trouser bottoms were soaked. The weather today has been brilliant though, the sun has been beating down most of the day with just a couple of light showers which helped to cool us down.
We were up from about 4am and ended up in Denny's at 6am for breakfast - I think it was a shock for Paul who was previously unaware that there could be two 6 o'clocks in one day. After a hearty American breakfast which undoubtedly will someday be the cause of a coronary bypass we headed down to the beach for a look round. The sea was an amazing azure colour and the sky clear blue. We took a few shots and then headed off to find a Hilo Hatties trolley stop.
Hilo Hatties is the store of Hawaii selling really good Aloha shirts, local products and gifts. They run a trolley shuttle which collects tourists in Waikiki and deposits them off at the big store in Honolulu. We waited about 30 minutes for a trolley to come (they're usually every 20), but on our way to the store the driver ran into another car so we were turfed off and decided to make our own way rather than chance our luck again. After seeing a few buses go past we decided instead to jump on a number 19 to the ala moana shopping centre where we bought Paul ice cream and crocs and then headed off to Kmart.
I'm absolutely fascinated by American supermarkets and could spend hours just looking at the confectionery aisles. We bought a couple of dresses and headed back to Waikiki were we spent a couple of hours lazing by the pool and catching rays.
We were up from about 4am and ended up in Denny's at 6am for breakfast - I think it was a shock for Paul who was previously unaware that there could be two 6 o'clocks in one day. After a hearty American breakfast which undoubtedly will someday be the cause of a coronary bypass we headed down to the beach for a look round. The sea was an amazing azure colour and the sky clear blue. We took a few shots and then headed off to find a Hilo Hatties trolley stop.
Hilo Hatties is the store of Hawaii selling really good Aloha shirts, local products and gifts. They run a trolley shuttle which collects tourists in Waikiki and deposits them off at the big store in Honolulu. We waited about 30 minutes for a trolley to come (they're usually every 20), but on our way to the store the driver ran into another car so we were turfed off and decided to make our own way rather than chance our luck again. After seeing a few buses go past we decided instead to jump on a number 19 to the ala moana shopping centre where we bought Paul ice cream and crocs and then headed off to Kmart.
I'm absolutely fascinated by American supermarkets and could spend hours just looking at the confectionery aisles. We bought a couple of dresses and headed back to Waikiki were we spent a couple of hours lazing by the pool and catching rays.
Laptop
We found out when we arrived that the hotel now has free internet access to all room and not being the kind of people to turn down 3 weeks of free internet we decided we should go out immediately and buy another laptop. Only 3 of our 7 rooms at home currently have laptop / mac residing in them so obviously another one isn't going to hurt. We woke up early on Sunday morning and had a greasy Jack in the Box breakfast to get us going for the day and then headed off to honolulu Wallmart. Unfortunately the supermarkets over here aren't as well stocked as those back home, but after 6 hours, several bus rides and a good couple of miles walking in the noon day sun we were the proud owners of a shiny new compaq.
We got back to the hotel around 3pm and Paul began the usual mind numbing task of 'configuring' his new toy. I promptly fell asleep and woke up in the early hours of the morning with Paul snoring next to me and the laptop snoozing on standby on the dressing table.
We got back to the hotel around 3pm and Paul began the usual mind numbing task of 'configuring' his new toy. I promptly fell asleep and woke up in the early hours of the morning with Paul snoring next to me and the laptop snoozing on standby on the dressing table.
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