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.