Manoa Falls

Today we hiked up to Manoa Falls, just up behind Waikiki. You can catch the bus up to the start of the trail & walk about 30 minutes or so to reach the falls. It was surprisingly low in tourists considering how pretty the walk was. The only down side was the mud on the trail. Maybe that explains the lack of tourists.

The trail leading to Manoa falls is almost worth the walk on its own. There were about a dozen shots like this that we could have taken along the trail. This area is what I expected Hawaii to look like, & a fair chunk of Oahu is, I guess. It's just hard to get at.

North Shore

Away from the tourist nightmare of Honolulu & Waikiki, there is actually a good part of Oahu. We did the island circuit bus trip that runs up through the centre of the island (past the pineapple plantations) up to the North shore town of Haleiwa, along the water front and big name surf breaks such as Waimea bay, Three Tables, the Banzi Pipeline & Sunset Beach. (Three Tables pictured below). The bus continues along the shoreline to Windward. The final leg cuts straight over the mountain range to Honolulu. It's a really pretty journey & well worth the 4 hours on the bus. Unfortunately we didn't get much chance to hop off the bus & take photos. (Mental note: Next time hire a car to sight see.)

We broke up the 4 hr bus trip with a snorkel at Sharks Cove and Three Tables near Waimea Bay. Not a good place to snorkel in winter when the swell is running at 5m plus, but in summer, it's like a mill pond. Sharks Cove is a marine park and the fish life is therefore excellent. There are similar species to those I have seen on the Barrier Reef back in Oz. Many are slightly different and pretty variants. The only down side was the large number of people snorkeling. I think we arrived early enough to beat the main crowds.

I took about 35 photos with a disposable underwater camera while I was snorkeling at Sharks Cove. The results aren't brilliant because of the low resolution and the fact that colour disappears the deeper you get under water. Red goes first and Green last.

This is one of my better shots. It is a member of the Surgeonfish family, but I don't know which one exactly.

Most of the Trevally in Australia are pretty much silver with little other colour other than black spots, or the odd bit of yellow. In the true Hawaiian style of flashy colours, the Blue Finned Trevally found around the Hawaiian islands are covered in iridescent Blue markings & a spattering of yellow strips. I saw a few while I was snorkeling at Sharks Cove & Three Tables (not little ones either).

Windward

Across the range from Honolulu is the town of Windward. It has a much better feel to it than the tourist strip on the other side of the island. The scenery is such a contrast to that of Waikiki. The mountains are high & shear, and the vegetation is incredibly green. They seem to get heaps more rain on the eastern side of the island due to the prevailing wind & the steepness of the range. Unfortunately the Windward shopping centre got in the road of a great photo, but it was the best I could do.

Diamond Head

Diamond head rises above Waikiki & you can walk up it an about 45 minutes. It isn't an arduous climb, but it takes some doing. The crater of the extinct volcano (above) is the start point of the climb.

 The view from the top of Diamond head is pretty spectacular. That is Gotham city (Waikiki) in the background & Pearl harbour is in the distance behind.

Pearl Harbour & Dole Plantation

Hawaii is very touristy, to say the least, & the Pearl Harbour Memorial is the epitome of just that. The folks from the US of A lap it up. But I was very unimpressed.

First you watch a half hour film about the Pearl Harbour attack. It didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already seen on the History Channel. Then they take you out to the wreck of the USS Arizona, where there is a memorial to those who died that day. The memorial itself is actually quite ugly, to be honest (below). They tell you that the oil droplets on the surface under the memorial are from the ship's fuel stores, but rumour has it that the yanks leak it intentionally for the tourists.

Lucky it was free, because I would have felt cheated otherwise.

While we were waiting for the memorial, we went next door to the USS Bowfin, a WWII submarine. It was much more interesting than the memorial. They give out a headset that gives you a self guided audio tour of the vessel.

The highlight was the active amphibious assault ship (AAS) coming into port at the time. (see left of picture below). They look a bit like an aircraft carrier but only accommodate helicopters, Osprey and other S.T.O.L. aircraft, not jets.
The battleship USS Missouri was pretty impressive. Battleships have given way to Carrier groups these days.

Dole Pineapple Plantation

This is the most touristy thing on Oahu. The Dole Plantation. It was OK, but was seriously corny! For those who have been to the Big Pineapple in Queensland, the train was like that, except the narration was corny and the plantation was a bit unkempt. We do these things to tick the box and say we've done it. Having said that, the pineapple sorbet in the waffle cones were awesome!

The new room doesn't have the view, but it is heaps quieter and the view at night is better.

Flight to Hawaii

Our trip from Christchurch to Hawaii started pretty well. Kerri, her Nanna and me, all boarded the trusty 737 for the short flight up to Auckland. We even arrived on time (more or less).

After a fairly brisk maneuver from Auckland domestic airport to the international terminal, we just cleared customs in time to get on the flight. We even taxied and powered up to take off. We got about 100m before the pilot shut the engines down and headed back to the terminal. Four hours later the plane was fixed and we were off again.

This is about the only highlight of our horrible travel day. The photo below was taken as we were flying past Fiji.

We finally arrived in Honolulu at about 1.30am instead of the 9.30pm as originally planned. To make things worse, the customs officials in trying to speed things up, shafted us big time! We were about mid pack in the line and ended up being the last through the customs gate. Our suit cases were already off the carousel and being looked at as abandoned baggage. It was 3.30am before we turned the light out at the hotel.
We didn't surface until 9.30am and this is the view from our hotel room. It overlooks the entire Waikiki strip.

Unfortunately we had to let it go. The wall next to our heads backed onto the lift well. It meant that we thought there were road works in progress down on the street. We figured that we weren't going to be in the hotel much and a good night sleep was more important than the view.