Hawaii!

After leaving American Samoa, we had 5 days in a row with no ports. These are Sea Days – nothing to do but stay on the ship. We were wondering if we’d enjoy them… or would it get boring? I’d thought it would be fabulous not having an agenda, and just reading or going for a swim in the pool or hot tub. It turned out to be somewhat like I’d hoped, but there were always programs that I didn’t want to miss, and our days were busier than I had imagined. Every day I was surprised that it was dinner time already. “But I never got to do ____! Oh well, I’ll get to it tomorrow.” I said that a lot. I loved it!

Then we got to Hawaii, docking in Honolulu for two days. We were in the commercial port, near the Aloha Tower. (We could see it from the ship, as shown below.) The Tower was built in 1926 to welcome the tourists who were starting to venture to Hawaii. The project cost $160,000, which was a princely sum at the time. It was the first welcome folks would see when they arrived by ship. When airplane traffic took over from ship travel, the area was sort of abandoned. Now that cruises use Hawaii as a featured destination, the Aloha Tower and surrounding areas have been revitalized and feature shopping and dining venues.

We could see a Princess Cruise Line ship across the harbor.

As we disembarked, we got a peek down a long hallway that is usually closed – a glimpse of the inner workings of this “City on the sea.” The size of this “City” is obvious when you compare it to the building adjacent to it on the dock. [One fact that interested me is that when they restock the ship, about once a week, they load 90 Pallets of produce aboard!]

We were given leis when we disembarked, just like the old days!

There are a lot of beautiful buildings in Honolulu. You go to Hawaii for natural beauty, but there is a lot of architectural beauty too. We were told the Imperial Palace below is the only Palace in the US built for a King.

We took some bus tours around Honolulu, and just enjoyed the scenery.

One stop is at the Punchbowl Crater, which holds the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. It also affords a great view of the city with Diamond Head in the background.

Speaking of Diamond Head, that was our destination on our second day. Cherryl lived in Hawaii when she was a kid, and yet she said she’d never hiked up Diamond Head. It seemed a good time to fix that!

To climb Diamond Head now, you need to get a permit, and pick a time. We reserved a slot for the 9am slot, meaning we had to start during the nine o’clock hour but we could then take as long as we needed. The somewhat early time was a good idea, because it’s a fairly steep climb and it was good to do it before the day got too hot.

The mountain called Diamond Head is one edge of a volcanic caldera. You start the hike by passing under the edge of the caldera in a tunnel. Since we’d Ubered to the area, we walked through the tunnel instead of driving through it.

Once in the center of this large caldera, you start hiking up the inside of the ridge. The path is narrow in places, and quite steep in places. Sometimes both at the same time! In the picture below you may notice people on the switchbacks working their way up.

At one point the trail enters a tunnel. Pretty cool.

Looking back at the visitor’s center where you started, you can see the edge of the caldera and the tunnel where the road cuts under it.

As you approach the peak, you see slots cut into the rock. Carved out in the early 1900’s for wartime protection, there are a series of levels deep in the mountain.

The view from the top is awesome!

We saw a few birds on the top… A Red-vented Bulbul and a Scaly Dove posed very well for us.

To leave the peak, we took the circular stairs down through all the levels (inaccessible) and to the tunnel out the backside of the peak. Then there is a very long staircase leading down to where it meets the loop of the trail we took up.

We also spent a little time at the marina at Waikiki… lots of beautiful boats! We were told the big yacht below is Russian owned. Regardless of who owns it, it is very interestingly equipped. The craft showing red under its cover on the stern is a submersible. The davit adjacent to it is huge, implying that it can manage some heavy lifting. Right in front of that davit, under another cover, is supposed to be a Range Rover. On the port side of the stern is a smaller davit, and a well covered smaller boat. The whole yacht seems to be beautifully designed.

It dwarfed all the other boats in the marina, including this one, which reminded me a bit of one I used to live on… (ours was better looking! Ha!)

Pretty soon our time in Honolulu was running out. From the aft deck of our ship, we had a great view not only of the Aloha Tower, but the city skyline, and even that Princess Cruise Line ship.