Hawaii - general thoughts part 2

Some more general thoughts and observations about our holiday in Hawaii.

Weather
Generally the weather was hot with maximums of more than 30 and minimum temperatures generally in the mid 20s. However it was the extremely high humidity that was the real challenge. According to the locals this was unusual weather for this time of the year and the Lonely Planet Discover Honolulu, Waikiki & O'ahu confirms this. Four cyclones had been circulating in the region for two weeks and this affected the weather. Parts of Honolulu were flooded a few days before we arrived and the park where the cricket pitch was located had been too wet to have the grass cut making it necessary to delay starting the cricket carnival. It rained most nights with one and a half inches recorded one night. There was also often rain on and off during the day. As it was so hot you usually soon dried off if caught in the rain. Walking in warm light drizzle was fine but being outside in a tropical downpour was a bit more of a challenge. During the second week the trade winds arrived and one day it was too windy to play cricket. An earthquake in Chile triggered a tsunami alert but the effects were minimal on the islands. When we couldn't play cricket we easily found something else to do. We had been told that the sunsets on the beach were worth viewing but once again the weather meant that there was little to see most nights though we did witness a pink tinge one evening.

Shopping
There are lots of shops in Waikiki and surrounding areas. Many of the women in our group had a great time exploring the many shopping outlets. Most of them spent part of one day going on a shopping tour. The main street offers a variety of shopping experiences from the exclusive stores in the west of the street to less expensive shops further down on the eastern side. Shops in streets leading away from the main street also tended to have shops with less expensive prices.

Everywhere you go in Waikiki you find an ABC store. The stores have many items the same but they are also all different so it is advisable to explore several to see what is available.
Markets are another option. Duke Lane is the home of masses of market stalls stretching between two major streets. The stalls trade in the evening as well as during the day. There are many farmers' markets but the one we discovered is in the shopping arcade of the Hyatt on Kalakaua Avenue. One of the stall holders told me the market operated on Tuesday and Thursday evenings but it may be also open at other times.

Hyatt Farmers' Market

We also saw notices that the local school held a farmers' market on weekends but the morning we were going to go it poured with rain.

Roads
As pedestrians we spent much time waiting for traffic lights to provide the walk sign. At some intersections you wait until the traffic stops on both roads allowing pedestrians to cross either road while at other intersections pedestrians cross when the traffic that will cross the crossing is stopped. The go lights are not green but white and some of them provide a count down in seconds of the time left to cross the road.
There are also many pedestrian crossings where some cars stop when pedestrians are on the crossing while others take it as a challenge and speed up as they approach. Never assume that cars will stop.
The other thing we needed to get used to was to walk on the right of the path, not on the left.

Posting mail
This proved to be a challenge. I needed stamps to send postcards to our grandchildren. Postcards are readily available but finding overseas stamps is not so easy. I spent one morning walking to a post office on the far end of Kalakaua Avenue from our hotel.

We had also spent much of the previous afternoon looking for for a letter box in Kalakaua Avenue. I asked the person who served in the post office what letter boxes actually looked like and he told me where to find the one near the post office. He also told me that letter boxes were located on most street corners.

On the walk back I did locate three more letter boxes but they were near corners in the side streets, not the main street. Other people in our group had also had trouble locating overseas stamps and laces to post the post cards. I posted three batches of postcards while we were away and twelve days later we are still waiting for the first cards to arrive.

Signs
There are lots of signs in Waikiki informing people what they cannot do.

 Needless to say not all the signs are observed.

Other observations
Walking around Hawaii you cannot help but notice the number of homeless people and people begging in the streets.

There are also a great number of Japanese in Waikiki. Many of the notices, especially in shops, are in both English and Japanese. One pharmacy that I passed had only Japanese writing visible.

Gun Tourism appears to be an industry in Waikiki. Walking down the main street you come across people holding signs encouraging people to visit one of the live shooting ranges in the area. Two of the establishments are the Waikiki Gun Club and Indoor Shooting Range and the SWAT Gun Club.

The establishment in the above picture is on the main street and has pictures of firearms on the steps leading to the firing range. I found this article online which provides a description of one of the gun tourism in Hawaii.

On a less confronting note, when walking east along Kalakaua Avenue past the park we came across a group of Tudor style cottages designed in 1932 by the architect, Earl Williams.

Finally a number of the drivers and guides who showed us their island were Hawaiians and it was interesting to hear from them some of the history of Hawaii and their views of living in Hawaii as part of the the USA.

Hawaii - general thoughts part 1

Back home after nearly two weeks in Hawaii there is time to reflect on some of our experiences.

Hotel

We stayed at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel in Kapahulu Road, Waikiki. Our room was on the 18th floor providing a good view from the balcony of Diamond Head and also of part of the sea. The room was a good size with a small kitchenette providing additional flexibility in meal choices. After two months in the UK we appreciated having a refrigerator in our room and also having air conditioning. As in most of the hotels in which we stayed in the UK the bed covering was a quilt, however this covering provided the choice of only using the sheet part of the cover if preferred. The big bonus was having shower taps which were easy to use and also having the shower in a low bath compared with some of the high sided baths we had encountered elsewhere. A safety rail, however, would have been useful. Free wifi when we wanted to use it was also appreciated. We had a number of meals in the restaurant and the food was generally good though the continental breakfast offered was limited so I only made that mistake once. The hot breakfast option appeared to provide a number of choices. The bar area was near the pool and our group usually met there in the evenings for drinks. In the foyer was a cafe which, I am told, sold reasonable coffee. It certainly sold good ice cream which we enjoyed most days. The travel office in the foyer was also useful when we needed to book sight seeing tours. The hotel was at the end of the Waikiki shopping strip but was not far from the beach and a short distance from the park where the cricket was played. It was therefore a convenient location. The staff were helpful and friendly. Being opposite the zoo we could sometimes observe elephants and flamingos from our balcony and could certainly hear a variety of animal sounds.

Food
The first thing we noticed about food in Hawaii is that the serves are big. Chips are served with most meals but they are what we would call French fries, not thick chips that we are used to. Salad is available as an extra and not necessarily as part of the main meal.

Our first encounter with food in Hawaii was not encouraging as we had ordered fish and chips at Tikis Grill and Bar. The fish was chewy and not pleasant to eat. Other people we know have eaten there and said that they enjoyed the food but they did not have the fish. We did not go back to try anything else. However we did enjoy meals at a number of other restaurants.

There is a wide selection of Asian food available including the House of Wong which serves good Chinese food. The Seafood Village was another Chinese restaurant that we visited and if you go there make sure you try the prawns and glazed walnuts. The Pa'ina Lanai Food Court is another place worth visiting. We had lunch one day at Pearl's Korean BBQ where we shared succulent barbecued chicken with rice, sweet corn and a spinach related vegetable. It was delicious. On our last night in Hawaii we ate dinner from Ezogiku and enjoyed chicken terriaki with rice and pumpkin and bean tempura plus gyoza (dumplings).

Two restaurants recommended to us were Eggs 'n Things and the Cheesecake Factory. At both of these restaurant there are often queues so it is a good idea to arrive early.

At Eggs 'n Things we both had an omelette then shared pancakes with a choice of syrups.

At the Cheesecake Factory Robin had Carolina Pulled Pork Burger with salad while I had a 'small' four cheese pasta. I watched plates with dessert, especially cheesecake, being taken to other tables. The cheesecake looked delicious but the serves were too big for one, especially after a main meal, so I did not try any.

One night we had dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Restaurant & Bar, while one morning we enjoyed breakfast at LuLu's seated at a bench looking out over the sea.

The verandah of the Halekulani Hotel in Kalia Road was the location for a special afternoon tea for the ladies on the tour.

Buffets providing a selection of food were provided at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel on our Meet and Greet evening and at the final team dinner. We also had a buffet dinner at the luau at Paradise Beach.

We therefore encountered a wide range of food during our stay in Hawaii.

Hawaii - Birds and flowers

One of the features of the island of Oahu apart from the scenery is the variety of plants and birds.

Brazilian Cardinal

We saw these small birds with their distinctive red heads quite often on our walks

The grass tends to be long and thick. On one of the walks we came across these small birds hunting for food in the grass. There were also some birds about half this size also with red patches but they were hard to photograph in the grass.

On this walk everywhere you looked there were different small birds.

These small doves were also a common sight in the parks. They can also make quite a loud call for a small bird.

At Diamond Head we found an information board featuring some of the local birds.

There are also wild chickens in many parts of the island

and of course ducks who were were happy with the unseasonable rain.

Everywhere you go in Waikiki flowers add colour. This photo was taken walking along the footpath on the beach side of the main road.

On the other side of the road are beds of hibiscus.

The parks have an abundance of trees and bushes with colourful flowers.

Trees with masses of flowers line the streets.

 And then of course there is franjipani.

The park at Diamond Head also had an information board showing a selection of the flowering plants in the region (although you needed to be much taller than I am to read it properly).

There is always something to see and enjoy as you go for walks on the island.

Hawaii - Dolphins and Snorkelling

Our final day in Hawaii was spent aboard the catamaran, Kai'Oli'Oli, exploring the west coast of Oahu looking for dolphins.

We walked around the corner to the Marriott Hotel where we boarded a Royal Star coach to travel to the dock where the catamaran was moored. Our driver, Alan, pointed out places of interest during the drive to our destination which was not far from Paradise Cove where we attended the luau on Saturday.

There were 22 passengers on the catamaran and four crew. After the safety talk we were able to view the scenery as we proceeded along the coast including large hotels and resorts.

Like other parts of the island there are hills and mountains.

It was when we passed the power station that we discovered the dolphins.

We spent some time following the dolphins who were good at playing hide and seek. One moment they would be jumping out of the water and then they would disappear. These are spinner dolphins and from time to time would jump in the air and spin around.

They are very sociable animals and often swam in twos and threes and sometimes quite large groups.

The dolphins swam off and then it was time for most of the passengers (except me) to get ready to go snorkelling.

The chosen location has four spots for swimmers to explore.

Soon the swimmers were in the water investigating what was below

under supervision, of course.

All the underwater photographs were taken by Mani, the photographer on the Kai'Oli'Oli. Mani also took the set of four dolphin photos above, plus the photo of Robin and me about to board the catamaran.

When the snorkelers returned to the catamaran we had lunch and then continued along the coast for a while until it was time to turn around and head back.

On the return journey we met our pod of dolphins again and this time they were a little more co-operative and spent some time swimming around the boat.

It was then back to the dock and the end of a great afternoon.