Hawaii - Aloha Ukulele Heaven

We were a bit nervous about going to Hawaii. Reports on the TV in Vegas had shown heavy rain and flooding, but nothing was mentioned at the airport, and it was too late to change plans anyway. So after a stop-over in L.A. (disappointing not to see the Hollywood sign) we landed in Honolulu on March 7th to blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20s.

Picked a hostel that sounded good - the Beachside Hostel - and soon found ourselves living a nice short walk from here...


that'll be Waikiki Beach, as modelled by Jen (remember that blue sky, you won't be seeing much more of it). And we sat around a bit to watch the sun go down...


what's known as a "Romantic Moment" apparently. What would I know.

We mentioned the flooding and whatever to a guy in the hostel, who was quite surprised to hear about it, and it was decided that the North Shore must be responsible. It seems that areas of the island have very different weather, despite the small size of the place.

Hung around Waikiki for a couple of days - saw some Hula dancing at the recreation ground and wandered round the shops - then decided to hire a car and see the rest of the island. We ended up with a little Suzuki jeep who's picture doesn't deserve to grace the same blog as our lovely Mustang from Vegas. It was barely functional, there was no back to the soft-top so we had to padlock our backpacks to the door frames every time we left it. And, of course, it started to rain. And the further north we went, the more it rained, and the more leaks we discovered. Still, it was OUR barely functional leaking pile of rust.

OK, so we did a little sight-seeing. Went to Hanauma Bay, which has very good snorkelling, although we didn't find out (yet) because it was a little windy and a little cold and had started to rain a bit. Saw a blow hole - big seas + small hole = spouty water - and lots of nice beaches which would have been that little bit more appealing if it wasn't for the rain. And by the time we got up to the north shore it was varying between heavy wind, and heavy wind with heavy rain...



Stayed at the Plantation Village Backpackers in Waimea - nice little cabin with three small dorm rooms. By now the rain was quite impressive and we spent the evening sat around talking with the other people there. Next morning, surprise surprise, it was still raining. Most people in the cabin seemed to be leaving today and the sensible thing appeared to be to head south where there might be less rain, so that's what we did, and after trying a few different places to stay we ended up back at the Beachfront Hostel in a much drier Waikiki. And the first person we met in our new room was Kris (from Austria), who we'd just said goodbye to at the Plantation Village.

And I've just remembered about the Ukuleles. They're everywhere. I'd forgotten when I bought mine that Hawaii was the place for Ukuleles and it certainly was. Every souvenir shop sells them, even cheaper ones than mine, but there were also some specialist shops where you can spend over $1500 on particularly good models. I even saw an electric uke with no headstock (kinda like a Steinberg guitar) and a body like a travel guitar. As it happened, I bought a solid case and a sticker and left it at that. Oh, and a book to learn some hawaiian tunes, and spent the early mornings sat on the balcony merrily strumming away.

We'd decided not to visit another island, mainly due to cost and also because I'd been assured there'd be other chances to see volcanoes, so we spent the rest of our time staying at the hostel in Waikiki. We drove up to Hanauma Bay again when the weather was better and snorkelled in the reef there. It's a nature reserve and the reef, which acts as a barrier to provide calm water, is teeming with fish. They also limit the number of people allowed in so it never gets too crowded...


And that was about it. We did some more lazing about on the beach and playing in the sea...


Rachel (Cornwall), Me, Ken (Cornwall), Jen, Huan (San Francisco), Morgan (Vancouver)

and managed to burn a little despite the cloud.

And a quick educational note: It's called Hawai'i to the locals. The ' is an okina, which is a gutteral stop (like the middle of "uh-oh", go on, try it) and like the 13th letter of their alphabet. For those interested the other 12 letters are a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p and w. The smallest alphabet in the world! See, you're learning while you're skiving.

Anything to add Jen???

Always! You miss out loads of stuff. We didn't see Magnum PI but we did pass his house and we actually saw a sea turtle in Hanauma bay. That was exciting. Plus we managed to get a bus that took us on a magical mystery tour instead of the supermarket (remember seattle anyone?) but we did get lei'd, so thats a bonus.

We watched a street parade with lots of hula dancing and people from Japan, a dragon, more hula dancing, variations of the stick dance and enough hula dancing to shake a stick at, literally - we got really flat bottoms because every group stopped and showed you their act, which was kind, but it lasted over 4 1/2 hours!

The cocktails are rather nice but waikiki is very very touristy and every third store is an ABC shop (a franchised tat shop - all with the same products but different prices which is odd). The fire engines in Hawaii are yellow. If you wear a flower above the right ear it means you are available.

Ok i think thats enough of the minutae of our lives.
Time to move on. See you all in New Zealand. For now, Aloha.