Waikaloa

When we woke up this morning (early - the mynah bird dawn chorus in the palm trees is so loud that the hotel offers ear-plugs), we could see our view. 

In this direction out to sea

Or back towards the resort and lagoon.

This is the view of the hotel block where we are staying, across the small bay that feeds the lagoon.

The bay always looks very inviting but because of the sharp lava rock it is not a place to swim.

However we were able to swim in the lagoon - which was a good way to cool off as it has been 31 degrees today.  

David did some snorkeling around the edge and photographed many different fish..

Including this rather large eel..

Leaving Waikiki

Today was our last day at Waikiki.  Although we had been there for four days we had not been into the sea.  

We set off this morning to remedy this,  only to find this sign.. warning us that there were jellyfish in the water and that we should stay out as stings can be painful!  (We decided to go in anyway and there were no painful encounters).  No shots of our swim you will be glad to know!

We also did a little shopping - Theo will be cutting a dash in this next summer - the print features many of the places that we visited on Oahu.

I had hoped that as our plane left around 6pm I would be able to photograph the sunset, but it was too cloudy today.

These are pictures of the sunset over Waikiki that we took on Tuesday.

Yesterday, as we drove back in to Waikiki from our trip around the island I took a quick shot of the sunset over Honolulu..

Not a great photo but it gives an idea of the skyline of this big, bustling and very modern city.

We are now on 'Big Island' and have an ocean view room but it was too dark to see when we arrived.  

Equally dark when we had dinner overlooking the sea..

Beaches of Oahu (Wednesday 7th)

Today we hired a car in order to visit some of the lovely beaches on the island of Oahu.  We had seen many on our island tour but in the pouring rain, which wasn't quite the same.

We drove to the North Shore to visit Waimea.  This is said to be President Obama's favourite beach and although it is not huge, in the winter it is the place for surfing giant waves.

The waves were spectacular and fairly dangerous looking and the lifeguards were urging parents not to let their children enter the water alone.  We stood and watched the waves for a while and then after the customary degree of consideration we spread out our towel on the top of a steep shelf of sand and sat on it.  

It was blissful sitting in the sun watching the water until suddenly a larger than average wave ran long fingers of water straight up the shelf of sand!  In a single moment we were soaked in seawater, beach bag too and we spent the next half an hour wringing the water out of the towel!  To crown it all, it then rained.  We moved on.

Here are some of the other beaches that we visited today..

A lovely day and probably some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen (but no swimming).

Honolulu Botanical Garden

Today we took the bus into 'downtown' Honolulu to visit the Foster Botanical Garden - a collection of tropical trees (some over 150 years old) from many different parts of the world, together with palms, orchids and 'prehistoric' ferns.  

In common with other tropical trees that we have seen, many of the trees had both flower, immature and mature fruit on the tree at the same time.

The Cocks-Spur Coral Tree has brightly colored flowers growing on small leafy stems growing directly out of the trunk of the tree.

Many of the trees were heavy with fruit.

This Pummelo was not a large tree but it was certainly laden..

Nearby was a tree with unusual shaped fruit, known as The Buddha's Hand..

Some of the fruits were very oddly shaped..

The flower on the other hand was quite delicate..

One of the most unusual trees was the Cannonball tree..

All around the base of the tree were very large, hard, brown seeds, maybe 4 or 5 inches across, together with a notice advising that you watch out for falling ones!  Apparently the large seeds contain a foul smelling blue pulp which is attractive to foraging animals.

The flower was most unusual but quite spectacular..

Certainly some amazing trees!

Pearl Harbour

An early start this morning to join an island tour, starting with the queue to await the opening of the Pearl Harbour national historic site at 7am.

It is a naturally sheltered and quite shallow harbour - originally used to grow oysters before it became the strategically important American military base in the Pacific.  This morning it was quiet, calm and peaceful in the early light and it was hard to imagine it as a place full of fire and noise with warships and submarines under attack as it was in the early morning of 7 December 1941 when it was one of five important military sites in Hawaii that were attacked and crippled by Japanese planes.

The main focus of a visit to Pearl Harbour is the memorial to those lost in the USS Arizona which still lies beneath the water. This white marble memorial is built over it and is accessed by boat.

Parts of the ship are still visible above the water.

There are memorials in the harbour to all of the thousands of army, navy, marines, submariners and air force who died in the attack.

This is the submarine USS Bowquin, moored next to the submarine memorial.

This ship is USS Missouri which was in use in 1944 and decommissioned in 1955.

We left Pearl Harbour to continue our island tour under grey skies and unfortunately it got wetter as the day went on...

Our guide and driver,  however, was unendingly cheerful - especially considering that it was an 11 hour day!  At one point he serenaded us with a ukelele accompaniment..

At the end of the day, back in Waikiki, it was dry and the sunset looked promising..