An early rise! By 08:00 we had gotten up and showered and walked back to Eggs'n'Things to take advantage of their early riser special, which we shared. I'm not sure that pancakes with buttermilk and eggs are a natural choice for the European palate though.
We revisited Budget car rental and took away their small Toyota Echo which we will leave at Honolulu Airport on Sunday. We changed our minds about hiring a vehicle on Oahu, it would make everything so much easier for us.
There were Corvettes out on the road today as well as the usual selection of stretched limousines.
We grabbed our cameras and drove to the US Navy base, having missed the turning for the USS Arizona memorial. We looped round at the permission of a navy soldier and found the entrance to the memorial where we stood in line to receive our tickets before perusing the information about the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. There was some information about the volunteers present today and the roles they played during the attack which was an interesting yet harrowing read. Once we had watched the excellent real footage of the events as they unfolded in December 1941 and visited the memorial site erected across the deck of the USS Arizona, I met one of the volunteers who was in the hospital at Pearl Harbour at the time of attack and was incapacitated. He was unable to attend his station and retaliate as he was confined to a bed. It was terrific to meet a survivor of the tragedy but I didn't know what to say to him. Elsewhere in the museum were relics recovered from the USS Arizona and other battleships and the torpedo that was embedded in the shallow bay of Pearl Harbour which was recovered in 1991. It's an impressive tour that the memorial association offers at nil cost to the visitor.
In the gardens I was startled by a mongoose that played hide and seek with me and managed to succeed in avoiding the reach of my camera lens. He had me waiting for ages though! In the memorial car park there were a couple of convertible Mustangs parked up. [Editors Note: later on we were to discover that they are ten a penny].
As we left Pearl Harbour and Fort Island we drove north to gaze at the North Shore and inadvertently missed most of it as the island of Oahu is somewhat smaller than we thought. There were no signs to indicate that we had found our destination.
We settled for a McDonalds somewhere along the way and then returned to Big Surf via the windward side of Oahu. I fell asleep on the way. As we drove north this afternoon we saw magnificent views of the Koolau Range which is very green and reminiscent of New Zealand with its tree coverage and terrific valley.
We had another 2 hours sleep on our return and woke to the alarm absolutely knackered. We forced ourselves out to Starbucks Coffee and then Ian had a fabulous idea to drive around Waikiki at night. The district was very busy and there was plenty of police vehicles present. The streets were very crowded and more flash cars were driving around.
After driving around the eastern part of Waikiki we found ourselves back near Big Surf so repaired to our condo and consumed more beer while writing our journals and watching 'The Osbournes'.
It rains in Hawaii, lots of light rain and patches of lighter rain without clouds overhead.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.