Saturday, 2 October 2010

Friday – Groundhog day, take two: Waikiki, Hawaii

The stop in Samoa was only for 1 hour, by this time we had already crossed the International Date Line.  So, after taking off from Fiji at 9pm, Friday 01st October, we landed in Samoa at 1am, Friday 01st October – confused, we were!

It was then another 5 hours across to Hawaii, which seemed to slip by quite quickly as we flew through the night. 

We landed in Honolulu, Hawaii at 7am, Friday 01st October (11 hours behind UK time, and 22 hours behind Fiji)…we were about to relive yesterday, again today!

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We passed through immigration and customs okay, and jumped on the airport bus and joined the masses on the freeway heading into Waikiki, it was after all morning rush hour!

We are staying at the Hostelling International Waikiki, a compact duck egg coloured building, 2 blocks back from central Waikiki beach.

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Luckily we were allowed to check in early, and once in our room we took full advantage of the free wifi and sat for a couple of hours catching up on emails.

We then ventured out to explore Waikiki; first stop the Waikiki central beach where the famous statue of Duke Kahanamoku stands with one of his long boards.  He is an Olympic champion, and widely considered the father of modern surfing.

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As we strolled along the packed beach, we began to realise just how touristy this part of Hawaii really is.  We had also never seen SO many surfers…it is definitely an obsession here, and everyone from young to old can surf!

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We then had a wander along the beach front, and stopped in at Puka Dog, for a Hawaiian style hotdog.

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With some crazy sauce options on offer, we both went for two odd combinations; Ben’s comprising of jalapeno, coconut and tangy mustard, and Nicola’s being jalapeno, mango and tangy mustard.  They were delicious!

We went back to the hostel for an afternoon nap, to try and make up for a lost nights sleep on the plane.  After which we made dinner – back to good old home cooking!

Tonight we walked out along the main street to the Hilton complex, which puts on a grand firework show the first Friday of every month.

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We sat on the breakwater and watched the show.

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We then spent the rest of the evening wandering around the huge shopping districts…window shopping of course!

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