Aloha ‘Oe - Until We Meet Again

The word Aloha has many meanings in Hawaiian including Hello, Goodbye, Love and Until we meet again. It therefore seemed perfect for the title of the final blog post this holiday.

Today was the last day at sea and the chance after all the ukulele lessons to perform in front of all the passengers (those who turned up at the theatre actually). Together with other voyagers who had been taking hula lessons an Hawaiian show was put together for everyone to enjoy.

After much persuasion from Tiki Dave, our teacher, the crowd went crazy and there were several standing ovations for both dancers and players. Sylvia said it looked and sounded very good.

Throughout the cruise on the sea days we have been taking part in the daily morning trivia. In addition to having daily prizes the scores have been accumulating to give an overall winning team for the cruise. Today was the prize giving and presentation with our team, “The Village People” taking first place. Sylvia and I had teamed up with two fellow cruisers Woody and Donna from Indianapolis and we seemed to have hit a winning formula. Now generally the prizes for the quizzes are pretty poor: a pen, a magnetic clip or lanyard being the norm, but on this occassion they did a lot better. We recieved a bag full of prizes per couple and a….CERTIFICATE!! Here we are with the trivia master - Chad.

Another enjoyable holiday has come to an end with lots of good memories. We look forward to travelling with you again next year from Australia to Singapore.

Back at sea - Homeward Bound.

After the wash out that was Maui, the first day back at sea brought forth the sun and with the ship sailing in a North Eastern direction our balcony this morning was bathed in sunshine.

As always there is plenty to do on the ship on sea days, with the ukelele classes restarting today after a four day lay-off. I spent the morning sorting and saving all the photos that we have taken on this holiday and believe me there are many. It was interesting to see how many different plants that we had pictured on the islands and wondered how many of these you recognise.

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I’m not sure that we know the names of all of them but thought that they looked good.

Maui - The (Very Wet) Valley Island.

Throughout the cruise seasoned travellers have said that Maui is the most beautiful of the Hawaiian Islands, so we were really looking forward to this visit. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas as we were greeted by rain on our balcony when we first looked out.

Due to the ship’s size Lahaina, the main port of Maui, is a tendered stop and with the weather being as it was, we decided to delay our departure from the ship. We watched as the tender boats were launched and could see the clouds, full of rain, tumbling down the valleys.

After a leisurely breakfast we had our customary game of table tennis before attending morning trivia. Surprisingly this was very well attended as many others must have the same idea as us regarding leaving the ship. We managed to win despite the competition and now have two magnetic clips for the grandchildren to fight over.

It was now around 11am and the rain had subsided somewhat so we decided to take the plunge and go ashore. After a bumpy 10 minute crossing we were in the heart of the town and underneath the famous Banyan Tree. The tree was originally planted by a missionary in 1873 and has flourised ever since. Now it measures almost a quarter of a mile in circumference with a height of some 60 feet and covers almost two-thirds of an acre. It therefore attracts a fair number of tourists.

The town of Lahaina was the capital of the islands up until 1845 and subsequently became the centre of the Pacific whaling industry. It had quite a rowdy reputation with many bars and houses of ill repute and the missionaries who built the town found it very hard to keep control. It was therefore necessary to build a prison and this was completed in the 1850s by convicts using lava bricks from the old fort. The prison, known as Hale Pa’ahao (Stuck in Irons House) is now a small museum and botanical garden.

I could think of many worse places to be put behind bars but it didn’t seem to suit this Boris Johnson lookalike who seems to have lost a fair bit of weight.

There is an historical walk around the town that takes in many of the old houses which have been restored. We started making our way around the route first taking in the Baldwin House, a missionary’s home that was built in 1834.

The rain had now returned with a vengeance so we decided to cut our visit short and return to the ship. It seemed that our idea had been shared by half the ship as a large queue had gathered to board the tenders. We waited in the line for some 20 minutes and by the time we got back to our cabin, despite wearing anoraks, we were soaking wet.

As the ship prepared to leave the port this evening the sun burst through the clouds and the rains stopped. At least we got the benefit of a beautiful sunset.

Overall a disappointing day in Maui but you can’t control the weather, we’ll have to come back to see it when it’s fine.

Kauai - The Garden (or Chicken) Island.

When our cabin steward, Ian, said “Have a nice day on Chicken Island” first thing this morning we were not sure what he was talking about. None of the literature that we had read about today’s destination had made any reference to chickens or indeed any other fowl. Later in the day we would find out to what he was referring.

Kauai is the fourth largest and oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and in many people’s opinion the most beautiful. We had once again booked a shore excursion to take in as much of the island as possible. This didn’t start well as the window in the coach was in such a poor condition that we couldn’t see out of it. Not much good on a sight-seeing trip!! The driver was very good and managed at the first stop to transfer Sylvia and I to the second coach doing the trip. This coach had perfectly clean windows but no seats together. Sylvia and I sat opposite each other next to two individuals hogging the window seats who we realised were a married couple from Texas. Now most couples would offer to swap seats to enable Sylvia and I to sit together but not these two.

The first stop on the excursion was the breathtaking Waimea Canyon, apparently referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” by Mark Twain. The fact that he never visited the island perhaps places a question mark over this, but the description is apt.

Although substantially smaller than it’s mainland namesake the canyon is spectacular measuring 12 miles long and nearly a mile deep. It may seem very familiar to many of you as it has featured in many Hollywood blockbusters such as “Jurassic Park”, “King Kong” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

All around the car park chickens, large and small, scurried around pecking at the soil for any foodstuff. These are all feral being released from captivity by a hurricane that devestated the island in the 1980s. Since there are no predators on the island, they have prospered and now can be seen all over the place, except ironically in the car park of the local KFC!!

The tour passed through the township of Waimea, where in 1778 Captain Cook became the first European to set foot on Hawaii. A replica of the statue in his birthplace Whitby marks the occasion. The trip continued along the coast road until it reaches a dead end at the Spouting Hole,one of the most photographed spots on the island. The waves breaking against the rocks are forced up through holes in the volcanic rock forming a fountain of white foamy water.

After a break for lunch (no BBQ today but a fish and pork dinner - delicious) we proceeded to the Wailua River for a boat trip. On the way we passed fields of coffee bushes, now the major agricultural crop of the island since the sugar canes and macedamian nut trees were destroyed in the same hurricane that released the chickens.

We boarded the boat for the journey upstream to the famous Fern Grotto, on the way the crew related tales of the history of the area. I listened intently.

The Fern Grotto is a large cave covered with Boston Sword ferns which dangle in front of the entrance, whose Hawaiian name is Maamaakualono. At one time access to this location was limited to just the Royal family but it then became one of the most popular wedding venues in the Islands,in fact it featured in the movie “Blue Hawaii”.

Nowadays due to safety concerns access into the grotto is prohibited but we were treated to a performance of the Hawaiian Wedding Song, which apparently meant we were all re-married.

Returning to the coach we were offered seats together by the couple who had been sitting apart. Now whether this was a result of the wedding ceremony or the fact that there were no more sights to see, we will probably never know.

O’ahu - A Cultural Visit.

We woke at 6.00am as the pilot joined to guide the ship into the port of Honolulu, the largest city and State capital of Hawaii. We had booked a full day excursion today so after a quick game of table tennis and the now obligatory selfie we readied ourselves for our day out.

Our driver and guide today was Ed who negotiated the early morning city traffic to take us to our first stop the Pali lookout. Here a viewing point at the edge of a cliff gives spectacular views over the north of the island. It was here in 1795 that the Hawaiian King Kamehameha the Great forced some 400 rival warriors off the cliff edge and thus united the Hawaiian Islands.

Driving back through the city we passed the site of Pearl Harbour, still today a major military establishment, before making our way to the middle of the island to the Dole plantation. Pineapples were a major crop on the island and the Dole company had a large plantation and canning factory here. Unfortunately like many agricultural products Hawaii could not compete with the cheap labour in many South East Asian countries and commercial growing ceased in the 1990s. Our driver Ed told us to check our cans of pineapples as if they say “Canned in Hawaii” they must be at least 26 years old. The plantation is now a tourist attraction with a small train line and the largest maze in the world with over 1.5 miles of paths.

Continuing our journey we passed the many surfing beaches of the North Shore, where the winds and currents, especially in winter, give perfect surfing waves. However swimming is not recommended due to the many rip currents that exist in the area. This particular beach features the famous “Jumping Rock” from which Elvis jumped in the movie “Blue Hawaii”.

We were travelling to the village of La’ie where the Polynesian Cultural Centre can be found. The village was founded in the 1860’s by Mormon missionaries and as well as being home to the cultural centre, the Brigham Young University of Hawaii is also located here. The centre is a celebration of Polynesian life, where crafts, dancing and music from seven Pacific nations are demonstrated by students from the university. It comprises “villages” from each of the island nations in a 42 acre educational theme park.

After another “traditional” Hawaiian BBQ of ribs and chicken, Sylvia and I made our way from village to village being entertained by fire dancers…...

…..tree climbers…..

….and many native dancers. This all reached a climax with a spectacular canoe pageant, where each nation performed a traditional dance on the backs of boats. Very colourful and entertaining.

As usual a little reatil therapy was called for with some fridge magnets for our Grandchildren first on the list. We try every holiday to buy a Christmas tree decoration to remind us of the places we have visited. Today’s choice was a nice hand made angel decoration which we discovered was made by a LDS volunteer who was Welsh. The assistant in the shop was so pleased to hear that we lived in Wales that she rushed to get the lady who made it, Sue Evans from Mertyr Tydfil. She was working on a large quilt and had made a study of quilting in the South Pacific. The Christmas decoration will have special significance this year.
Here Sylvia is seen resting next to a statue of Joseph Kekuku the inventor of the Hawaiian steel guitar.

After a very enjoyable but very long day we returned to the ship, but I still had one bit of culture to capture in Honolulu, the headquarters of Hawaii Five-O…...

(Actually the staue of King Kamehameha outside the Hawaiian Supreme Court).

Tomorrow we travel on to the island of Kaua’i.

Aloha Hawai’i - The Big Island.

After five days at sea we pulled back the curtains of our stateroom to take in the view of Hawai’i with the mountain Mauna Kea dominating the skyline. After so many days without sighting land we couldn’t wait to get ashore, see the island and meet the natives.

We had booked on an excursion organised by the ship which was entitled “Farm, Fork and Fire”, a combination of a visit to the island’s only vineyard and to the Volcanos National Park. We were pleasantly surprised that the tour party comprised of only seven guests and Dave our guide. After a short tour around the port town of Hilo, we started the climb towards the National Park with Dave keeping us informed of fauna and flora as we travelled. The first stop was at the edge of the Kilauea Caldera.

Here we learned that a caldera is a crater that is more than a mile across and that this particular one contains the Halema’uma’u Crater (bottom left in the photo). This crater is 3000 feet across and 300 ft deep and is the spiritual home of Pele, the volcano goddess. It has been erupting since 1983 and on our visit today a lava flow could be clearly seen.

Travelling around the crater rim road the next stop was the viewpoint overlooking the Kilauea Iki crater, where in 1959 a major eruption took place. The eruption produced lava fountains that shot up to 2000 ft in the air and covered what was then a densely forested area with ash and rocks. The result was the lava hill that can be seen in this photo and a desert landscape where little or nothing now grows.

There is a 3-4 mile challenging trek that can be taken across the barren landscape but we didn’t have the time to do that today.

Everywhere that you looked you could see jets of steam rising from the ground where the rain from the night before percolated the rocks and hit the hot magma below. Dave treated us as a family, calling the more senior members of the party Auntie and Uncle and answered all our questions with an air of authority.

Next on our visit was the Thurston Lava Tube, a large cave-like structure that was formed when a stream of lava cooled from the outside creating a hollow tube. We walked through the tube avoiding the dripping water and observing the roots of the trees above making their way through the roof of the tunnel.

Emerging from the tunnel we found ourselves in a temperate rain forest with large ferns and colourful birds flying around. In fact,we were informed by our tour guide, we had travelled from arid desert to rainforest in less than a mile. The plants here grow in a symbiotic system known as mutualism, each species living in harmony with the others. Here in the photo Dave is showing three species growing together.

We rejoined the minibus for the short drive out of the National Park to a vineyard and tea plantation. Generally you would associate the Big Island with coffee growing but that is based on the east of the island at Kona. The tea bushes grow well enough in this climate to be harvested every two months with the most expensive,silverbud tea, being made from the young leaves before they unfurl. Green tea is made from the same leaves but combined with the slightly larger outside leaves while the black tea utilises the larger leaves in addition. We did sample the tea and it was very good. The tea bushes are shown below.

Tea tasting was not for everyone, the majority had come to check out the wine produced here at the island’s only winery. We were given samples of the eight different wines produced here which varied from a very dry white to some very sweet dessert wines. In addition the farm produced some wine/fruit mixes which were very light and refreshing and a wine/tea blend which they described as their Vodka and Red Bull substitute.

Having selected a glass of our favourite wine we settled down to enjoy an Hawaiian BBQ of ribs and teriyaki chicken together with various salads. Very enjoyable.

On the journey back to the ship Dave attempted to teach us the Hawaiian alphabet and pronunciation using the various street signs. All in all a very educational and interesting day trip where we experienced many things that we would not have been able to see by ourselves. Thank you my new nephew, Dave.

The last stop before the ship gave us a chance to get some beautiful pictures of the blue sky and sea.

Tomorrow another island, O’ahu and the city of Honolulu. Hawaii Five-O here we come!