So...Honolulu is awesome.
It's like surfers paradise, but a billion times better. I'd even go to say Waikiki beach is better.
We probably won't blog a whole lot pretty much because we don't plan to do a whole lot! We're so glad we planned Hawaii as our last stop before home because all we can see ourselves doing is spending the day at the beach, shopping, eating and drinking. And we did all the in the first day.
Waikiki beach is literally across the road from us so it was easy to spend or first day there.
We've been and looked at the shops and found some markets which is more what we were looking for. We both thought shops over here would be cheaper like Bali or Thailand, but it makes sense with America being a developed country that this wouldn't be so. We've asked about the DFO's that are here and they are actually 30 mile/50km away and a 2 hour bus ride, so we'll see how it goes.
We've also been to pearl harbor. Bit of a drive away but worth seeing. It's free to go there and take the ferry to the USS Arizona memorial but $10 to go on the USS bowfin. The bowfin was a cool audio tour which walked you right through with voice overs from actual crewman. Submarines are quite small on the inside especially to house so many men. And they get so hot...it was 30 degrees today and you would get half way through the tour and just want to get out! The Arizona memorial was a quick ferry ride for free. If your really into this stuff it would be good to see but if your pushed for time give it a miss. You can see a bit of the ship wreck but not as much as you would expect. We were lucky today was a "quiet" day, we had no trouble getting on the tour and the guide told us its usually a 2-3 hour best in first serve wait!!! We were over it pretty quickly mainly because of the amount of Japanese (sorry that sounds awful). Some were ok but the majority had no respect for personal space, would walk right in front of you, cut you off or start posing infront of you while you were trying to get a picture(and they don't apologize when you ask them to move!). They're so damn pushy.
Hawaii is full of either Australians or Japanese, very few Americans! We swear 90% of our hotel is Aussie.
When it comes to Hawaii you could easily drive yourselves around, not that we are going to, but we'd recommend it. We bought a hop on/off bus tour again, and it's really a waste of time in honolulu. It actually doesn't tell you too much about the history, just some folk stories (which are all more or less the same about a princess marrying a commoner, there, we just saved you 50 bucks).
The shops are open to late which makes it better to shop then. It's hot and a bit muggy which makes it perfect to spend the day at the beach or pool (trust us,shopping in that heat and walking everywhere gets tiresome quickly!)
Tomorrow and the next couple of days will be the same. Beach. Pool. Beers. Food. More walking. Going to try paddle boarding, might convince kane to canoe? Maybe wet and wild? Having an absolute ball. Hawaii is worth the 9.5 hour flight.
Hope it's not too cold at home xoxo