We left the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort on Nacula island and got the 4 hour return boat back to Nadi on the mainland, where we were staying for one night before flying on to Hawaii. Unfortunately our flight didn't leave Fiji until midnight the next day (!), but luckily the staff at our hotel in Nadi were really nice - they let us have a late checkout for free, and then let us hang around the resort until our ride came to take us to the airport; they even left our tab open so that we could pay for all our meals and drinks once we were ready to leave! We left them a $20 tip for being so nice to us, hopefully we can go back one day! At the airport we checked in for our flight and then had a nice long wait until we could get on the plane, which luckily was one time, and then we had an 8 hour trip across the Pacific Ocean to get to Hawaii. Our flight wasn't direct, so we had a stop off in Christmas Island, which looked lovely from the air but the airport was the smallest and poorest looking I have ever seen, we were quite glad not to be getting off there! From there it was a 3 hour flight on to Hawaii, and at this point in the journey we crossed over the International Date Line and went back in time! We were pretty excited about this, because it meant we got to have Tuesday again (how bizarre!). Once we landed we had quite a long wait to get through immigration and customs, not because of problems but because of how many people were in the queue. Out of the airport we got on a shuttle bus and got dropped off at our hostel in Waikiki, which turned out to be right next to the beach which was great! We couldn't check in straight away, so we left our bags at the hostel reception and went down to have a look at the beach - it was really busy, but had some great looking surf! We had some lunch at the beach cafe and then it was time to check in to the hostel, which we did straight away so we could have a nap and catch up on some of the sleep we missed during the flights! We also managed to sort out a couple of trips for our time in Hawaii using the hostel internet which was really useful. The next day we had a nice long lie in, then went out to explore Waikiki. We started off down at the beach, before walking down the main avenue in the area which is full of shops and cafes - it's very touristy. We ended up at the Royal Hawaiian Centre where we got an iced coffee and watched a free hula show which was really entertaining. After coffee we had a look around the shops in the centre and did a bit of souvenir shopping, then we went to a restaurant called The Cheesecake Factory for lunch - the food was really good and the portions were huge, so big that we couldn't actually fit in a cheesecake! We did get to take our leftovers home for tea though so that saved us some money. The next day was our historical day - a trip to Pearl Harbor. We couldn't come to Honolulu and not visit it, especially as we both learnt about it at school, so we got a shuttle bus to take us there and then went on a tour. We started off walking along the Walk of Remembrance, along the waterfront looking out to where the attack took place, before going on our USS Arizona Memorial tour - this started with a 25 minute video explaining the events that lead up to the attack as well as what happened on the day, before we went out on a boat to go to the memorial which is actually in the water. Unfortunately the memorial pontoon had been damaged the week before, so we couldn't get on to it due to repair work, but we got up quite close to it in the boat and were able to take some pictures. Once the tour was over we had a look around the 2 museums on site, which explained the USA's involvement in the Second World War as well as more about what happened during the attack on Pearl Harbor - it was a really interesting day out and we saw lots of memorials to people who fought in the war, as well as to those who died during the attack. On Friday we decided that we couldn't come to the home of surfing without hiring some boards ourselves, and Waikiki is known as a great place for beginners, so we went down to the beach and hired some boards - only $10 each for an hour! We paddled out a bit and, after a bit of waiting, we were both surfing like pros, managing to stand up every time we caught a wave! We had great fun on the longboards, which we both found much easier to use than the surfboards we had hired in Australia, but after an hour we were getting pretty tired so we headed back to dry land. We'd worked up quite an appetite by this point, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory again for lunch but this time we were smart - we left half of our lunch each and got it boxed up to take home, and then got a slice of cheesecake to share between us - it was delicious! Once we were full up we had a look around the shops before walking along the beach to get back to our hostel - there were great views into downtown Honolulu as well as out to Diamond Head, an extinct volcano at the end of Waikiki Beach. For our final proper day in Hawaii we had a snorkelling tour to Hanauma Bay, around 25 minutes outside of Waikiki. The bay used to be exclusively used by the Kings and Queens of Hawaii, and it looked stunning set in the crater of an extinct volcano. Unfortunately we were quite disappointed by the snorkelling - the visibility was really poor and there was hardly any coral cover at, although we did see quite a few fish. We have probably been spoilt by all the amazing snorkelling in Australia and Fiji, where most of the time we were the only people on the beach for miles, so it was a bit of a shock to have to share the beach with around 1000 other people! The sheer numbers were probably also the reason why there was hardly any coral cover, as most of the people had no respect for the reef at all. We were a bit disappointed about that, but we did get to see loads of native birds and some mongoose as well which was pretty cool. Once we got back to the hostel we headed down to Waikiki Beach to get some lunch at the cafe, and we found that there was a surfing competition going on at the beach so we watched that for a bit. In the evening we went back down to the beach again to watch a free hula performance, which had traditional singing and dancing in it - it was really good fun to watch, even better because it was set on the beach and it was free (we found some performances that cost upwards of $100 per person!). It was a really nice way to end the evening. On our last day in Hawaii we made the most of our lie in (which will probably be the last one we have before we get home!) before going out for iced coffee at the Royal Hawaiian Centre. We then had a quick look around the shops, without buying anything of course, before we went to try to get some money out of the cash machine. I got really worried because I thought my card had been blocked but, after getting back to the hostel and trying to phone the card company, I realised I had been using the wrong card! We went back to the cash machine and all was fine luckily. On the way back we went to our favourite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, for lunch - we went for a main meal instead of a lunch special and the portion sizes were huge; Man vs Food eat your heart out! We couldn't even finish half of our meals each so we got them boxed up for our tea back at the hostel (travelling like pros!) and then came back to the hostel for a quick nap. In the afternoon we went down to Waikiki Beach and got a Rainbow Shave Ice, which is a Hawaiian version of a massive slush puppy - it tasted so good! We stayed there for a little while watching the end of the junior surfing competition that was being held there, before we had to head back to pack up our bags ready for our flight to San Francisco - it will be so good to get home and not have to lug these backpacks around with us anymore!