Tuesday 24th March
Honolulu, Oahu
As this is our first American port we had to go through a face to face interview with American immigration. They started at 7am for people going on tours. We joined the queue at 9.30 and eventually got through an hour later. We then took a bus over to Waikiki Beach. Surfing is of course very popular here and The photo shows a walkway to the beach where local surfers 'park' their boards. The day was hot and the beach was very busy. There are some lovely hotels here. As we walked along the beach you could see the back of the Royal Hawaiian which is one of the older hotels and painted a distinctive pink. We went round to see the front of this hotel which is entered through a mall and it has lovely grounds at the front. We had lunch on the balcony of a restaurant in the main road through Waikiki. When we returned to Honolulu we went for a walk around the historic centre of the town. We went into the grounds of Iolani Palace which was built in 1882 for the last Hawaiian King Kalakaua and his sister Queen Liliou. We went to look at Kawaiahoa church which was built out of native coral and is over 170 years old. The grounds of the church were small but lovely with a lovely fountain. The water is from a spring and falls over lava rock.It was calming listening to the water falling over rocks and there were lots of birds here. We saw three small birds with bright red faces and lots of slightly bigger birds that were grey with a pale blue face. These birds seemed to be plentiful all over Honolulu. Next to the church are the Mission Houses, these are the original houses of the first American missionaries. We went across the road to the State Capitol building and walked through the central courtyard. Opposite this is an historic building called Washington Place which we were told had electricity before the White House. This house seemed to have a lot of security so I'm guessing it might be something to do with the government. We had intended to visit the market stalls by the Aloha Tower but unfortunately this area is being redeveloped so was closed off. The bar on the waterfront, that we visited last time, was still there so we had a drink there before we had to get back on board.