A trip around Oahu

 

As planned we awoke about 5:00 AM Sunday to walk to our tour’s pick-up point an hour away.  Everything went as expected.  We arrived at the MacDonalds across the street from the pick-up point a little earlier than expected so we decided to eat inside.  I’m sure you are all wondering why we would eat at Macky D’s when we have all the food in the world available.  Can you say timing?  Earliest available breakfast aboard ship is 6:30. That would not work at all no matter how we chose to get to the tour.  Why did we walk?  It was EARLY Sunday morning.  Do we want to rely on a taxi or an Uber to be available when we need it at 6:30 on Sunday morning?  If they don’t happen to be around at that time what will we do if we leave with too little time to walk it?  No doubt that would lead to a lot of stress if we were relying on the unknown.  Easier and less stressful to just take care of it ourselves.   To eat inside of the fast food restaurant, we had to show our vaccine cards.  The cashier stamped our receipt to verify our stay inside.  That is actually the first time we have had to show the cards while in a port.  We ate and walked across the street and found several people already waiting for a tour.  Apparently this is the place many tours pick up.  All the other people trying to figure out exactly where they might be picked up were headed out to Pearle Harbor.  We were on a circle tour around the island.  Our ride showed up shortly after 7.  We discovered that this particular tour doesn’t usually run for less than 7 passengers, but for some reason the company decided to run it for only four.   Our driver had been called pretty much last minute and was a friend of the owner of the company.  The owner was a Dallas fan and wanted to watch the game.  Our driver was originally from San Francisco.  Please note that Dallas and San Fran played Sunday.  We drove to another hotel and picked up two college age girls spending their last day of a week-long vacation here on Oahu before returning for classes.  One from Wyoming, and one from Wisconsin.  Daylight was coming and it was a very nice temp for the start of our trip.

Jen continues:

Without stops, one can circumvent the entire Island of Oahu in about 1.5 hours.  Our driver was laid back and sometimes seemed to be talking himself into enjoying the day, often mentioning that he was free to adjust the course and the timing. Temps, he said, never changed there—80’s all day and in “rainy season” like now (winter) maybe it would dip into mid-60's. This island’s topography appears in many movies, especially jungle/mountain movies like the newer Jumanji and many of the Jurassic Parks.  The volcanic mountains are steep, green-shrouded, and look like someone has taken a salad fork down the sides.  In fact, Kualoa Farm where some of the set still resides offers Jurassic Jeep rides in the Jeeps seen in the movie. Also filmed here was the Netflix show, “Finding Ohana” (ohana means family). Proud of his island home (he left San Francisco cuz it’s cheaper to live in Hawaii!), he spouted some Sandler flicks and other lesser known movies that were filmed here along with the original and new Magnum PI, Hawaii 5-0, and NCSI: Hawaii.   It was a spectacularly bright day and our driver informed us that they had had rain for much of the past week, even heavy enough for some flooding.  We watched as rain clouds formed over the peaks and then obliterated them, but the rain never reached us.  Our first stop was along a rocky grouping of volcanic rocks separating two beaches.  On one side, scuba attired swimmers were getting ready to dive; on the other were intrepid swimmers on Sandy Beach made famous by President Obama’s bodysurfing there.  From the shore we watched some humpback whales frolic with a small boat further out.  We climbed on the rough surface to see Halonaroho Blowhole—a hole that blows like a whale when the tides or waves come crashing in. Our timing wasn’t right for the show, having seen spurts only. We climbed a bit more to see some natural small caves in the volcanic rock where a couple foxholes had been created and preserved from WWII.  We talked of the previous day’s tsunami and its eventual birthing of a new island near Tonga, then learned that something similar had happened years ago near Hawaii and now an 8^th Hawaiian island is forming.  They’ve already named it even though it’s not yet broken the surface: Loihi (Low-EE-hee).   Back in the vehicle, we continued the tour and he pointed out landmarks along the way:  Rabbit Island, forbidden to humans since sea turtles lay their eggs there; Chinese Hat Island (yup, looks like one); Waimanala Beach—one of the longest beaches in the world; Pali Lookout—a steep cliff drop off where King Kamamaha chased his enemy to their deaths and which was used for a similarly violent scene in the movie “300”.  We stopped at a humongous cemetery, sectioned into perhaps 5 areas, Roman Catholic was one we noticed and another was Japanese where an exact replica of a Buddhist Temple in Uji, Japan, was built.  Ponds of koi surrounded the area and signs warned to not feed the black swan or the wild peacocks. Lunch was at a shrimp drive-in type of place where we ordered ahead and sat under a makeshift roof to enjoy freshly steamed shrimp.  We passed the Polynesian Cultural Center, run by the Mormons, and remembered from our other visit to Hawaii on our way to China thirty years ago.  As we reached the NW-most point of the island, we saw Turtle Bay and pulled into a resort for an hour of snorkeling for us and for an hour to watch the Wildcard Playoffs for our driver.  I used the hour to Zoom with my colleague group and to pray for Pr. Shane who would go in for bariatric surgery tomorrow.  What a contrast to speak of snow in the Midwest from a beach in Oahu.  After shaking off as much sand as possible, we loaded up and drove the final hour, noting popular Sunset Beach where Sole Survivor was filmed, Wimoa Bay where surfing competitions are held (and canceled when waves are less than 25 feet), the tourist-y Dole pineapple farm where we had THE BEST soft serve pineapple ice cream, a macadamia farm where we tasted coffee with macadamia flavoring (yes, I will bring some home), then we were dropped at our cruise dock rather than hiking the hour back.  Whew.

But the fun was just beginning!  We had time to freshen up, relax a bit, then get ready for the interdenominational worship service in the cruise ship lounge.  I had been contacted to offer prayers, lead the Lord’s Prayer, then say a benediction.  What a treat!!!  Just beforehand, I had the chance to meet an early worshipper and found that she is a retired Episcopalian priest.  Small but sturdy and still plenty excited about ministry, she shared a cruise ship story where she and a few others organized a late-night Christmas Eve service with communion and then offered that service to the delighted crew at 1:30 am on Christmas morning.  She and I will be planning something for Easter…

But there’s even more yet tonight!  We dined with the host and hostess of the ship, the couple from new London who help organize the worship services.  After a leisurely meal and two bottles of wine, we found two soul mates who have a history in British Theater, who are well acquainted with Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber, who shared a dressing room with Sarah Brightman, who met while performing vaudeville, who have performed “Pirates of Penzance” and other Sondheim or Rogers and Hammerstein, and whose 27-year-old son is co-director of the hit “Six.”  We’ll fill in some details in other blogs/sites.

But there’s MORE!  The ship hosted a “Sail Away” party on deck.  We and our dinner companions were late for the party, but it was a celebration of being able to sail.  This time we were heading out of the Oahu harbor for an overnight trip to our next island, but any excuse for a dance party, right?????