Hawaii - Tuesday 22nd September.

Aloha for the last time. :-(     Last sleep tonight, pack up in the morning and leave the condo at 11.00am for the airport, then the long wait out there in the heat.Arriving home about 10.30pm tomorrow Thursday.

This morning went over to the Ala Moana centre for the last time, (which by the way has much improved. Big improvements and new shops, they have really brought it up to a very good shopping complex. In the past we felt in was going down hill and wandered if it was going to survive, ) then back for lunch and down for our last few swims :-(

We have really enjoyed our three weeks here and not looking forward to coming down from 32/31 degrees to whatever you are having Brrr.

I just said to PT I could do this every year..... just love it...

Just a few last day photos nothing new but just had to finish of with the finals.

This shows the Ilikai Marina where we are now. Our room is the fourth corner room from th top. Ours is the one with the white shutters.

Another one sitting under the towers of the Prince Hotel

From the left The Prince hotel, Then Ilikai Marina, The Modern, which used to be part of the Ilikai Hotel complex but they sold that when times for hard, which became an upmarket Hotel. Then the Y shaped Ilikai Hotel.

To summarise  between the Ilikai Hotel and The Ilikai Marina  as to which we preferred. Hard to say both have good and not so good points. The Ilikai Hotel has the big decks which was great for throwing the wet togs and towels,  and the washing on which dried real quick. The laundry was on the same floor, the windows for the view were right across the full width of the room.. Slightly closer to the beach but not much in it. Floor area was smaller. More like a hotel.

The Ilikai Marina had a very small deck really only for standing on just, you wouldn't like to sit out there you would feel as though you were going to fall off. The laundry was on the 7th floor only and we were on the 14th. The view windows were split with about a five foot wall where the central air conditioning was. The good points was the unit was 165sqft larger and the ceilings were higher making it feel more like a unit that you could live in. Having a corner unit had a great outlook could see a lot more. The view was more expansive but had to go up to the windows to see it all at once. The central air conditioning was better more of an even flow than the wall heat pump  system, which blows in one direction. So we don't know which way we would go next time but probably swaying towards the Marina due to the more space. 

Top and bottom photos looking down from our balcony the canoes and paddle boarders coming up

into the boat harbour. And yes you can see an oil slick which we told the "gatekeeper" about. Not sure if he did anything about it but he said he was going to contact the harbourmaster.

A very small sunset for our last day. It was certainly unusual not to see sunsets every night.We didn't get any really good ones.

Container ship leaving Honolulu harbour.

Another great Hawaiian holiday.

Hawaii - Monday 21st September 2015

Bit slow today didn't get out until just after 10.00am after a coffee. We usually miss out on morning coffee as we take off earlier than that.

Haven't done much today. Went over to Ala Moana centre and looked for a couple of things bought nothing came back to unit for lunch. Stayed out of the sun for a couple of hours then went down for a swim or two or three...

Last full day tomorrow and last night. We leave on our Wednesday at 3.20pm arriving in Auckland your Thursday at about 10.30pm. Sounds a long flight!!!!!!

PT is going to tell you about the next four photos.

Wow. I have a turn.

I mentioned last evening about the 100 plus surfers out in front of us. Well today it was 151. The waves have been extraordinarily high of late. Today they were 5 to 8 feet but the surf report tonight states the wave height is going to be substantially lower from tomorrow.

Yes the next 3 photos are of a boat that had partially sunk at its berth right opposite us. 3 firetrucks arrived with all their sirens screaming. Two of the trucks were very large with the co driver over the rear wheels. In all there were 10 men pottering around this boat but only 2 were doing any work!!. They were tending to it for well over 2 hours. Finally pumped it out and it appears to be floating this evening. Not sure of the problem but would imagine that the boat needs to be hauled out now.  

 And below this yellow boat came in to the boat ramp opposite. There were 2 men trying to pull it out with their ute. They couldnt get it out as the ute wasnt strong enough. The wheels just spun. Another truck came with a tow rope which broke. And then a further truck arrived but no luck. Not sure of the problem  but in the end they put the boat back into the water and drove off. This scenerio went on for all of 3 hours. Amazing. I should add that when they were trying to get the boat up the ramp one of the guys was in the boat with both outboards at fairly fast revs.

This is the Ilikai Marina. Our room is the fourth down from the top. If you can zoom in you will see a small piece of red, that is PT. Nice having the corner unit with the extra big window.

I took this from looking out of the back of the building while waiting for the lift. It shows how the rain stays up in the hills most of the day and you think that it is going to rain soon but it stays up there and its nearly always sunny on the beaches.

About 5.00pm we walked out to the far boat piers to look back from out there. The building on the left is the Ilikai Hotel where we were first. It is shaped like a Y.  We were in the left wing just in the picture. Floor 19. The right hand buildings are part of the Hilton group.  Sometime at this time the hills send the dark rain clouds nearer to the coast, but just a few specks of rain then cleared again in time for the sunset. Sun goes down about 6.30pm.

This is as far as the piers go which makes the boat harbour looks a lot bigger from this angle than looking down on the harbour from the unit. Hilton Hotel with the bright colours where the lagoon is , Diamond Head far right. Didn't climb that this year. Far left on the right of the two high rises which is the Prince Hotel is  our building Ilikai Marina eighteen floors high we are on the fifteenth. Then you can see the Ilikai Hotel Y shape slightly left of the centre.

Ilikai Marina just right of the two high rises and you can see the Ilikai Hotel Y shape more clearly.

Linda at last we got a sunset.

Cruise ship just leaving Honolulu this evening. Don't know which one it is but not yours Linda and Bruce. 

Above and below taken from our deck.

The next three like I did last night taken from our deck but at night.

 Looking left  towards the lagoon.

Looking straight out.

Looking right up the coast towards the airport and then looking down the side of our building down onto the road and boats

Hawaii Saturday 19th September and Sunday 20th September 2015

SATURDAY  19th SEPTEMBER

Today we went over to Bed Bath and Beyond in the Ward Centre on the Ala Moana Blvd. I have always wanted to get there but have never made it.
Wow its nothing like the Bed Bath and Beyonds at home. Massive store two stories just full of just about every little thing for the home. Kitchenware, curtains, linen, all sorts just went on and on. The rest of the shops in the complex are not our sort of shops very upmarket and very expensive.
We walked through to the other end as we also wanted to go back to Sports Authority sports shop in Ward St. where they have all the sports brands of T shirts, shorts, togs and many other things.

Linda and Bruce we saw your ship coming into port early this morning. It past along in front of us. At least we think that this was the one you were on. Pride of America..

When we got to the end of the Ward centre we came across the local food markets being Saturday morning and came across these boys cooking up all these  half chickens. The biggest B-B-Q we have ever seen. They were cooking at all different stages, in front only just been put on. behind them getting near to been cooked and the third lot in the distance were ready to be sold. There was, behind all this, a tent where  they were selling to the public. $5 a half chicken.

They just kept cooking them in the three different stages, when ready took them over to the tent where people were queued up buying them. We brought 2 halves and took it home and made pigs of ourselves for lunch. So tender and moist. The second batch that were almost cooked, the boys kept spraying them with a nice marinade while they were still cooking.

Had a quiet afternoon inside, didn't go down swimming as I just felt that I couldn't take any more sun, it had drained me so had a break today.

SUNDAY  20th SEPTEMBER.

Linda I couldn't do you a good sunset tonight but I could do a rainbow but not a drop of rain in sight, a perfect day. Still no sunsets, below is the best there was. Can't call this a sunset.

This morning we went for a walk back out to the end of Ala Moana Beach park called Magic Island. Quite breezy out at the end the wind was up but nice and refreshing, but still very hot. We got to 32 degrees going down to 25 tonight. Above we were watching some men with their model yachts.

One guy was getting his boat ready and by the time we walked back again he was sailing it. We stopped and talked to him for awhile.

As we were walking out to the end, we  just missed getting a photo of the bride and groom. They were just walking off as we arrived. It looks like she is doing a runner.... Just walking to another spot. 

Above and below looking back at the hotels behind the boat harbour. Our building is in there somewhere.

This is walking towards the end out to the breakwater which protects the little beach at the end. This is where I took a few shots a few days ago when we were having the high seas and the waves were coming over the breakwater and the man was fishing out on the point. A nice area.

 

Above and below the boys out surfing  near the entrance of the boat harbour. PT counted 106 surfers out there at 5pm tonight over a stretch of about 500m.

This is the beach at the end protected by the breakwaters. I think that I might have posted shots of this before

Turned around at the end, beach on the left, entrance to boat harbour on the right. PT in the middle hands on hips thinking  why isn't she keeping up and of course I was just taking another photo or two!!!!! Had a chat out here with a Kiwi couple.  You can see in this photo the rain build up in the hills at the back but that's where it stays and the weather on the coast stays fine. Went over to the shops for awhile then home for lunch.

The next three photos I have taken from our balcony showing individual photos of our view to see that it is a little clearer to see than the pano below.

Looking out to the left (east) where the fireworks were on the other side of the lagoon.

Looking straight out over the boats.

Looking out to the right (west) towards Ala Moana beach and Magic Island.

Our view...

Another perfect day.

3 nights to go and still hoping for a good sunset.