My last day in Hawaii

Today we spent our last day at the beach. The water was lovely and warm. Ironically it was much warmer than the hotel swimming pool. It took quite a bit of persuasion to get Mum and Dad into the water, as they were worried about jelly fish eggs, blue bottles and sea turtles. It was a wonderful surprise to see there were no little creatures like that on the beach. The amazing thing was how clear the water was. We could see our legs and feet in the water. During my tours I was told that the sand in Hawaii comes from Australia. It's come along away. I was also told that the Pineapples grown in Hawaii are not exported. They are sold on the island to restaurants, supermarkets etc. They are not picked until they are fully ripe in Hawaii. There is definitely a difference in colour and taste. The pineapple in Hawaii is a real golden yellow and it is very juicy. On the outside the pineapple skin is yellowy golden and not so green.
I think the problem with the pineapples that are exported to New Zealand is that they are not completely ripe and are green on the outside. The colour on the inside is more a pale yellowy lemon colour. In Hawaii, they used to can pineapples for export, but this stopped in the early 1990's as it became to expensive and it was much cheaper to can them in Asia.
Sugar Cane used to grow in Hawaii, but the factories closed down due to the cost in running them and was much cheaper to rely on Asia to make sugar. Some of the fruits grown in Hawaii are: Papaya, Bananas, Figs, Watermelons, Rock melons, Honey dew melons and Mango's.
The climate is perfect for growing tropical fruit.

I have to say that I've had a wonderful holiday. I am feeling rejuvenated and relaxed, ready for a busy year ahead. I have been truly blessed with the people whom I've met on my travels to Canada and to the USA. It has been the people who have welcomed me into their countries. Canadian and Americans are so warm and friendly. I have to say that they are very easy to make conversation with and for someone who loves talking, we have that automatic connection. As soon, as I open my mouth I'm always asked where are you from? I tell them New Zealand and some way or other they know of someone who has been down under or they've been down under. The service in shops and restaurants has been amazing. I certainly don't mind tipping one bit. It must be awfully hard living off your tips. In the USA, they have a lot of coins: pennies (1 cent), knickles (5 cents), dimes (10 cents) and quarters (25 cents). It takes a bit of getting used to and I have to say that shop assistants are very kind in helping me give the right change-virtually counting my coins. I have to say the attitude from the people has very positive around receiving small change. One morning I had about $5.00 worth of quarters. They do add up and Starbucks were happy to accept them.

Mahalo- Thank you everyone for visiting this blog. 8 hours and 15 minutes of flying in the air. All good things must come to an end. It has been a fantastic adventure and one thing I have learnt is that not all of the Northern Hemisphere has snow during this time of year. I think that as we are so far away that we make the assumption that everyone in the Northern Hemisphere has snow. This has not the case, but one I would recommend all kiwi's (New Zealanders) to do is have Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a magical experience and the heart of Christmas is here. The attitude of Christmas is so different over here in the Northern Hemisphere. You can buy: Christmas plates for the family, Christmas salt and pepper shakers, big bulbed lights for your houses, Christmas ornaments with lights inside, and stockings. Filling up a stocking with knick knacks is very special over here. Celebrating Christmas in Canada with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins was a truly amazing experience. Till next time, I'm back to saving the money for a new car and then it will be a brand new overseas adventure. Who knows where I'll be heading to? One things for sure, is that I will be visiting the library and reading up on my next overseas destinations.

Greeting from Hawaii-The Waikiki Trolley

Over these last two days I have been on the Waikiki Trolley.We took two different bus lines. The bus lines were colour coded. There was a red line that focused on the historical sites and the green trolley route focused on the beaches. On the green route we went to Diamond Head - a very scenic beach and great lookouts. The properties around the route would be in the millions. Great beach views. The red route took us to downtown Honolulu and to China Town. The fruit and vegetables at China Town looked very reasonable in price. The bananas were 59 cents a pound about 3 bananas. There was a lot of seafood in shells and crayfish crammed in cages. In downtown Honolulu we went to the Aloha Market. The Aloha Market was a bit of a hole and a lot of the shops were closed. The USA has been hit quite badly with the recession. We noticed this in Las Vegas where there were half built buildings just sitting there no workers, no action, no deadlines to completion. After we went to the Aloha Market we stopped off at the Ward Centre. The Ward Centre has a big sports shop-a bit like Rebel Sport. The prices for Addidas and Nike clothing were very reasonable. You could get an Addidas track suit for under $80. One of the best things about the Waikiki Trolley was the driver. The driver named Peter was a real laugh a minute. He would love at his own jokes and would "yeah yeehah" with every stop. He would joke with other drivers at the lights and would confidently speak Japanese. He was a bit like Jim Carey and Robin Williams combined-a bit slap stick.

Greetings from Hawaii

Hi everyone, as I'm on a roll with blogging I might as well write about today adventure. Today I did the Grand Circle Island tour around Oa'hu and we made a stop to the Dole Pineapple plantation. It was fantastic. We made stops at surf beaches, calm beaches, look outs over the island. The scenery was very pretty. Unfortunately I don't have the pamphlet on me at the moment, I'm typing this at a Starbucks Cafe two doors up. Better WIFI here than in the hotel lobby. We stopped at a ranch for lunch. The people on the tour were very friendly. There was a lady that said that if I was sitting on my own for lunch that I was than welcome to join her. Her and her husband (Ruth & Stu) were from Pittsburg Pensylvania. They were very interesting to talk to. We also went on a tram ride around the ranch. I took some great photos. Will write more in the morning. See ya

China Man's Hat also known as Mokolii Island. This island was opposite the ranch that we dined at.

Haunama Bay-Oahu

Greetings from Hawaii

Aloha everyone. These last two days have been very exciting and Educational. Yesterday (Thursday) I went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. It was simply amazing. We took the bus which was part of the tour package and we left from Waikiki. It was a 75 minute bus ride. The guide on the bus was our guide for the whole experience. He was from Samoa. At the Cultural Centre their were different themed villages based on the islands in the South Pacific. These islands were: Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Tahiti. Hawaii was also included. During the tour the guide (Billy) took us round to the different themed villages. The people who were in the villages were from the countries. Each representative gave a talk and then played some music, got the audience to join in and make fire with sticks. Fiji focused on getting us to tap a fairly large stick on the ground keeping in time with the singer and ukalele players. It was fun. The Hawaiian village people taught us this dance, the Tongan village people played the drums and got the three members to join in. The Samoan village person demonstrated climbing up a coconut tree, stripping the bark off it and opening it neatly then shredding the main part into pieces. He also did some fire walking.

That night we had a buffet dinner and show. The dinner had island style food and yes a full sized pig came out of the ground. I did have some of him but during the night I mainly stuck to salad and vegetables. There was entertainment through dinner. Lots of different culture groups performing-singing and dancing. After dinner we went to a show called Breath of life. This show focused on a child's journey visiting the islands/cultures etc. It was cleverly done. The show was one and a half hours long. The costumes and music were simply amazing. The strangest thing that I noticed were that the New Zealand Maori performers were not wearing flax skirts, they wore skirts made out of material. I wonder whether this maybe due to customs this end not allowing flax into the country, however the Tongan team had their outfits made of flax or something very similar.

Overall it was a great day. We were given a real flower lei at dinner time which made the day very authentic.

Greetings from Hawaii

Aloha everyone, I hope you are all having a nice holiday and enjoying the kiwi summer. Yesterday I visited Honolulu Zoo. It was great seeing animals. There were Kupu's, elephants, giraffes, reptiles, monkeys,flamingoes, different types of crocodiles and tortoises. We watched the elephants being washed down. It was a 20 minute procedure for just on elephant. It was quite a big zoo, but very natural. Lots of palm trees, grass and tropical plants. At lunch time we bought some lunch at the zoo's cafeteria. We had it under the big sun umbrellas. Little did we realize we had company. Peacocks and P hens to join us. The peacocks were quite aggressive. The people across from us bought some fries and these large chicken nuggets. The food was sitting about a good 15cm from the edge of the table, along came the peacock and grabbed one of their chicken nuggets. He ran off to the bushes and other P hens followed. During afternoon tea time we saw kids who were eating their lunch were being harrassed by these peacocks. I think they were terrified by the end of it.
After the trip to the zoo we went back to the hotel. The hotel has a swimming pool and we had a swim. The pool wasn't heated but was one of those pools where you have to move round constantly to stay warm. I did about 15 lengths. At night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. They had a special deal on Pina Coladas with refills. I of course had a main, but once I got tired in drinking my piña Colada I gave it to Mum to finish off. She enjoyed it, it wasn't to strong with alcohol and I'm feeling good this morning. Today I am off to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. Looking forward in learning about the culture of people living Hawaii.

Greetings from Hawaii

Hi everyone, I'm having a great time in Hawaii. The pace of life is a lot quieter and it is a very clean city. The beaches are amazing with golden sand and real palm trees. I'm staying at hotel two blocks away from the beach. There are lots of great restaurants around here. More in the way of a-la carte which I prefer than buffet-which Vegas tended to promote. Today we (Mum, Dad and myself) went to the Ala Moana Shopping Centre. This is the largest outdoor shopping in the world.

The Ala Moana Shopping Centre: Mum and I


We caught the Trolley bus which was free to the mall. I bought three pairs of jeans made from a light weight drapping material and for a short person. It's just great these petite sizes. I also went to to a Hawaiian shop Hula Hattie which focused on pearls. There a bit of a catch when we went in. The lady wanted us to play this game in which she gave three keys to us to open this treasure chest. Mum and my keys could not open the chest. Dad tried with his key and managed to open the chest. Inside there were some material bags with messages inside. He picked one bag and the message 50 percent off. From there we had to choose an oyster shell. There were about 20. I choose the lucky oyster. From there I was told to tap it three. My first tap was a hard one. I honestly thought you had to crack it open. After three taps we had to say Aloha. Then the lady cut the shell open. Inside were two pearls growing. It was very cool. We decided to make the pearls into earrings. I chose a stainless steel base and from there the lady drilled holes and glued them onto the base. They cost $60. I chose an earring which wasn't too heavy but still had the elegance.

Definitely not my dinner, but these are clam shells. These are the shells in which pearls grow inside them. Sometimes you might end up having one pearl growing in a clam shell, but I was lucky had two pearls growing in a shell.

Yesterday we flew for six hours from Las Vegas to Hawaii. It was a direct flight. The flight had heavy turbulence on the way to Hawaii. I kept thinking what worse a rollercoaster or heavy turbulence. I think the turbulence. However it was worth it. Hawaii is a place I would definitely go back to. It's more me. The weather is very warm and I'm in my shorts and T shirt. Might go to the beach tomorrow or have a swim at the hotel. This is the life, however it will come to an end next week.