Arrived Safely in Honolulu

[barx1963]

Well the SWMBO and I have arrived safely in Honolulu and wandered down to Waikiki beach. The surf was up, lots of surfers getting into the waves. Nice and warm about 30 degrees. Flight was OK, 10 hours, usual discomforts!
Honolulu airport is still veeeery 70's!!

Pic attached from Waikiki.

Malcolm

[strongmanmike]

Awesome Malcolm :thumbsup:...it was -7C here in Canberra this morning :cold:..of course that meant clear as a bell last night...full Moon and work night of course :rolleyes:

Have a great holiday

Mike

[deanm]

Mal - could you get the phone number of the lass carrying the inflatable ring in photo 1?!

For purely astro-related reasons, of course...!

Dean

[barx1963]

Gosh Dean, I hadn't noticed her!! Sorry, cannot think what astro related purpose you would put that phone to?

Malcolm

[AussieTrooper]

If you're heading to Big Island, go via Kona airport. It's a little village, with hula dancers and all.

[tlgerdes]

Were you expecting another outcome apart from arriving safely? You make it out as though you had rowed there from Australia :lol:

[barx1963]

Kona is probably my favorite airport in the world, really nice and casual.

Malcolm

[hobbit]

Amazing place. Looks like you're about two blocks away from where I stayed. I have no complaints about honolulu airport at all. Most laid back airport i've ever been to.

[AussieTrooper]

Agree totally. When I realised that there was still something in my water bottle, the guy actually joked with me.
Poles apart from the mean stares and gorilla attitudes in Honolulu of the airport security staff.
Body scanner guy: "push your tray through the carry on xray and come over here."
Carry on xray guy: "why did you push your tray, now you've jammed it."

There seems to be some sort of personality, communication and intelligence test that you must fail before being allowed to work there.

[hobbit]

Ben, I'm quite surprised to read this. I had a great experience with honolulu security. They had no problem hand checking 10 boxes of film and stopping to chat about my "awesome retro" camera. They were by far the most pleasurable i've ever dealt with.

[Jen]

I'm sooooooo jealous :P enjoy your trip Malcolm :)

[FlashDrive]

Nothing much has changed since 1975 when I was there.....

Great place thou'.... Whatever you do, don't go down ' Hotel Street ' ...you'll get ' ripped off ' by the locals.

I was 19 then ( at Hickman US Airbase .. right next to Honolulu ) ... got conned into paying $50.00 ( using my American Express Travelers Cheques ) for a ' phony ' bottle of Champers.

But I was single and silly then....:whistle:

Never forgot it.

Enjoy yourself anyway

Col....:D

[barx1963]

Col
Honolulu is pretty much just a big city by a beach, Waikiki is like the Gold Coast on steroids, fun but few days is enough! And yes it is very easy to get ripped off if you are not at least a little bit careful. But there are some good things to do, Snorkelling at Hanauma bay, hiking up Diamond Head and visiting Manoa Falls are all easy to do and cheap as you can use public transport.
The other islands are a lot more relaxed, we have had 3 days on Maui doing the sunrise at Haleakala and driving the Road to Hana and we are now on the Big Island having done some more snorkelling and Volcano tour yesterday. I love the Big Island!!

Malcolm

[traveller]

Looks like you are having a ball there Malcolm. My wife and I stayed at the Hyatt Waikiki (which is that hexagonal building in photo 2 I think!) in 2001, great views to the beach but the room stank of cigarette smoke (they had smoking or non smoking rooms but didn't make any difference).
Have you done the tour of Pearl Habour yet?
Bo

[FlashDrive]

Glad your having a good time there....forgot to tell you..take a trip ( if you can ) to Pearl Harbour .... see USS Arizona still in the water...I believe they do day trips on her now.... and the ' History ' Lesson about her....
Lot of boys lost their lives there...RIP.

Would I go back there .... sure would ...:thumbsup:

Col....

[AussieTrooper]

It may well just be the particular staff that you encounter on any given day. I'm glad to hear you're encounter with them was a good one.
I will say that customer service in Hawaii is generally far better than in Australia. Restaurant and shop staff will usually bend over backwards to help you. I really wish we had tipping in Australia. There would likely be a quick attitude adjustment when people realised that their income depended on it.

[AussieTrooper]

Agree totally.

Waikiki is ok, but the prices are horrendous. Big island is far cheaper, there's heaps do see and do, and there are no crowds to dodge.

[barx1963]

Well we have arrived safely back in Oz! Very hassle free trip, as others have mentioned, Hawaii is one place you get very good service nearly everywhere, and almost always very friendly. Even the public bus drivers were great, if you asked them they would let you know when your stop was coming up!
This visit confirmed my previous opinion from my visit in 2012 that the Big Island is possibly my favorite place in the world to visit.

Malcolm

[AussieTrooper]

Yeah, The Bus was really good. Cheap too.
Did you remember to bring your jumper each time?