After two great days on the Big Island of Hawaii, our next port of call brought a complete change of pace and scenery, as we docked in the big city of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Honolulu is one of those occasional ports where we get to stay overnight, giving us some extra time to see the sights. With all day Monday and half a day on Tuesday available for exploring you’d think we had a lot of options, but Monday was Presidents Day, and almost everything was closed.
An interesting dilemma, but one that I think we handled nicely. In looking at the map of the city we saw that we were docked less than two miles from Chinatown, where we were pretty sure most of the shops and street vendors would be open for business. And open they were, and a brisk half hour walk deposited us into a beehive of activity. In fact, I don’t recall seeing any street vendors, shops or restaurants that were closed for the holiday, so we got to fully experience one of America’s largest Chinatowns.
If you ever go, don’t be afraid to turn off the main streets and go exploring down the smaller streets and alleys. We had a wonderful time poking around and soaking up Honolulu’s Chinese culture. There were a lot of vendors selling fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, but even if we’d been tempted to buy any, we wouldn’t have been allowed to bring them back on the ship. Anyone who has cruised before can tell you that that prohibition is universal, so no surprise there. However, there were also many shops selling clothes, merchandise and souvenirs, and Michele and I each made a purchase or two before we hiked back to the ship for lunch.
After lunch we had an equally successful outing despite so many things we would otherwise have done being unavailable due to the holiday. I know what I’m going to relate may sound strange, but we were excited to discover that we were within walking distance of a Whole Foods, and that it was open on Presidents Day. On a nine month trip the opportunity to reload on everything from energy bars to cough drops is worth its weight in gold, and we made the most of it. We wore day packs on our twenty minute walk to the store and filled them both up with supplies that should hold us over for quite a while.
All of our walking (I recorded almost 20,000 steps) was enough for one day, so we were happy to stay on the ship after dinner and watch a wonderful evening performance by Hawaiian dancers in the ship theater.
Everything was back open on Tuesday, but we had to be back on the ship by 1:30, as we were scheduled to weigh anchor promptly at 2:00. We really wanted to get out and see as much of the island as possible, so we booked a bus excursion to take us to as many highlights as possible in the time available.
Heading out of the city our first destination was Diamond Head, the extinct volcano that looms over Honolulu. Lēa’hi was a huge volcano that exploded violently 300,000 years ago, and Diamond Head is what’s left of it. We drove up into the crater, which after 300,000 years of inactivity is pretty tame. It’s 350 acres of a mostly flat, grassy field containing a large parking lot, a couple modest buildings, and not much else. There’s nothing to see from inside the crater, as it is ringed by the remaining walls of the volcano. You can hike up to the rim, which gives spectacular views of Honolulu, but unless you have time to do that (we didn’t) I wouldn’t bother going up to the crater. Still, it was an interesting first stop.
We continued our drive along the coast, and the scenery was beautiful. The beaches, including Waikiki, were world class, and I could see why Oahu is such a popular vacation destination. Before long we pulled off at an overlook where we could see one of the island’s famous natural attractions, the Halona blowhole. Formed at the shoreline by lava tubes, the Halona blowhole is one of only three such natural wonders in the world, and we’ve now seen two of them. The other was in Ensenada, Mexico, and the only remaining one is in Australia. I wonder if we’ll see it while we’re there.
The Halona blowhole blasts spray up to thirty feet in the air, but you have to be patient to see it. I waited quite a while, but only saw several small puffs of spray. I gave up and walked over to another part of the overlook, as the scenery in every direction is beautiful. Michele, however, was more patient than me, and recorded a good blast from the blowhole. I’ll share one of her photos below.
Continuing on, we stopped for ice cream at a gift shop along the coast, and I have to admit that the freshly made macadamia nut/coconut ice cream was so good that it erased my annoyance at using some of our valuable time to stop at a gift shop. Fortunately for my waistline it probably isn’t available in Pennsylvania.
Leaving the coast, our bus took us up to Pali Lookout, a Hawaii State Park that has—three guesses—an overlook. It really is a nice overlook, there’s some history there too, including a nearby spot where a US bomber crashed during a mission in World War Two, killing all ten crew members. A plaque at the park honors them.
On our way back to the pier our guide deviated a bit from his planned route and took us past a number of interesting sites in the city, including the state capitol building and King Kamehameha’s palace. We didn’t have time to stop, but we got some photos out the bus window.
We were dropped off at the pier a little before noon, which gave us time to make the ten minute walk to the Hawaii Pacific University Barnes and Noble bookstore, which was closed the day before. I bought two meaty nonfiction books that should keep me occupied on our upcoming multiple sea days as we cross the wide Pacific on our way to French Polynesia and then New Zealand and Australia. We made it back to the ship with time to spare before the all aboard cutoff, then had lunch and watched us shove off and begin the five day trip to Mo’orea.
I’ll post a time or two between now and then, or at least do some shorter updates on Facebook, so stay tuned.
On our way to Chinatown we stopped to see the Aloha Tower, a Honolulu landmark. Unfortunately it was closed for Presidents Day.
Entering Chinatown, one of America’s largest.
There were several streets that looked like this, and they were all busy.
You can work your way in through spots like this and find all kinds of neat little shops tucked into little alleys and nooks.
I bought a great new tee shirt. Did you know that 2024 is the year of the dragon?
There was nothing worth photographing inside the Diamond Head crater, but the Halona blowhole was something else entirely. Michele got this great photo of it launching spray into the air.
There was beautiful scenery looking in both directions from the blowhole overlook.
Looking in the other direction. Gorgeous little beach.
People looking down at the blowhole waiting for the next blast of spray.
Of course we needed a selfie at the blowhole.
Freshly made macadamia nut/coconut ice cream. My new favorite.
Pali Lookout was our next stop.
The views at Pali Lookout were beautiful.
We needed a photo there too.
Not all fun and games at the lookout. This plaque memorializes the ten US airmen who were killed near here during World War Two when their bomber crashed in bad weather.
Back in Honolulu we drove past the state capitol building. I like Pennsylvania’s better.
King Kamehameha I in front of his palace.
Diamond Head from our ship as we were sailing away. You really need to get this far away to appreciate how big that volcano must have been, and how violent the explosion must have been to blow it apart like that.
I’ll finish with this shot of the Aloha Tower at night, taken from our cruise ship. I really enjoyed our day and a half in Honolulu.
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