Bus picked us up at 8.30am on a tour around the island. Past Diamond Head slopes and around to Hanauma Bay which I loved. Abssolutley stunning. The tour guide was excellent and moved her mirror so we could lipread her. Unfortunately my asthma flared up on the bus and because I couldn't get enough oxygen I kept falling asleep. Further - my implant really really needs a map and I understood absolutely zilch so Mike was interpretiing for me most of the way, when I had my eyes open!!
We stopped for lunch at a golf course the ko'olau. I looked at golf gear in the shop afterwards with Mum in mind. But had to walk out in the end because there was nothing under $100. Thought that counted right? Some of these golf courses charge $100,000 per year to join!!
On up the coast - very beautiful beaches - reminded me a lot about Barbados once we got away from all the highrises of Waikiki. It got very hot, and I wanted to get out and swim at every beach we stopped, but no time. We stopped at a Japanese Buddhist Temple, the Byodo-in Temple which was also very interesting. We also stopped at the Kualoa Ranch, and was taken on a short boat trip on a fresh water lake. At high tide the sea spills over into the lake and it was weird sitting on the boat looking up at the sea which was slightly higher. This area is the site of Jurassic Park filmset, Fantasy island and a few other famous movies.
Then up to the famous North Shore beaches where the surfies are, and the swell runs hot at certain times of the year. So beautiful again - I've never seen such blue blue water. Down the middle of the island through coffee, sugar and pineapple plantations. Stopped at the Dole Pineapple plantation and went in to the shop. A real tourist trap - everything too expensive, but I did buy a pineapple icecream which was very refreshing. But even that was steep aat $4.50!!! We passed Pearl Harbour but wasn't able to stop as we were running late.
We got back to the hotel at about 5.30pm. I wasn't hungry so Mike went with his Mum to dinner while I had a shower and then headed out to buy a cabin bag for the plane as I was running out of luggage space. I also found all the manuals and charger for my phone, and took it over to the Tmobile guy and told him to give it to someone needy. In return I got free internet access and arranged to meet up with Larry Littleton the next day. Larry I met on the Say What Club years ago when I first joined. We have been talking to each other ever since online for 12 years so it was great to set this up. He and his wife moved from Santa Barbara, California to Ka'uai, Hawaii a few years ago.
After that I met up with Mike and his Mum and her partner Paul again and we walked over to the beach to watch the fireworks that go off every Friday night. Mike went for a swim and watched the fireworks from out in the water, I was minding his bag so I missed out on seeing them. I can't swim at night due to having no balance. It's bad enough trying to walk on sand in the dark, but trying to swim in the dark is worse as if a wave hits me I don't know which way is up, and the waves at Waikiki can be quite powerful!
We then walked around the shops and then Mike and I walked through the market. I decided to try for a Pearl from the Maui Divers store. It's not guaranteed you will get one, but they gave me a swing at the barrel, and I pulled out a 50% off voucher. So I could then choose an unopened oyster and pay only $7.49 for it. There may or may not be an oyster in there - a true gamble. Well - it just so happened that a fairly large pink pearl was in the one I chose. So I was rapt, and they were surprised. Deciding that luck was on my side, I did it again, and paid $14.99 for the next gamble. This time, I got not one, but two white pearls in the oyster I chose. The white ones were only marginally smaller than the pink one. Not being a gambler really, I decided to quit while I was ahead, but was really pleased about it. Will get them set back home.
Got back to the hotel around 10 to 10.30pm.
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