Travels around the world – Hawaii

In travelling from Fiji to Hawaii you actually cross the International Date Line. It was a weird experience leaving a place at 7.30 in the evening and landing at stupid am on the same day. This was made even weirder by the fact that we would be having 2 Sundays. We landed at Honolulu airport and nothing was open and there were no buses running for an hour or two so there was time to explore the airport. At the time the terminal building was open air. There were 4 walls to make up the structure of the building but it had no roof. Even though it was early and we were essentially out doors it was hot and humid. When the buses started to run we made our way to the north shore and found ourselves a hostel like no other backpackers place we had ever seen. We were offered 2 different rooms at 2 different rates and opted for the cheapest. We found that the cheap room had noisy neighbours, we didn't really mind the chickens as the noises they made were quite relaxing but the rooster was a different story all together but we battled on. As it was still early and we had been travelling over night it seemed reasonable to sleep. My mate Adam crashed out straight away and was still out for the count after my body had decided that I was now fully refreshed or too warm to sleep any longer. As Adam showed no sign of waking I decided to explore and found myself on the beach. I walked for quite a while and during this time I did not see another person. After a day at the North Shore we decided we were a little too far away from civilization and moved to a Hostel in Honolulu itself to give us a better chance at getting around and to actually experience some of the things we had come here to see. We found that we were in a good location for the restaurants and the buses and were only a few blocks (I can say that as we were technically in America) from Waikiki beach. I have to admit that I was a little under whelmed by Waikiki. It is a world famous beach so I expected something a little more

spectacular than the narrow stretch of sand that I found. Even though the beach was narrow it was almost completely covered in bodies trying to soak up the Hawaiian sun. What I can say I was impressed by though was the sunset. Even as the sun sank into the sea the heat didn't subside and it was still nice enough to swim with the water temperature remaining just as inviting as during the day. It was a perfect photo opportunity even though all I had was an old battered camera with no zoom lens I still had to try to capture this amazing sight. I think my favourite part of the whole Hawaii phase of the journey was the trip to The USS Arizona memorial. This may be better known as “Pearl Harbour”. The USS Arizona was a key part of the attack on Pearl Harbour as disabling this vessel meant that none of the other ships could escape the attack as the Arizona was essentially blocking the exit of the harbour and preventing any of the other ships from getting into open water. For more information on the events of the day follow this link.
Pearl Harbour
I found the whole story of how the Americans thought the Japanese invasion were their own planes and how the attack was arranged to take place at a time when the American troops were least expecting it to be fascinating

USS Arizona Memorial.

The memorial to the USS Arizona is actually built on the hull of the sunken ship so you can get a feel for the sheer scale of the boat as you stand on the structure and look into the water at the submerged vessel. However, it is when you see the actual scale model on display that you can fully appreciate the magnitude of the USS Arizona. If anyone is planning a trip to Hawaii I can not recommend this experience highly enough, it is a real sense of history and gives an amazing insight into how America came to be involved in World War 2.