Quick Links
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Honeymoon in Hawaii June 1997
A two-week honeymoon at the Big Island of Hawaii
and Oahu.
We just got back from our honeymoon in
Hawaii (the Big Island of Hawaii and Oahu) late Friday night. We're still a
little bushed and trying to readjust to the time change. We were soooooo
spoiled in Hawaii with their 3 hour later time change. We gained 3 hours going
there and then lost 3 coming
back!
They Honeymoon.
If you are interested I will tell you about the sites that Brian and I saw. (This is a very long description of our Hawaiian vacation. But I hope you find it interesting enough to read the entire story through!) We first landed at the Big Island of Hawaii on June 10th. We seemed to be hitting the Island at an opportune time. The Kiluea volcano had just started erupting when we got there. (Oh, that's actually a good thing! ^_^) A lot of folks were renting 4 Wheel Drive vehicles to go out and see it. We managed to rent one of the last 4WD vehicles that our car rental agency had. We then arrived at the Hitlon at Waikoloa (West side of the Island and far away from the volcano!). (The volcanos are on the East side.)
We were expecting a typical Hilton hotel. Boy, were we surprised. When we arrived at this *RESORT* we were met with a main lobby with tropical birds flying around and a main atrium that looked like something out of the Mayan pyramid landscapes! Wow! Further the resort was 66 acres in size. So in order to get to our rooms we needed to take a boat to our rooms. The entire estate is connected with miles of canals that have boats that cruise through the areas picking up hotel guests. They directed us to the Ocean Tower hotel and had us get in a boat. We then leisurely cruised down to our hotel room. Once we got out and started to meet other guests we ran into another couple that had gotten married on the exact same day as we did. (By the way, honeymoon couples and Japanese tourists are a dime a dozen in Hawaii!) This couple was from San Francisco and they were fried like cherry tomatoes from head to foot! Brian and I immediately put on 30 SPF sunscreen everyday from then on out. And we still managed to get a little sunburned, but luckily it was only a little! (Hawaii is 20 degrees North of the equator and the Sun's rays hit much more directly than they do here in California.)
The next day we spent visiting the many swimming pools, jacuzzi's and waterslides that they had throughout the resort. What a place. I then signed up for a Swim with the Dolphins, for only $100 (not including the video for $75 and photos for $20/each that they try to sell to you!). What a rip off! For a half an hour I was able to *pet* a dolpin, but they didn't let us swim with them. (By the way they are rubbery (like a car tire) on the back and they feel like nylon hose mesh on their bellies.) We also had the honor of being splashed by a dolphin and directing it with hand signals. (The instructor had us direct the dolphin to splash us. And boy, can a dolphin splash you good! Yuck!) Brian was supposed to swim with the dolphins the next day, but he was intelligent enough to save himself $100.
We also went snorkling for the first time at the Big Island. We went on a charter with Red Sail Sports. It was a great deal--for $60 we got a buffet breakfast, lunch, snorkeling at two spots and a sail out to sea. When I first heard of snorkling I thought that it would be very boring and that I would be staring at sand and rocks all day. Ho Hum! Boy was I wrong! I got in the water and I did see sand and rocks. But I also quickly came upon a school of fish. There were hundreds of them and no matter where I swam they always kept about 1 foot away from me. If I had been swimming on the top of the water and had not looked in I would have never known that I was swimming through a school of fish! What is more these fish were beautiful, tropical fish and you can't imagine how many of them there were! And so many different varities. We were also taken to a spot that the guide called the "Turtle Car Wash". It was a coral reef 60 feet down, where sea turtles would glide in like dive bombers. Then schools of fish would zoom in on the turtles en masse. Suddenly a bunch of fish would be munching on all of the algae on the turtle and cleaning them off. Eventually the mass of fishes would dissipate and would leave a brand spanking new, clean turtle. I thought this was pretty neat! Symbiosis on the ocean floor!
We then went to Volcano's National Park the next day. (Yes, there is a US National Park for Volcanos on Hawaii!). The Kiluea volcano was erupting through a vent called Pu'u' O'o. We were told that if we hiked 3 miles (round trip) up another mountain, we would be able to see the eruption. So we hiked and hiked and hiked. We we got to the top I couldn't see any eruption. But after borrowing some binoculars from another couple from Holland, we were able to see an awesome eruption! The lava was spewing out the side of the volcano and lava was spouting up at random intervals from the top! We were 7 miles away from the volcano. Fancy that! For some reason the Park Rangers didn't want us any closer! :-)
Well, of course we had to get in closer!!! So we rented out a helicopter at Hilo Airport the next day. Hilo is 28 miles away from Volcanos National Park.The pilot took us right in next to the caldera where the lava flows. It wasn't as active on that day. But we were able to see a sea of molten lava churning within the delpths of the volcano. The lava looked much like the open sea with waves and crests of lava heaving too and fro. There was also a cone that was erupting lava and spewing it out as we flew on by. We told the pilot to make more runs across the volcano. We made about 5 runs across the top and the pilot kept us around the rim and never took us directly inside the froathing lava caldera. The helicopter company (Blue Hawaiian Helicopters) videotaped the entire tip and gave us a video of it afterwards. If you are interested in seeing it you can look at our video. We are also going to put the video on our webpage within a few weeks!
That same day we drove up to Mauna Kea Atronomical Observatory. The Observatory is unmarked. There are no roadsigns whatsoever, since they try to keep tourists out. You will drive down a road called Saddle Back Road in the middle of nowhere. It looked like we were driving down some road in Costa Rica with tropical growth on every side. Soon the landscape changed to a lunar scape of old lava flows. (We knew that we were know approaching the now dormant Mauna Kea volcano, the tallest volcano in the world.) But there were no road signs to get to the observatory and every road was unmarked! We knew that we had gone too far when we ran into an Army base. So we backtracked and found our way up an unmarked road that seemed to be going up Mauna Kea. After 5 miles of seeing cattle, we saw a sign stating that only 4WD vehicles could drive up this road. Thankfully we had one. The incline seemed to be about 20-25 degress up the mountain. And some of the road changed to gravel when you get near to the top! We traveled all the way to the top of the volcano and saw the observatories that were currently tracking the stars. I saw the Milky Way, the Scorpio Constellation and the Southern Cross Constellation for the first time! When then drove back down and stopped off at the Onizuka Observatory that had rergularly scheduled tours and telescope viewing. The man there (Hugh Grossman) showed us some wonderful star systems until 11:00 PM at night! He would have even stayed longer if it wasn't for us tired mainlanders wanting to go to bed! Hugh was great! And the viewing was not only fabulous on the volcano--it was free!
The next day we flew out to Oahu and Waikiki beach. Waikiki beach is a beautiful beach, but it really is a party area of a large city and very touristy. We even saw prostitutes cruising the strip! This was a sharp contrast to the Big Island where everything was so remote and quiet.
We went to Hanuma Bay the first day we were there to snorkel. The Bay was beautiful, but overrun with tourists. We rented snorkels and even managed to take pictures of the fishes that we saw with an underwater camera. The snorkeling was not as good there as it was on Hawaii. With so many other people there the water was a little murky. The fish were very used to the people though and would even eat right out of your hand if you bought fish food from the local vendor on the Beach.
The next day we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Bowfin Submarine. I had been to the USS Arizona memrial when I was 6, so it was interesting to visit it again. This time I understood why it was there and I wept. You can see the USS Arizona which is right under the memorial. Some parts of the ship are even out of the water. Most of the ship is visible and is just below the sea. Very errie! It is a rusty, watery grave for over 1,000 crew men. We also visited the USS Bowfin, which has an audio tape account from the Captain of the USS Bowfin (WWII). It was a great tale of how the USS Bowfin dealt with enemy submarines and traversed enemy minefields in the South Pacific during WWII.
Afterwards we went on a wonderful Luau at the Paradise Cove Luau. We also went to another Luau which was a rip-off (at Hawaii called the Royal Waiokoloan Luau). (Don't ever go to the Royal Waikolan Luau, it is nothing more than a catered event--not a luau.) The Paradise Cove Luau let you participate in making leis, headbands out of palm fonds, and bracelets out of coconut leaves. Gosh it was even FREE! What a concept! :-) They also had a spear toss and a Polynesian dart throw (very similair to bowling actually!). They also let us participate in the Houkeilau (Fish Net throwing) and the Emu ceremony (where they bring the cooked pig out of the underground oven). We also paid for prime seats and got right in the front and saw some wonderful dancing. What a workout those dancers went through! They should teach hulu at aerobic calsses!
The next day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Along the way the Tour Guide pointed out spots where Gilligan's Island (a lagoon next to Pearl Harbor), Karate Kid II, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park were filmed. The Center was wonderful, albeit crowded! When I was there 20 years ago I saw small groups of about 20 at each Polynesian village that we visited. This time there was over 200 people in small amphitheres for each village! The Center is divided into different Polynesian villages that you visit to see how they lived. We went to the Samoa one first. It was great. They showed us how they create fire with two sticks and a coconut husk! They also demoed how to husk a coconut and what to drink and not drink from a coconut. They also showed us how they climb trees by attaching a cloth around their ankles which lets your feet rest on the tree. We also visited a Tongo village where they demoed the Tongan drum. Then to Tahiti where they showed us hulu. (The Tahitians have the sexiest hulu in my opionion!) Then to New Zealand and the Maori people. If a Maori person even drops a leaf in front of you, it is best to pick it up. Otherwise you are "shiskabob!" The Maori warrior will run around you with face paint and will grimace and try to scare you. Then they will drop a leaf in front of you. If you pick up the leaf you are friend, if you do not... well..."shiskabob!" We also saw the Parade of the Canoes where they reanact Polynesian Folklore while they paddle on canoes in front of you. Quite a show! Finally they have a hulu show called "Horizons" which was the most spectualar hulu show I had ever seen with up to 100 dancers on the stage at the same time! I also saw the most elaborate fire dancing! I actually grimaced as I saw the person swallow fire and as he held the fire stick with his bare feet. Yeeshh! What's the health insurance rates for someone who does that?
The next day we visited downtown Honolulu and saw the Iolani Palce, the King Kamahamea statue and the Chinese Cultural Center. Hawaii was originally ruled by a monarchy. They monarchy was first established by the great Kamahamea (early 1700's) who originally united (or depending on your point of view--conquered) the Hawaiian islands for the first time. The monarchy held it's power and established itself in the Iolani palace in Honolulu until 1883. That was then that American businessmen with the help of the US Marines, took over the government. (And this was long before there was even a CIA!) President Grover Cleveland condemned the act and asked the businessmen to return the Queen to power. However US business was too entrenched. Hawaii was very important for US trade and agriculture. Hawaii was annexed and then became a State of the US in 1959. It makes you sad to be an American when you hear about how we deposed the rightful monarch of Hawaii.
The day in Oahu we spent at the Waikiki beach (it's fun to body surf there) and be sure to bring a raft or kick board. Then we went to the "Top of Waikiki", which is a rotating restaurant on the 20th floor of a Waikiki hotel. It was beautiful to see Honolulu for one last time as we viewed the entire city while eating dinner.
Then Friday June 20th we made it home! We have tons of wedding gifts to now unpack. And we'll try to get Thank You cards out soon!
Aloha! (Hello and Goodbye!)
-Sherry (& Brian)
They Honeymoon.
If you are interested I will tell you about the sites that Brian and I saw. (This is a very long description of our Hawaiian vacation. But I hope you find it interesting enough to read the entire story through!) We first landed at the Big Island of Hawaii on June 10th. We seemed to be hitting the Island at an opportune time. The Kiluea volcano had just started erupting when we got there. (Oh, that's actually a good thing! ^_^) A lot of folks were renting 4 Wheel Drive vehicles to go out and see it. We managed to rent one of the last 4WD vehicles that our car rental agency had. We then arrived at the Hitlon at Waikoloa (West side of the Island and far away from the volcano!). (The volcanos are on the East side.)
We were expecting a typical Hilton hotel. Boy, were we surprised. When we arrived at this *RESORT* we were met with a main lobby with tropical birds flying around and a main atrium that looked like something out of the Mayan pyramid landscapes! Wow! Further the resort was 66 acres in size. So in order to get to our rooms we needed to take a boat to our rooms. The entire estate is connected with miles of canals that have boats that cruise through the areas picking up hotel guests. They directed us to the Ocean Tower hotel and had us get in a boat. We then leisurely cruised down to our hotel room. Once we got out and started to meet other guests we ran into another couple that had gotten married on the exact same day as we did. (By the way, honeymoon couples and Japanese tourists are a dime a dozen in Hawaii!) This couple was from San Francisco and they were fried like cherry tomatoes from head to foot! Brian and I immediately put on 30 SPF sunscreen everyday from then on out. And we still managed to get a little sunburned, but luckily it was only a little! (Hawaii is 20 degrees North of the equator and the Sun's rays hit much more directly than they do here in California.)
The next day we spent visiting the many swimming pools, jacuzzi's and waterslides that they had throughout the resort. What a place. I then signed up for a Swim with the Dolphins, for only $100 (not including the video for $75 and photos for $20/each that they try to sell to you!). What a rip off! For a half an hour I was able to *pet* a dolpin, but they didn't let us swim with them. (By the way they are rubbery (like a car tire) on the back and they feel like nylon hose mesh on their bellies.) We also had the honor of being splashed by a dolphin and directing it with hand signals. (The instructor had us direct the dolphin to splash us. And boy, can a dolphin splash you good! Yuck!) Brian was supposed to swim with the dolphins the next day, but he was intelligent enough to save himself $100.
We also went snorkling for the first time at the Big Island. We went on a charter with Red Sail Sports. It was a great deal--for $60 we got a buffet breakfast, lunch, snorkeling at two spots and a sail out to sea. When I first heard of snorkling I thought that it would be very boring and that I would be staring at sand and rocks all day. Ho Hum! Boy was I wrong! I got in the water and I did see sand and rocks. But I also quickly came upon a school of fish. There were hundreds of them and no matter where I swam they always kept about 1 foot away from me. If I had been swimming on the top of the water and had not looked in I would have never known that I was swimming through a school of fish! What is more these fish were beautiful, tropical fish and you can't imagine how many of them there were! And so many different varities. We were also taken to a spot that the guide called the "Turtle Car Wash". It was a coral reef 60 feet down, where sea turtles would glide in like dive bombers. Then schools of fish would zoom in on the turtles en masse. Suddenly a bunch of fish would be munching on all of the algae on the turtle and cleaning them off. Eventually the mass of fishes would dissipate and would leave a brand spanking new, clean turtle. I thought this was pretty neat! Symbiosis on the ocean floor!
We then went to Volcano's National Park the next day. (Yes, there is a US National Park for Volcanos on Hawaii!). The Kiluea volcano was erupting through a vent called Pu'u' O'o. We were told that if we hiked 3 miles (round trip) up another mountain, we would be able to see the eruption. So we hiked and hiked and hiked. We we got to the top I couldn't see any eruption. But after borrowing some binoculars from another couple from Holland, we were able to see an awesome eruption! The lava was spewing out the side of the volcano and lava was spouting up at random intervals from the top! We were 7 miles away from the volcano. Fancy that! For some reason the Park Rangers didn't want us any closer! :-)
Well, of course we had to get in closer!!! So we rented out a helicopter at Hilo Airport the next day. Hilo is 28 miles away from Volcanos National Park.The pilot took us right in next to the caldera where the lava flows. It wasn't as active on that day. But we were able to see a sea of molten lava churning within the delpths of the volcano. The lava looked much like the open sea with waves and crests of lava heaving too and fro. There was also a cone that was erupting lava and spewing it out as we flew on by. We told the pilot to make more runs across the volcano. We made about 5 runs across the top and the pilot kept us around the rim and never took us directly inside the froathing lava caldera. The helicopter company (Blue Hawaiian Helicopters) videotaped the entire tip and gave us a video of it afterwards. If you are interested in seeing it you can look at our video. We are also going to put the video on our webpage within a few weeks!
That same day we drove up to Mauna Kea Atronomical Observatory. The Observatory is unmarked. There are no roadsigns whatsoever, since they try to keep tourists out. You will drive down a road called Saddle Back Road in the middle of nowhere. It looked like we were driving down some road in Costa Rica with tropical growth on every side. Soon the landscape changed to a lunar scape of old lava flows. (We knew that we were know approaching the now dormant Mauna Kea volcano, the tallest volcano in the world.) But there were no road signs to get to the observatory and every road was unmarked! We knew that we had gone too far when we ran into an Army base. So we backtracked and found our way up an unmarked road that seemed to be going up Mauna Kea. After 5 miles of seeing cattle, we saw a sign stating that only 4WD vehicles could drive up this road. Thankfully we had one. The incline seemed to be about 20-25 degress up the mountain. And some of the road changed to gravel when you get near to the top! We traveled all the way to the top of the volcano and saw the observatories that were currently tracking the stars. I saw the Milky Way, the Scorpio Constellation and the Southern Cross Constellation for the first time! When then drove back down and stopped off at the Onizuka Observatory that had rergularly scheduled tours and telescope viewing. The man there (Hugh Grossman) showed us some wonderful star systems until 11:00 PM at night! He would have even stayed longer if it wasn't for us tired mainlanders wanting to go to bed! Hugh was great! And the viewing was not only fabulous on the volcano--it was free!
The next day we flew out to Oahu and Waikiki beach. Waikiki beach is a beautiful beach, but it really is a party area of a large city and very touristy. We even saw prostitutes cruising the strip! This was a sharp contrast to the Big Island where everything was so remote and quiet.
We went to Hanuma Bay the first day we were there to snorkel. The Bay was beautiful, but overrun with tourists. We rented snorkels and even managed to take pictures of the fishes that we saw with an underwater camera. The snorkeling was not as good there as it was on Hawaii. With so many other people there the water was a little murky. The fish were very used to the people though and would even eat right out of your hand if you bought fish food from the local vendor on the Beach.
The next day we went to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Bowfin Submarine. I had been to the USS Arizona memrial when I was 6, so it was interesting to visit it again. This time I understood why it was there and I wept. You can see the USS Arizona which is right under the memorial. Some parts of the ship are even out of the water. Most of the ship is visible and is just below the sea. Very errie! It is a rusty, watery grave for over 1,000 crew men. We also visited the USS Bowfin, which has an audio tape account from the Captain of the USS Bowfin (WWII). It was a great tale of how the USS Bowfin dealt with enemy submarines and traversed enemy minefields in the South Pacific during WWII.
Afterwards we went on a wonderful Luau at the Paradise Cove Luau. We also went to another Luau which was a rip-off (at Hawaii called the Royal Waiokoloan Luau). (Don't ever go to the Royal Waikolan Luau, it is nothing more than a catered event--not a luau.) The Paradise Cove Luau let you participate in making leis, headbands out of palm fonds, and bracelets out of coconut leaves. Gosh it was even FREE! What a concept! :-) They also had a spear toss and a Polynesian dart throw (very similair to bowling actually!). They also let us participate in the Houkeilau (Fish Net throwing) and the Emu ceremony (where they bring the cooked pig out of the underground oven). We also paid for prime seats and got right in the front and saw some wonderful dancing. What a workout those dancers went through! They should teach hulu at aerobic calsses!
The next day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Along the way the Tour Guide pointed out spots where Gilligan's Island (a lagoon next to Pearl Harbor), Karate Kid II, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park were filmed. The Center was wonderful, albeit crowded! When I was there 20 years ago I saw small groups of about 20 at each Polynesian village that we visited. This time there was over 200 people in small amphitheres for each village! The Center is divided into different Polynesian villages that you visit to see how they lived. We went to the Samoa one first. It was great. They showed us how they create fire with two sticks and a coconut husk! They also demoed how to husk a coconut and what to drink and not drink from a coconut. They also showed us how they climb trees by attaching a cloth around their ankles which lets your feet rest on the tree. We also visited a Tongo village where they demoed the Tongan drum. Then to Tahiti where they showed us hulu. (The Tahitians have the sexiest hulu in my opionion!) Then to New Zealand and the Maori people. If a Maori person even drops a leaf in front of you, it is best to pick it up. Otherwise you are "shiskabob!" The Maori warrior will run around you with face paint and will grimace and try to scare you. Then they will drop a leaf in front of you. If you pick up the leaf you are friend, if you do not... well..."shiskabob!" We also saw the Parade of the Canoes where they reanact Polynesian Folklore while they paddle on canoes in front of you. Quite a show! Finally they have a hulu show called "Horizons" which was the most spectualar hulu show I had ever seen with up to 100 dancers on the stage at the same time! I also saw the most elaborate fire dancing! I actually grimaced as I saw the person swallow fire and as he held the fire stick with his bare feet. Yeeshh! What's the health insurance rates for someone who does that?
The next day we visited downtown Honolulu and saw the Iolani Palce, the King Kamahamea statue and the Chinese Cultural Center. Hawaii was originally ruled by a monarchy. They monarchy was first established by the great Kamahamea (early 1700's) who originally united (or depending on your point of view--conquered) the Hawaiian islands for the first time. The monarchy held it's power and established itself in the Iolani palace in Honolulu until 1883. That was then that American businessmen with the help of the US Marines, took over the government. (And this was long before there was even a CIA!) President Grover Cleveland condemned the act and asked the businessmen to return the Queen to power. However US business was too entrenched. Hawaii was very important for US trade and agriculture. Hawaii was annexed and then became a State of the US in 1959. It makes you sad to be an American when you hear about how we deposed the rightful monarch of Hawaii.
The day in Oahu we spent at the Waikiki beach (it's fun to body surf there) and be sure to bring a raft or kick board. Then we went to the "Top of Waikiki", which is a rotating restaurant on the 20th floor of a Waikiki hotel. It was beautiful to see Honolulu for one last time as we viewed the entire city while eating dinner.
Then Friday June 20th we made it home! We have tons of wedding gifts to now unpack. And we'll try to get Thank You cards out soon!
Aloha! (Hello and Goodbye!)
-Sherry (& Brian)
Posted: Sat - June 21, 1997 at 10:54 AM