After an exhausting and torrid 23 hours in transit, due mainly to lengthy delays in San Francisco, we arrived at our Waikiki hotel for a relaxing finishing touch to our time of long service leave. After a reasonable sleep we began checking it out.
We were pleasantly surprised and totally enamoured with this iconic beach and surfing mecca. Waikiki and Honolulu are on the island of Oahu in the Hawaii group and is the main population area for this 50th state of the USA. Our hotel room had a magnificent view covering both the beach and Diamond Head, the crater of a now extinct volcano. We found ourselves simply sitting and marvelling at the beauty of Diamond Head each day of our visit. It was an easy decision that the walk up to the top was on our agenda. It was about a 3 km walk from our hotel just to get to the gate of the National Park, and from there it was a relatively short 2.2km round trip to get to the top for the inspiring views northwest across Waikiki and then directly east across the southern coastline of Maunalua Bay. While being a relatively short walk, it certainly wasn’t an easy walk. It involved some quite steep sections, negotiating former army bunkers, and many steps with tunnels as well. But the stunning view was worth it.
Our hotel was less than a hundred metres from the beach so walking and enjoying that was a delight. The sunsets were amazing and the temperature was great.
It is reasonable to compare Waikiki with the Gold Coast and I felt it stacked up very well. In fact, this place is clean, tidy and pristine, with no advertising billboards or gaudy neon lights. And the best part of all is that there are no casinos anywhere, on any of the islands of Hawaii. In fact there is no gambling of any description – no lotteries, no sports gambling, not even a bingo table. And they seem determined to keep it that way. There is also a great sense of thankfulness to the Christian missionaries who brought the Gospel to the Pacific, and they openly proclaim that Christianity is their religious practice. Hawai’i also stands out from the other US states, in that it proudly holds up its British heritage, by having the Union Jack in the corner of their State flag.
When all these things are coupled with how Australia has contributed to the Hawaiian lifestyle by sending sand for Waikiki, sharing the frangipani tree and the macadamia nut [Queensland Nut] I reckon Hawai’i should be a state of Australia rather than of the USA.
We took a day tour round this beautiful island of Oahu seeing the amazing beauty of Maunalua Bay, Makapu’u Blow hole, Waimanalo Beach, Mu’uanu Pali Lookout, Byodo-In Temple, Chinaman’s Hat, Sunset Beach [where the Vans World Cup of Surfing had just finished the previous day], as well as visiting a pineapple plantation [no strange thing for Queenslanders!].
The fun thing to learn though was the number of movies made in these idyllic locations. We saw the locations of the Elvis Presley movie, Blue Hawaii [at Maunalua Bay], From Here to Eternity with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, at the subsequently called Eternity Bay, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, Soul Surfer, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pirates of the Caribbean, to name just a few. We were also where the TV series Lost was shot. All such beautiful places.
We wanted to take a tour of Pearl Harbour to further our learning of the history, but unfortunately with this weekend being the anniversary of the attack on 7 December 1943, the tours were booked out. But it was wonderful to be part of the street parade on Sunday night commemorating this massive event which brought the US into World War II.
And so our long service is gradually drawing to an end. As I reflected on the stunning sunsets of Honolulu, it was as if these few days have been the glorious sunset to our leave.
Mahalo Hawai’i. A fitting end.
Chris and Lynda Johnson 