Aloha!

We arrived fine and are having a great time. The Qantas flight to Sydney was a bit bizarre as they seemed to forget to give the right hand side of the plane any drinks or snacks? Either that or Marian, the guy next to us and I all had a micro-nap at exactly the same time and they left us alone - but I think it's the former. The Qantas flight to Honolulu was fine and without incident. Legroom, screen and movies good - food acceptable. We got a Dodge Charger ('Hey Charger!') and went straight to the Pearl Harbour museum site. But it was soooo windy they cancelled all the boats out to the USS Arizona memorial site in the harbour. Nevertheless, we visited their on-site museums and went around to visit the USS Missouri (a historic battleship where the armistice for WW2 was signed by McArthur et al). We then went to our hotel at Waikiki. Today, we drove around the south-west not too far from Waikiki - plenty of mountains, lush forest and beaches. All pretty speccy - with shaved ice treats featuring high on our agenda! Broadly, we're a little surprised how basic and kind of run-down everything is outside of the central area, but it's not dodgy or problematic - kind of hokey and a bit charming. Here are some annotated pics:

Boarding the plane in Brisbane - very windy already!....

USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial from the main visitor centre. This is where all the big ships were lined up conveniently for the Japanese in 1941....

Image showing the bombing. Above photo taken from left out of frame. Note torpedo trails heading to ships (including Arizona)....

They like their flags! Heading onto the USS Missouri....

16 inch guns can fire 20 miles.... 

View from our hotel balcony. Pretty awesome. Diamond Head on the left, so named because quartz crystals were thought to be diamonds. Unbelievably windy - see palm trees....

View back along Waikiki Beach in high wind!....

Yummm - shaved ice desert with mango....

Not many references to the past - this one was nice but very run down...

Walked up this to the edge of the Koko Crater - very popular - Marian made it all the way, but I gave up just when the very steep bit started, when my knee began to tweak!....

View to left (there isn't any tram - not sure of the history?). The little bay in the distance is famous for snorkelling and its reef - too busy when when we went past....

View to right.... 

Mountains are everywhere and very impressive and craggy - far more speccy than FNQ, but in other ways similar. Housing spreads a long way, including up pretty high - views must be great....

The whole of Hawaii is very volcanic - makes for great landscapes....

We walked up another path to an old lighthouse. This view is back toward Honolulu, looking at the other side of Koko Crater....

From the old lighthouse there are fabulous views in the other direction. You get an idea of the craggy and spectacular mountains from here....

Once we got back to Waikiki we went for another walk along the main prom - this time without the ridiculous wind....

....and had our final shaved ice treat for the day (I haven't included a photo of the one we went to in the middle of the day, which was our favourite)....