Honolulu

Wednesday 27th January.


6.45 am. We are berthed in Honolulu. I have meditated, George has brought me a cup of lovely strong, hot tea after watching the docking procedure. It has been raining apparently but now there is a clear, starry sky so we hope for a good day. We have visited Oahu twice, once in 1993 for a conference and once of course at the end of our voyage last year.


I shall now veer off at a tangent: 1993 was the year my mother died in Edinburgh ( July), a year remembered with sadness by Sheona, Tessa and Fiona I know. George and I had planned a trip by sea from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Norway, visiting my mum in Edinburgh on our way. We arrived at Argyle Place where she lived in what is called in Scotland "sheltered housing". Mum had a little studio apartment on the ground floor and was voluntarily cared for by the Warden (?!) and her sweet husband Alistair. When we arrived Alistair took us aside immediately and told us that, although she wouldn't admit it to us, my mother was not well. We knew you were coming so we didn't phone he said. To cut a long story short my mother died exactly a week later and I was with her. George did the Norwegian trip alone and we met up later in Munich. My three daughters flew over from Canada for the funeral and helped me clear out mum's little flat with my cousin Marjorie guiding me through all the lawyers meetings and registration of death and the myriad of arrangements that dull the grief in those first few days.

My parents left me some money with which we bought a cottage in Bancroft. So during our stay in Honolulu we 'practically' bought the little cottage of our choice on Jeffrey Lake. Faxes flew back and forth from Waikiki to Bancroft, an unlikely duo, and we gained possession while we were here. So in a strange way as you might now understand, Honolulu always brings back memories of my mother...and Marjorie and our cottage.

The last two paragraphs were written particularly for my daughters to remind them of that fateful year and tie some ends together bringing us (finally) to the island of Oahu and Honolulu.

Back to cheerier thoughts. Clouds are sinking on the horizon and the sky above is clear, a lovely day is promised. We on the port side of the ship are facing a neighbouring wharf with a tall granary like building in the centre and beyond that the sea. The tall skyscrapers of Honolulu are to starboard. They make a dramatic and rather beautiful skyline.

1800 hours in Honolulu, 2300 hours in Ontario:

Hawaii was not a place which, in our early years in BC, I ever wanted to visit. I had been bored through too many Nelson dinner parties with slides of our hosts' recent holidays in Hawaii. I was completely turned off! However that said I wasn't about to be left behind when in 1993 George was invited to speak at a conference in Waikiki. We flew via Vancouver from Toronto and arrived in Honolulu at the dead of night. We could only see lights around us from the balcony of the Outrigger Hotel. When I woke early the next morning and opened the balcony doors I crowed with delight. There were the skyscrapers of Honolulu to our right with the hills behind and to our left was Waikiki beach and the ocean... our hotel stood sideways on so that we enjoyed both views. I miss the sea so much in Ontario I was ecstatic! I spent the next few days exploring the immediate area while George attended his conference in a posh hotel at the far end of the beach. For lunch I had my first mahi mahi burgers and I picnicked under the trees on the grass behind the beach which is where George and I have spent this afternoon, reading our books and George did go swimming.


We left the ship this morning soon after breakfast and shared a taxi into Waikiki with Liz and Audrey who haven't been here before. I think they were a little bothered by the busy-ness of it and all the skyscrapers after the quietness and smallness of Hilo. We coffeed first at Starbucks while George searched for the restaurant we wanted to meet at for lunch. It is downstairs at the Outrigger Reef Hotel, right on the beach (for those of you who might visit Waikiki). George wrote out instructions and we parted to do our separate things. I finally found a photography shop and bought a card reader which I hope to work out eventually to put photos on this blog. I also bought a pair of light swimming shoes in preparation for Mauritius and anywhere else with coral and rocks underwater.


Do you want to know what we all had for lunch? Fish! I reverted back to a Mahi Mahi burger and the others had various forms of fish and chips. It was delightful sitting under beautiful overhead fans pulled by trolleys and cables, 3 at a time, each blade shaped like a fat green leaf, and watching the sailing boats, swimmers and sun worshippers from our lovely cool window table. After the others had downed My Tais with goodly portions of rum (I sensibly stuck to iced tea just so that I could be disapproving when the time came) the conversation became quite hilarious as Liz, George and I shared some "historic" memories....poor Audrey! (Nora and Jo you would have been howling with us). We didn't stand out because there was a party of 100 sitting in the back part of the restaurant and they almost drowned us out. These people were having a free lunch and were given $100.00 to listen to a promotion of some hotels. We were offered the same deal and George refused it. He couldn't believe I would have said yes! Well I mean to say
$100.00 and free lunch...what would you do? When we told Liz and Audrey I could tell that Liz would have probably gone along with me!

22.00 hours Honolulu time:

We are back in our cabin having walked to Chinatown not too far from Aloha Towers where the Explorer is berthed. I asked two Chinese girls we passed if they would recommend a good place to eat and they said immediately the Little Village restaurant on Smith Street. So that's where Liz, Audrey, George and I went and enjoyed a pretty good Chinese meal. However, there were two disappointments we agreed on; tasteless Chinese tea and uninteresting Taro duck with very little duck in it. Taro is the root vegetable with which Hawaiians make Poi, a sort of gluey paste which Hawaiians (and I) enjoy but the majority of others dislike. I think it is my love of porridge that allows me to enjoy these strange dishes....like Pablum. When I fed it to my baby daughters I always happily demonstrated how tasty it was! Another piece of information you didn't really need........

Perhaps I should follow George and go to bed!