The Hughes Zoo

Lets just call this Walmart day, shall we?
With the boys starting to get agitated, we decided to spend the morning on the ship and just take it easy for our last day in Hawaii. In the afternoon we got on a tender and then jumped on a courtesy bus to Walmart. We needed to restock on some supplies, Ange still had some shopping bug to exorcise, and we were sorta curious to see what all the fuss was about.

Maybe the Kona Walmart is small, but  I wasn’t particularly blown away by the size. I was expecting incomprehensibly large, but really it was just like a super-sized Big W. Somehow though we managed to spend US$250, of which I was responsible for about $60. The prices weren’t really blowing me away until I found the alcohol isle: 1.75 litres of Smirnoff for $20, the same sized Tanqueray for $35. The only downside was that I expected the alcohol to be ‘put aside’ for us by the ship’s crew - if I had known we’d be able to take it back to our room I would have picked up another bottle for the trip home
Getting on the courtesy bus with the pram was a hassle as it was, so after we were loaded up with shopping bags there was no way it was going to happen. We could see the ship from the carpark and Ange had a decent idea about the route the bus had taken, so we decided to walk. Despite me being mildly worried (we were cutting it fine to get back to the ship before it left) and exhausted (Ange’s knee meant I carried most of the stuff) it was a really nice walk. We made it back to the wharf in time to catch the second-last tender.

As I mentioned after Honolulu, both of us felt really at ease and at home in Hawaii. We’ll have to make it back to the US at some stage and see if the rest of the country has the same effect.

Photos for the day

We had a very early start in Hilo, needing to meet on the pier at 8:15am for our  tour. Ange and I had forgotten what the tour actually was. It turned out to be a 6 hour bus tour with an awesome local named Rudy.

The first stop was a lava tree park, where lava has cooled around the trunks of trees before the tree has fully burnt down, leaving a hollow tree trunk shaped pile of lava. The flora in a park was amazing, with plants and trees growing right on the lava.

There were a few hiccups with the day though. Ange had a tumble on the lava with Will in the baby carrier. She somehow managed to land without hurting him at all, but banged her knee fairly badly and has been hobbling around. The boys are also starting to get ready to go home, or at least it feels that way.

The biggest problem though was realising just how warped our attitude towards Aboriginals is. Rudy was telling us that there’s only around 8,000 full blooded Hawaiians left and asked how many Aboriginals there were. Someone on the bus said “too many”, which led to most of the rest of the bus discussing the Aboriginal “problem”. I think the fundamental racism stood out more than usual because we’ve been knee deep in indigenous culture for the last month, visiting countries that are proud of and reverent towards that culture. I was embarrassed to be associated with those idiots, and ashamed that someone passionately sharing their culture was us was exposed to just how little we value our own.

Photos for the day

We were all pretty exhausted after our day in Honolulu, but for some reason none of us slept well. We were all pretty excited about Maui though, because we had tickets for a submarine tour in the afternoon.

To give Will a chance to catch up on some sleep he and Ange stayed aboard for his morning sleep while Jeremy and I caught a tender to the island. Unfortunately the tender system is pretty slow and annoying, so we didn’t get there until almost 11am, and needed to be back on the ship for lunch at midday. So after a quick look around we jumped back on a tender and met Ange and Will for lunch.

Jeremy was taking his sweet time getting ready, so  I told him about the submarine to get him motivated. It worked a treat, except from then on he was constantly worrying about being late for the tour (not surprisingly, seeing as he still remembers that we missed the glass bottom boat tour in Bora Bora). Once we had caught a tender back to  Maui again, and Ange had had a bit of a look around, we decided ice cream might be just what was needed to take his mind off things. We found this great little place with fantastic ice cream which cheered us all up no end. Until we went to get on the sub..

The description of the tour seemed to imply that, although children had to be over 3ft, infants would be fine. Once there though the tour operators said that the 3ft rule was for everyone, so of course Will was too small. We were pretty upset because we’d all been looking forward to it, Ange and I since Sydney. In the end I took Will back to the ship for his afternoon sleep while Ange and Jeremy went on the sub. From  all reports it was fantastic, except that they played loud music when they surfaced, which scared Jeremy a bit.

Despite the disappointments it was still a great day.

Photos for the day

Honolulu was the first of our four stops in Hawaii and to make sure we eased into things we had absolutely no plans. Everyone on the ship needed to go through US immigration before anyone could disembark, but it was relatively painless and before long we were walking down the gangway. Ange was keen to do some shopping, so after a brief detour through Chinatown we found a nice semi-open air mall called Aloha Towers which is right on the waterfront.

As usual, the first order of business was food. Luck was very much on our side - Ange fairly randomly picked Don Ho’s Island Grill which had excellent, down to earth food and great service. I had these vegetable lettuce wrap things that we just beautiful. During lunch a warning came over the radio about he earthquake in Samoa and the possibility of a resultant tsunami, although of course nothing eventuated from it.

After lunch Ange took Will for a bit of a shopping adventure and Jeremy and I watched ships and forklifts and planes and helicopters do lots of interesting things. Then we wandered back into the city where Ange picked up some clothes, the boys got some toys, and I got a mild gastro bug. Shopping done, it was time for Will’s afternoon sleep so we headed back to Aloha Towers, which was quiet, outdoors-ish and cool. While Ange walked Will around, Jeremy played with his new motorbikes and I tried to catch up on some blogging. Ange did some more shopping, including finding an Hawaiian babushka store which her and the boys loved.

This was my first time in the US, and I have to say I really like it. I’m sure it varies a lot around the country, but Honolulu felt really… well.. comfortable. If it wasn’t for the different accents and backwards traffic we easily could have been wandering around an Australian city. So despite in the past being fairly nonplussed about  going to the US I’m looking forward to the next 3 days and adding the rest of the country to my ‘places to visit’ list.

Photos for the day