Day Ten

Woke up in the night fairly cold as the aircon has a fan setting of on or off. Nothing in between. We got up at around 7am and were out the room by 8am. Walked around the corner to the Enterprise which is a couple of minutes away to collect our car. The guy behind the desk was amused by our address. He said it must be pretty old if the road is just called 'The Street'. Told him it is because there is only one street.

Got the lift up to the car park to collect the car. I had booked a Mustang. What we got was a convertible Mustang. I was very pleased. It was quite busy so we just had to get in and get out the way which didn't really help as we needed to work out what we were going to do. As we started to navigate the mean streets of Waikiki, I told Ann that late last night I had looked at places for breakfast and there was one which seemed ok. Tried to remember the name so she could put it in the satnav and we could actually go somewhere. Eventually remembered it was called jacksrestauranthonolulu.com

Put it in the satnav and drove there. Ordered breakfast. I had pancakes. Ann had something. It was ok. Whilst we ate we discussed our plan for the day. We decided to follow the main road anticlockwise around the island, following the coast where we could. The car had to be back by 5pm so we thought we would be able to make it with a few stops.

Headed out of the restaurant and made for a couple of lookout points off the Kalaniana'ole Highway. Pulled off the road and had a look. Apparently so did everybody else who was on holiday.

Igneous rock meets the sea

A bit further down the road we we stopped at Sandy Beach. A rather apt name. It was a beach and it was sandy. Had a paddle. 

The water was very warm. I mentioned I had my swimming stuff in my rucksack. Ann seemed surprised because she didn't have hers. I pointed out that I had put it in as I had seen her get her swim stuff out as she was packing her bag so I presumed that I needed to take mine. Turns out I was correct it was just that she forgot to put hers in her bag. At that point I knew I wouldn't be needing mine either.

Decided that we should put the roof down on the car, put some tunes on and do some bazzing.

Headed around the eastern tip of the island, past Tent City and then inland for a bit. Traffic was quite heavy and there were a lot of roadworks. Seems like most visitors were out doing the same drive. After a while we got back to the coast and then stopped again. The sign in the car park was alarming. 

Scan the QR code for a message saying 'run!'

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As we got out of the car, the Tsunami alarm was going off. Thought ok that's not a good thing. Looked at the sea, it was still there. Looked at other people. No one was running. The alarm then stopped so we walked to the beach. 

A lovely example of bay and headlands

There were lots of wild chickens knocking about. They seemed to think we were going to feed them. We didn't. The car had a photo shoot.

Sally

We then decided to go to Subway and buy lunch. There was one in the north of the island which was not far from where we found ourselves so that is where we headed. Tried to run the chickens over as we left but they ran away.

Arrived at Subway. Got lunch. They had no coke so we walked to a garage shop across the car park. Saw a couple of bikers get pulled over by the rozzers. Whilst in the garage the cashier asked us what we were up to. We explained. She said you should go out of here and across the road and just up to the right. There is a lookout spot and it is really nice. So we did. And it was.

It was so nice we decided to sit and eat lunch there. Obviously that meant that the old Roffe-Knightley Effect (scientifically proven) then took place. For those uninitiated in the effect, if Ann and I go somewhere that is empty, us being there acts as a magnet and it fills up. Similarly, if a place is packed we have the opposite effect and the place empties. Before we knew it there were cars and people everywhere so we decided to carry on our journey once we had finished eating. Headed up towards the northern tip and then started back down south.

Now when I was growing up I got to know one specific place on Hawaii from Paul banging on about it because of the wave size and surfing that goes on in the winter. It was one of those things as a kid you never would expect to actually visit in your life as it seemed so distant. As luck would have it our journey took us right to Waimea Bay, so we decided to stop there. It has a small car park and an awful lot of people wanting to stop there. We sat in a queue for some time, eventually we were up next and we had to be patient but then a family came back and left and we got into their space. Result.

Got out and walked the very short distance to the beach. Paul, here is the proof, nearly forty years later, that I have been .

Proof

More proof

It was great. The water was so warm. Wanted to jump in. Remembered I wasn't allowed. Had to make do with paddling. The beach was very steep hence the large waves in the winter. Both got our shorts wet. Tried not to fall down the slope any further. When we started to get very hot we walked back to the car. Washed our feet at the tap and then made our way back. Still a queue of people waiting to park so someone lucky got our spot.

Headed back towards Honolulu as time was getting on. There was an extremely long queue for a few miles which turn out just to be the sheer volume of traffic and people parking/crossing the road. Eventually we got past it all. Put the roof down again and the tunes up.

Hit more traffic as it was rush hour in Honolulu. Topped the gas tank up and returned the car with twelve minutes to spare. We actually could have had it until 8am tomorrow but that would mean having to pay to park it somewhere overnight, so we wanted to return it before they shut at 5pm.

Walked back to the hotel/room. Sat in the aircon for a bit trying to plan the next couple of days. Headed out for dinner at around 7.30pm. Went here. Rock Island Cafe

It was a diner in style with lots of memorabilia knocking about. There were some old Trivial Pursuit cards on the table so I tested Ann. The questions had an American twist which meant some were very tough for us. Headed back to the room and now trying to get the aircon right so it is on but the room is just nice. Currently struggling with this.

Googled the alarm we heard. It was a island wide test being run today at 11.45am. Just right for the time we got out the car by the sign!

Ann asleep as ever.

States visited - 3

Tsunami alarms heard - 1