Pam met us at 8am to make sure we were safely on the Grayline bus tour - The Grand Circle Island Tour - which circumnavigates the island of Oahu. We thought she had implied she was coming with us, but no, this was a regular Grayline tour, so she did not. We then spent the next 30-45 minutes picking up people from the surrounding hotels. Pam did give us a heads up to sit on the right hand side and our bus group was first on - it would prove to be good advice.
Our driver for the day was Ben who was pretty quiet at first, particularly during the hotel pick-ups. Unfortunately, this meant that, as the bus gradually filled up, the people getting on (and some of our own party) were happy to have their own conversations. It would turn out that the family that settled in opposite us were determined to talk their way around the island. Once underway, it was often difficult to hear our driver-guide, although he did get louder over time, probably as he settled into the tour. Why do people go on a bus tour if they are not interested in the tour? Why spend the money? If this is you, and you wanna talk, keep it down, huh? Some of us are trying to actually listen! At least some of the family slept through part of the tour, which kept them quiet for a while.
Our first stop was at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve - a conservation area. There is a little area here where the opening scenes of the Elvis Preseley movie Blue Hawaii was filmed. It was a very picturesque little spot with a cove and a lot of people snorkeling. It was definitely a paradise-style of beach. After about ten minutes, we got back on the bus.
The next stop was near Halona Cove where they filmed the famous From Here To Eternity beach scene, with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. For the younger readers, Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler shared their first kiss here in 50 First Dates!
The Halona Blow Hole is also here and that is great fun to watch. There's a hole in the lava so each time the tide washes in it is forced up through the hole and it blows up like water from a whale's blow hole, or like the Old Faithful geyser. I was obviously too busy watching to take a photo!
It needs a reef to create the larger waves and here they were really big and forceful. These are the surfing waves you see on the television - my photos and movies don't do them justice at all.
As we moved on, Ben pulled up alongside this beach (below left). The waves here were truly awesome. As we continued, we passed by the Waimanolo Estate with its tennis courts and guest house. This is three doors away from the Robin Masters Estate which is where the Magnum, PI television show, with Tom Selleck, was shot. Below right are the the gates to the Robin Masters Estate.
Fifteen minutes later we had a stop at Pali Lookout in the Nu'uanu Pali State Wayside. There was a nice golf-course below us as we looked out to the coast. They had a plaque on the wall here commemorating where a Boeing B-17 aircraft crashed in poor weather and darkness, back in April 1942, losing all ten crew members.
We took a fifteen minute stop at Byodo-In Temple. It was very peaceful at this location, or it was until I found the gong! I felt a bit like the guy from J Arthur Rank! It is a Buddhist Temple, with very pleasant surroundings. We didn't go inside, just walked around the gardens.
According to the notice by the gong, An offering and ringing of this sacred bell brings happiness, the blessings of Buddha, and a long life to the ringer of the bell. Hope I didn't offend anyone by ringing it, but it had to be done. Badly it turns out - I blame the assistants, as always.
Then there was time for a shopping stop at Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Outlet. They had free coffee on offer as we arrived and a selection of flavoured macadamia nuts to try - some better than others (the garlic ones were nasty!) They had other Hawaiian foodstuffs too - sauces, jams, mustard and the like, although some were not as Hawaiian as I think they'd have you believe. The price labelling was a little misleading too I thought - my $5 sauce turned out to be $8 at the checkout! Hence only three Teds.
We had a lunch stop at the Kualoa Ranch. This included a fifteen minute tram ride through the grounds with some history of the ranch and the area. To be fair, the tramride wasn't the most exciting one I've ever done, but it was a nice touch. We saw one of their horse-rides returning as we admired the view.
The Kualoa Ranch has a variety of activities available including tours by tram, bus, ATV and a six-wheel Swiss Pinzgauer! (I have no idea - you look it up!) Some of Jurassic Park was filmed here too. There is also hiking, a secret beach, an ocean voyage tour and even hula lessons! There was a buffet available and a snack bar for burgers and the like - they even had a veggie burger, though Di didn't eat lunch today.
We wandered around the giftshop for a while - they didn't have a large selection of stuff. Then we sat outside on the benches to wait for our group. While we were waiting, the rain started to come down pretty heavily. Fortunately, we only had to get from our undercover seats down some steps to the bus so we didn't get too wet this time. Boy, when it rains in Hawaii, it really rains!
Soon we were back on the road, through a valley where a lot of movies and television have been made, such as Lost and Jurassic Park. They began filming Jurassic Park in Kauai, but after the hurricane hit, they moved production over to the Kuloa Ranch. The road followed around the coast, often just a few feet from the water's edge. There are houses built right up to the water too. It was amusing to watch people out in the sea or sitting on the beach in the rain, but at least in Hawaii, the rain is a little warmer - and much shorter-lasting - and I guess they're not going to get any wetter!
We were briefly held up by a vehicle with blue flashing lights - closer up, we saw it was a fire truck. There had been some kind of car accident. It was just a few minutes before we were on our way but it looked like the traffic jam was big news in town - several residents were standing at the bottom of their driveways, chatting and watching.
Just past the pretty Haaula Beach Park was the Polynesian Cultural Center, which had been an optional excursion we didn't take on our first full day. It is run by Mormons and includes an offshoot of the Brigham Young University. It was previously a sugar cane plantation, but that is long gone.
We passed a small wind farm on the left, but I couldn't get a decent picture (below left - I was on the right hand side of the bus!) Hawaii is introducing a lot of alternative energy sources, with investment in wind, solar and tidal energy to supply electricity to the islands.
We passed the Turtle Bay Resort (below centre and right) - one of the golf courses here was designed by Arnold Palmer. It looked very posh!
We made a ten minute stop at Sunset Beach, which was yet another pretty beach. By this time the sun was back out, which was great. No time for me to surf, but another lovely stop.
We drove alongside more beautiful beaches, and then passed a higher rock where people were jumping off into the ocean. Rather them than me! On one beach we saw this turtle (and another just out of shot) just resting on the beach - isn't it amazing? The area of beach around them is roped off so they are not disturbed, but it was so cool to just see them sitting there. Unfortunately, we couldn't get off the still-moving bus to get a better photo.
As we drove on, Ben told us all about pineapple cultivation, even though very little remains in Hawaii these days. The pineapples are grown from the seed, which is the crown. This is twisted off a mature pineapple and becomes the seed plant. The seed plant is planted and covered with polythene, resulting in a first crop after about eighteen months. The plant grows to about a yard across, bearing several fruit. They are harvested by hand and the crowns of the harvested 1-1.5 pound pineapples are used to produce a second, smaller crop. The second crop grow to about half the size of the first crop about mature about three months later. Once harvested the crowns are again removed to create a third smaller and final crop. These are generally used to create pineapple juice. Even the planting is done by hand and an experienced planter can plant a thousand crowns per hour! (I'm not doing that job!) After the third crop, the field is recultivated, with the pineapple plants being rotivated into the soil until it makes a fine mix, ready for planting with new seed crowns. In case you were wondering, that is.
We had a longer stop at our final scheduled stop of the day The Dole Plantation - forty-five minutes. Ben said there was a maze (for an additional charge) but we didn't see it! He also recommended looking at the many different varieties of pineapples growing in the garden, but we didn't see that either. Instead, we saw the vast gift shop and cafe. Trust me, you didn't need to see the maze or the pineapples. There were better icy pineapples inside...
They had all kinds of stuff in there! Loads of it, including the golden yellow bears with white Dole t-shirts on, but - as usual - they weren't selling the t-shirts separately. Shops please note, we bears do NOT like to buy a bear in a shirt just to get the t-shirt - it seems a bit like a mugging! Not to mention they were nearly $20! So no Dole shirt for me or my pals. Dole's loss really!
What they did have there was Dole Whip. Now this stuff is generally only available in the Disney parks - it's a pineapple ice cream and I can certainly vouch for its greatness. Especially in a bowl, with lots of extra pineapple thrown over it. It was amazing! By the time we'd bought a few bits and pieces and got the ice cream, there wasn't time to see anything else - so you'll have to go yourself if you want to find out more! A bear has priorities you know and I'm sure you'll agree mine were right this time.
The Dole Plantation was our last stop of the day, so it was time to head back to the hotel. We had packing to do as we were headed to our second island - Kauai - the next day. We passed by Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Stadium on the way back. We spotted a rainbow as we drove back although it had stopped raining. We were soon back at the hotel - at around 6pm.
We agreed to meet Dave at 6.30pm for an early-ish dinner at Chilis - usually a favourite of ours and just around the corner from the hotel. Our experience didn't start well when the waiter welcomed us with a "Good evening, gentlemen." Female assistant Di is kind of used to this, but it does grate a little when she's clearly not a bloke! We requested their renowned bottomless bowl of tostada chips and salsa while we perused the menu, but after quite a wait there was no sign of this.
We waited another ten minutes before our drinks finally arrived and Colin nearly fainted when he saw the size of his Strawberry Margarita (below left) - it was way bigger than he is! My pal Theo would be so pround of him! Unfortunately, Di's strawberry lemonade wasn't quite as chilled as she'd have liked (she'd have liked it actually "chilled"). Di asked the waiter about the chips - the waiter asked twice what she was talking about before he finally got the message, so clearly he hadn't processed our order the first time, or even gone to the bother of asking what it was we might have ordered. Sigh. Finally, he realised what we wanted and the chips came shortly after (below centre). It didn't get better when he seemed a bit confused about our order for a bottle of the house red which he had clearly never heard of before!
Of course, by this point, it wasn't that long until our food arrived, so although bottomless, we never did get around to our second bowl of chips and salsa. For dinner, Paul and I had agreed to share an order of Big Mouth Bites [don't say a word!] which is a plate of four small (to Americans, normal to the English!) burgers with different flavourings. Di ordered a house salad (Bleaghhh!) and a side of macaroni cheese.
It was pretty good food - Chilis usually is - and we couldn't manage a dessert. After all, we still had cheesecake in the room from the previous evening. Once we got the check, we found we'd been charged twice for the chips and salsa, so we had to get that altered, but all the back and forth and struggle was such that three Teds is the best I could give. Overall, it was not the great experience Chilis usually is and we've eaten at them quite often in Florida and beyond. Shame really, but you really do only get one chance to make a first impression, and this time it wasn't a good one!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to finish packing ready for our very early start the next day.
