Kristin Reporting!
We started the day intending to go swimming with sharks but, shortly after we gathered in the meeting area, we were informed that the shore excursion was cancelled due to "rough seas". It was in those few minutes, while we were waiting for the shore excursion to begin, that I accidentally discovered how to use the Go Pro-- by pushing buttons and discovering everything that I needed to know about changing between its different functions.
Disappointed that the shore excursion was cancelled, we headed back to our room. There Davin informed me that by not going on the shore excursion we just saved $200 each! I was quite shocked and pleased to have saved the money! But I also would have been happy to spend it to see the sharks.
With the shore excursion cancelled, I informed Scott that he could call at anytime, and lo and behold, he called immediately! He is a most super wonderful and loving loverkins! While I chatted with him, Davin used his cellphone's hot spot to find and book us a hotel for our 9 days in Sydney, Australia. I also called our mom to say "Hi" and told her that I'd call again later, I didn't know when, but before our ship left cell phone range.
I hung up with Scott, and Davin and I set off in search of stores to do some shopping. We walked 1.9 miles to Best Buy and picked out a new camera. On the way, we found "Chinatown" and walked through it. There were some interesting markets set up and we took a video of a fish market that we wandered through. We also saw a camp of homeless people and, over the course of the day, we saw that almost every nice tree or shady place had a homeless person happily sleeping beneath it! We also passed by a Jack-In-The-Box and resolved to get our lunch there. It was our last American meal-- Chicken Sandwiches with Tomato and a Gigantic Dr. Pepper which we split. (Davin also had a Breakfast Jack.) The true taste and glory of American gluttony! As our bodies are not accustomed to absorbing so much soda, we were quickly satisfied and threw 1/3 of the drink away. (Btw, this was my second caloric drink of the week.)
We took the Jack-In-The-Box to-go and finished the walk to Best Buy. There we ate our lunch under a nice shady tree. (No there wasn't a homeless person under this one.) After picking out the camera, we set out to find a bus stop where we could catch a bus that would take us back to the area of the ship. But, the Aloha Tower (where the M/S Veendam docked when we visited Honolulu with Scott in December 2015) seemed so close, that, in the end, we chose to walk back. On the way, we passed a K-Mart and decided to take the opportunity to look for our list of items within-- there was, after all, no guarantee that the Wal-Mart we were headed towards would have everything we were seeking.
In K-Mart we acquired: erasers, a compass and protractor, postcards, and a big fat travel thermos that is called Bubba. The thermos says "Bubba" on the side, and there were several sizes. We bought the "Big Bubba" and that is now the thermos' name. I have attached a picture of Big Bubba to this blog post!
We continued to head back to the downtown area and reached the Wal-Mart. In Wal-Mart we acquired: two bags of tortilla chips, one bottle of salsa, and one box of hot cocoa mix.
Around the corner from the Wal-Mart, we found Longs Drugs. At Longs Drugs we acquired: a travel wallet for Kristin, more of the less drowsy Dramamine, a razor for Kristin, some cheap but not so cheap sunglasses, angled flossers, and some Jasmine Tea and Oolong Tea. (We are already experiencing tea bag shortages on the Pacific Princess!) We also learned that Longs Drugs is owned by CVS, or, in some fashion or other, they are the same, because they sell CVS brand products. This was a happy discovery as I had a $4.00 of $10.00 in Razors CVS coupon in my pocket and this was gladly accepted by the cashier!
Davin was quite fed up with shopping at this point and wanted to return to the ship ASAP, so we quickly blew through the last two stops and headed back. The weather here is the main reason that I would never want to live in Hawaii. You'll see advertising linking the words 'Hawaiian', 'tropical', and 'paradise'. We never ask what makes it a "tropical paradise". Warm temperatures and lots of water! That also means: horrible, disgusting humidity! There is nothing wonderful or beautiful about being lightly dressed and being drenched in sweat. Also, keep in mind, it is currently late January-- the COLDEST time of year for the Hawaiian islands. On our last visit, a local woman told us how horribly hot and muggy it gets in the summer. (And here I am criticizing the clear sunny days! We haven't even taken into account the propensity for it to rain often!) A word to the wise, plan your trips to Hawaii for December through February. As far as I'm concerned, give me the wondrously dry weather of San Diego, where I must apply Chapstick three times a day, and apply lotion to my horribly dried out skin, but where we have little to no humidity. San Diego is MY definition of paradise! (At least, until we run out of fresh water and all die of thirst... ;p)
Back at the ship, we unloaded our purchases and gathered a much smaller amount of gear and headed out to hike up Diamond Head Crater. This scheme was entirely Davin's idea. Any ship docking in Honolulu, Hawaii offers this hike as a shore excursion costing around $55.00 to $65.00 per person. By doing it on our own, we spent $3.50 each. (It should have been $6.00 each but the bus driver was kind and let us improperly use our transfers to avoid paying for our second bus ride.)
We discovered that to get to Diamond Head from the Downtown Honolulu area we wanted to be on King Street where we could catch the Route 2 bus. When walking from the ship to King St., I called Scott for the second time and had another brief chat with him about our respective days. The Bus on Honolulu is called "The Bus" and that is how is it written on all of the buses, but it is colloquially referred to as "Da Bus". The Phone app reflects this by being named "Da Bus". (The phone app also leaves a lot to be desired. It is simply unacceptable that they failed to program in an option to input your desired destination and then have the app give you route options. All the data to support such an option is already programmed into the app, and that only makes the lack of the option infuriating!)
Once aboard a south bound Route 2 bus, (which we only managed to catch because it was stuck at a red light and we ran up and knocked on the door and the driver let us on.) you just stay on it until the very end of its route which is at a community college. While we were on the bus we looked up information on Diamond Head and discovered that the last entry to the park to do the hike is 4:30PM. The bus let us off at the community college at 4:29PM...
Thinking that there was a possibility that this wasn't a hard cut-off time (despite the signs making it clear that it was), but also thinking that there might be a big difference between arriving at 4:35PM and 4:50PM, we decided to make a run for it. We were inspired by two young men (middle school or early high school age), who got off the bus and were off and running like bolted stallions in the direction of Diamond Head. They appeared to be locals, and if they thought there was a chance they could get in the park by running, who were we to argue? It turned out that the entrance was about 3/4 of a mile away from the community college, with several uphill sections. Those two kids quickly left us in the dust! After already walking a total of 5 miles in the morning to do our shopping, I did not have the stamina to run the whole way, but we did some start-stops and made it to the entry gate at 4:40PM. We ran up to the kiosk to make a good impression, and the woman asked, "Can you be back by 6:15PM?" to which I emphatically replied, "Yes!" and we paid our $1.00 entry each, and were allowed in! (The entry cost is $1.00 per person walk-in, and $5.00 per car) As we walked away from the kiosk, Davin said, "We better be down by 6:15PM! If we get back that late it won't leave much time to get back to the ship before it leaves!" All aboard for passengers was 7:30PM.
At this point, I should mention that we didn't bring any water for the hike. The total distance of the hike is not very far, but half of the trail seems like it is straight up. Originally, we figured that since the hike was short, we wouldn't need water, and there would surely be a convenience store near the bus stop or a drinking fountain at the base of the mountain. That plan was formed before we found out about the hiking cut-off time and had to run to the entrance gate of the park to even get in!
Luckily, there WAS a drinking fountain at the start of the trail by the bathrooms, but I was already exhausted from running and walking all day, and the top of the crater seemed quite far up, so I was sure I was going to want water again before I made it to the top. I had only one option really. Drink enough water to satisfy my current thirst, and then drink a decent amount more than I really wanted, but not so much that I made myself sick, so that I could make it through a good chunk of the hike before desperately wanting water. To my surprise, this technique turned out to work excellently. Despite my horrible cardio, and pushing myself to my limits because time was of the essence, I never desired water for the entirety of the hike! I did need to take two breathers on the way up, and Davin heckled me for it! Ahh, the joys of having an older brother in fantastic cardio shape! ;p But, you should have seen the stairs that appeared out of no where! Already exhausted and then having to go up THOSE stairs! My God! What a day! But the pain and torture was all in good fun.
We made it to the top in a shocking 30 minutes-- which included my two brief breathers. I was shocked because the Diamond Head site and brochure says, "Allow at least 1.5 to 2 hours to complete the hike."
Davin declared the view from the top to be well worth the time and trouble of taking the bus-- 40 minutes each direction-- and the exertion. Though admittedly, it was hardly any exertion for him at all, and I think his ability to spring to the top of mountains with no real physical difficulty since DDR has given him superhero-like cardio abilities, is the reason he now favorably views hiking outings. (These same physical abilities also enable most of us to forget that he is still sick-- feeling constantly dizzy all the time etc.-- unfortunately that aspect of his condition persists though we who perceive him from an outside perspective often forget it to be so because his cardio health is so good!) I have very different memories of his opinion of 'nature outings' when he was an early adult. During my second breather, Davin declared my shameful physical condition to be an annoyance to him, as I am clearly holding him back, but he said it in the kindest way possible, as more of an observation than a true criticism-- after all, what can I do but push myself as hard as I possibly can and hopefully improve over time?!
When we finished taking in the views, we headed back down. Going down was no trouble at all. However, the ground is very uneven as the trail is mostly "paved" with pahoehoe lava. Unfortunately, Davin did not pick his foot up high enough one time and he tripped over a lump of pahoehoe and tumbled to the ground. Luckily, he managed an instinctive roll and minimized the damage. He literally did one complete rotation as I witnessed him fall forward and catch himself with his hands, but, in the end, he had dirt all over his back and butt! At first, it seemed like he had managed to survive the tumble completely unscathed, as we saw no signs of bleeding-- this was lucky as I forgot to bring our first aid kit. In the evening, he discovered he had in fact received two very minor cuts to his knee but they bled so slowly that they escaped immediate notice. They are nothing to worry about, but he put salve and band-aids on them anyway. Better to be overly cautious than risk any infection, even a minor one, while on a ship at sea!
We were back at the bottom of the crater floor by 5:58PM. It was at this point that I noticed a Facebook chat had opened on my phone and our good friend Micha was asking questions about how to get in touch with us, and if we were going to check our blog etc. I think the messages arrived when we were hiking. I wrote back that we would check our blog posts for comments whenever we can. (Our next opportunity will be during our two days in ports of New Zealand. New Zealand is on the list of T-mobile countries with free data and texting. We will reach New Zealand on February 7, 2016.) I wanted to write back more to Micha, but, as I was mid-statement, my phone said "You're done!", and ran out of power. Later I saw that Micha had replied with a "thumbs up". I felt that was a good conclusion to our mini-chat as Davin and I were then sailing out to sea, and it was time for me to put my phone in airplane mode and turn data off. It will remain offline until we reach New Zealand. Feel free to text me on February 7th and 8th! (You can enter an event in your calendar for one or both days titled, "Harass Kristin via Text or Facebook Chat". ;p)
When my phone so rudely shut down on me, we were starting our walk back to the bus stop at the community college. The 6:08PM Route 2 bus was just arriving when we had only several hundred feet left to go! We booked it and I knocked on the door just as the bus was pulling away and the bus driver was kind and let us on. This is also when we learned that the bus transfer was directional and not based simply on the expiration time stated on the ticket, but he took them anyway, so we did not have to pay again for the ride back north.
The bus stop nearest the cruise terminal where our ship was docked this time was called Beretania & Punchbowl. "Da Bus" let us off there around 6:50PM. This gave us a comfortable 40 minutes to make the 15 minute walk back to the ship. As soon as I stepped off the bus, my body felt stiff and unwilling to move any more. I really took it out of its activity comfort zone today!
We were aboard the ship and back in our room at 7:08PM! I called Scott (who should have been in bed because it was 9:08PM PST and he needed to get up at midnight to go to work!!) and we had a nice final conversation of the day. I sent him to bed at about 9:30PM his time. From our balcony, we saw a car freighter unloading cars so we went up on deck to take a video and tried calling our Mom a few more times. She didn't answer and I was beginning to worry, but finally decided it was silly to worry since I hadn't worried about her any of the nights when I COULDN'T call her! We were sailing away from Hawaii when our Mom called us! It turned out that she had been at choir practice, (Duh! It was Tuesday night!), and was NOT lying unconscious somewhere with no one to help her. Phew!
We had a nice long chat with Mom as Hawaii grew smaller and smaller in the distance, and finally said our goodbyes after the call dropped once. Cell reception from the islands of Hawaii lasts many miles out to sea. We theorize this is because there is nothing in the way to block the signal.
After that, we grabbed some dinner at the buffet. We have now realized that they only have the dinner buffet on shore excursion days, which makes sense, as many people miss their dinner seating on those days. On sea days, they offer "the Bistro" instead.
The conclusion of this day's activities consisted of time in the Jacuzzi and Doom 3. The Jacuzzi treatment did my legs and feet a lot of good! Then it was back to the room to clean up our mess (from when we dumped our purchases all over our beds), and to play Doom 3. We tried to beat the game but there were still too many levels remaining which would have kept us well past our bedtime, and we didn't want our schedule to get messed up. When we went to bed, we had three levels left til the finale.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our first shore excursion exploring Honolulu, Hawaii! As you can see from the pictures, we have added to the door of adventures!
Now to settle back for 5 more days at sea.
Until Next Time!
Kristin & Davin, Sibling Adventurers!
P.S. Writing this the day after the events took place, I can tell you that my poor body is oh so sore from all the exertion yesterday!
Next stop: American Samoa on February 1, 2016
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