It was another flying day today so we were up pretty early to drive the 40 minutes from Volcano House to Hilo Airport. I snapped a couple more pictures of the volcano before we left and had a chuckle at this sign…Along the way we noticed smoke rising across to the southeast from the direction of the latest lave flow outbreak. There were miles and miles of residential estates in the area and they must all feel threatened by the unknown from the volcano.
Hilo airport was very quiet but we found a comfy lounge and tucked into some fruit and bagels for our breakfast while we waited for the flight. The plane took off right on schedule but once we left the Big Island shoreline we entered clouds that followed us pretty much the entire way to Honolulu, where we popped back out into bright sunshine again.
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| Freeway traffic Honolulu style |
Once we collected the car we negotiated the traffic to find the freeway. It was a bit of a shock to hit a multi lane freeway after all the quiet country roads we were used to on the other islands. 12 lanes in one spot! However, it add us of feel like we were back in the USA again, instead of being in the South Pacific.
Neil has lost a lot of weight recently and his jeans have been hanging off him so we’d been waiting to get to the Waikele Outlet centre so he could buy some new Levi’s. Neil only ever wears 505’s and he refuses to pay Australian prices so every time we visit the USA we just have to get to a Levi’s Outlet store so he can stock up. (And I know Neil will say the trip to the Outlets was just for me!) He hasn’t purchased jeans back home for over 10 years!
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| Just a few essentials… |
Of course while we were there we also took the opportunity to pop into a few other stores……and came away with some more Christmas prezzies. On the way back to Waikiki we dropped in to the Ala Moana shopping centre to find a late lunch, it’s a massive , outdoor shopping centre full of high end name brand stores, but personally I prefer the outlet centres 🙂
The traffic was pretty busy for our final drive in to Waikiki to our home for the last 4 nights of the trip, the Outrigger Waikiki on the Reef. I’d balked at paying for an Oceanfront room here but we’re delighted with the view from our Ocean view room, I sat on the verandah after we arrived watching the people down on the beach below and the late afternoon shadows forming on Diamond Head.
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| The view from our room – sunset on Diamond Head |
However, I have to say that so far Waikiki would have to be out least favourite of the places we have stayed in Hawaii. We went for a walk along the beach and there are so many crowds, so many hustlers and so much noise. I told Neil it felt a bit like “Las Vegas-by-the-sea”, and we don’t like Las Vegas much 🙁 The view across the beach to Diamond Head is lovely, but since returning from dinner we’ve sat here with the sliding door shut because there’s a cacophony of music from different bars and people shrieking and yelling floating up to us from down below. …. However, things are looking up , by 11pm the noise has died down and I think we’ll be able to sleep to the sound of the surf after all….
Tomorrow we’re heading off for a drive up to the North Shore. The Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing has been running on Sunset Beach for the last week and moves to the Banzai Pipeline on Monday so we’re hoping to see some big surf.