Thursday, September 27, 2018

 

A Prince Of Hotels


The hotel we stayed in during our Hawaii trip was the Prince Waikiki, and it is truly the best hotel we have ever stayed in. Not the fanciest, just the absolute best. Not right on the beachfront, but with absolutely splendid views. What it does have is the staff and atmosphere with what the locals refer to as the Aloha Spirit. This small bear loves the place and wants to get back there as soon as he can. The view from every room toward the sea (makai) looks over the marina. This marina will be familiar to "Five-O" fans and the strange lights and the boats and helicopter we saw moving in curious ways there one night may be part of the next series, I hope. Besides the views out of the window (see earlier posts), I love the view towards the mountains (mauka) from the glass elevators.  The path in the last image takes you along to the spot where Kamekona's shrimp truck parks in the TV series, and guess what?, there is a shrimp truck there serving all sorts of prawns (that's what we call shrimp in Aus). If you want a great hotel at the quiet end of Waikiki, the Prince is the place to stay; tell them Bart sent you.

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Tuesday, September 18, 2018

 

The Street Art of Kakaako

The streets of Honolulu's Kakaako district are home to some of the most spectacular street art you will find anywhere. Every year, in February, artists from all around the world are invited to do giant murals on the walls of the industrial area. That means that these examples of this year's efforts will be painted over next year. The best way to see the murals is to hire a car with a driver who knows their way around the streets and lanes; our Uber driver, Patrick, spent a couple of hours taking us around. Mum took loads of pictures  and these are some of the best. I like the van up the tree; some of the drivers you see around the north shore look like they may end up that way. The way the artist used the air-con to make the pink-haired lady's sunglasses is pretty clever. Anyone who has been to Hawaii (or watches five-o) knows the Hawaiians actually like Spam (can't stand it myself) so I forgive the guy who changed the Dr Suess mural. The last two are my favourites, particularly the Goth space monster. If the old buildings haven't been knocked down and the sites used for yet more high rise apartments, I will definitely check out the streets of Kakaako on my next visit to the islands.

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Friday, September 07, 2018

 

Some Beaches of Oahu

This small bear loves beaches, even though Mum won't let me get wet! Here's a few of the ones close to Honolulu. The first one is about 10 minutes walk from Prince Waikiki, where we stayed. It is part of the Ala Moana Beach Park. The beach is protected from big waves by breakwaters, so it is a nice calm area for kids and scaredy-cats to swim at. The second one is just north of Hanauma Bay (see 5 posts back). The beach is inside a reef, so the waves are pretty small. It is a nice sandy beach, so its name is actually Sandy Beach (I thought only Australians used names like that). The bottom two are of islands a bit further north along the Kamehameha Highway that runs up the east side of Oahu. The closest one is Mokoli'i. Because of its shape it is also called Chinese Hat. Left of Mokoli'i is the crater on Kaneohe Head. Far left in the distance are the Mokumanu Islands. The sandy part of the beach here at Kualoa Regional Park is quite narrow and waves come right up to the grass most of the time so the best place I could find to watch the fish was on this stump of a dead coconut tree. Fortunately, I didn't fall into the water before Mum saw where I was.

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