Very soon, the wizards found themselves on yet another flight to another 'exotic' land - the island of O'ahu in the US state of Hawaii! Even flying in over the blue waters, we found ourselves scanning the island below us for the legendary Pearl Harbour and checking out the surf break. Another new place, another new playground!
The first few days were spent wandering down the beautiful Waikiki promenade, messing around on the paradise-like beaches and catching up with a few familiar faces from earlier on our travels in Australia. We all decided almost in an instant that it was our favorite beach so far; the water was always warm and clear with nice clean golden sand and full of young travellers or aged and ancient Hawaiian surfers who put us all to shame.
In an effort to maximise the beautiful island to its fullest, we travelled down to Pearl Harbour, the site of the Japanese massacre of the US Naval Fleet in 1941. One beautiful morning we caught the bus to the harbour with numerous US F-15 fighter aircraft buzzing over our heads providing us with plenty of anticipation for the day ahead. We visited the museum for an hour first, reading all about the Japanese's planning for the attack and the un-suspecting US personel as they went about their morning routines. Soon we boarded the boat to bring us across to the memorial to the USS Arizona that lay literally feet below the surface. As we entered the memorial, Baz's hat blew off in the sea breeze and landed in the water; after a bit of a laugh and jokes, the wizards proceeded into the floating memorial. A guard soon approached us with the soaking hat, much to our surprise.
We decided to explore the North Shore of the island, the filming locations of Jurassic Park and LOST. It is also home to Pipeline, the biggest surfing spot on the planet; unfortunately at this time of year it was nothing but a few token breaks, nothing to write home about...
We spent a night up there chilling on ther beach, watching the sunsets, snorkelling with turtles and cliff jumping joined by a few Welsh girls we'd met earlier in Waikiki. On our return down the coast, we stopped off to look for the site of LOST which we had heard was filmed in the area. Despite many signs and shouting security guards, we stumbled along a beach which we we fairly confident had had screen time. However the searing heat and lack of water was almost a deciding factor on our retreat. We saw some giant, green sea-turtles basking on the hot sand and just as we were geting sick of the heat, Mike spotted a few bamboo structures just off the beach. We quickly approached discovering the fenced off set from the tv show. It was a strange feeling to stand there as it has been for all the film/tv locations we've visited over the trip, but soon the conditions forced us to look for shade and water.
The last few days found us chillaxing on the beaches of Waikiki and some general shenanigans with the Welshies. The three of us where pretty gutted to be leaving this place - all of us had a special place for it, being one of our favorite destinations. However the excitement of meeting back up with Hubbs and another friend from home, Seacow, was escalating and soon we were off to mainland US for the final leg of the epic trip......
The first few days were spent wandering down the beautiful Waikiki promenade, messing around on the paradise-like beaches and catching up with a few familiar faces from earlier on our travels in Australia. We all decided almost in an instant that it was our favorite beach so far; the water was always warm and clear with nice clean golden sand and full of young travellers or aged and ancient Hawaiian surfers who put us all to shame.
In an effort to maximise the beautiful island to its fullest, we travelled down to Pearl Harbour, the site of the Japanese massacre of the US Naval Fleet in 1941. One beautiful morning we caught the bus to the harbour with numerous US F-15 fighter aircraft buzzing over our heads providing us with plenty of anticipation for the day ahead. We visited the museum for an hour first, reading all about the Japanese's planning for the attack and the un-suspecting US personel as they went about their morning routines. Soon we boarded the boat to bring us across to the memorial to the USS Arizona that lay literally feet below the surface. As we entered the memorial, Baz's hat blew off in the sea breeze and landed in the water; after a bit of a laugh and jokes, the wizards proceeded into the floating memorial. A guard soon approached us with the soaking hat, much to our surprise.
We decided to explore the North Shore of the island, the filming locations of Jurassic Park and LOST. It is also home to Pipeline, the biggest surfing spot on the planet; unfortunately at this time of year it was nothing but a few token breaks, nothing to write home about...
We spent a night up there chilling on ther beach, watching the sunsets, snorkelling with turtles and cliff jumping joined by a few Welsh girls we'd met earlier in Waikiki. On our return down the coast, we stopped off to look for the site of LOST which we had heard was filmed in the area. Despite many signs and shouting security guards, we stumbled along a beach which we we fairly confident had had screen time. However the searing heat and lack of water was almost a deciding factor on our retreat. We saw some giant, green sea-turtles basking on the hot sand and just as we were geting sick of the heat, Mike spotted a few bamboo structures just off the beach. We quickly approached discovering the fenced off set from the tv show. It was a strange feeling to stand there as it has been for all the film/tv locations we've visited over the trip, but soon the conditions forced us to look for shade and water.
The last few days found us chillaxing on the beaches of Waikiki and some general shenanigans with the Welshies. The three of us where pretty gutted to be leaving this place - all of us had a special place for it, being one of our favorite destinations. However the excitement of meeting back up with Hubbs and another friend from home, Seacow, was escalating and soon we were off to mainland US for the final leg of the epic trip......
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