Up at 5am for the short flight to Honolulu. Heather was well pleased after being given the choice of hire car and selecting the Fiat.
Ever since she visited Edinburgh in 2009 and spotted a car with what looked like FIRT written on the badge these have provided a kind of in-joke and shouts of "firt" nearly every time they are spotted. They are actually reasonably popular in NYC and they have only imported the sporty models.
First stop was the Nu'uanu Pali lookout for views over Honolulu.
I discovered that there's lots of Japanese tourists in Honolulu. One of the streets has a luxury row of shops, Gucci, Burberry, Prada, etc after one another catering to these visitors in particular.
In the same way New York has a lot of signage in English and Spanish, Hawaii has signs in English and Japanese especially in the high tourist areas.
Even in Honolulu you notice a slightly more of a city feel especially compared to Kuaui.
Another of Heather's old friends now runs the Hawaiian Chip Company along with her husband. So we stopped of to visit their building and came away with some purchases and freebies including some freshly baked chips, mainly taro and sweet potato. We subsequently had to carry a bag full of these packets of crisps all the way back to NY as excess hand luggage. Luckily we made it look like we'd just bought them in the airport.
We spent most of the rest of the day in the massive Ala Moana shopping mall. I discovered it was the largest open-air shopping mall in the world and is sadly Hawaii's most visited destination!
We did a little drive past Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head area and then went back to the mall for dinner.
The airport was only 7miles away and in normal conditions we would've left in plenty of time to refuel the car, hand it back, get the shuttle bus to the airport and get on our plane, however.....
It started pouring down with rain just as we were coming back to the mall. While listening to the radio in the car we discovered that a couple of the roads had flooding and combined with rush hour traffic we were at a standstill for a lot of the drive. Thus we got to the check in desk about 15 mins before the flight was due to depart, the last flight of the night.
But I guess due to that more relaxed way of life and the general friendliness of everyone, it wasn't a problem and in fact the flight was delayed 10mins while they waited for the other half dozen passengers to arrive. There was only about 30 people on the little propeller plane.
Home by 8.30pm and just in time for one of many meals with the many visiting members of Heather's family!
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| FIRT |
Ever since she visited Edinburgh in 2009 and spotted a car with what looked like FIRT written on the badge these have provided a kind of in-joke and shouts of "firt" nearly every time they are spotted. They are actually reasonably popular in NYC and they have only imported the sporty models.
First stop was the Nu'uanu Pali lookout for views over Honolulu.
I discovered that there's lots of Japanese tourists in Honolulu. One of the streets has a luxury row of shops, Gucci, Burberry, Prada, etc after one another catering to these visitors in particular.
In the same way New York has a lot of signage in English and Spanish, Hawaii has signs in English and Japanese especially in the high tourist areas.
Even in Honolulu you notice a slightly more of a city feel especially compared to Kuaui.
Another of Heather's old friends now runs the Hawaiian Chip Company along with her husband. So we stopped of to visit their building and came away with some purchases and freebies including some freshly baked chips, mainly taro and sweet potato. We subsequently had to carry a bag full of these packets of crisps all the way back to NY as excess hand luggage. Luckily we made it look like we'd just bought them in the airport.
We spent most of the rest of the day in the massive Ala Moana shopping mall. I discovered it was the largest open-air shopping mall in the world and is sadly Hawaii's most visited destination!
We did a little drive past Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head area and then went back to the mall for dinner.
The airport was only 7miles away and in normal conditions we would've left in plenty of time to refuel the car, hand it back, get the shuttle bus to the airport and get on our plane, however.....
It started pouring down with rain just as we were coming back to the mall. While listening to the radio in the car we discovered that a couple of the roads had flooding and combined with rush hour traffic we were at a standstill for a lot of the drive. Thus we got to the check in desk about 15 mins before the flight was due to depart, the last flight of the night.
But I guess due to that more relaxed way of life and the general friendliness of everyone, it wasn't a problem and in fact the flight was delayed 10mins while they waited for the other half dozen passengers to arrive. There was only about 30 people on the little propeller plane.
Home by 8.30pm and just in time for one of many meals with the many visiting members of Heather's family!
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