Monday 10th March 2014 -10 Hours GMT - Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA: A Walk on the Wet Side Has Its Compensations!

Safely back on terra firma and after a very swift lunch I decided to sample the delights of Honolulu but what a dismal and disconcerting afternoon it turned out to be.  I was just donning my hat and collecting my camera bag when a view out of my cabin window showed that is was teeming with rain. Undeterred I made my way to the gangway and through the cruise terminal and sat for over 20 minutes under the entrance canopy watching the torrential rain.  There had been no mention of rain in the morning forecast and in the evening the Cruise Director admitted that the forecast had come from a Norwegian website!!!

Eventually the rain eased but it quickly became very obvious that walking the streets of Honolulu was going to be a challenge since at every intersection some 6 – 8 inches of water had gathered in vast puddles that made crossing the street a difficult and - if you misjudged the traffic – a ‘drenching affair’!!  I saw several fellow guests who had been caught in the rain returned soaked from head to foot!

I picked my way with care towards the Aloha Tower – see photo.  Aloha in Hawaiian means “Hello, Welcome, Good Day” and this tower, once the tallest structure in Oahu, was known as the “Welcome Tower” and originally built to act as a focus for greeting the many steamships that visited the island.  Today it is the control tower for the harbour master.

It was eerily quiet on my stroll along the harbour side to the Aloha Tower.  I thought this might be due to the rainstorm but then I remembered it was a Monday and public buildings and museums in the USA are closed.  So no visit to the Hawaii Maritime Museum that would have told me much of what I wanted to know about he history and colonisation of the islands only a photo of the Falls of the Clyde, the only four-mast, fully rig ship left in the world.  Claimed as a national historic monument it looked rather forlorn as it awaits renovation and I gather it has been waiting a long time. For all that this ship had lost nothing of her pride in my view anyway.

There was a large, modern shopping mall around the Aloha tower but this too resembled a ghost town!  Many of he shops were empty, others had ‘closing down sales’ and the restaurants were deserted.  I spied my much loved handicraft fridge magnets in one of the ‘closing down sales’.  Upon closer inspection they turned out tome some rather interesting – see photo – magnets made from local woods.  I bought four much to the delight of the Chinese lady owner of this store who was busily packing away display shelves etc.  Not only did she give me a 25% discount on the ticket price but threw in a Turtle on wobbly springs and asked, “Would you like to buy all the stock of magnets?”  I retreated with a jaunty Mahaloha (Thanks, Good Bye) as her best customer of the day disappeared into the wild and desolate mall!

I discovered the following day that I really did have a deal since the same magnets on Kauai Island were $4 each more expensive.