Oahu Circle Tour
From 2007 World Tour in Oahu, United States on Sep 15 '07
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Aloha! This morning we set off early for our Polynesian Adventure Circle island bus tour of Oahu. Our driver Leo was a real character and I would happily say a highlight of the day, First we did a drive by of Diamond Head Crater. We did not go in here as there is now a $100 tarrif on tour buses and this was obviously not included in the tour cost.
Next we set off out of the city to Hanaua Bay. This was a scenic drive with much comedic commentary by Leo. At the lookout we took some great photos and could just see ourselves lounging down on the beach with the locals and other tourists.
Nuts, Temples, Tombs and prickly yellow things
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Next stop was the Halona Blow Hole - which apparently is a bit tempremental. Today it was blow-in in the wind and I as able to catch a photo in mid spray. After this it was on to the Pali Lookout, where it was very very windy. Apparently it was nothing on what it could be, but the day afforded us a chance to take some fantastic photos.
Then it was on to a Japanese Byodoin temple. This seemed strange to find in the middle of nowwhere. Joe and I both rung the big temply bell and showed respect to the budda. It was now getting close to midday and all travellers were getting the munchies. Luckily our last stop before lunch was at a Macadamia Nut farm offering free samples (and of course a shop to by nut, nuts and more nuts!). We tried many and varied varieties, including honey-roased, garlic and onion and Joe even tempted fate and ate a wasabi covered on. Warm, very Warm apparently.
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Lunch stop was at the Kualoa Ranch with a $12.50 buffet lunch of salads, chicken, chilli and bar-b-que ribs. Not the best meal I've eaten, but beter than nothing. I went outside and had a chat to one of the horses, who didn't want to know me when he realised I didn't have any food in my hand.
Last stop before home was the Dole Plantation. Think Big Pineapple. we took their little train ride, and tasted their pinapple ice-cream. Who knew there was so many things that could be made with pineapple - both edible and not!!!. We all then loaded onto the bus and headed back to our drop off at the hotel.
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We didn't have much time before we had to head out to dinner. On our walk down the beach we came across a statue on the beach which I refer to as "The big Kahuna". See the photo that Joe took of the sunset - just beautiful. It was then on to dinner at the much recommended Cheesecake Factory - think our Cheesecake Shoppe on steroids - providing snakes, lunch, main meals and of course cheesecakes for dessert!! It was (only) a 20 min wait for a table - which we later found out was a good night, given the Saturday night the wait was about 90mins. We ended up having to rush our dinner to get across the road to the show we had booked in to see at 8pm. Unfortuntely we did not have time to sample the cheesecakes!!
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The Magic of Polynesian Show was a visual spectacular of polynesian dance and illusion show. It had all the regular tricks - disappearing assistant, cut-off head, escape astist, appearing helicopters from nowhere, disappearing magician appearing in the middle of the audience - lots of dancers and a flame twirler. Joe and I both agreed it was a great show.
After this we wondered back via the International Market, window shopping and buying souveniers. Last but not least was our daily visit to an ABC store for much needed holiday provisions. Today we had to purchase beach towels for our planned snorkelling tour on Wednesday afternoon. That concluded this busy day with me wanting to put my head on a pillow as soon as possible.
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