Pearl Harbour and Luau
From 2007 World Tour in Oahu, United States on Sep 16 '07
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Aloha! Today we managed to get a sleep-in with our tour pick-up not until 9:45am. We boarded our tour bus, greeting our driver William for our drive over to Pearl Harbour. We were provided with mildly funny commentary on our route, including the incredible info about the price of housing in Honolulu. What comparitively is a two bedroom beach shack, not on the beach, goes for about 700K!!
We were also provided with a brief lesson in the Hawaiian language. The alphabet contains only 7 consonants and 5 vowels. No letters are silent - pronounce all vowels (muu-muu is actually pronounced mu-u-mu-u). There were also some interesting words like pe-pe - meaning appetiser and pu-pu, meaning chicken or meat. Mahalo (ma-hal-lo) - Thankyou.
Lets Feast!!
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On arrival at Pearl Harbour, it was time to line-up to get our tickets for the theatre film and Arizona memorial ferry. On busy days this wait can be up to 2-3hrs, but today we managed to walk straight up to the ticket booth. These tickets were for a scheduled time of 12:30, which left us over two hours before the film started. We re-boarded the bus for a brief tour of the highlights of Honolulu.
Firstly we were taken on a drive-through of Punchbowl, the US military cemetery. This place was different from other cemeteries that we have seen before as there were no raised head-stones. To see a large field with flat name plates is quite moving.
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It was then on to see King Kamehameha's residence. Upon leaving the bus for our photo op, we bumped into a Polish couple we had met on a previous day, and mentioned that we had seen them at the Magic of Polynesian show the previous night! Who thought that Honolulu could be so small!
We then returned to Pearl Harbour for our tour. After a quick sandwich for lunch it was into the theatre for the 20min documentary of the attack. After this we boarded the Navy ferry for the short boat ride over to the memorial. This is an open air building that has been built over the middle of the sunken ship. Once on board, we walked around the memorial and visited the chapel which has all the names of those men whose lives were lost in the attack. We then departed the memorial, returned to the bus and was dropped at the hotel.
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After a quick dash up to our room, it was down the road to the pick-up point for the Paradise Cove Luau. We were told that the Luau was not going to start without bus 5, us, the good-looking party animals.!! On arrival we were greeted first with Mai-tai's, then with Floral Lei's. We were then invited to participate in Luau games and activities before dinner. I made a floral headband, and we both had a throw of a big stick, trying to get it between two other sticks (I missed, Joe was on target) and were both rewarded with shell necklaces.
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We then watched the traditional palm tree climb, net tossing and pulling in of the catch, then the raising of the cooked pig from the underground pit. We then took our seats and feasted on rolls, salad, fish, chicken, smoked pig, coconut cake, coconut jelly, fresh pineapple and Blue Hawaiian cocktails. Yee-ha!
The show then started with demonstrations of dancers from the main four polynesian areas, a flame twirler, hula dancing, and other singing and dancing. The show was over by 9pm and we headed back to the hotel.
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