HAWAII

On our second day in Hawaii we tendered at Kona (also on the Big Island), which was considerably more attractive than Hilo.  Our tour of the island was, however, less than exciting.  We stopped at a coffee plantation, where they sold very expensive Kona coffee, before visiting a "painted church", which some of the more devout passengers considered to be beautiful, but I found to be the ugliest church I have ever entered (sorry no pictures or I might get sued).  On the other hand, we sat at the front of the bus and really enjoyed our talks with the septegenarian driver.  Among the many things he told us was that there were relatively few Hawaiians on Hawaii.  The largest ethnic group are of Japanese decent, followed by Portuguese, and then those from the Philipines..  

On Monday we were in Honolulu, which is quite beautiful, and which looks very prosperous, although we were told that tourism (the largest industry) has been much reduced the past couple of years.  While the American passengers all headed to Pearl Harbor, we took a 2 and 1/2 hour taxi tour of Honolulu and the saw quite a bit of the island of Oahu.  We visited Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head and then travelled along the east coast.   We saw lots of very expensive real estate, but also a homeless encampment on one the the many beaches. 

We returned to a late lunch on board.  The waiter insisted that my roast duck would be better digested with what seemed like a quart (a unit of measurement used in the U.S.) of Malbec.  After lunch we both fell soundly asleep, and in fact snored away until we had missed a pre-paid early supper harbor cruise.  We eventually went to the main dining room for something to eat and made do with Lobster Thermador and Chateaubriand.  After dinner we attended a concert put on by the singer who is the section lead in the choir I joined.

Somehow over the past week my sandals disintegrated, so when we docked at Nawilliwilli on the island of Kauai I was anxious to go shopping.  I had barely a couple of hours first thing in the morning before our scheduled tour of an historic plantation.  I grabbed a free shuttle to the nearest shopping mall (which had no shoe stores) and then after returning to the ship I got a cab to a more distant mall.  After getting the last pair of sandals in my size I was unable to find a taxi in the pouring rain.  My useless phone (a Mac) didn't help so I eventually went into a small jewelry store and asked the man for help.  After phoning three cabs (none of whom answered--apologies to my I-phone) we settled on a fee of $ 20. for him to lock up his shop and drive me back to the ship.  On the drive he wanted to know how I was going to get to vote for Trump while on the ship.  My explanation of being a Canadian didn't seem to register, and he wanted me to try to vote for Trump anyway.  I guess you could say that he is a typical American given the result of the election.  Fortunately our dinner companions on election night were Brits and Canadians; otherwise I might have had to opt for room service.

At the plantation we took a train ride through the lush fields and stopped to feed some pigs.  There are twice as many feral pigs on the island as there are people, which is also true on Kona.

Now we have left Hawaii for a six-day sail to Bora Bora.  I am glad to have seen a bit of Hawaii, but have little desire to return.  The weather is wonderful and I think swimmers and surfers might feel differently than Betty or me.  We did pass a half dozen attractive golf courses on Oahu, but the prices described by our taxi driver put them well over my green fee ceiling.  That might also explain why I saw lots of fairways, but very few duffers.