Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 00:10:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: "Part 2" of this trip...

Aloha ahiahi, (Good evening),

The flight had left Sydney about 1/2 hour late but caught up that time during
the flight, and arrived in Honolulu on time. For the few minutes onboard that I
was actually awake, I kept thinking "this sucks... I have to leave australia!"

I didn't really want to come to Hawaii -- but thats the only flight routing I
could get when I booked the ticket in late July or early August 2004...
everything else was sold out! If I had my way, I would've preferred spending
the extra 2 days in Australia! Or actually, if I had my way, I would've gone to
New Zealand instead, but that's a whole another story, so never mind that!

Ok, so I was in Hawaii. It was the 4th of January at 11 AM. By the time I got
out of the Customs area, got my rental car (convertible -- as I had swore to
myself after my previous Hawaii trip in 1996), and was on the road again, it
was past noon...

Coming back to the U.S. after more than 2 weeks of driving in Australia, I had
trouble driving on the right side of the road here.

Made a few mistakes, nothing too serious (or I wouldn't be writing this), but
I'm sure I must have pissed off a few other drivers... Well, nothing happened,
and I *THINK* I'm used to it now. I hope I'm used to it now.

I went to the motel and checked in, still thinking "why did they have to give
me a layover through here?" My room wasn't ready yet so I decided to go for a
drive along Southeastern Oahu. First stop was Diamond Head volcano (extinct
volcano and Honolulu landmark).

My map showed a line here which I assumed to be the road, looping all around at
the end of which was a box symbol with the word "Lookout". So I was thinking
I'd get to drive up the mountain!

HAH!

I had to park the car. AND pay $5 cash out of the $7 U.S. cash i had left in my
wallet from 3 weeks ago. Then hike up the mountain!

now .... those of you who really know me, you know that walking UP a mountain
is not my idea of a good time! To make things worse psychologically, there were
a few signs at the parking lot that gave info about the hike, things like....
"NOT RECOMMENDED for people with shortness of breath", and "You have to be in
good physical condition to make this climb".... "This is a STEEP and DIFFICULT
climb".... just not words I wanted to read at that time, and I'm certainly NOT
in "good" physical condition! but I thought what the hell, I came all this way,
I paid more than half my leftover money for the parking, so I might as well do
it now! (not "oh wow the views would be great from up there")

So I started walking up the trail... and "only" 762 vertical feet and 1 trail
mile of huffing and puffing later, I was at the lookout. The first half was
actually easier than i thought! It was the second half that was bad....
something like 200 or 300 steps included in that. one person in front of me
said "I want an escalator here" -- couldn't help laughing at that!

And the view.... Honolulu (including Waikiki) to the West, the ocean on the
South and East, and a mountain range to the north, with the volcano crater
directly underneath.

hmmmmmmmmmmm... so what did I think of it? This is an entry from my journal
notebook from that time:

"good views of the city and surrounding landscape and seascape -- but Brisbane
view from Mt. Coot'tha (?) was just as good and I didn't need to walk up that
mountain!"

enough said about that.

After coming back down I went for a drive to cool off -- again a hot day today.
Went into "convertible mode" and drove around the southeast corner of the
island -- along Hwy 72.

That's a coastal road, and the ocean views are GORGEOUS! Just as good as Great
Ocean Road down South, if not better. Certainly there were no flies this time.
And I had a better car :>

It's about a 34 mile loop road from Diamond Head around that part of Oahu
island, and back to the motel -- those 34 miles took me 2 hours. And that's
without traffic. But stopping along for pictures at all the fantastic ocean
viewpoints!

And that was the end of the day. Had my "meal of the day" at a TGIF next door
and went to sleep early, only to wake up again before 5 AM... and stay in bed
until after 11 AM. But that's a continuation for another
email....................................

... Coming right up!

Pictures taken today:

Table of Contents
January 5 : USS Missouri, drive around Oahu