The phrase A hui hou (ah hoo-wee ho) means “until we meet again.” The image to the right was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom. Hawaii is the rainbow state after all….
Cheryl: To give you a sense of life on a Viking cruise ship, see the Viking Daily, which tells us everything that is happening that day so we can pick and choose what events to participate in!
A breakfast pastry from Mamsen, the cafe on the ship that has a focused and terrific Norwegian-focused menu.
Cheryl: The morning started with a few last-minute errands in the city – Bob’s Amazon package pickup and my trip to the bank. I think everyone on the ship had an Amazon order or trekked to Target or Walmart to get some last essentials before we left the USA! Then, we headed off to get some steps in and found a couple of beautiful oceanfront parks and walkways that led to Waikiki Beach. Another pretty day with lots of people on the beach and doing water sports activities. We then caught the shuttle bus (at Ross Dress for Less) back to the ship for lunch and departure for Bora Bora!
Bob: Two photos from my trek to pick up an Amazon package. The first photo is a cool-looking boat propeller. It is huge. The second is the Aloha Tower. A historic and cool-looking building. Click here for history. While it is a nice-looking building, it is in need of non-trivial renovation. The package locker was 30 meters from the tower.
We then headed, separately, to the bank to break up some larger US currency to use for tips later in the trip. Today was the last time we had access to a US bank until May. The First Foundation Bank helped us out even though we do not have an account there. Nice.
After our errands, we spent the rest of the morning walking as near the Pacific as possible from the ship dock to downtown Waikiki. There were multiple paths directly adjacent to the beaches along the route. It was a terrific hike dominated by fantastic views of the ocean. Many Honolulu locals use the beaches west and north of Waikiki to likely avoid all of the tourists (like Cheryl and me). There were people of all ages everywhere, and many boats in sight on the ocean. Nothing like a 2-hour hike dominated by gorgeous Pacific views. The plants in Honolulu are unique and beautiful. Cheryl took the third image during our hike.
Cheryl: The Viking Sky sailed out of Honolulu Harbor shortly after 2pm, with incredible weather and vistas of the city, Waikiki Beach, and Diamond Head. About an hour after departure, Richard Lovelock, the naturalist/wildlife photographer on the ship, held a Wildlife Watch, and we did spot a few dolphins, a mama humpback and her calf, and several different types of birds. My camera couldn’t capture these images well, so we added three shots that Richard shared with us from his camera with a serious lens (you can see his telephoto lens in the first image, near his right hand).
Did you know that the pineapple is not native to Hawaii? It is indigenous to South American and explorers brought it with them as they discovered/settled in the South Pacific Islands.
Before dinner, I attended another interesting lecture on Polynesian Canoe Crops – really, this was fascinating to learn how the explorers fanned out from Taiwan over thousands of years to settle on various islands, bringing with them families, livestock, plants, and seeds. The speaker, Laura Lovelock, also talked about the influence of Western explorers introducing goods from Europe/China/South America and how they were assimilated into Polynesian life. And in more modern times, things like Spam, which was introduced by our military in the early twentieth century, were introduced into Hawaiian culture and are now staples. No, I didn’t try poi (taro root) while in Hawaii. (Bob: We were able to avoid all Spam products during our visit)
Bob: We attended a presentation on early female explorers. The speaker highlighted two women: Ida Pfeiffer (click) and Isabella Bird (click). Both women travelled alone long before it was common and/or safe for single females. An interesting overview given by Sue Stockdale, a talented presenter.
Bob: Our children requested more images showing the ship layout. The following images are of the “Living Room”, which is adjacent to the grand staircase. This location is open many hours and has coffee, pastries, and drinks.
I often use this area in the morning after a workout. A great place to meet people, read, blog, or catch up on NFL football (A great wildcard weekend BTW. Streaming is still working very well, but I am not sure if that will last).
Cheryl: The evening was particularly enjoyable, starting with a Hawaiian-themed dinner in the World Cafe, followed by a symphonic concert streamed into the ship’s theater, and then a rock-n-roll band on Deck 7 by the pool. That made for a long, full day and 14,500 more steps!