Frugal Bastard's Hawaii 2007 Trip - 20/5/07

Up just after 7am - last night was difficult to sleep because of jet lag. I went shopping for breakfast and bought some healthy stuff followed by two pancakes, two strips of bacon and two scrambled eggs for US$3.65. Not too healthy. I am on holidays.

We managed to get read for Nelson's Hanauma Bay Best Snorkeling our (tel 391-4300 or 306-8068) for US$12 ea. It came to US$38 including tax. This included a 45 minutes ride for the collection of other people. Our van ended up with 14 passengers, the driver and her friend. Hanauma Bay is a national park. Admission is US$5 for adults and kids under 14 are free. Everybody has to view an eco-movie for nine minutes which explains how to interact safely with the reef and the wildlife for your safety and their protection. Then there is the steep walk down to the beach.

Hanauma Bay from the parking area.


It took a while for Yu-Jin and Miky to get the hang of snorkelling but they really enjoyed it. I saw some large blue fish 50-60cm, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (State fish), convict fish with their black and white stripes, wrasse and several other species of fish. It's amazing how close you could get to them and you could even hear them biting the coral.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a - Hawaii's State Fish.

Colourful wrasse.

A bigger fish.

Another fish.


Gosh the sand on the beach was hot. You had to wear flippers so that you wouldn't get burnt. What an excellent day of fun. We just managed to get cleaned up and walk up the top to catch our van back to the hotel. I regret not having bought a 27-shot underwater camera for $US10 before going to the bay. Could've taken some lovely pictures of the fish underwater. As it was the pictures above were taken close to the beach.

Hanauma Bay reef.

Hanauma Bay beach.


Couple of showers later we caught the #8 bus to Ala Moana Center for lunch - it was four o'clock when we arrived. Finally found the restaurant area, on the 4th floor, and visited Ruby Tuesday. Not cheap but very nice food. US$11.99 for a Premium Burger, which I expected to be huge in a country known for gluttony, but it was just a normal-sized burger. Paying 15 bucks for a burger is a bit rich but it did taste great.

We shopped at Sears for some Levis jeans and bumped into two Aussies from Sydney. They were shopping for jeans also because of how cheap they are in this country. The Disney Store had some attractive bargains. To go shopping until 7pm on a Sunday night was great. We caught the bus back to Waikiki, on our free transfer, and did some grocery shopping.

R2D2 UPS post box.


Back at the hotel and Yu-Jin had a lot of writing to do for his diary which is his homework whilst he is on holiday.