I left New Zealand at the 25.2. and arriving im the US at the 24.2. I did the impossible, I traveled due the time ;P
It is a kind of confusing, even more if you traveling, because as a traveler you never have an idea of the real date. Sadly I could get a stamp in my passport when I'm leaving New Zealand... No prove in my passport :(
By entering the country I met Ariane, she decided to stay in the same hostel then I did. The hostel is good, quite and cheap, only I had some strange old guy in my room. He smells, makes strange noises in the night and act weird.
Christoph and Erik joined the group. Erik is from Califonia, he gave me good advice for it. Denny's was our first stop for breakfast to get some food in our stomachs after 10 hours and more ;)
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| Typical American breakfast |
Hawaii is known for there surfing, so guess what we did? Yeah, we went surfing at Waikiki Beach, first check on my list ;)
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| Lots of tourists |
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| First some practicing at the beach |
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| How to paddle |
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| And stand up |
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| You have to wait a lot until you can catch a good wave |
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| It worked quite well ;D |
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| Again :P |
Sometimes you surf
Sometimes you fall ;)
We all just arrived on Hawaii, so we explored Waikiki in the afternoon. It is really nice and vancy, but also touristic...
On the way back to the hostel we found a German Wurstwagen close to our place. I had to have a Jaeger Schnitzl with Spaetzle, german food for dinner :D
Together we went on the other day to Pearl Harbour, you have to go there, because of the history and it is interesting to see all the memorials. It is a big memorial, where you can book different tours to see all aspects of it. We decided to get our free tickets for the Arizona Memorial. The Arizona was a battleship, which sunk at the attack of Pearl Harbour. You get the earliest ticket available, we had to wait 2 hours. Because there is a lot to do, our next stop was the USS Missouri. It is located at Ford Island, which is an active military base, because of this we had to buy a ticket for a bus to get to the Missouri. To go on the Missouri you have to buy tickets for a tour, we only went on the pier to see it from the outside.
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| Aloha Stadium, on the way to the USS Missouri |
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| We in front of the Missouri and all the Flags |
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| USS Missouri |
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| Way back we saw this submarine |
After we came back, we went straight to the Arizona tour. First we watched a movie about the history of the war and the attack. The Memorial is only accessible with a boat.
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| USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial |
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| Memorial from the outside |
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| The inside |
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The names of the crew, who died at the attack.
If you have served on the Arizona, you can get buried there now. |
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| The USS Arizona is still on the ground of the harbour |
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| Over 70 years later there is still oil coming out |
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| Under the white box is another ship... |
After we spent a while at the Memorial, we got an Uber to drive downtown to the Iolani Palace. Uber is an app where you get a driver like a taxi. He told us Honolulu is in the top 3 of worst traffic in the US. Guess which are the other cities? Yeah, LA and San Francisco, lucky me I going to visit all of them... Iolani Palace is the only Palace in the US and was the residence of the former Kings of Hawaii. Ariane and I are watching the crime series Hawaii Five-O, so we went first to the Court House whit the statue of King Kamehameha Statue in front, which we know from the series.
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| Court House |
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| Trying to pose like the King ;) |
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| Entrance |
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| Judge Kaiser |
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| We as the jury |
After this fun we walked around the palace and to the Capitol.
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| Iolani Palace |
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| Capitol, it is designed to look like an island, water is around and the pillars are the palms |
To save money we walked to the Ala Moana Shopping Center to eat something and look around.
The beach for sunset is close by.
To finish the day we walked 45 minutes back to the Hostel.
Next day I convinced that group to do a hike. We selected a quite easy one.
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| Take a break ;) |
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| The hike was along a river, which was dry at this time |
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| The grass was quite high |
Sadly we couldn't finish the trail, because the path slid down...
After a 5 hours of hiking we didn't get our reward, so we were a bit disappointed -.-
The Oscars were at the next day, so Erik and I watched The Revenant. Tom a guy from the hostel gave us his Tandem to ride to the theatre. We tried to do it, but we weren't comfortable. In the end I got the Tandem and Erik used his own one.
Next day next activity, we had booked a circle island tour. We got picked up at 8 am and were back around 7:30 pm.
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| Local surfers |
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| Hanauma Bay |
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| Along the east coast |
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| Nice view from a part of the east coast |
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| Wale watching, but sadly I couldn't get a picture... |
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| Makapuu Point |
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| Manana or Rabbit Island |
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| Macadamia plantation |
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| Place where you can open you own macadamia |
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| Fresh Macadamia ;D |
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You can tasted all the different flavors and coffee from the plantation.
It is a paradise for backpackers, second breakfast ;P |
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| Mountain range |
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| On the ranch you can do a load horse riding, see movie sets and lots of other stuff |
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| North shore, with enormous waves |
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| Postcard picture |
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| Shave ice production |
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| All the different flavors ;) |
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| My shaved ice with all the good stuff :P |
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| Dole pineapple plantation |
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| She showed us how to cut a pineapple, free peaces ;) |
The Tour was nice, but after all we realized it would be smarter if we had rented a car by our own to discover the Island. We could have a car for more then one day, go to the places we want to go and spent as munch time as we wanted.
I realized the next point on my list at the next day, scuba diving on Hawaii :D
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| We could come really close to the turtle :D |
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| Statue underwater ;) |
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| We found it;) |
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| Window |
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| One of us had to show some skills for here certificate. |
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| Fish, everywhere fish ;) |
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| Sleeping turtle |
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| Oahu from the ocean |
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| The guys ;) |
The two dive sides were good, but it is way different then diving in Australia or Thailand. It is not so much to see and you really can feel the movement of the water. Was sometimes really funny, if you wanted to looked at a place closer it was hard, because of the movement, to exactly stay at the same place. In the evening I met and could convince Nicolas, Lisa and Sandra to do a "bad ass" hike, the Ka'au Crater. I found the hike online and it sounds awesome but difficult.
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| we took the risk |
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| Beginning |
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| There were lots of ropes, to get up |
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| First waterfall |
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| Second waterfall |
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| From the top |
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| Incredible view from the top |
The way due the rainforest
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| Third waterfall |
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| Second part of the third waterfall |
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| Third part |
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| We made it on the mountain range |
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| Awesome feeling and view |
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| Feel free :D |
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| Wow we manage to get up here |
Walking on the range
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| That is the way up, oh my god ... |
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| View from the top |
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| We did it :D |
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| Other side also amazing |
View!!!
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| Sliding down, we got company by a guy from San Francisco |
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| It goes really deep down on both sides ;) |
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| View unbelievable |
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| We found a chameleon |
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| Way down still nice |
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| We got up the highest peak |
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| Different way down ;) |
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| What a tree |
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| Relax at Waikiki Beach afterwards |
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| Sunset time and everyone is coming ;) |
Afterwards we rested and did nothing. Erik left on this morning the hostel to another one. He came back with a motorbike to say goodbye, really cool bike he had. ;)
Already my last day started... Because I flow at 10 pm the hiking group went up Koko head, it is over 1000 steps on a railway track strayed up.
Because we hadn't enough we also got up Diamond Head, probably the most famous hike and really easy with a good view.
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| In the back is Koko Head |
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| Tunnel experience ;) |
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| Wales again, hardly to see... |
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| View over Honolulu |
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| Oh danger ;) |
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| Easy hike but awesome view! |
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| Way back :) |
After all the hiking we went to Waikiki Beach to relax and enjoy the Ocean before I flew out to LA and my California trip.
Hawaii was amazing, stunning and awesome, lots of stuff I did and great people I met. If you have the time to go, gooo!!! But try also to go to the other islands, Maui and Big Island!!!
Cheers
Steffen
