We sailed into the port while I was
having breakfast – it was lovely to watch the island coming into view. To say
its a cruise port is a little stretch of reality: we’re right smack-bang in the
middle of the industrial waterfront. As we walk along, there are huge container
trucks flying in every direction, container cranes scooting around, waterfront
staff everywhere trying to heard the “sheep” wandering casually around onto
defined walkways and stopping us when there’s a monster truck approaching. You
certainly have to be on your toes getting around here.
There’s a second cruise ship berthed fairly
close alongside – the Start Princess, which was also berthed in Honolulu when
we were; I walked to the information centre, where they’re selling tickets, of
course, to everything. I was almost resigned to buying a $20 “Hoppa On-Off” bus
to get around the local district, when I was told that there’s wifi at the
coffee shop across the shipyard. So that’s where I headed for a coffee and
email catch-up. The barista was a lovely, older lady who was a really taking pride
in “creating” her coffees; as always in Hawaii, no-one is in a hurry, so you
just settle patiently and enjoy the wait! A little sticker to protect the
opening of the coffee lid said “Labour of Love”.
I was back on
board at 10; it was bright, sunny weather and quite hot in the sun. I had lunch
around 11.40 because I had to be on the pier at 12.45 to wait for my excursion.
We stopped at several beautiful waterfalls; the vegetation was lush and
lustrous even though they’ve had quite a hard time with water recently.
We finished up at the little shops downtown –
it’s just a small, laid-back town; we
were back on the ship by 4.30. I was glad I’d had my wifi his morning on shore;
when I was nearly finished the connection froze, but at least I got my stuff
done.
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