I’m sitting on our veranda, watching mesmerised as the rolling Pacific Ocean slides past. The only sign of life I have seen on the blue translucent waves since leaving San Diego’s naval harbour, packed with US warships and helicopters, is a solitary albatross skimming the undulations of the swell. Keeping pace with our ship for a mile or so, the lone graceful creature then decided to go it alone, overtaking our bow with ease, and disappearing at speed way ahead into the distance, leaving the Noordam in its wake.
Life at sea has been pretty relaxing so far – we’ve kept to ourselves save for what has become our daily routine to visit the Crow’s Nest bar on deck ten, for Happy Hour, with its panoramic forward windows, to watch the sun go down. A seemingly irresistible habit at two-cocktails-for-the-price-of-one every day, with apologies for the title of this blog! There are a variety of nationalities aboard, but mostly Americans, judging by the accents. Some Canadians – the cruise originated in Vancouver – a few Kiwis and Australians, and some European and British passengers. The mix has changed, too, as passengers have disembarked and embarked along the way. And, of course, as is the norm on a long cruise like this, we’re mostly retirees. The food and entertainment has been good so far – Peter has even learned to play the Ukulele, and I did try to Hula, but twisting the knees, spine, and hips proved quite painful the following day!! The few excursions we’ve so far taken have been brilliant. The brilliance coming from the onshore tour company on the islands of Hawaii.
Our first port of call after five days at sea was Honolulu, Hawaii’s state capital. Even before we went ashore, we were knocked out by dramatic mountainous backdrops sheltering gleaming city skyscrapers. The ship came in to dock past iconic Diamond Head mountain that acts as a full stop to the world famous Waikiki Beach.
I had not been to Honolulu before, although Peter had, about thirty years ago, so we booked two tours, one on both of the days we were in port. Travelling and walking through the city centre was a true and surprising delight. How well laid out, green, clean, and pleasant – we were bowled over by its beauty even with the old and new mix of architecture. We had a wonderful tour guide, who gave us a complete history of the many islands of Hawaii, and of Honolulu, and were surprised at the unexpected sight of the Union Jack which forms the upper left hand corner of the Hawaiian state flag – once again, thanks to Captain Cook who was the first to ‘discover’ the islands, and later, to die there at the hands of those he’d succoured.
But that first day we wanted to see Pearl Harbour, and hear again the terrible story of what happened there on December 7th in 1941 when, just before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked this secluded American naval base, taking the American military by surprise. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating. The Japanese destroyed 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 aeroplanes. More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. It was on that day that America joined World War II.
Visiting the memorial built over the sunken USS Arizona was a sobering, and for me, a somewhat macabre yet moving event. We were taken by boat in silence of remembrance of the thousand-or-so bodies still encapsulated within its sunken hull. The names of the dead are written on the back wall of the mausoleum and the stricken ship underneath the memorial still emits oil and gases.
The battleship USS Missouri is now a wonderfully preserved museum moored permanently in Pearl Harbour. We spent a good hour on board her learning more about her role in the war, as well as being privileged to stand on the very spot where the Japanese officially signed the surrender documents when the ship was anchored in Tokyo harbour in September 1945, thereby bringing the war to a complete end.
The following day we had a comprehensive tour of Oahu, and heard that property and land in the suburbs of Honolulu are the most expensive in the whole of the USA. That evening we had a heads-up on the Mai Tai bar, and Dukes and Tiki bars on Waikiki Beach where we downed a few local cocktails as the sun went down, after shopping till we dropped at the most amazing shopping centre I have ever seen in my life. In fact downtown Honolulu and Waikiki have more designer shops than Regent Street in London, including a Vivienne Westwood!
Overnight we set sail for Maui – reputedly the most beautiful of all the Hawaiian islands – and anchored off Lahaina, with its village atmosphere and laid-back way of life. We mooched around taking in its relaxing appeal. It was hot and humid – like one of those uncomfortable summer days we get in Noosa – so in the afternoon we went sailing on a catamaran out in the bay to catch some cooling breezes and a few more Mai Tais!
A day later we arrived at the ‘Big Island’ officially known as the island of Hawaii. We’d been in touch with friends who live there – a retired surgeon and nursing sister wife who decided to leave the Mayo Clinic to sample life in Hawaii forty years ago and never went back to the mainland. They picked us up from the ship and gave us a tour of the island, to the steaming and smoking Volcano National Park and beyond. We had lunch at their lovely home atop the cliffs overlooking the bay – our cruise ship moored away in the distance.
Never having been inside the crater of an active volcano before, I was justifiably curious and not a little in awe. The bubbling fissure was constantly changing shape, altering the puffs of lava-driven smoke. Indeed, the very earth leading up to the crater was a big landscape of smoking steaming undergrowth that put me in mind of the ground being one big agitated mass underneath. The sites of all the volcanoes are, of course, monitored closely, continuously and scientifically, and any imminent eruption is advised well in advance, so we felt fairly safe!
We said our thanks and goodbyes to our friends, and settled back on the ship for our departure as the evening drew in. But just outside Hilo bay we had an announcement from the captain to say that that he was turning back to shore. Nothing was wrong, but he steamed bow-on in the dark towards an active shoreline eruption, opened the bow deck doors and steadied the ship for about fifteen minutes as we witnessed and photographed a once-in-a-lifetime event – an amazing light show about 700 metres ahead of us. The ever-changing white heat of molten rock, violently spitting fire and smoke high up into the air in the night sky is a memory that will live with me forever.
