Hawaii – Pearl Harbour, Waikiki beach and all that
This part of the trip was to fulfill a childhood wish, something that had been in the back of my mind even before my teenage years. I really don’t remember what gave me this idea, perhaps it came from reading about the fascinating exploits of Captain Cook (he ‘discovered’ the islands in 1778 and died there in 1779).
We were on Oahu, the most densely populated island (circa 900,000 of the 1,200,000 in all eight islands of Hawaii) and our hotel was very close to the celebrated Waikiki beach. The photos give a close enough impression of the place, it is pretty much a concrete jungle, hotels built right onto the beach (although private beaches are illegal), with lots of fast food joints and tee shirt shops. The beach is the main attraction and it is really excellent, with clean sand, no litter, good access and big waves making it a hit with the surfing crowd.
The main industries in Hawaii are tourism and the military. As the principal US naval base for the Pacific area, the military presence on Hawaii is huge, apart from Pearl Harbour there are numerous other bases, a 625 bed military hospital and even a luxury beachfront hotel solely for military personnel.
We made a couple of tours around the most interesting areas, including the main beach resorts, the mountain areas and the ‘must-see’ tour of Pearl Harbour and associated museums. The photos show the USS Arizona memorial, a poignant symbol for US citizens and a reminder to Brits of the reasons for the US joining (rather belatedly) WWII.
The recent history of Hawaii makes interesting reading, from the day Captain Cook first waded ashore to the days of exploitation by American businessmen to the fairly shameful coup d’etat in 1893 and annexation by the US Government in 1898 – then the long wait until the attainment of full statehood in 1959.
We spotted an interesting anomaly in the old Hawaiian flag, something that is still flown over old government buildings, etc. The flag looks like this;
A throwback to the days when the Hawaiian Islands were first annexed by the British Crown and became a recognised member of the British Empire – but what went wrong?
We’re in the departure lounge now for the next leg, an overnight flight to Auckland for a couple of days with our friends Vikki and Andrew MacLean, watch this space for an update.