We decided that as it was such a long trip, we would break our travel with a 2 night stop over in Hawaii.

We arrived early in the morning, so , by the time we had gone through customs and immigration (those guys are grumpy at 6.00am ) and deposited our bags at our hotel, we still had most of the day to start sight seeing. We couldn’t actually book into our room until after 1.00pm. To fill the time, after having a cup of much needed coffee, we got on a bus and did a round trip of the Waikiki shopping area to get our bearings. On return to the hotel, we went to check out what tours were available and make some bookings.

Our first booking was for a sunset dinner cruise that night…we just had time to shower and change and have a quick nap before we were to be picked up. It was a very touristy thing to do, and we were delivered to the cruise boat along with many other tourists for a 5 course dinner and to watch the sunset over the water. And ,damn it, if I didn’t bring my camera ! (mum said not to ) Anyway the sunset was lovely (and I’m sitting with my mum!) we had an excellent dinner with wine and viewed the twinkling lights of Waikiki from the boat as we returned from dinner.

The next morning we had to be ready early to catch the bus for a tour of the island. The tour guide/bus driver had a lot to say about everything and even included some interesting history and facts about Hawaii, we had frequent stops to look at things and take pictures (so the driver could have a smoke) Actually he was quite a funny man and provided us with lots of laughs along the way.