12 November 2009
This morning we checked out of the Miramar and left our bags at the Sheraton Waikiki before going to our site inspection at the Moana Surfrider. We had a really, really big breakfast. I had eggs Benedict, followed by pancakes…so much food.
We were then picked up and taken to the north shore of Oahu to Turtle Bay resort for lunch and another site inspection. The north shore was very peaceful and quite different to Waikiki, I actually preferred it. We had lunch, which I didn’t really want at that time, after the huge breakfast and then went off to the Polynesian cultural centre.
When we reached the centre all the groups had to give a presentation on the island they visited. I was the self-elected speaker for team Maui and I think some of the others were quite surprised I had no fear of public speaking. Being a tour leader certainly got rid of that fear. After the presentation, we all had hula lesson which we were all hysterical in.
Laura and I then went to watch a show and got a bit tongue tied having our photo taken with this gorgeous guy dressed in his native outfit. We attended a real Hawaiian Luau and ate traditional Hawaiian food. We saw a guy playing the ukulele, who could sound like Louis Armstrong and then sound exactly like Elvis.
After that we saw the HA: Breath of life show, which is a theatre production with traditional Polynesian dancers from Hawai’i, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti. We saw lots of flame twirling, which was something I really wanted to see. It was a really long day and I’m sorry to say, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have due to the exhaustion.
At about 9:30pm we got back on the bus and went back to Waikiki where we checked into the Sheraton and I was met with the most amazing view. I had an ocean view room with a magnificent view of Waikiki beach and the Royal Hawaiian or The Pink Palace as it is better known. I went straight to sleep in the huge bed.