My secret weapon: A Week in Hawaii

On the 7th we flew to Honolulu. Hawaii is a special place for me. A place where I have healed, married, celebrated anniversaries and this time, I invited friends and family to meet up to celebrate the various ages of our lives (from just 73 to 21). We flew in from Denver, about a very do-able 7 hour journey, while others flew from Auckland and Perth, longer and much longer trips.

We stayed at the Twin Fin, where we had stayed before and enjoyed its location on the beachfront, and between the beachfront shopping area and the zoo at Waikiki. The views never fail to relax me.

Every day this view looks different but it is always stunning.

The first day, we had decided to do a group tour of Oahu as most of our group of 10 had not visited the island before and that was a good way to familiarise them with a trip around together, starting with the visit to Pearl Harbour, where the Japanese had launched their first attack against the USA in WWII, with hundreds of planes bombing the fleet in the harbour. 2400 people were killed in that attack, nearly a tenth of them were women and about 11 children. It is a sobering site, as are all war memorials, no matter what side you may be on, or how neutral you feel about the conflicts. Over a thousand have their permanent resting place beneath the sea on the Arizona which is at the centre of the memorial. The oil slick which floats on the sea above the wreck is said to be the tears of the battleship.

The rest of the tour went around the island stopping at the Dole Pineapple tourist attraction, the Tropical Farm Macadaemia Nut shop, lunch at the food trucks where you can eat various poke (raw fish recipes) and visits to various beach attractions including surfing and turtle bays. We also stopped at the windiest lookout I have been to as you can see from my hair.

The next days included the beach, the swimming pool, the bars, the aquarium, the food, the shopping and the zoo or whatever took our fancy on the day.

Food trucks are great for inexpensive and fast meals.

The highlight for me, other than having friends and family there, was the climb up Diamond Head. You need to book a timed entry so that the path is not overcrowded and I opted for the 7am entry to avoid the heat of the sun. We caught Ubers to the crater entry and set out from there. It is advised that the trip takes 11/2 to 2 hours but we made the top in about half an hour. It is a good stiff climb with stairs at the top but as long as you are reasonably fit, you can do it. We saw others who did not look very fit, taking their time to the top, while some very smart men and women were running up!

The volcano looks quite imposing from the outside but the uphill drive into the crater gives you quite an advantage in terms of the height you have to climb.