Tales of the South Pacific - Honolulu Day 3

Cruise Day 11

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Today is the third and last day of our visit to Honolulu.  We have, as the song says, "nothing to do and all day to do it" so there won’t be a whole lot to write about.

We spent the first part of our morning once again relaxing and reading out on the balcony.  I did come in for a while and did some online banking and then updated the blog.

After lunch, Val went back out on the balcony, and I downloaded all the pictures we had taken with our phones and cameras.  While I was doing this Val called me out on the balcony to show me a large, odd-looking ship that was leaving the harbor.  It was called the European Highway, and it turned out to be a car carrier that was large enough to carry almost 5,000 cars.  The European Highway was built in 1999 and at the time was one of the largest in the world, but now newer ships can carry up to 9,000 cars.  We watched it lumber out of the harbor into open seas where it’s headed to Mexico.

Val was relaxing on the balcony when she noticed an odd looking ship leaving the harbor.

It was called the European Highway and was a large car carrier that could transport up to 5,000 autos.

I finished downloading the pictures, backed everything up and then took my place out on the balcony (where it’s a beautiful day by the way) until it was time for trivia.  Donna was back tonight so we had a full team at trivia, but we did even worse than usual.  We did have a good time though and stayed around quite a while afterwards and had a good conversation.

After we returned to the room, we went out on the balcony for the sail away and watched a very nice sunset.  We relaxed until dinner and it was particularly good tonight.  Afterward, we returned to our room and saw there was a very nice moonrise, so we watched that for a while, but we had to get to bed early as we have an early excursion tomorrow and have to get up at six.

We sailed out away from Honolulu and on to our next port.

It looked like it was going to be a nice sunset.

Tales of the South Pacific - Honolulu Day 2

Cruise Day 10

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

It’s our second day in Honolulu and we have another ship excursion scheduled.  This one doesn’t leave until ten so we could do our normal morning routine.  After getting ready and having breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we headed down to the World Stage where we were quickly sent on our way to our waiting bus.

Our tour today is actually just a bus ride to the Bishop Museum where we’ll have four hours to see the museum on our own before the bus takes us back to the ship.  There were only twelve of us doing this, but we found it was a full-size bus, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  It took about twenty minutes to get to the museum where we were dropped off with instructions on where to meet the bus later and then we were on our own to explore.

The Bishop Museum is the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History.  Here is a brief description from the museum website: “Explore Hawaiʻi’s cultural and natural heritage at Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. With a legacy spanning over 130 years, the museum showcases over 25 million artifacts that narrate the rich history and cultures of the Pacific.”

The museum was built in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his late wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop. She was born into the royal family and was the last legal heir to the Kamehameha Dynasty which ruled the Kingdom of Hawaii between 1810 to 1872.  The grounds are beautiful as are the older buildings.

We spent quite a bit of time going through the museum learning about the Hawaiian royal families and Hawaiian history.  It was all very interesting, but they also had a planetarium, and we had bought tickets to one of the shows and it was almost time for that, so we headed back to the more modern buildings on the museum grounds for the start of the show.

The Bishop Museum

 

This is a model of the large sea going rafts the Polynesians built and used to explore the South Pacific.

They have several shows at the planetarium that run throughout the day, and we had chosen “Wayfinders: Waves, Winds, and Stars”.  This presentation was about how the Ancient Polynesians explored and navigated across the huge expanse of the Pacific Ocean.  It was truly amazing how these ancient people were able to navigate through the vast Pacific Ocean, and between the islands without the benefit of modern navigational tools using only the stars, sun and ocean currents. 

The presentation also told the story of how some current day Polynesians have built replicas of the traditional seafaring vessels the ancient people used and, using only the traditional navigation tools they replicated the voyages of their ancestors.  When we were in Tahiti back in 2013, we saw one of the boats and talked to the people on board about what they were doing, it was very interesting and quite amazing.  Here is a link to that.

The final part of the presentation was a l,esson on how the Ancient Polynesians used the stars to navigate.  That was very interesting, and I learned quite a bit about celestial navigation.  We were actually sorry when the show ended as it was fascinating and we wished we had more time to see some of the other shows at the planetarium.

It was lunchtime when we left the planetarium, so we headed off to the adjacent café for lunch.  Unfortunately, so did everyone else and we found ourselves in a long line waiting to order.  It took a while, but we eventually got our lunch and Val found us a hard-to-come-by table to eat at, and we had our lunch.  Sadly, by the time we finished eating it was time to head back to the bus for the ride back to the ship.

These are the grounds outside the museum, it looks like they were going to have an event coming up.

I would highly recommend the Bishop Museum to anyone visiting Honolulu.  If we could do it again, we would take a taxi or Uber there and back so we had more time, but we made the most of the time we spent there and had a great time.

Back on the ship we spent a very enjoyable afternoon out on the balcony until it was time for trivia.  Donna wasn’t there today as she was taking the same excursion that we took yesterday, so she wouldn’t be back until later.  We had our usual mediocre result but had a good time talking to Arthur.

Since we were docked in the industrial part of the harbor, we saw a lot of ships going in and out.  This was one of several sea going barges we saw.

Back in our room we returned to the balcony where we relaxed until it was time for dinner.  Although the weather is quite warm and humid, sitting in the shade of our balcony is very pleasant and we are making the most of it.

We were back in the dining room for dinner, but because the casino is closed for the whole time we are in Hawaiian waters, we decided to go to the show.  We haven’t been very interested in the shows so far on the cruise, but tonight a group of local Polynesian performers are putting on a show at the World Stage.

The show was very good, and the drummers, dancers and singers were excellent.  Their MC was a little over the top, but overall, we really enjoyed the show.  After the show we returned to our room where we spent a little time on the balcony enjoying the balmy evening before calling it a night.  Tomorrow is our last day in Honolulu and we have nothing planned, so we’ll probably just spend the day relaxing.

Tales of the South Pacific - Honolulu Day 1

Cruise Day 9

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Today is the first day of our three day stay in Honolulu on the island of Oahu.  We were originally supposed to be in Kauai today, but the ship needed some precautionary work done to one of the its engines that could only be done in Honolulu, so the stop in Kauai was cancelled and an extra day was added to our stay in Honolulu.  The weather was a little cooler and less humid than in Kona yesterday, so it looked like we were in for a good day today.

From Kona we moved on to Honolulu on the island of Oahu where we'll spend three days.

The ship arrived at seven and we were already up as we have an early excursion today.  In the past when we have visited Honolulu, we have always docked by the Aloha Tower, but this time we docked in a industrial part of the harbor.  This was disappointing as there are things to walk to around the Aloha Tower, but not so much in this part of the harbor

We arrive in Honolulu.

Before when we've visited Honolulu, we have always docked at the Aloha Tower (the tower to the right of the boat with the blue hull), but not this time.

Our excursion doesn’t leave until nine, but we have to meet at the World Stage before 8:30 to check in for our tour.  Ours was the only tour leaving this morning, so our tour was promptly called, and we made our way through the terminal and onto the bus.  The tour was almost sold out so there were 51 of us on the bus, quite a crowd.

The tour is called The Island Grand Circle that will cover most of the island of Oahu.  We started with a drive through Honolulu with our driver / guide narrating the whole way.  Our first stop was the Halona Cove so see the Halona Blow Hole and the beach that is called Eternity Beach because that’s where a famous scene was filmed for the movie “From Here to Eternity”.  The waves were not very strong today, so there was no action at the blowhole, but it was a beautiful spot to just get out and walk around. 

These are the places we visited on our tour today.  From Honolulu we drove west to the Halona Blow Hole and then followed the west coast north until we turned inland to visit the Byodo-In Temple and then continued north to the Dole Plantation.  From the Dole Plantation we drove north to the town of Haleiwa and had lunch.  After lunch we followed the north and west coast until we turned back towards Honolulu and made one last stop at the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout before returning to the ship.

 

Halona Cove

The beach at Halona Cove also know as Eternity Beach as one of the scenes from the movie "From Here to Eternity" was filmed on it.

After that we made a brief stop at a scenic viewpoint overlooking a beautiful cove and island.  I believe this is a well-known place, but I don’t know the name.  Next, we drove up into the Ko’olau Mountain Range to visit Byodo-In Temple, a replica of the Kyoto Temple of Equality.  I didn’t think this would be very interesting, but it was a beautiful spot with koi ponds, lush foliage and the temple itself was also beautiful.  There was a huge gong that supposedly gave you good luck if you rang it, so I gave it a try; we’ll see how that works.

I don't know where this was, but it was a beautiful spot.

The Byodo-In Temple

The grounds were beautiful with several ponds and water features that were full of Koi.

It seemed a bit out of place, but here you could get the iconic Hawaiian Shave Ice.  It's somewhat similar to an American snow cone, but it is made from shaved ice not crushed ice and is quite different in other ways.

From there we drove to the Dole Plantation where we had an extended stop.  Commercial pineapple growing has long left Hawaii, but the plantation remains.  This stop was mainly made for a visit to the very large store that sold everything you can imagine that is made from pineapples.  Someone told Val that she had to buy something called Dole Whip while she was there so that was the first thing we did and it was delicious.  It was like a soft serve ice cream with a pineapple flavor, and it was very tasty.  Val also found some stocking-stuffer things as it will be nearing Christmas when we get back, but those were our only purchases.

We were getting hungry as it was nearly three when we left the Dole Plantation, and thankfully we next drove to the historic town of Haleiwa on the north coast where we had an hour and a half to eat lunch and wander around the town.  Val and I found found Jorge's Mexican Restaurant that advertised sea food tacos and decided to eat there.  My shrimp tacos were delicious.  Val got some beer battered catch of the day tacos that were OK, but the fish and breading dominated the flavor so much, that was all you tasted.  By the time we finished eating, we didn’t have much time to walk around so we headed back to the bus.  Haleiwa seemed like a nice little town, but I have no idea of why it is historic and we weren’t dropped off in a very picturesque area.  There is a very nice beach and cove area, but we didn’t have time to walk down there.

From Haleiwa we drove back along the North Coast past some of the famous surfing beaches like Waimea where they have the big wave surfing competitions, Pipeline also famous for its surfing competitions, and Sunset Beach.  It had been partly cloudy all day and we drove along the North Coast, it just poured; we were glad we were on the bus and not walking around.  As it is in the tropics, it went away just as quickly as it arrived.

It was an interesting drive back to the ship with our guide pointing out various points of interest along the way.  We made one last stop at the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout, but we were up in the cloud cover, and you couldn’t see anything, so it was short stop.  From there it was back to the ship.  We didn’t arrive until almost six, it had been a very long day with a lot of it spent riding the bus.  Despite that, it was an interesting tour, and we saw a lot of Oahu we hadn’t seen before and we enjoyed that even if most of it was from the bus.  Our guide was pretty good, and we got a lot of interesting information from him, but he talked constantly for almost the whole time we were on the bus, so it got a little tiring.

We had eaten lunch so late, we decided to skip dinner and just got a few snacks from the Neptune Lounge.  We were tired so we just stayed in our room and made it an early night.  Tomorrow, we have another excursion, but it doesn’t start until one, so we don’t have to get up early.

We had a beautiful sunset to watch as we sat out on our balcony.

We also had a nice view of Honolulu at night.

The Aloha Tower all lit up.

Tales of the South Pacific - Kona

Cruise Day 8

Monday, October 6, 2025

Today we are in Kona on The Big Island of Hawaii, but we had nothing planned for the day, so we slept in a little.  When we got up and went out on our balcony, we got our first taste of what it’s going to be like for the rest of this cruise.  It was only in the eighties, but with the high humidity and the sun shining directly on us, it seemed very hot, and it is only going to get worse from here.

This is a map of the South Pacific and the area is commonly called Oceania.  It is divided into three areas - Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.  We'll spend most of our time in Polynesia, but we will visit Kiribati in Micronesia and Fiji in Melanesia.  The Hawaiian Islands, where we are today, are considered part of Polynesia.  This map lacks the detail to show the individual ports, but I'll mark each area as we visit it.

The Hawaiian Islands, our port today is Kona on the east coast of "The Big Island".

We sail into Kona, our first port of the cruise.

A tender heads to shore.

After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we hung around our room for a bit, but just before ten we decided to head down to the tenders and go ashore to Kona.  There is no ship pier in Kona, so we will be brought ashore by using a few of the ships lifeboats that double as tenders.  Because we are in a Neptune Suite and are Five-Star Mariners (Holland America’s loyalty program) we have priority tendering which means we don’t have to get a tender ticket, we can just go directly to the tenders.

There was a bit of a line waiting to board the tender, but it went quickly, and we were on our way to shore.  It didn’t take long to get to shore, and from the tender pier we started walking along the waterfront where there are restaurants and shops.  The real downtown area is too far to walk too, but this will be fine for us today.  Back in April of 2017 we and some friends of ours rented a house in the nearby town of Captain Cook, so we are familiar with the area and have seen most of the nearby sights, so we were happy just to walk along the waterfront and peek into some of the shops. 

There was a very nice lagoon right next to the tender pier.

The Kamakahonu National Historic Landmark was also across from the tender pier, you can see the our ship anchored in the background.

We noticed a lot of signs about  the Iron Man competition and saw a lot of athletic looking men and women around and upon checking, we found that the 2025 Women’s Ironman Championship is being held in Kona  and started yesterday, October 7th and ending on October 13.  The men’s championship was held in France back in September.  Since the Ironman competition was started in Hawaii, it’s fitting to have women’s championship here. 

We started our walk along the waterfront.

We got a better view of our ship anchored out in the harbor.

We passed the Hulihe'e Palace, the Hawaiian Royalty summer home that is now a museum.

In our previous visit, we found a shop selling some delicious chocolate balls called Donkey Balls.  The name itself catches your attention, but their wonderful flavor makes you want more.  The shop where the original Donkey Balls are made on the premises was too far away to walk to but according to Google, there was a shop that sells them in the area we were walking in so I was in search of that.  Sadly, when I got to the shops, it was out of business, no Donkey Balls for us on this trip.

I did find a Hilo Hatties that sells Hawaiian clothing and other souvenirs so I went in to see if I could find an Aloha Shirt that I liked.  I think they may also be called Tropical Shirts and I like them because they are lightweight and very comfortable especially in hot and humid climates.  When you think of Aloha shirts you think of very bright and sometimes quite garish shirts, but I like a more subdued shirt and found just what I was looking for and made my first purchase of the trip.  Val didn’t find anything she liked, so after wandering around a bit more, we headed back to the tender pier to catch the tender back to the ship.

While waiting for the next tender to arrive, we sat in the shade and drank some ice water the ship was providing that really hit the spot.  The tender soon arrived, and we were quickly back on the ship.  This will probably be the first of many times I say this on this cruise, but the air conditioning on the ship sure felt so good when we got back inside.

After cooling off a bit, we headed for lunch in the Lido and then relaxed for a while.  I got back on my computer and updated the blog and then spent the rest of the afternoon out on the balcony.

We did go to trivia at four and once again we were in the middle of the pack, not the worst and not the best.  I’m not a big trivia fan, but I do enjoy getting to know our teammates and having interesting conversations before and after trivia.

We returned to the room and Val again went out to the balcony to read, but I wanted to download all the pictures I’d taken with my cell phone and camera today, so I did that before joining Val on the balcony.

We sail away from Kona.

The casino will be closed the entire time we are in Hawaiian waters, so after dinner tonight there was no casino for us, so we returned to our room and read until it was time for bed.  We were going to call it an early night anyway tomorrow is the first of three days in Honolulu and we have an early ship excursion scheduled and have to be up at seven.  There was a beautiful full moon tonight so we spent some time on the balcony watching the moon rise before calling it a night.