The rains of Waikiki

When we booked Honolulu as our first stop, we didn't plan for rain. Rain is what we got, though.

Rain and a view.

We spent the morning of the first day darting between doorways and through malls, trying to find a dry path from the hotel to the beach.

I could never remember the way to the beach, even though it was right there.

We came up with a plan to manage the time change - stay awake until midday, sleep for a little while, and head out for dinner. By morning we would be on Hawaiian time.

Alison was excited - her dream of all filtered coffee, all the time, was coming true

The plan was a good one. The time difference from Brisbane to Honolulu, and the eight hour flight, combined to make the change pretty easy on us. It took a little while for our body-clocks to catch up, and we had dinner quite early.

Dinner was at Cheeseburger in Paradise because of course it was.

James was excited - his dream of all cheeseburgers, all the time, was coming true.

After dinner it had fined up enough to finally walk along the beach. Waikiki beach is dominated by hotels and shopping malls, but a short stretch of beach between Diamondhead Crater (the subject of the next post!) and the high-density buildings provides beach access for the regular punter.

Far; crater. Near; punters.

We took the opportunity to explore the maze of stores and hotels and eventually found ourselves at what appeared to be the pool of the Sheraton hotel, which nobody attempted to stop us entering and which did not even have a fence (in Australia you would be fined so much). Perched in illicit deckchairs, we got some photos of a stunning sunset.

Pictured; stunning.

With no attempt made to eject us from the premises, we resolved to return the following evening for a sunset cocktail. But our first day in Hawaii was done, and we retreated to our own hotel.