There’s Always Something Fun to Do in Honolulu

Day 7, South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand Cruise

Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022; Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu is a great first port after five sea days on a long cruise. The Walmart is just three blocks from the pier. More about my shopping trip later.

My new friend Diana joined me today for a delicious lunch beach-side at Waikiki. Weeks earlier I made reservations at Duke’s, a landmark restaurant named after Duke Kahanamoku, considered the father of modern surfing and the winner of five Olympic medals for swimming.

We lucked out with an open-air front-row table, made even more special by a couple of fruity drinks, a crisp calamari appetizer and platefuls of fresh fish and other Hawaiian specialties from the buffet. The singer and guitarist entertained us with the perfect Hawaiian play list. Next, we moved to the beach lounges probably provided for guests at the Outrigger Hotel, but no one stopped us.

I finally escaped the sun to window-shop in the area – full of high-end retailers and small Hawaiian souvenir shops. The lush grounds of the famously pink Royal Hawaiian hotel provided an oasis from the crowds.

No visit to Hawaii would be complete without a shave ice (you can tell the authenticity by the use of “shave” instead of “shaved”). At Waikiki Beach you can bet it will not be cheap. I went for the mango/pineapple and perhaps ate a third.

In the past I’ve usually ridden the city buses around Honolulu, but today we splurged on Ubers, which were inexpensive and immediate. It being a Saturday, the buses weren’t as frequent as on a weekday. I debated going to the nearby Costco, a good source for Hawaiian shirts for the nephews, slippers (known everywhere else as flipflops) and anything macadamia. But I came with my bags full so decided I didn’t really need to shop.

We didn’t leave Honolulu until midnight, but I was back on board for dinner and the special show featuring a Polynesian dance group from shore. As Hawaii was initially populated with Polynesians from the Tahiti area, there is a lot of influence here from all around the South Pacific.

Back to the nearby Walmart. That’s where I headed in the early morning shortly after we cleared the authorities. I had a short list of things I either forgot (face moisturizer, a yellow highlighter) or decided I needed (a different size of Command Hook for the wall). I spent some time wandering around before settling on a pack of very thin dish rags to use to dab my paint brushes. I used to grab a handful of paper napkins from the ship, but they have mostly disappeared to reduce paper waste. I first thought I would buy a roll of paper towels, but that was bulky and didn’t solve the waste issue. These should work perfectly.

Upon disembarking, the cruise staff presented each of us with a beautiful fresh-flower lei, to the surprise and delight of passengers. I had received them in the past on Holland America’s grand cruises, but wasn’t sure whether they would be included on this “non-grand” passage. Everywhere you went around the city you recognized fellow passengers by their leis.

After wearing mine a few hours I gave to a young girl who admired it. Tradition holds that it is disrespectful to throw a lei in the trash. Instead, you should respect the gift-giver by returning it to Mother Earth, by perhaps throwing it into the ocean (a no-no from the ship) or hanging it in a tree. I usually present it as a gift to one of the docents at the Iolani Palace near our pier at Aloha Tower, knowing they will dispose of them with respect.