So – just to complicate things, we are now in Hawaii, but not on Hawaii. We are actually on the island of Oahu, but this is in the US state of Hawaii. The island of Hawaii is actually the easternmost of the chain of islands which make up the state of Hawaii and it is the largest island. For this reason, it is helpfully known as ‘Big Island’.
On Oahu we are staying at Waikiki which is where a significant proportion of visitors stay. In fact over 40% of all of Hawaii’s tourist revenue is generated from Waikiki alone. With high-rise hotels right along the shoreline, it is intensive tourism, though considering the number of hotels, the beach itself was not too crowded this morning.
We started the day with a wander along Waikiki beach. The origins of the area stem from the 1800s when it was a retreat for Hawaiian royalty who surfed here on an early form of longboards. The first beach resort was built in 1893 (called ‘San Souci‘) and the next year Robert Louis Stevenson paid it a visit. In those days it might have been an inspiration for Treasure Island with very few visitors. These days it is more likely to be an inspiration for Love Island with large number of Japanese, Australian and other tourists all preening themselves and vying for the perfect Instagram shot. We even saw several different sets of wedding photos being taken.
The beach itself is almost completely man-made. The shore has always suffered from problems with erosion and over the years, seawalls and groins have gradually appeared so that the beach is now more or less continuous, but neverthless, it has to be constantly replenished. In the past this was transported by ship from California, but this stopped in the 1970s.
After a swim and lunch, we then walked the other way from the hotel to the Ala Moana shopping centre. With a Macy’s and a Bloomingdales, this is presumably quite an upmarket shopping centre, but it was lost on us as we wouldn’t recognise a designer shop anyway! However, much more exciting on the way back was to spot a Maserati. Not the car (they are ten a penny round here along with Porsches and Teslas), but the MOD70 – a 70 foot round the world foiling trimaran. The excitement of seeing this was lost on Anne, but I enjoyed it!
Another swim early evening finished the day off nicely ….. Hawaii 3-O – 30 degrees centigrade …..