LiZ_in_Oz!!: ~ Hawaii ~ Oahu isLand ~

cant believe tt i realli manage to take 1 week off to head to hawaii... we have been talking abt it a great deal but din expect it to eventualli crystallise... been a wonderful break... but jus too short... effectiveli it's abt 5 days onli... 5 days for 2 islands... way too short!!! but still it was a wonderful dream....

this's our nice rainbow chervolet who served us well for the 3 days we were at oahu island.... but check out the NICER convertible in the next blog (for maui island).....

first stop was the factory outlets... not cos we were shopaholics.... hahaha.. but cos was raining when we reached... so not realli a good idea to head down to waikiki beach or pearl harbour... so in the end, we spent 2 hours at the factory outlet... but never be-little our shopping speed... check out the damage done within this mere 2 hours... we each clocked abt USD 300 to USD 500!!!

when the skies started to clear, we headed down to pearl harbour - USS Arizona memorial site as planned... USS Arizona was the biggest war ship at Pearl Harbour which the Japanese attacked.... now it lies in peace with the memorial built on top of it as it was never possible to retrieve it back.... n along with it lies all the glorious warriors that went down with it....

Pearl Harbour - USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Centre

the memorial sitting on top of USS Arizona...

the various medals, flags and the list of brave ones who went down with the ship...

bare glimpse of USS Arizona which remains afloat, the torpedos used by the navy, USS Missouri which was used during the signing of the Japanese surrender treaty....

mi n jing with the sailor... wonder if he is a real one??? but he certainli looks like one...

Hiking up Diamond Head State Monument
Day 2 went spent on hiking and snorkelling... the weather was crap in the morning jus as we were abt to start our hike up the volcano crater - diamond head.... but luckily it started to clear when we started our climb...

a nice lady took this pix for us.. the first one was not so good so she offered to take another one... first frenli person we meet in hawaii (hawaiians are not as frenli as we tot... eheheh)....

on the way up... n no, we din have to do rock climbing up the crater... there was a path to walk on... this pix is just for camwhoring... hahah... but nice one hor??? i like this pix... looks natural...

the hike up was through tunnnels n stairways...

nice picture half-wae up the hike.... we realise this pix combination is the nicest... 1 on top n 2 in front...

n ta-daaaaaaaaaa..... we've reached the top... this is the magnificient view at the top of the diamond head crater.... a combination of mountain view n sea view...

this is the valley n mountain view to ur right....

n as u turn to the left, it's waikiki beach view....doesnt this pix look like some condo adver???

n to the left of waikiki, it's an aerial view of haunama bay...see the massive corals??? n the afternoon, we spent snorkelling at haunama bay....

Snorkelling in Hanauma Bay

here's a nearer picture of haunama bay...

these jap gals were like the tourist attraction of haunama bay.. they were bussee snapping photos with their colourful bikinis... n these gals are realli good at it... wonder if they are professional models... but on closer glance, they dun look tt pretty... hehehe... =p but they are realli veri veri good n naturally with their exotic poses.... n basicalli they were thr onli for camwhoring... n after lots of snapping (both by the japanese gals and the tourists taking photos of them), they jus packed up n left... they din even get into the water at all....

mi with my snorkelling gear....

see how clear the water is... can see the fish so clearli...

Koko isLand

it's jus a random stop along the highway as we were driving back to our accomm....

Magnificent sceneries of Kualoa Ranch

Day 3 was spent in the north-west of oahu.... the kualoa ranch was a spontaneous add-on that we decided to go when we saw the adver on JETSTAR... this was realli well-worth the $$... din regret making this trip... it's probabli one of the highlight of oahu island....

the bus that took us to all the filming sites... n we were mistaken twice for japanese..... thr are soooooo many japanese tourists over there that they have an english bus n a japanese bus.....

various views along the drive... n the photos are NOT edited.... damn nice!!!!

n this ranch is the filming site for lots of movies - jurassic park, pearl harbour n even the romnatic 50 first dates....

the 3 of us (zijia, jing n mi) ....

that's the pacific ocean behind mi!!

Polynesian Cultural Centre

After the Kualoa ranch, we headed further west to the polynesian cultural centre where we experienced the lives of each of the 6 different tribes (tahiti, samoa, aotearoa, fiji, tonga and hawaiian) n even feasted on the "luan" - traditional hawaiian meal...

the canoe pageant - the 6 different tribes will put up a short performance as the canoe floats past....