We departed New Zealand last Saturday and have been enjoying a few days layover in Oahu before our final flight to Portland on Thursday, 1 Aug. Although Orcinius will soon be ready for re-launch, it is too late in the cruising season for us to head north to Fiji and beyond, plus our visitor visas in New Zealand have run out. So we will be back home for awhile - probably until mid-March of next year. John is planning on heading back to NZ for a few weeks in October to do a sea trial and check out all the systems on board - otherwise we plan on leaving Orcinius out of the water until our return so she will have a nice clean under-carriage for next season!

We had a bit of an "oh shitake" moment the evening we arrived here - just before going to bed, John realized he had left his new iPad on the plane in the seat-back pocket. Not the best way to start off our little island getaway. The next morning he called Hawaiian airlines, and sure enough - someone had turned in his iPad! It is very comforting to know there are still honest people in this world. After that little episode, even little tropical depression Flossie couldn't dampen our spirits!

Oahu has been beautiful, despite Flossie passing through earlier in the week. We clipped the tail end of it as it was dying out, so not too much excitement, just a bit of squally weather for a day or so.


View from our condo overlooking the harbor.

We rented a condo through a website called vrbo (vacation rentals by owner). We have had really good luck with this website for finding nice places to stay for a reasonable price, both here and in Fiji. We are using it again for a ski trip planned in Sunriver next February. Our condo overlooks Ala Wai Harbor with great views, and is just a few minutes walk to the beach.



The Arizona Memorial

We of course went to Pearl Harbor - the primary reason we wanted to stop for a few days in Oahu. We visited the Arizona Memorial, the battleship Missouri, and the submarine Bowfin. All of it was a very interesting and well worth the visit. John and I have also been to the D-Day beaches of Normandy - it was interesting to compare the memorials. I thought there might be more preserved "battle damage" on view at Pearl Harbor other than the Arizona (and the Utah - which is not part of the mainstream tour). But everything has been made "ship-shape" so to speak, and there is no other evidence of that historic day that caused us to enter WWII. On the Normandy D-Day beaches, they still preserve stretches of land where battles took place, where you can see huge bomb craters (they are treated as cemeteries because so many died), German pill boxes, and remnants of the equipment and landing sites, as well as museums and memorials. I just thought there might be a bit more at Pearl Harbor for such an epic event in our history.



Visiting the Battleship Missouri where the treaty was signed to end WWII. The Missouri itself did not participate in WWII until very late in the war.



The Missouri.



The deck area where the treaty was signed ending WWII.



A placard in the deck designating the exact spot where Japan surrendered on 2 Sep 1945.



Taking control on the Bowfin submarine - Dive! Dive!


And here are some other sites visited this week:


Iolani Palace



Back in the late 1800's, they had electricity before the White House did.



And flush toilets!!



Kawaiahao Church - the bricks are all made of coral.



King Komehameha - I remember this statue from an episode of "The Brady Bunch"!



The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific - many of the casualties of WWII are buried here.



The National Cemetery overlooks downtown Honolulu and Diamond Head.



The market in China Town - Merry Christmas in July??

We had lunch in downtown Honolulu's China Town. China town covers quite a large area, and is now home to many Asian folks such as Filipino's, and Vietnamese, to name a few.



View from our condo at sunset.


Looking forward to being home for awhile. See you all in a few days!!!