Wednesday 26th July
If you could live in paradise what would it be like, warm sun filled days, cool dark nights filled with starlight. Soft breezes at dusk after spectacular sunsets. Scented air from tropical blossoms produced by giant shady trees that cool you in the heat of the day. Green, red and purple variegated tropical foliage, ferns and palms to sooth the mind. Seafood, seafood and more seafood freshly caught everyday. Tropical fruits and juices on tap. Oceans of turquoise blue as warm as the air you breath. This is Hawaii and the reason we keep coming back.
A very quiet day today breakfast by the milky blue ocean, calm seas, the occasional foamy wave, clear blue skies. Even the beach is quieter, a Japanese couple receive surfing instructions on the beach, laying on the huge boards, they seem diminutive fully clothed flailing about with their arms as they mock paddle in the sand. Then they are kneeling, then standing swaying about imitating the oceans movement. The instructor all the time quietly encouraging them. The instructor disappears and the two connect the boards to themselves with the ankle straps. Pickup the boards by the pointy end and drag them towards the ocean, where we loose sight of them hopefully where they put into practice all they have learned.
One could sit here and people watch all day, sitting on the beach in the hot sun all day is certainly not our cup of tea but thousands flock here each day to do just that. While the ocean looks inviting and the temperature is warm the sand is hot and gritty, mix with sweat and suntan lotion for a sticky abrasive cocktail. Fun when we were kids at our northern hemisphere summer coasts with our buckets and spades, building sand castles with moats and burying ourselves to our necks in that grittiest of mediums. Now, under a stinging sun, covered in a greasy 50 plus lotion, to prevent skin cancer, might be bearable for a few minutes but certainly not all day.
Breakfast over we return to our room to spend some time on the domestic pursuits that travelling away from home at times necessitates. Kate is coming into Waikiki today to take a look at the new international market area that was opened earlier this year after several years of controversial construction. Originally a huge area just off Kalakaua Avenue, situated in the middle of the Waikiki shopping strip it surrounded a huge Banyon tree, and was filled with a rag tag collection of market stalls and kiosks selling all manner of touristy goods. Amanda back in the late 8O’s purchased her first Hawaiian bracelet here, silver with black enamel letters that are now worn and chipped. Here was the place for Hawaiian print clothing, carved wooden sea creatures and tikis as well as cheap ukulele’s.
As Waikiki became slicker, more up market, tourists with bigger dollars to spend arrived, big brand names moved in. The old international market didn’t suit the city fathers vision of a super modern, slick urban shopping space it had to go.
When Kate arrives we go out onto the strip to discover exactly how this area looks and feels now that the work is complete. We walk into the area through an arcade style entrance, shops lining the walkways that continue in the style of the strip, creamy, natural earthy colours of sandstone, laid in a crazy paving style.
My immediate reaction is yes very slick and modern in the style of the Ala Moana
Shopping mall, multi level open air shopping with restaurants on the upper levels.
Gone are the down to earth traders with colourful but shabby stalls and chaotic displays of merchandise in typical market style, replaced with big brand name chains with slick store fronts and minimalistic displays. Also up and coming brands 45r, Anthropologie, Greenroom, Aesop, and many more we have never heard of. The Banyon tree still takes centre place, with the second level providing a walkway right into a tree house, in reverence to an original structure.
Walking further into the centre there is a quiet reflective park with artificial grass, and rounded boulders for seating. Children splash through a shallow circle of water filled from bubbling stars that replicate the night sky that the Hawaiians used to navigate by. The space is named Queens Park after Queen Emma, the wife of Kamehameha IV and mother of the last of the Kamehameha line, Prince Albert who died at age four. The land that the international market sits on is owned by the Queen Emma land company, the profits of which support the Queen Emma Medical centre the largest privately owned not for profit medical facility in Hawaii. Elevated Bronze statues of King Kamehameha IV, the young Prince Albert and Queen Emma also sit in this space, surrounded by tropical plantings and water features.
Another central space to the design is situated inside, with a spiralling series of planters that lead the eye up to a domed segmented glass circular skylight high above. A water shower consisting of single streams of water spaced evenly apart cascades down into a stream nearby.
The overall feel is in complete antithesis to its origins, peace and tranquillity the theme, replacing the noise and chaos of previous years. There are plenty of places with comfortable designer seating, where venerable older patrons sit snoozing away dreaming of the centres colourful past. One second floor balcony space on the second floor is lined with solid timber rocking chairs filled with shoppers just rocking away. Not a coin operated padded faux leather massage chair insight.
Back out into the Waikiki strip a steady stream of colourful people make their way this way and that in the early afternoon sunshine. Some with floppy hats, beach chairs strapped to their backs, or towels over a shoulder, or an inflatable water toy or ring firmly gripped in one hand. While we turn the corner to stroll back to the cool sanctuary of the Royal Hawaiian.
It is date night tonight, Amanda and I will have dinner alone at our favourite restaurant The Hua Tree. This is arguably the best point to watch the sun go down, situated as it is at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki looking back almost directly west across the bay. Part of the beach that the restaurant overlooks was commandeered just a few days ago by a rare endangered female Monk seal, where she then set about giving birth to a single pup, it will be interesting to see how she is doing when we are there.
Our cabby Jimmy arrives early and whisks us to the restaurant, we are a little too early and decide to unwind with a cocktail in the bar before dinner.
It’s not long before the hostess calls us to dinner and we are shown to a table situated along the familiar white balustraded wall separating the diners from the beach. The Hua Trees that over the years had grown to provide an extensive canopy over the dining area, have recently undergone significant pruning opening up the dinning area once again to the sunlight. Sun shades block the portion of the sky at exactly the right angle, to dilute the glaring sinking sun, without blocking the beach and ocean view. To our left a small crowd of people and animal protectionists stand watch over a makeshift fence that prevents unwitting beach goers from stumbling on mother and calf. All we can see from our vantage point is a long sandy looking lump that is a little darker than the surrounding sand. Mother is fast asleep, baby somewhere tucked in close to her body unseen.
We order our meals, again in sync, starting with slices of tomato topped with buffalo mozzarella on a lettuce leaf layered with fresh basil and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Then moving on to a seafood mixed grill of prawns, lobster tail and Mahi Mahi. Again the Kendall Jackson Chardonnay, goes great with this.
Meanwhile the shades protecting our eyes from the extreme glare are removed, the suns heat has dissipated and is now just an impotent fiery orange ball slowly sinking into the western tip of Oahu.
The corpulent Monk seal occasionally flaps a flipper but little else as baby stirs and fusses around its mother no doubt trying to find a way in to suckle. The seals small dark head appears over the mother silhouetted against the lighter sky and then ducks down again to continue the search.
All the time we continue enjoying our meals and wine as the sun once again shows off its fiery light.
The tide is coming in, mother moves cumbersomely further up the beach in lumbering caterpillar like movements then all is still again as darkness falls. The animal protectionists pack up their beach umbrellas and beach chairs for another day and head for their homes, no doubt to be back at daybreak tomorrow. We understand this routine will go on for four to six weeks or until mother and pup take to the sea to rejoin their group.
We stay awhile declining dessert, finishing our wine and enjoying the cool night air as the gas torches flicker along the beach wall. Eventually though it’s time to summon Jimmy the cabbie and return home to the Royal Hawaiian, to recharge for our final day on the islands tomorrow.
