Hawaii (2nd-17th/05/2009)

2nd May - We walked round Waikiki and explored the market place and beach area

3rd May - We visited Pearl Harbor on the bus and saw the USS Arizona memorial. It's really cool because you can see the outline of the whole sunken wreck beneath you. It's huge so some of it pokes out of the water. There's still loads of oil seeping out of it into the ocean, after like 50 years.

4th May - We climbed up Diamond Head volcanic crater to admire the views

5th May - We visited the Foster Botanical Gardens just outside China Town. We tried to find the other gardens which was supposed to be right next to it but just ended up walking round for ages before heading back!

6th May - We hiked to Manoa Falls through a jungle trail in Manoa Valley (apparently there are no snakes in Hawaii at all, which is always reassuring!) We tried a Hawaiian 'Puka Dog' for dinner. Really weird. I had a vegetarian one with garlic and lemon dressing and banana salsa stuff and Frankie had garlic and lemon with chilli and mango salsa. Wouldn't have another one but least we tried it...

7th May - We spent the day on the beach. We tried lemon iced tea because its what everyone seems to drink out here. Decided it was rank.

8th May - We went sightseeing in Waikiki and Ala Moana looking at all the 'Lost' film locations! At night we watched the fireworks show on the beach and a hula dance.

9th May - We went snorkelling in Hanauma Bay. Cost $5 each to get in and we had to watch a cheesy american video about the sealife. The water was freezing though and it was quite a long journey back so we only stayed for a couple of hours. We saw some really cool fish though. We had a Dominos for dinner but Frankie was still hungry afterwards :( We both agreed it was smaller than normal larges!

10th May - Chilled on the beach. Got 'Angels and Demons' book. Got some fresh melon and papya for lunch (papya is now one of our favourite fruits). Had a hostel BBQ for dinner and sat round chatting to a few people for a bit before going to bed after getting freaked out by surrounding cockroaches looking for food!

11th May - North Shore - took two buses to get there and we missed out stop for waimea Bay but ended up at Sunset Beach but it was beautiful anyway and we were glad we stopped there. We stayed there for a few hours, but the water got deep quickly and there was rocks further out - big waves - but it wasn't busy at all and looked kinda like the beaches in 'Lost' which was awesome.

12th May - Walked down to Market Place and shopped a bit (well I did) then we caught the bus to the north east shore (Kualoa Ranch). We went on a one hour horse ride which was more than enough time really. Frankie rode Ace and I rode Blackie. It was fantastic with amazing views. We had to ride Western style which was okay 'cause you just had to side there and relax (and hold on!) We got to see the setting for '50 First Dates' and the 'Lost' submarine explosion.

13th May - rented a surfboard from the hostel. Frankie was standing up straight away but i was rubbish and kept falling off or getting dragged under by the board. Did that for a couple of hours anyway (obviously I didnt stay out there that long because the other surfers were gonna run me down!!) We had a spicy swordfish salad for dinner but Frankie was still hungry so he got a macdonalds then we watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the hostel's movie night (it was good but the guy from 'Skins' was a bit of a poo actor)

14th May -got a couple of body boards and went down to the pier and sea wall. We caught my first wave together which was cool! had to rent flippers because without them my kick wasnt strong enough to catch waves! Had a frappecinno in starbucks for lunch. Later we sunbathed then at night we went down and got the 2nd Twilight book.

15th May - Did laundry (and saw a little mousey dying... it was sad) We needed lots of quarters and it didn't really clean our stuff amazingly well. Gay. Chilled at the hostel for a bit and looked into where we wanna go and what we wanna do in Fiji. Went to the net cafe and rushed to upload all our photos as quick as we could. 40 mins came to $6. Sat under rain clouds on the beach. Got some pizzas from supermarket and a raspberry vodka for Fiji because alcohol is apparently so expensive out there. I bought a new belly bar (which is all twisty and cool) because my other one was going a bit ranky

16th May - We went body boarding again which was awesome and we were catching loads of waves!! But then I snapped my body board in half when I'd caught a wave - i think it got stuck on a rock. its really rocky and shallow there. Frankie had to do it without flippers but I rented some again. Went food shopping, and treated ourselves to Ben and Jerry's cookie dough because it was on offer! (It wasn't expensive honestly!) Then I wrote alllllll this blog with Frankie reading me all the stuff we did from his diary.

Tomorrow we're leaving at 5am to catch our 8am flight to Fiji.

29th April - 1st May 2009 (Travelling from Mexico to Hawaii)

We left Meson De Tulum in Cancun at like 5am to catch an ADO shuttle to the airport for our flight at 9.05am. We were kinda glad to be leaving Mexico now after the swine flu pandemic thingy but it was a bit scary being all ccramped up on the plane. We changed in Houston then flew to San Diego.

When we got to San Diego (USA Hostels this time) we rushed out to get some money out to post our Mexican purchases home. But neither of our cards were working!! So Frankie rang his bank and got his card unblocked, and we were all happy and relieved that we could get money and send back our stuff! Now our bags are a bit lighter. We did laundry (which we really really needed to do) and a load of other boring chores and stuff before getting free beer and pizza at the hostel's 15th year birthday party.

We left to catch our Greyhound bus to LA at 8.30am and got there at about midday. We then caught 2 buses and the metro underground to the airport and finally got there at around 2.30 ish. It was a 6 hour flight to Hawaii from LA. We saw one poo poo film and they didnt FEED US!! We had one tiny dribble of drink and that was it. We were starving when we got to our Hawaii hostel at about 9pm. Don't fly with American Airlines...