The Hawaiians - Polynesian Cultural Center (courtesy Sarah and Richard Chell)

We arrived at Oahu International Airport in the early evening. Oahu is the most populated of the Hawaiian Island and actually has 75% of the total population of the Island group, with about 1,000,000 people. As it was already dark, our initial impression of the city of Honolulu was that it was very like Hong Kong, mainly high rise apartments and skyscrapers densely packed into the costal plains between the mountains and the sea. In order to reach our accommodation, which was a Youth Hostel, we took a shuttle bus to Waikiki, which was $6 and would drop you off at the door. As the journey progressed we began to feel more and more uncomfortable, because the driver would announce each destination volubly with a great flourish. It turned out that the rest of the passengers were staying at places like the Sheraton, The Hilton, The Marriott, the Hyatt etc, etc. We started to dread a public announcement of our own humble abode and had visions of his calling out "slum, slum" or "cheap, cheap". Fortunately we were spared this public humiliation, as we were the last passengers to get off the bus. Phew!

Having been conditioned by the obvious comfort and luxury of the hotels en route, we were not in the best frame of mind to appreciate the benefits of our own choice. Initially we suspected we might have made an error, when the first room we were given did not seem to be in the best state of repair, and had a constant high pitched whine, which appeared to be emanating from the plumbing system. It reminded Richard of an interrogation facility for the CIA. However, a quick word with the manager and we were given a very reasonable room, which was basic, but clean and comfortable with en suite facilities. Over the next few days we discovered that there were a number of advantages to our location in terms of being very close to the beaches and the centre of town, and we were only paying $49 a night not $350.

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Hawaiian Howlers        (courtesy David and Mary Rich)

Sumo Wrestlers' Bikinis...

On the Big Island there is a Heritage Park featuring a native Hawaiian in a sumo sash carving a longboat bowsprit, picturesque "totems", ancient shell-games and temples, a place of sanctuary on the edge of a perfect lagoon.

The weather on this day ranged from gorgeous sunshine on the mountain top observatories to torrential rain that filled road dips with water higher than hubcaps a few miles from the howler statues; multi seasons for the price of one.

If you would like to see more of David and Mary's amazing photos, please visit their travel homepage.

Geocache (courtesy Siobhan Cowen)

If you haven’t already heard about it, geocaching is a fantastic new game you can play while traveling the globe. It is a “treasure-hunting” game that is played with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and other navigational methods in which “caches” (containers normally filled with trinkets) are hidden and searched out in over 220 countries around the world. The underlying idea behind Geocaching is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the planet, they then share coordinates of the caches on the internet. This allows participants with GPS devices to use the online location coordinates to seek out the hidden caches. Once located, the cache may contain an array of rewards for the finder. It is generally expected that if the visitor takes something from the cache they should try to leave something in return for the next treasure hunter.

So what exactly are these “geocaches”? They actually vary quite greatly. They range from “microcaches” such as a film container to large storage bins. I had also mentioned rewards and trinkets are found inside these caches. Typically the items found inside the caches are not worth a lot of money, but may have other value to the finder. Most caches will include a logbook so visitors can write down some basic personal information. Then prizes may include books, CDs, small toys, coins, or buttons. Also sometimes found in these caches are items that can be moved from cache to cache and logged online; these are called geocoins or travel bugs and have a unique identifiable number on them. On occasion caches contain items of a higher monetary value; these are reserved for caches in locations that are difficult to reach or for the first finder.

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