Getting Ready for Hawaii

Hawaii is, of all the places I have traveled, one that is truly not over-rated and is in fact every bit as great as it is made out to be. My wife and I, along with another couple, are currently getting ready for an 11-day visit to the islands, which we will be splitting between Oahu and the "Big Island" of Hawaii itself.

We have been putting together a great itinerary of activities, and some of the most fun and exciting are the ones I have been discussing with fellow author and ghosthunter Lopaka Kapanui, head of the Mysteries of Honolulu tour company. Among other things, he will be taking us to a number of haunted sites of historical significance including an ancient sacrificial temple and a clifftop battlefield where some 5,000 people were driven into the sea. Lopaka is very knowledgable and a lot of fun to talk to and I can tell we are going to have a great time with him.


Other things I am hoping to do while on Oahu are visit Pearl Harbor and the Arizona memorial, which I have not yet managed to do on previous trips, and go back to the Diamondhead and Punchbowl volcanic craters (the former being a park and the latter a military cemetery, and a view of the stairway leading to the top of the latter shown here). My wife and her friend would also very much like to do a luau and at this point I am looking at Germaine's Luau, which has a pretty good reputation.


I have only been to the island of Hawaii itself one time, during a 13-day cruise my wife and I took on NCL's Norwegian Wind over the 2004-2005 holidays, whic h started in Oahu and went on to Hawaii/Big Island; two ports in Maui; Kuai; Fanning Island, Kiribati; Hawaii again; and then back to Oahu. Our excursion out to Volcano National Park was an amazing experience and it was incredible to be able to stand right next to live flowing lava. So, among the other things we do on the big island this time round, a return to the volcanic lava fields is a must.

Keep your eye on this site for more about our plans and then reports and pictures on what we do on the islands! And your own comments, suggestions, and feedback are certainly welcome.