Last Day in Paradise

Joshua performing

We had the reception at Rick and Nancy's place last night, with catered food and drinks. After dinner Joshua, accompanied by Luke, reprised his wedding song to Sam, plus a handful of his other songs.

Later on in the evening the die-hard partiers got into dancing and loud music, so we called it a night and went home to get an (somewhat) earlier night.

St Regis Resort

Today we slept in after the big day of the wedding. We had a leisurely breakfast of pancakes, fruit, fruit salad and cereal. Ros did some washing as it is the last chance to do so before we get back to Oz, then it was off to nearby Princeville to have lunch with all the wedding guests at the luxurious St Regis Resort. The views were breathtaking, with multiple infinity pools all leading out to the stunning view of the nearby mountains and beach. Even if you sat with your back to the view it was reflected in the cleverly placed windows behind it.

Rick at head of table of guests

A sumptuous lunch was had by all before the inevitable goodbyes to all and sundry, with much hugging, kissing and photograph taking.

The boys and Gill all left to go to a music store to buy a ukelele (for who I have yet to determine), so Ros and I left to go home. We stopped in nearby Hanalei for stamps and to sample the island's favourite treat - Shave Ice. It's sort of like a slushie but with the ice finely shaved by a special machine and saturated in your syrup of choice. I had a Hanalei Bomb which was passionfruit, lime and mango on top of macadamia icecream. Delicious.

On the way home, it dawned on us we didn't have a key to get back into the place, as we had lost ours the previous night at Rick's while letting of the remainder of the fireworks we still had. So we went back to Rick and Nancy's place and after a short search located the errant key and came home. Right now we are packing for the trip home as we have to get up at 4am tomorrow morning to catch the connecting flight to Honolulu. Then it is the long haul home again, thankfully this time only 10 hours from Honolulu to Sydney then 5 hours home after a 2 hour layover in Sydney. As we cross the International Date Line on the way over, we gain a day and arrive on Sunday night. See you all soon!

Wedding in Paradise

The show South Pacific was an excellent production with some powerful voices, especially the gentleman who played the French plantationist Emile DeBeque. The food was also delicious.

We had a late night prior to the wedding day as Josh stayed up late (3.30am) making the pavlova for the wedding cake. Ros and I didn't get to sleep until around 1.30am due to the sound of the beater going non-stop.

The setting

Proud Dad & bride

The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear but a little windy as you will see from the photos. After much initial preparation we arrived on the beach for the wedding. It was an ordeal for Michelle who is still recovering from a broken ankle 8 weeks ago, and it was very painful for her to walk on the sand.



We all formed an aisle and Sam's father Rick proudly escorted his daughter down to the ceremony.

Joshua serenading his bride

Joshua performed a song he had written specially for his bride, which was very moving, especially for Sam.

Exchanging rings

The female celebrant gave a beautiful service with a traditional Hawaiian blessing of the rings, before pronouncing them man and wife.

The kiss!

The marriage was sealed with a kiss to the sound of the roaring waves with Bali H'ai in the background. I don't think you could have got a more magical setting for a wedding.

Groom's family

Then it was time for the congratulations and obligatory family photos before Josh picked up Sam and waded into the sea for a ceremonial dunking!

Getting wet in paradise

After that we made the long trek back to the cars, and had some difficult reversing to do to get back along the narrow track to the road.

We returned to our house for drinks and the unveiling of the wedding cake that Joshua had spent many hours the previous night creating. Both fathers, Gill and Rick made moving speeches before Joshua gave an unforgettable speech of his own which brought tears to his bride and probably to most of the audience too.

Paradise wedding cake

Flying around Paradise

Eco-blue helicopter

Gill, Ela, Ros and myself rose early this morning and we were on the road by 7.15 am to drive to Lihue for our Helicopter tour of Kaua'i. After arriving and being kitted out with a life-jacket and having watched the mandatory safety video, we were shuttled out to Lihue Airport to board our aircraft. Blue Hawaiian Tours use the new Eco-Blue helicopter, which can seat 7 passengers plus the pilot, with very good views for most of the passengers. Unfortunately we are all seated according to weight, so I scored the middle back seat with the worst view. Gill and Ela scored the prized front seats with superb views!

Jurassic Falls

After a very smooth takeoff, I was on my very first helicopter ride. We all had noise-cancelling headsets which made it easier to listen to the pilot's commentary. As we took off, they played the theme music to Hawaii-5-0, most appropriate. Pretty soon we were zooming across the landscape at around 200km/hr and seeing all the varied and interesting landscapes unrolling before us. The pilot (Steve by the way) then steered us to Manawaiopuna Falls, but more famously known as Jurassic Falls, as this is where Steven Spielberg filmed his famous helicopter waterfall descent in his film, Jurassic Park. They built a helipad at the bottom of the falls just for the movie and dismantled it afterwards. Needless to say, the music was the theme from Jurassic Park.

Waimea Canyon

After that we flew to a destination we had visited yesterday by car, Waimea Canyon, better known as "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific". We could see much more via helicopter than we could ever see by car. The canyon is 10 miles long, 2 miles wide and 4,300 feet at its deepest point. Today the mist that we had experienced yesterday was gone and everything was crystal clear. I had booked this tour 4 months ago and 12,000 miles away and still managed to jag perfect weather. Even Mount Wai'ale'ale, the tallest mountain on Kaua'i, which is usually shrouded in cloud, was perfectly clear and the pilot took us to the very top, something he can rarely do as the mountain receives over 11 metres of rain per year, or 470 inches! It is literally is the wettest place on Earth!

Na Pali coastline

After the wonders of Waimea Canyon it was off to the north-west of the island to the Na Pali coast, inaccessible except by boat, helicopter or hiking. National Geographic declared it the most spectacular coastline it has ever photographed and I would have to agree with them. Apparently an ancient civilisation, dating back to the 6th century AD, used to live here and you can still see the walls they built to create terraces to grow crops on. Unfortunately, due to my position in the helicopter, I was unable to secure a picture of them, but I did see them, believe me.

Mt Wai'ale'ale crater

Finally we turned inland to Mt Wai'ale'ale, a dormant volcano which created the island of Kaua'i millenia ago during its eruptions. We descended into the crater, again only accessible by helicopter, and it was a verdant green due to the aforementioned 470 inches of average rainfall it receives annually. Even the walls are carpeted in green vegetation, such is the amount of water it receives.

All too soon it was all over and we were heading back to Lihue Airport for a smooth landing and obligatory photos posed in front of the helicopter. A magical experience indeed and I recommend that anyone who comes to Hawaii to visit Kaua'i and take the helicopter tour, it is worth every penny.

Tonight we are off to Kaua'i Beach Resort to see the musical South Pacific, which has been performed for many years here as the original film was filmed here.

Relaxing in Paradise

Fireworks

We met the bride's parents and sisters today, father Rick, mother Nancy and sisters Jill and Lexie, who are all delightful and easy to get on with. We all had dinner together at a restaurant the first night we arrived and we have had several more at each others houses. We discovered that fireworks are legal here on Kaua'i, so we bought a heap of them to let off on New Year's Eve. While they were colourful and fun, they are not nearly as good as the ones I remember from my youth when they were legal in Australia.

Setting for Bali H'ai

Kaua'i is the northern-most of the Hawaiian Islands, and the prettiest as far as I am concerned. It has stunning scenery unlike anything else on earth that I have seen. Because the island is volcanic, it has amazing volcanic structures like sheer cliffs at the back of beautiful beaches, waterfalls, canyons and rugged inaccessible coastline to name a few. For those of you who are fans of the film South Pacific, it was filmed here and the shots of Bali H'ai were taken just a few miles from where we are staying. The picture above is also the beach that Joshua and Samantha are to be married on.

Waimea Canyon

On Monday we all piled into our cars and circumnavigated the island. We are staying at the most north-westerly point you can get to by car and we drove right around to the western part of the island to where the road stops again. We made the long climb up to Waimea Canyon, also known as "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific" because of its striking resemblance to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Unfortunately it was very misty so the picture to the right is not very clear.

Feral chooks!

Spectacular views from up there. We also have noticed that the island is populated with what we would call domestic chickens. It seems that when they were being introduced to the island a few escaped and the crate of mongeese that was supposed to keep them under control was accidentally dropped in the water! Anyway they fend for themselves and we are advised not to feed them. Technically they are a pest, but no-one has the heart to get rid of them, so they are part of the unique heritage of Kaua'i.

Wailua Falls

It was time for the long trek back to our houses, so after having lunch in Waimea, we did the long drive home. Although the island is only 30 miles across, the roads are very narrow and winding, there's a lot of traffic and the maximum speed limit is 50 mph (80 kph), so it took us over 2 hours to get home. We did stop off on the way to see the magnificent Wailua Falls. Tomorrow Ros, Gill, Ela and myself are taking a helicopter tour of the island. Looking forward to that.

Honolulu and Pearl Harbour

We arrived in Honolulu around 8.30pm Thursday local time (Hawaii is 18 hours behind Perth time) and caught the shuttle bus to our hotel which is right next to the airport. Because we had an early start in the morning to tour Pearl Harbour we just caught up on emails and news then went to bed early as we had lost 2 hours in the flight over from L.A.

USS Arizona Memorial

Next morning we were picked up from the hotel for the Pearl Harbour tour. Our tour guide was Dennis and he was quite informative, giving us a very good narrative of the events leading up the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941. By this time we had arrived at Pearl Harbour and were allowed to look around the museums and other interesting displays until 10.30 when we were all shepherded into a movie theatre which told us of the story of the attack, which was quite moving. Over 2400 people were killed in the two hours of the attack. After the movie we boarded a boat to take us over to the USS Arizona Memorial. The Arizona, an armour-plated battleship, was hit with an armour-piercing shell on its foredeck that penetrated to her armoury which blew up catastrophically, sinking the ship in minutes, killing or trapping most of her crew below deck. Attempts to recover her crew were unsuccessful as it was too dangerous to the rescuers, so over 900 of her crew remain entombed in the wreck.

Touring the memorial was quite poignant, and below the list of the people killed when the Arizona sunk was the list of survivors who had their ashes interred on the site when they finally died. The Arizona had a full load of diesel and to this day, it leaks slowly out of the tanks, 70 years after it sank. People refer to it as "the tears of the Arizona". It makes a colourful rainbow pattern on the water below the memorial.

The three ships that were sunk during the raid, the Arizona, the Oklahoma and the Utah remain where they sank to this day.

Hotdog

For lunch we had traditional American hotdogs, which were delicious. After lunch we caught the bus over to Ford Island to see the USS Missouri, the second-last battleship built and the last to see service with the US Navy. It saw service up until the end of WWII, then was retired. It came back into service during the Korean War after which it was retired from service again. During the Reagan administration it was restored to service and last saw action in the Gulf War before being retired again for the last time. Thirteen years ago it was sailed to Pearl Harbour to become a permanent museum.

USS Missouri

The Missouri is famous for two events, the most historical being the ending of World War II on its deck, when the Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender on the now aptly named "Surrender Deck" on September 2nd 1945 in Tokyo Harbour. The other event was in 1982 when Cher recorded her Turn Back Time video on her decks, wearing little more than a body stocking and some strategically applied tape!

Surrender plaque

After touring "Mighty Mo", as she is affectionately called, we caught a taxi back to our hotel to collect our luggage and get to the airport for our flight to Kaua'i. Josh asked us to carry two baking trays and an electric mixer as his luggage was overweight. Unfortunately it made our luggage overweight and Hawaiian Airlines charged us $70 for it! Not happy Jan! The flight was just over 30 minutes and uneventful.

We were met at the airport by all the crew, Caleb, Cath, Zephan, Josh, Sam, Gill and Ela. We collected our hire car and did some shopping then drove the hour up to our rental home. Driving at night, along narrow roads, on the wrong side of the road and me on the wrong side of the car made for a challenging drive. Fortunately I could follow Josh in the lead car so I didn't have to worry about navigation.

Wainihi Palms

The house is amazing! It's huge and will sleep 6 comfortably. It is up on high columns because a tsunami went through the area in the 90's and regulations now stipulate all houses to be raised up because of it. The surrounding jungle is even taller than the house, and is lush and green with beautiful flowers. Certainly a home in paradise.

Post Christmas in LA

Hi once again, sorry for the long delays between updates, so much to do and so little time to do it in. Poor Michelle started feeling ill on Christmas Day and is now bedridden with a full-blown cold, so on Monday Ros and I went to Ross's to do some clothes shopping. I managed to get a Calvin Klein sports jacket for $60, knocked down from over $200, plus several pairs of trousers, belts and socks. All were a fraction of the price we pay for clothes in Perth.

Tuesday we just relaxed, did some washing and walked around the Grove shopping centre nearby, where Ros bought some gifts for Michelle and Luke for letting us stay with them.

Luke, Ken & Ros in new office

Wednesday, Josh took us to Luke's new workplace, run by Ken Rich. They have moved out of Ken's garage as the business had grown too large for it to accommodate them. Josh also works there, handling the webpage and online ordering system. The new office is an ex-studio and the sound-proofing works well when the wood-working tools are in use! Ken bought us all pizza for lunch.

Needs no caption

It was then time for Ros and I to take our lives in my hands as I borrowed Samantha's car and drove several miles to Fry's Electronics store, the biggest computer and electronics store I have ever laid eyes on. The entrance has a huge make-believe flying saucer that appears to have crashed into the building forming an effective foyer to the place. We bought some noise-cancelling headsets there as we had managed to break both of ours on the long haul over here. I could have spent all day in there.

Thursday we flew to Hawaii - we had planned to go see a movie in a theatre near the airport, but Josh underestimated the time he needed to get all his travel arrangements in place and ended up picking us up an hour late, which left us with not enough time to watch the film before catching our plane. So we dropped him off at the airport and drove to the nearby Howard Hughes Centre and had a leisurely lunch there before dropping off Sam's car at long term parking and catching our flight to Hawaii.