The morning after

Last night when we went to bed, the roads on the RV resort were covered in snow and big fat flakes were still coming down.

By the time we woke up this morning the roads were clear, the sun was out and we had some lovely snowy views of the Catalina

 

and Rincon Mountains.

Have fun, we are!

It's snowing!

We're back in the Old Pueblo and overnight the sunshine and warm weather simply disappeared, if anyone finds it could they please return it as soon as possible!   Please!

Hanauma Bay Marine Preserve

Simply gorgeous!

 

It’s not far from Waikiki to Hanauma Bay but it took us longer to drive there than we thought, when we left the hotel after breakfast our concierge told us we’d be lucky to find parking.   I guess we were lucky that day as there was plenty of parking when we arrived.

After paying our entrance fee we watched the obligatory film about the marine preserve, basically, no touching the reef or the fish, take nothing and absolutely no litter.   Once you’ve watched the film you can sign the register and then you don’t have to watch it again for another 12 months.

There is a paved road down to the beach, you can either walk or take the tram we decided to take the tram.

It’s a very popular spot, you can hire snorkel equipment, take snorkel and dive lessons.   There’s a spot called the Witch’s Brew and serious divers can head out through a slot in the reef into the deep waters of the bay from there they can see coral gardens, turtles and sometimes even sharks.  

DB doesn’t swim and I’m not a strong swimmer so I just enjoyed myself floating about inside the reef enjoying the water.

We had a fabulous day and just didn’t want to leave. 

This was our first trip to Oahu and the Hawaiian Islands, so what did we think, would we go again?   Absolutely! 

Even though we saw a lot of Oahu there’s lots more to see, we’d love to go back, but on our next trip to the Islands maybe we’ll head for the Big Island.  

Have fun, we are!

Cannonballs & Temples

Not far from Chinatown, across a busy main road, (thank goodness for pedestrian crossings!) there is a beautiful Buddhist Temple

 

Inside the temple

 

And just past that is the entrance to Foster Botanical Gardens. The 14 acre gardens are home to some giant trees planted in the 1850’s on land leased from Queen Emma. The gardens are also home to some exotic and endangered species from around the world.

Royal Palms

There is a lovely little gazebo near the Royal Palms

 

I think this is a Queen Emma lily.

 

These red powder puff flowers are really cute.

 

This is the intriguingly named Sausage Tree, although I’m not at all sure I’d want to eat it.

And this is a cannon ball from the cannon ball tree, they weigh a ton, well maybe not literally, but you definitely wouldn’t want to be underneath when one fell from the tree.  The flowers are very pretty though.

Cannon balls cover the trunk of the tree and broken ones litter the ground underneath, needless to say there are lots of warning signs around here.

The fruit on the Buddha’s-Hand Citron tree is a really unusual shape although it’s a citron I’m not sure if you can actually eat it.

It was a lovely day the day we visited and we almost went to the beach rather than heading into Honolulu, but we’re glad we did as it’s a lovely place and we really enjoyed our visit.

 

Have fun, we are!