Sunday, January 13, 2008: Hilo on Hawaii, the Big Island.
Bob: Being back on board a ship seemed to agree with me because I finally had a really good night's rest. Since we both enjoy watching our ship enter a new port of call, we popped out of bed at 6:00 a.m., threw on some clothes, and rushed on deck to watch the lights on the big island slide by on our starboard side. The staff opened the breakfast line already at 6:15, so we even ate outside on a part of the afterdeck that was adjacent to the buffet-style restaurant and equipped with tables and chairs. It was also equipped with a huge awning of very thick dacron or sailcloth, I think, and supported by enormous cables tied to sturdy stanchions. It was clearly a permanent structure rather than a temporary thing, and once we were enveloped in a sudden downpour and had to suddenly retreat under the awning I understood why. But we cruised back out into the sunshine and had a grand view of Mauna Kea, the smaller of the two major volcanic mountains on the island of Hawaii. Although we were in shorts and T-shirts because the air was so warm at sea level, the top of Mauna Kea was covered in snow! The morning sun lit the entire mountain in a deep reddish light and I naturally tried to capture that with the camera. Although the actual sunrise was obscured by clouds to the East, I could tell when the sun was coming up by the gradual increase in my shutter speeds from 1/5 of a second to 1/30 and then to 1/100 when dawn finally occurred, which was a curiously indirect way of sensing daybreak. |
Monika: We woke up just as it was getting light and you could see the lights of houses on Hawaii, the big Island, that was our next stop. Of course, I wanted to get up and out to see us sailing into Hilo. When we got up on deck, the sun was just rising. We were just passing Mona Kea, and although there were clouds in the east where the sun was rising, the sun was bathing the eastern face of Mona Kea in a golden glow. It was "Alpenglueh" in the morning and it was a gorgeous sight. Bob and I both tried our hand at getting a picture and hoping that at least one picture will convey the beauty of that moment. |
Bob: Retreating back to the cabin, we washed up, changed clothes, and worked on the computer bringing our journals up to date while we waited for some form of announcement that the gangway was ready for disembarkation. It never came! Around 9:00 we finally figured that the ship had to be docked and ready for people to disembark because we were, for heaven's sake, in another U.S. port after having sailed from a U.S. port, so it wasn't like we had to have the ship cleared by International Customs or anything like that. Our room steward had told us about free shuttles into Wal Mart or Hilo Hatties, and we decided to give that a whirl, which turned out to be a big mistake. The Wal Mart shuttle did, as advertised, let us off at Wal Mart, but my GPS showed me that the Wal Mart was even further from town than the ship dock had been! Nuts! After asking around, we crossed the street to a shopping center which supposedly had a free shuttle into the center of the city. Well, in fact it would have had on any day except a Sunday and we, of course, were there on a Sunday. Nuts again! In retrospect, the smart thing to do at that point would have been to cut our losses and get back on a free shuttle back to the ship, but that was only with 20-20 hindsight. Instead, I chose to walk into town to see the Liliuokalani Gardens and then back to the ship. Guided by my GPS, we did find the gardens without a hitch, but the road in was long, hot, dry, and dusty. Walking was complicated by the fact that the good citizens of Hilo do not seem to believe in sidewalks on non-arterial streets so we ended up walking on the shoulder of the road, which is never an enjoyable experience. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find what looked like a small Buddhist temple along our route that had a pretty, serene courtyard, but we might have seen more things had we taken other possible routes. That is a big problem when you are freelancing a route in a strange city, and it is one of the reasons we prefer to take Volksmarches organized by local folks wherever possible. |
Monika: We docked in Hilo about 8. Curiously, there was no announcement that we had docked, or were we could disembark. On ALL other ships we had been on, that had been Standard Operating Procedure, so we were very surprised that we had to look around for the gangplank. Our stewardess told us that there was a free shuttle to a Wal-Mart and a Hilo Hattie store. Bob hoped that from there we would find a bus to the downtown area. So we took the shuttle to the Wal-Mart, which was part of a larger shopping mall. We found the bus stop at one of the entrances to the shopping mall, but no bus. Bob finally went in to the information desk and found out, that buses do not run on Sundays. Our options now were to take a shuttle back to the ship and walk to town, or just walk. Bob had the GPS so we headed in the general direction of the downtown area. The area right around the mall was mainly occupied by car dealerships. But once we got a little farther we walked through a nice little residential area with lots of beautiful flowers. We also passed a very interesting little church or temple, but no sign or explanation. |
Bob: Once in the Liliuokalani Gardens, we had a great time. The gardens consist of beautifully landscaped grounds surrounding gracefully shaped ponds with Japanese style connecting bridges, old stone lamps, and even a rock garden. Besides being picturesque, the total effect was very serene and calming. We particularly appreciated that after the noise and pollution we experienced while walking along the shoulder of a busy road. From the gardens we followed Banyan Street, aptly named as it had many large Banyan trees dating from the 1930s along both edges, around a small inlet and then turned left to walk the last kilometer back to the Pride of Aloha. I was hungry as a bear so we had lunch first and then retreated back to our cabin. I took a nap while Monika went back off the ship to find a reasonably-priced bottle of beer. |
Monika: Once we got to the sea, we were at the entrance to the Liliuokalani Gardens, a park with several small connected lakes. A path wound its way across several bridges. All of these bridges were built in different styles. One of the crossings was only stones one had to jump, so took the opportunity to take a picture of "Bob On A Rock--Hawaiian Style". The whole park had a relaxing, Zenlike atmosphere and was very pleasant. From the park, we walked back to the ship, since it was time for lunch. We passed a lagoon, where we had an unobstructed view of the ship. Great for picture taking. The ship is very pretty, with pictures of Hawaiian flowers painted on the bow. When we got back to the ship, we had to be hand searched since the ship did not have a metal detector. After lunch we read the books, we had gotten from the library. When Bob laid down for a nap, I decided a little alcohol might be in order. Of course, I did not want to pay ship's prices, so I went off the ship to a little market I had seen. I purchased a bottle of beer I liked from New Zealand, and was ready to drink it before going back on board. But there was a catch. New Zealand beer bottles do not have screw off tops. The lady at the store was not willing to open the bottle ("its against the law"). So what to do. I could, of course, call Bob and ask him to come down with a bottle opener. But he was having a nice little nap, and I thought it was unfair to disturb him. So I just said to myself (said I): "If you can't drink it now, you always can drink it later." And indeed when I got back to the security stop, they confiscated my poor little bottle and handed me a receipt. I would get the bottle back at the end of the cruise.... I am looking forward to it! |
Bob: We both dressed up a bit to have dinner at the Crossroads Restaurant on Deck 5 aft. Service was slow but we had a great view of Hilo Bay as we ate. We walked on deck afterwards as our ship departed, and it was canted over quite noticeably at one point, at least 3 to 5 degrees of list. Being a pilot, I'm exquisitely sensitive to things not being level, and since we were still in the harbor and the waters were perfectly calm, I was disturbed to see the ship listing so noticeably. The Captain of this ship never communicated with the passengers at all, but we were later told by the emcee for the nightly entertainment that the ship had to struggle to get out of Hilo's port against contrary winds. I had been watching a tugboat tied alongside our ship that helped us make it out of the harbor, and my best guess is that at some point that tugboat had to shove our ship laterally against the wind and/or current, and that was what caused our ship to tilt over a bit. Still, I found out that listing without explanation on a ship, just like banking without any good reason on an airplane, set alarm bells ringing in my head. Curiously enough, not one of the other passengers seemed to notice anything amiss or to think that listing over in calm waters could conceivably be a "Bad Thing" as Ron Machado once put it in the aviation context. But at last we were underway and the lights of Hilo slid astern into the night. Our evening entertainment was a juggler/comic, and I almost didn't go, but in the end he turned out to be both a very accomplished juggler, which was impressive in a physical sense, and a reasonably good comedian, which really made it enjoyable. The Pride of Aloha on our trip had the juggler, a magician, a comedian, and a Neil Diamond imitator (singer) as their single-person "headliner" acts. Additionally, the Hawaiian song and dance group plus some one group performing Broadway material rounded out the evening entertainment offerings. And that was it for the evening. |
Monika: For dinner we decided to try one of the restaurants. Norwegian Cruise Line promotes what they call "Freestyle Dining". Meaning no set time or tablemates for dinner. We noticed, however, that instead you got long lines if you did not get to the restaurant right when it opened. Since we did get there about five minutes after opening and got a nice table for two next to a window. So we had a very nice dinner. Evening entertainment was a juggler who was ok and also quite funny so we did enjoy ourselves. |
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