So after my relaxing cup of tea I set out to my island circumnavigation.
I wanted to make the most of the day with my Mustang and drove south along the coast towards Honolulu.
It wasn't too hard to find my way to Pearl Harbour where I wanted to see the memorials of the USS Arizona and just get an idea of what has happened here to make the US join World War II on that fateful day.
To get to the visitor centre I had to drive a couple of industrial and harbourlike roads towards a relatively small parking lot near the bay from where you can see Ford Island, the place where most of the US pacific fleet was lying at anchor on December 7th 1941.
The entrance to the general Pearl Harbour Visitor centre is free but then there are four major tours you can book and each of them is not cheap.
You can also get a combi ticket (65$) to do all the things but this would really require you to stay a full day (at least).
The four things to see you can choose from are: USS Missouri - battle ship, USS Bowfish - submarine, Aviation Museum, USS Arizona Memorial
I would have loved to spend an entire day around these interesting museums but decided to only do the thing I can only do here:
Visit the USS Arizona Memorial - known from plenty of films and TV series.
The board said this ticket was 7.50 $ and I was fine with that but it turned out to even be free.
Only issue was that my ticket was valid for a tour (you have to take a boat to the memorial) in 2 and a half hours.
So how did I spent the time waiting for this? Exactly I ended up buying a ticket for one of the museums.
The Submarine USS Bowfish was the only one that was on the main island and I didn't have to take a bus to Ford Island, so I decided to check out that one.
The entire Pearl Harbour Museum area (or at least the parts that I have seen) were very open and surprisingly had no security checks and some of the exhibition halls were free and some memorials commemorated all navy personal that had served and not returned.
It was done very well. A good bit of American Patriotism but it did show all sides of the war and some of the political, economical and cultural backgrounds of why and how things had happened in the Pacific War theater.
Before going on board of the submarine I walked through a good and informative museum about submarine history and technology.
Outside were examples of bombs, torpedoes, rescue chambers and a submarine command post/bridge including periscopes to try.
The Submarine had a free audio tour that was done very well and had the option to listen to informative audio samples for kids (201 - 213) and for adults (101 - 113). Both of which were interesting in their own right.
Soon it was time to head over to the theatre and assemble for the boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial but I still had some time to catch two more small (free) exhibitions in another corner of the visitor centre.
Now ready for the visit of the memorial we all got led by a navy officer into a theatre to watch a well done movie which was quite emotional and only a small bit patriotic (even explained the Japanese point of view in small detail).
Then out onto the boat in the hot Hawaiian Sun, the Navy sergeants snow white uniform blinding our eyes, and set out into the actual pearl harbour.
The frequency of this boat transit was worked out perfectly, when we left the shore, the other boat at the memorial just left as well, we passed each other and arrived at the floating white bridge that is set up across the remains of the wreck of the ship that has been sitting here at the bottom of the harbour basin for the last 74 years.
When we got there and got off, the people who were there go on and the cycle continued the entire day.
The memorial was created by an Austrian architect who had fled Europe. It symbolises a defeat sagging through in the middle and standing strong symbolising final victory at the ends.
Not very good for the environment but certainly symbolic is the fact that there is still oil draining from the ship wreck into the harbour, but this does not stop any fish from calling this place their new home. The water is very clear still and the small colourful fish were very calming and probably symbolized a new peaceful beginning.
Back on the main Island I had time to visit one more exhibition before I set out to complete my quest of driving around the entire Island of Oahu.
To do this I had to drive straight through Honolulu... the Highway became wider and much more busy. Now there were 6 lanes (in each direction) and I was glad when I was out of the city and could drive up the curvy east coast road.
Lovely views of high steep, lushly, green overgrown volcanic cliffs offered themselves to my eyes and it was a very enjoyable drive with the rock station still throwing out great tunes until I got stuck in traffic together with all the workers that now left downtown Honolulu to return home.
It took probably an hour to do 5 or 10 miles but I just arrived on time at my next destination: The Byodo-In Temple that I had known from an Magnum episode.
It looked really cool in the TV show, so I wanted to check it out for myself now.
I arrived at the gate house at 16:40 and had only 20 minutes to see the entire temple. Judging by the shots from the Magnum Episode this was a hard task but it actually was a pretty small place.
Magnum needed a couple of minutes to chase a guy through the temple and finally get him, while I only needed 3 or 4 minutes in a leisurely pace to see the entire temple and take some photos.
However it was a beautiful and peaceful place, set in a lovely green valley, which was nice after the honking and stop and go of the traffic jam.
Now it was time to complete the looong and enjoyable trip around the island. I drove through many small villages and along lovely beaches, picked up a fresh tomato at a pretty dodgy little supermarket - but a burger without a tomato is not a burger - so I needed one.
It was just 7 pm when I arrived back home and made my burger on the BBQ again.
I packed my bags and booked a B&B for the first night in Panama City.
Later at night Matt tried to convert me into a good Christian. He told me he was travelling to Canada to open his own church together with Brody and he was very Christian. I was not sure if should take him serious because he was this type of guy who could easily take the piss but I guess he was quite serious.
It was an interesting chat but he didn't quite change my mind about religion. These kind of encounters are also part of travelling though. - a bit freaky I think they are still good guys :-)
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