Go figure, your RovingRaconteurs have been on this planet over ¾ of a century and never, ever, not even once, thought about the geographical regions of the earth!!! And yet, here we are, right now, exploring Oceania- the one and only geographical region that is a coalition of 4 island groups. Oceania, located in the Southern Pacific, is described in many parts of the non-English-speaking world as a continent (and Australia is viewed by them as an island nation contained within the “continent” of Oceania). This grouping is comprised of Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.
We have begun our exploration at the Northern edge of Polynesia.
Our first port-of-call: Honolulu, Hawaii. Now, although Hawaii is in the North Pacific, it is considered part of the South Sea Islands because of proximity. The indigenous people inhabiting Polynesia have language, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs in common. They are famous for using the stars to navigate by night. Their history goes back to 3000BC, and they are credited with the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia.
Hawaii is the last state to enter the United States of America (August 21, 1959). It is the most western of the United States (about 2,000 miles off the coast); and is the only state outside North America, the only state in the Tropics, and the only state that is an archipelago. There are 137 volcanic islands comprising the Hawaiian archipelago. There are 8 main islands (Ni’ihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kaho’olawe, Maui, and Hawai’i). The uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands make up most of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (the largest protected area in the U.S. and the fourth largest in the world.)
This is hardly our first visit to Hawaii; we have enjoyed many interludes in these islands. We also had the privilege to live here for 4 years (in the service of the US Air Force) in the early 1970s!!! We refer to our time here as our stint in Paradise and we have posted several articles about Hawaii (you can search for them in the archives.)
On this visit, we chose to revisit 2 of the many sites unique to Hawaii: the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, and Volcanoes National Park on the “Big Island” of Hawaii.
The photos will tell the story:
Upon arrival in Honolulu, we quickly hailed a cab to Pearl Harbor. We had booked the USS Arizona tour in advance and arrived on scene, on time. The tour began with a film of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.The film does not duplicate well as a photo so we will only show one still shot. But we do want to mention that this is a very moving and emotional film. Twenty-one ships were sunk that day. Amazingly, 18 of those 21 ships were raised, refurbished, and put back into service!!!Following the film, we boarded the tender out to the memorial.The USS Arizona Memorial was, fittingly, dedicated on Memorial Day, 1962. However, the flag had been authorized to fly, proudly, over the sunken vessel on March 7, 1950.The USS Arizona was never raised. She remains in the sea and is the tomb of those who perished that day.Their names are etched on the wall of honor.Survivors of that day who have since passed away, have also been interred here with their former shipmates.Parts of the ship are still visible.On the completion of our tour, we roamed the grounds and came across this sign. Nice!!!
We also came upon The Lone Sailor, sculpted by Stanley Bleifeld.
The plaque attached to the statue is descriptve of all our men and women in military service!!!As sunset approached, we made our way to the Halekulani Hotel for our nostalgic and traditional cocktail hour (we had stayed here in the last days of our Hawaiian residency before sailing back to the mainland aboard the Mariposa in 1975.)While living in Hawaii, we would often have dinner at the Halekulani and listen to the beautiful Emma Veary sing.Emma is no longer there. But others carry on the tradition!!!So now, whenever we find ourselves in Honolulu, we will have a drink at the beautiful and historic Halekulani Hotel.And then, we returned to the ship for a good night’s sleep before heading out the next day for a little shopping at the Ala Moana Mall.The Ala Moana Mall is huge and just jam-packed with everything you can want!!!The shopping is extensive and there are many, many restaurants!!!There’s even entertainment!!!And then we returned to the ship and sailed-away to Hilo for our next day’s adventure!!!And adventure it was!!!We started out along the coastline.And then went to the interior for in-depth viewing.We viewed sink holes.Some were amazing–as is this one, with the road actually displaced into the depths!!!We toured for about an hour.We learned that fissures are forming that will some day, in the far future, cause large chunks of land to fall into the sea!!!We viewed craters.More sinkholes!!!Lots of cones.And then we returned to the airport where we could see our ship in the distance!!!The adventure is over.So we took a taxi into town and walked around Hilo.We did a little shopping.Viewed some wonderful old buildings before returning to the ship.And then we sailed away. We are no longer on our way to Fanning Island–the local officials had a manpower issue- so it was canceled. Instead, we will visit Kiribati and the island Kiritimati–once known as Christmas Island. New to us. Should be fun!
Now, we are once again enjoying sea days as we travel to the next grouping: Micronesia. We will explore the Republic of Kiribati famous for its seabird wildlife, flyfishing, and scuba diving. This will be our first visit and we look forward to sharing it with you!!
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