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31st Oct 2005
Pearl Harbour and spooks on Big Island
Monday, 31st October, 2005
Bit of a dilemma how to do what we wanted to do this morning. Pearl Harbour was the intention but apparently the queues start forming at 6.30 … for a 7.00 opening. Bags (of any sort) are not an option – not even a camera case ! After a bit of debate we decided to taxi out to Pearl and from there get another to the airport later, taking all our bags with us.
Front desk Hawaiiana: “Hello would you please order us a taxi?”
“Taxi? Oh OK” five minutes later a white stretch limo turns up outside …
“Is that for us??!!!”
Off we went. “Where you want go?”
“Pearl harbour, please”
“Ahhh sooo”
“(Me) Is there anywhere where we can get a view over the Arizona?“
“(Him)Arizona ??”
“(Me)Never mind”.
“(Him)You want view?”
“(Me)Yes, exactly somewhere where we can see the whole thing”
“Ahhh Sooo. Diamond Head.”
“Errr OK” (Anne chips in a minute or two later, just as the car is hurtling down side streets and then whips past the entrance to the Hotel we left five minutes ago and says “why do you want to go to Diamond Head it’s the other way”
“WHAT !!”
“(me) Oi, where are you off to???
“(him) You said you want to go to Diamond Head for a view”
Discussion ensued with honourable oriental driver and after a bit more hurtling down side streets and another swing past the hotel we eventually started seeing signs for Pearl Harbour. We were dropped from our limo amidst a pile of rucksacks and camera bags alongside a 400m queue of large and profusely sweating Americans.
I left Anne in some shade and went to scout the possibilities. Bag check in was possible and yes, they would take luggage. Yes, it was possible to get to the book shop and you only had to queue to take the tour. Great stuff.
Checked all the luggage (including ‘all items offering concealment in this time of heightened security’) and then walked along the queue and wandered into the bookshop.
It strikes me that the Americans are only marginally better prepared for the daily onslaught of visitors than they were back in December, 1941. There is one restroom; inside the building and a permanent fifty yard queue outside it. There is no shelter for the waiting visitors and they stand, denuded of any ‘items of concealment’ for up to two hours before they are admitted to the dark and cool of the theatres. They are admitted in groups – into the theatre to see real live footage of the attack and then out and into an exhibit (while the next group are admitted to the theatres). They then queue for a launch to take them across the harbour in the brief shadow of the Missouri to the Arizona war grave (an average visit to the Arizona lasts for 13 minutes), back and out.
There are about 5000 visitors a day and as all the tour guides recommend that you turn up half an hour early and in the morning to avoid the heat and the queues … that’s exactly what everybody does … thankfully we didn’t see the matinee performance which is by all accounts worse still.
Anyway its difficult not to get swept along in the feel of the place which is decidedly sombre and emotional, in spite of the bright weather and Hawaiian shirts. We spent an hour or so in and around the building, mostly in the shade because it was BAKING hot. Given a week in Hawaii, I may have queued for the full tour, but frankly, its such an horrendous prospect and you can see the memorial and the location of ‘Battleship Row’ from the centre, its hardly worth the heatstroke and I don’t feel I’ve missed too much.
Easy transfer to the airport … well as easy as moving out of a highly secure military establishment with a load of bags and rucksacks can be … and we ensconced ourselves into Honoulu airport, hooked up to the net and ordered a Mai Tai.
After a 45 minute flight down to Big Island we collected our car and drove south to Kona and after a couple of phone calls, to the ‘On the Rocks’ bar to meet up with Betsy.
Betsy duly arrived, looking exactly as we remembered her and presented us with Leis – beautiful scented flower garlands; a symbol of welcome. We caught up with the news – sixteen years of it in our case – over a drink. The waves crashing around us on the rocks behind and the slightly surreal sight of the On the Rocks staff preparing for their Halloween extravaganza; all being dressed and made up.
Halloween is a big event in America and on the way to Betsy’s house we dropped by a friend who had laid on the most amazing Halloween show for the neighbourhood.
His garden was strewn with gravestones and skeletons, spooky music drifted from the house through speakers around the garden and smoke machines squirted their goods making a very eerie effect. Our host’s daughter and son-in-law were all part of the act as well, welcoming guests in the drive; she dressed as a fairy, he as a dismembered ghoul.
Visitors were bidden to enter the garden and creep past cobwebs and drifting smoke, lanterns and hanging skeletons. Up on to the deck and then walk the length of the deck, along the far side of the house. At the end, sitting in a sort of dark grotto, hung with spooky objects sat our host, in a huge black cape and with a rubber mask (losing between 5 and 10lbs as he told us) .
Most of the neighbourhood kids run the gauntlet of getting their hands into the cauldron of candy which he holds … but some are tool scared and daughter has to intervene and grab some candy on their behalf.. They take candy from the tub and everyone now and then he will grab an unsuspecting trick or treater.
On the way out, just as you thought the worst was behind you, someone touched you very lightly from a side door … that got the pulse beating I must say.
What an effort! (and what an expense!). No wonder he’s a legend in his own neighbourhood at Halloween.
From there it was a short hop up the road to the house where Betsy has recently moved. She lives there in a garden with coffee, mandarins and bananas growing with her man Joe and two Jack Russels, Leilani and male pup Kaulani.
We’re to stay in Betsy’s studio basement, which is a great space, under the main house and we gratefully piled our bags and then joined them for supper.
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