Hawaii & The Dark Knight

We had a breathaking run through Hawaii on our world cruise hitting ports in Maui, Honolulu & Hilo, and if I'm honest I really couldn't tell them apart except for my day in Honolulu. I was in over the halfway point of the contract and pretty burned out at this point and all I initially remembered from Hawaii was lots of bus rides upto Volcano craters.

The above video of the Haleakalā volcano was the most abiding memory I have from my first run through Hawaii mainly because I'd been booked on a hiking tour without realising it. The fact that it was going to be hard going only dawned on me when the tour guide said 'and you'll carrying this' pointing at my old school massive shoulder camera. Luckily for me I was currently in the best shape of my life so although it was tough going I could manage it, I think carrying all the old kit in my current state would pretty much finish me off!

I'll have to admit the journey up to the summit was not my favourite thing in the world as going round in continous cirlces for hours in a small poorly ventilated mini bus even had me feeling a little motion sick, but all that passed the second we came out through the clouds and saw we actually driving above the clouds now!

Once we got to the top of the crater we'd be hiking through it looked like we were standing on an alien planet.

All the bizzare multi coloured terrain as far as the eye could see was surrounded at the edges by mountains of cloud and then we had to descend down into the crater to begin our hike.

As hikes go it wasn't too bad and I was with a particularly elderly bunch of PAX which meant as long as I went at the pace of the guy with the walking stick I had plenty of time to film. The scenery on the other hand was other worldly and although it wasn't the Hollywood verison of walking into a volcano (see below) it was still massively impressive.

Our next stop in Hawaii was the famed Honolulu, the biggest city on the island of Oahu and I'd actually managed to get the day off as almost every PAX on a ships tour was visiting Pearl Harbor which had serious filming restrcitons though I'm sure my senior was going to try and sneak a camera in.

We also had a late sail that evening of 11pm with a crew all aboard of 10pm and we docked around 7a,m, as I'd been having a pretty shitty time onboard with my snorebeast roommate and various onboard issues to deal with I was just glad to have some time to myself and I had the whole day to wander aimlessly through Honolulu.

Breakfast at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co then lead to shopping where I was most definately maniplulated by one of the most stunningly attractive sales girls I've ever seen into buying a $150 pair of jeans! From here I just wandered for hours before finding my ultimate goal for the day...The Cinema!!! 'The Dark Knight' had just came out and being a massive film geek I had sorely missed my ususal trips to the cinema, of course I was mostly met with derison onboard when I told people I might go to the cinema 'but your in Honolulu!!!!'

The thing is I was so burned out my the bullshit of shiplife at the moment that I just wanted to avoid everyone I knew onboard and have some time to myself, sitting alone in a movie theatre was my idea of heaven at that point. Sure I could have gone to the beach like 70% of the rest of the crew and get shitfaced but that is what most of us did in every port and you would still be surrounded by most of the same people from the ship.

Ironically I spotted at least 30 or 40 crew in the same screening as me and as we all know 'The Dark Knight' was a fucking classic so getting to see it in off all places Hawaii, is always a memory that will stick with me! After a great day ashore I was down to film the 2nd Island Night of the world cruise, the first had been a fairly good night with a big crowd on the open deck. This was not a repeat of that night! I'm guessing a long day ashore in Honolulu had taken it out of the PAX as the open deck was like a ghost town the event started at 10.30ish and was finished by around 11.30.

Finally a picture of the $150 jeans!

On the next cruise diaries - My first trip to Russia!