Day Two
Having learnt yesterday that you need to be pretty smart getting down to the pool to get a good seat under an umbrella, we selected our seats from the balcony and then hotfooted it down to stake our claim. We bypassed the pool, which, though lovely, was a little warm for us and headed for the beach and the ocean – gentle waves and cool and refreshing.
That was pretty much our day – a swim, a cocktail, some reading, crab sandwiches, more swims, more swims, more cocktails, more reading, a wander into town looking for the elusive Crazy Fish Boutique (sorry Sandra but no longer exists), some gelato, an afternoon nap then dinner.
The night before, at Tim’s excellent suggestion, we had had room service on our balcony and listened to the Hawaiian music from down below. Tonight we decided to get a little closer and went down to the Room without a Key for dinner to listen to the music and watch the dancing.
Our love affair with the Halekulani was well underway when we were ushered to our ringside seat and looked after with friendly professionalism. The meal was superb – for entrée Ed had Cajun Spiced Ribeye and I had the Local Ahi Sashimi, we both had Halekulani Signature “Steamed Onaga” with braised baby bok choy, shiitake mushroom, green onions, parsley, steamed rice, which was out of this world, followed by light refreshing desserts and accompanied by excellent wines.
The music and dancing were not the grass clad hula girls with their rapid tempo but the old traditional Hawaiian songs with an ex Miss Hawaii, Miss World, Miss Universe doing the slow, graceful traditional dances. She was good but half way through the evening they spotted one of the older women in the audience who had taught hula for many years and persuaded her to come up and do a number for us. Despite the fact that she was so much older (and so much larger) she was so graceful and expressive that we felt we had seen the best Hawaii had to offer. 
Day Three dawned with an invitation from the General Manager of the Halekulani to a cocktail party that evening. After the buffet breakfast – which we decided was the best value as afterwards you needed nothing to eat for the rest of the day – we went into town and checked out the galleries and local boutiques. We bypassed the numerous brand outlets, which were extremely expensive and aimed at the lucrative Japanese markets, and looked for local artisans. I had decided to travel with very little jewellery after my nasty experience in Washington and felt somewhat underdressed in that department for the forthcoming cocktail party, so when we spotted a beautiful necklace of gold and Tahitian pearls designed by a local artist I needed little encouragement.
The cocktail party was quite an experience. There were about a hundred guests. When we arrived at the stated time of 6.30pm most had already arrived and where piling their plates with food as if they had never eaten before and were never going to be offered food or drink again. It was quite a display of greed by already very wealthy people that was very off putting.
We chatted to a few people and ended up spending some time with a very nice couple, who lived in the Hunter Valley close to where we stayed on our road trip. Invitations to look them up when we did our Hawkesbury trip followed before they headed off to dinner in town and we to our room for an early night before our dawn rising trip to Pearl Harbour.