20th August 1991 Day 31

Diary
Up early, left Oz a couple of dollars more - he had about $30 for 3 days, including board. But  didn't care as I was off to Tokyo. The plane was about half-full and I had a window seat on the back row. Unfortunately there aren't many sights in the Pacific. All of a sudden we crossed the dateline and.......it was tomorrow.

2011
$30 - Oz was notorious for being a little close to his wallet. $30 was probably about twice as much as he needed. Mainfish.


We split up for a couple of weeks. I went to Tokyo to meet up with Bop to watch the IAAF World Athletic Championships and Oz spent a few more days in Hawaii and then headed to NZ. The plan was to meet up later in Newcastle, NSW.  I've mentioned a few times that my first ever trip abroad was to Rome in 1987. This was the first stop in a month long European inter-rail trip with Oz and Bop. We spent about 4 days at the Roma 87 World Championships and at the end the big screen said "Sayonara. See you in Tokyo 1991". Bop and I looked at each other and said "OK then". Obviously, going through Oz's head was the thought "Tokyo, that's an expensive place, I'm not going there". 


A short diary entry as it was a short day.

19th August 1991 Day 30

Diary
Returned the car but not before we'd driven in the rain to some famous waterfalls. Must have been famous for not being very good. The flight back to Honolulu was shorter than the bus journey from the airport to Waikiki by about half. Back to the hostel, throw the washing in and chat to the other lads in the room, 2 from London and 2 from Bristol. We travel half-way around the world and all we ever meet is English people. The 2 Londoners would have been more at home in Benidorm or Tenerife or on the Holgate. Every sentence delightfully punctuated by a cacophony of four letter words, none of which were "dude". 

Yesterday - stupid tourists

We ate in another "as much as you can eat" place. This time a spaghetti house. Great marketing - how much spaghetti can you eat ? Almost lost Oz in a bookshop as it closed down for the night and later marvelled at Waikiki beach in the moonlight. Shame we were with each other rather than a couple of foxy chicks. Maybe next time.


2011
I don't think we managed to find the decent waterfalls - the websites look much more impressive.

18th August 1991 Day 29

Diary
We flew to Hilo (Hee-low) on The Big Island and then Oz conveniently discovered he'd left his driving licence behind. This meant that I had to drive the left-hand drive, automatic Buick Century, we'd hired, around on the wrong side of the road. The soft git. Once I realised that my left foot was to do nothing and that there was no gear stick on the left of me then it was relatively plain sailing (or should that be, plain driving ?)

We raced off to our first volcano, looked at the old lava flows, the caldera, the craters and the rising steam. It could well have been another planet. We drove down to where the latest lave flow had wiped out the road and then walked across the solid lava up to the sea and a very dangerous point where molten lave was flowing out. Mixing with the sea water it gave off dangerous clouds and the solid ground was in grave danger of falling into the water. Danger doesn't seem to deter a tourist and his camera much though.  

We drove back towards Hilo stopping to do a Carry On Up the Jungle sketch and to walk through a cave caused by the lava flow. Booked into our hotel for the night, turned on the TV and found the Gorbachev had been ousted. It's easy to lose track of current events, especially in the States where they only seem to cover baseball and wrestling. (Whatever happened to Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo, Catweazle, Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks ?).

We walked into downtown Hilo hoping for some cheap food. This was a night like Geneva in 1987. Sunday night, a long walk to town and each time saved by McDonalds.


2011
Neither of us had driven an automatic before (actually Oz probably had as he'd worked in the US previously) and Oz obviously deliberately left his licence back on Oahu so that I'd have to drive. I didn't have a clue, I'd never even been in an Auto nor driven on  the wrong side of the road. Fortunately it was a quiet place to learn.


Technically, when the lava has stopped flowing it's just igneous rock not solid lava. The area near the sea is very dangerous and tourists just ignored the signs when we were there. I think the authorities clamped down on this a few years later when several tourists were killed when the area fell into the sea. In 1991 the only barrier was a rope with a sign that said "danger".


Geneva 1987 - Sunday night on the campsite, hungry, umpteen mile yomp into town, everything shut, found a Maccers, quick meal, umpteen mile hike back. Glamorous.


The only known literary paragraph to contain Carry On, Gorbachev and Giant Haystacks references. Unless Sting squeezed it in the lyrics of a song.


Gorbachev - 6th General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 11 March 1985 to 24 August 1991. So how did we know he'd been ousted ? It looks like he was placed under house arrest on 19th August 1991 which must still have been the 18th August where we were. Phew, thought I'd been reading  the future.

17th August 1991 Day 28

Diary
Booked a flight to Hawaii (the Big Island) and then headed off to Pearl Harbor. Oz was a little subdued during the morning claiming that he'd had too much sun the day before. Typically British , never satisfied with the weather. The 4-5 mile trip on the bus somehow took over an hour and we had to stand all the way. Reminiscent of my first experience of foreign buses - the overcrowded orange things in Rome.

On the way there I was chatted up by a short, big-norked, gum-chewing Hawaiian girl who wanted to know what sports I did. She got off at the next stop. Probably couldn't cope with the English accent. At Pearl Harbor we looked around the museum and the shop but I couldn't be bothered to wait 2 1/2 hours to go to the USS Arizona, so I left Oz there and headed back to town. I went to the park hoping to get a kick-around with some of the people at the Hawaiian Pineapple cup but managed to get there just as the days play was ending.I started talking to one of the referees who was wearing a Newcastle Utd top in the mistaken belief it was a Nottingham shirt. I put him right and explained the colours of Forest, Notts Co and Newcastle. mind you, if I was wearing a Newcastle shirt I'd claim it was something else.


Just at that time a few lads walked past carrying a rugby ball. I asked if I could join in thinking they were just going to throw the ball around. Shortly I was playing on the wing for the Hawaiian Harlequins under 30s v their over 30s. Very wary of my back I scored 2 tries and had one disallowed for a (definitely not) forward pass. We won 3 tries to 2, had a team group photo taken and then hit the ice-coolers of Bud and a keg of Bud in a dustbin full of ice. And I thought drinking in public was illegal in the states.

The team was a real mixture of Hawaiians, Tongans, Kiwis and even the odd Englishman. The Kiwi I talked to at the start turned out to be called Gary and was a Boro fan !!! His best mate in NZ was from Middlesbrough and he knew all about the team and English football. I also talked to the sister of one of the English lads and she turned out to be going back to England for a final interview with Arthur Andersen to be a management consultant. I gave her the gen on that. As for the evening - see yesterday. The moral of today's story is "it's a small world".


2011
Note that this was pre-English Premier League and coverage of UK football in the US was non-existent. Nothing in the newspapers and no internet to speak of. So to meet someone who knew all about Bernie, Pally , Coops, Brucie, and big Al was amazing.


This was one of the hardest tackling games I've ever played in - big pacific island hits everywhere. Luckily I caught them out with my pace and made sure that no-one managed a big hit on me. My back wouldn't have taken it, 10 months after having a disc removed.

16th August 1991 Day 27

Diary
on the 27th day they rested. Very reminiscent of Corfu. Go to the beach, lie down in the sun, get up only to splash about in the sea or to have a quick survey of the latest bikinis. Oz finally started catching a few rays and went from off-white to red. In the evening we ate at another "as much as you can eat for $x" joint. Not as good as Grand Junction though. Night life in the Waikiki area of Honolulu is not exactly inspiring. Aimed a bit too much at the tourist family. Lots of trinkets, bric-a-brac and bijoux gifts. Choc a bloc in fact.


2011
Corfu - 2 weeks on the beach straight after final exams at Uni. Me, Andy Brown, Chris and Bop (I think, my memory is going - I'll look it up in the photo albums and post some pics).


Sun bathing (actually, sun itself) was still a novelty to a couple of lily whites from England - obviously. Nowadays I go out of my way to avoid sitting on a beach. 


We can't have done too much judging by the short diary entry. I did remember saying to Oz, that if I ever came back to Hawaii it would be with a girl - no offence to my travelling companion - and a few years later I was back there with Christy. How romantic.

USC's Song Girls, the team's cheerleaders, lounge on Waikiki Beach before the Trojans play Hawaii. Sadly, we didn't meet them.

15th August 1991 Day 26

Diary
United Airlines to Hawaii. Not a patch on Virgin and I had the fattest person on the whole plane behind me. She couldn't get the meal tray down when my seat was reclined. Managed to sleep most of the flight so the time flew by (the worst pun yet - Ed.). Mini-bus to the Interclub Hostel and fortunately they had beds available. Straight on to Waikiki Beach. Paradise. Then we discovered we were one hour ahead of everyone else. They put their clocks back one hour in the summer. How many hours to Tokyo now? Time zones can be confusing! 

Stumbled across the Hawaiian Youth Pineapple Soccer Cup in the park. I wanted to enter a team but Oz hadn't brought his boots, we were too old, the wrong nationality and there were only two of us. Still, almost. We also ate in McDonalds for the first time today and had a Pizzeria Uno (see Chicago)

2011
I still think United Airlines are crap and maybe I should be more sympathetic towards large people on planes. 


Time zones - no website to look them up back in 1991.