00:00:10
Speaker 1: From Newstalk ZB. Travel with Wendy Wu Tours. Experience the extraordinary with local experts. Joining us now to talk travel, blogger at large.com, Megan Singleton.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: Good morning. Well, aloha, Francesca.
00:00:30
Speaker 1: How is Hawaii?
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thank you for asking. Just here at Waikiki, looking down out of my hotel room down the beach at the waves rolling in. I can see Diamond Head at the end. I can see surfers and people on foils. That's a new thing, whizzing out there on their little one, like a skateboard foil and then just zooming back in. It's great. I haven't been here for 13 years, so it's been a long time between Pina Coladas and and a lot has changed. It's busy, and I have to say, driving in from the airport the other day, it felt like I could have been in Los Angeles. Like, high-rises everywhere, and the place is booming, and I looked up the tourism stats too, and they've pretty much remained the same year on year. It's not even school holidays here at the moment, and it's busy, it's bustling, it's fantastic. The sunsets have been amazing. So I'm just loving it.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: This December 7th marks 85 years since the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, and you decided to visit the memorial.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: And shame on me, I haven't been before now. So yes, that was one of the things I had on the top of my must-do list. So we went out there yesterday. Of course, the USS Arizona is the famous ship that is sunk there, but a whole lot of ships were all sunk on the same day. in the same morning by the Japanese, but 1,177 officers still lie entombed in that ship. So they've built the most beautiful memorial. It's like a bridge across the ship with great architectural interest as you walk through it. You get a ferry out from the naval base and it takes about 15 minutes and you have 15 minutes to walk across, take your photos all very quietly. there's still oil seeping up. You can still, we saw a little oil slick on top of the sea. And then you come back and, yeah, you just pay your respects. It's interesting because not everybody died on board that ship and some soldiers or officers have chosen to have their remains interred out there. So there's actually sort of a separate section with all the names, all the names are there, and the names of these people other fallen comrades who didn't die in the war but died of old age. So it's really moving. There's a lot more to see and do. And it's actually free. I sort of hadn't realised that because I booked the tour, which included a pickup and a drop off and timed ticket entries and stuff. But actually, I was speaking to the guard as I was leaving. So if you Ubered out there and back, all you need to do is get a timed ticket entry. So that's what you gear your whole morning around or your afternoon around. And you can go and look at all the other exhibits and things in the meantime while you wait for your little ferry ride out to the ship and back.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: Fantastic. And you did a little bit of a sunset cruise. Sounds very romantic, Megan.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: Well, so romantic because it had been sort of misty drizzle had been coming in and out. Rainbow, I don't know if you've managed to see my, excuse me, Facebook picture today, but it's not even AI. People are going to think I AI'd it. Yes. There was a full rainbow over the entire Waikiki. And we just went berserk on photos. And actually, because of that, there wasn't actually a sunset because the cloud got in the way. But we didn't care because we had the rainbow. It was beautiful. And it was only about $ 45 because there's lots of different sunset cruises. But this one was a BYO. So that's ideal. You know, go out there and have 90 minutes cruising along the beach behind the surfers. Such cool fun. You might see turtles. We did see lots of fish. You might see whales, depending on the season. And then back you come into the Hilton Harbour, which is where we went from, and on Friday nights they do a free fireworks show. So we caught a bit of that as well. It's been wonderful.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Sounds amazing. Continue having a wonderful time in Hawaii, and we'll talk to you next week. For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rutkin, listen live to Newstalk ZB from 9 a.m. Sunday or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: From Newstalk ZB. Travel with Wendy Wu Tours. Experience the extraordinary with local experts. Joining us now to talk travel, blogger at large.com, Megan Singleton.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: Good morning. Well, aloha, Francesca.
00:00:30
Speaker 1: How is Hawaii?
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thank you for asking. Just here at Waikiki, looking down out of my hotel room down the beach at the waves rolling in. I can see Diamond Head at the end. I can see surfers and people on foils. That's a new thing, whizzing out there on their little one, like a skateboard foil and then just zooming back in. It's great. I haven't been here for 13 years, so it's been a long time between Pina Coladas and and a lot has changed. It's busy, and I have to say, driving in from the airport the other day, it felt like I could have been in Los Angeles. Like, high-rises everywhere, and the place is booming, and I looked up the tourism stats too, and they've pretty much remained the same year on year. It's not even school holidays here at the moment, and it's busy, it's bustling, it's fantastic. The sunsets have been amazing. So I'm just loving it.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: This December 7th marks 85 years since the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, and you decided to visit the memorial.
00:01:39
Speaker 2: And shame on me, I haven't been before now. So yes, that was one of the things I had on the top of my must-do list. So we went out there yesterday. Of course, the USS Arizona is the famous ship that is sunk there, but a whole lot of ships were all sunk on the same day. in the same morning by the Japanese, but 1,177 officers still lie entombed in that ship. So they've built the most beautiful memorial. It's like a bridge across the ship with great architectural interest as you walk through it. You get a ferry out from the naval base and it takes about 15 minutes and you have 15 minutes to walk across, take your photos all very quietly. there's still oil seeping up. You can still, we saw a little oil slick on top of the sea. And then you come back and, yeah, you just pay your respects. It's interesting because not everybody died on board that ship and some soldiers or officers have chosen to have their remains interred out there. So there's actually sort of a separate section with all the names, all the names are there, and the names of these people other fallen comrades who didn't die in the war but died of old age. So it's really moving. There's a lot more to see and do. And it's actually free. I sort of hadn't realised that because I booked the tour, which included a pickup and a drop off and timed ticket entries and stuff. But actually, I was speaking to the guard as I was leaving. So if you Ubered out there and back, all you need to do is get a timed ticket entry. So that's what you gear your whole morning around or your afternoon around. And you can go and look at all the other exhibits and things in the meantime while you wait for your little ferry ride out to the ship and back.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: Fantastic. And you did a little bit of a sunset cruise. Sounds very romantic, Megan.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: Well, so romantic because it had been sort of misty drizzle had been coming in and out. Rainbow, I don't know if you've managed to see my, excuse me, Facebook picture today, but it's not even AI. People are going to think I AI'd it. Yes. There was a full rainbow over the entire Waikiki. And we just went berserk on photos. And actually, because of that, there wasn't actually a sunset because the cloud got in the way. But we didn't care because we had the rainbow. It was beautiful. And it was only about $ 45 because there's lots of different sunset cruises. But this one was a BYO. So that's ideal. You know, go out there and have 90 minutes cruising along the beach behind the surfers. Such cool fun. You might see turtles. We did see lots of fish. You might see whales, depending on the season. And then back you come into the Hilton Harbour, which is where we went from, and on Friday nights they do a free fireworks show. So we caught a bit of that as well. It's been wonderful.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Sounds amazing. Continue having a wonderful time in Hawaii, and we'll talk to you next week. For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rutkin, listen live to Newstalk ZB from 9 a.m. Sunday or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
