23 Kauai

Sunday 23^rd Kauai

We were back on schedule for stretch and abs, which Luke decided to run in circuit form. I watched the boat ease between the breakwaters from an exercise machine. A dozen or so longboarders were surfing an adjacent beach. We were early ashore and took a shuttle to Walmart which again had an embedded Maccas, where we had a quick wifi session. The scene is set for the AFL grand final next weekend and, as always since 2005, we are overseas. Hopefully we will find somewhere to watch in Honolulu. There seems to have been no further excitement at home.

We had a bit of a shop and took the shuttle back, arriving just in time for another shuttle heading for Coconut Bay, which is about half an hour away across the island. It turned out that the driver gave a running commentary the whole way which added a whole extra dimension to our experience. He talked about the mountains and the weather and the ocean and the closure of the sugar industry and how everybody retrained and found work in other industries. I wonder how that would happen under the New Socialism that Obama is introducing.

We passed the hotel where Elvis stayed and filmed Blue Hawaii.  It is in total disrepair after being damaged by a hurricane a few years back and then the insurance company claimed most of the damage was due to termites so therefore refused to pay out.

We had intended to come straight back but he pointed to the beach and said there were some pretty beach walks and the possibility of seeing some seals or turtles. Well . . . there was no way in the world I was going to keep Mrs Honeymoon from that so off we went. It was pretty but the sea was rough and signs expressly warned about going in. The clouds were blowing in and predictably it started to rain. Fortunately only for a few minutes and relatively lightly, because we had just been told that this was one of the wettest places on earth. A recent Damp Spell lasting a Biblical 40 days and nights took the annual rainfall for that year to 900 INCHES!! Perth would get something like 20.

We looked through the shops and then were very lucky to spot the bus between two buildings some 15 minutes before it was due to depart. More luckily, he saw us and waited because he was full and ready to head back to the ship.

On the way back, he listed the movies that had been shot on this island. Staggering in view of the amount of rain – they usually film in dry locations. Credits included Jurassic Park 1 2 and 3, 6 days and 7 nights, Blue Hawaii, Lilo and Stitch and the title scene from M*A*S*H where the helicopter arrives across a ridge with patients strapped to the skids. Amusingly for those in the know, the next shot shows it landing in Los Angeles. When we got back to the ship and looked, the background was instantly recognisable.

We had lunch hurriedly and dashed down to the Sudoku challenge. There were only 3 of us and we all got both sheets correct. Kinsey started talking to me, enthusing about how fast I was going and indeed I was blazing away, and still managed to run a conversation. He then wandered off and I started on the second puzzle without distractions - and promptly made a mistake. I chose to start again and then made the same mistake again L Round about the time I started for the 3^rd time the other lady finished her first puzzle and we set off together on the second. I finished and decided to check both puzzles in the light of recent experience. Just as well because I again had one cell wrong but Mary beat me by 10 seconds. So we finished with another silver and bronze medal. We are going to wear them all tonight for the farewell trivia session.

We had a chat with Kinsey, who will be leaving the ship in Sydney to pursue a career somewhere in the entertainment industry. He is obviously too bright for what he is doing and may well carve out something for himself.

The afternoon passed uneventfully before a hurried mini-dinner, the tango show, and off to the final farewell trivia. We wore the Tshirts, caps, luggage tags as ear rings, flashing rings and umbrellas. J had a wallet bag and I wore a carabineer clip on my glasses. We both jangled from an array of gold silver and bronze medals from Sudoku and Sports trivia. Basically a grotesque display of booty.

Once again there was a 4 way tiebreak with 5 questions. Alan didn’t arrive until we were about to hand in the tiebreak sheet and we quickly checked the 5^th answer with him, which he corrected. This was enough to get us another set of shoulder bags, which we forthwith gave away. J and I went up and collected the booty with our rings flashing and the bits jangling and we did an impromptu tango with the whole knee flicking sideways trimmings. The crowd was in stitches, particularly our Aussie friends who had just added shoulder bags to their trove of RC memorabilia.

The Americans went off (they and Alan are cruising on to Sydney if their visas come through) and the remaining 4 of us went to the theatre to watch the tango show again. We thought we had missed the ending earlier. Karen sat there hacking her lungs out next to J and there were a few others similarly affected near us – hopefully we wont catch that.

And so The Last Cruise ended with a whimper of bag packing. We were very happy on the Radiance and, as always, came away having made some great friends among crew and passengers, eaten too much, pillaged the prizes, zerschted mightily in the gym, and seen some beautiful and spectacular sights. We have done enough cruising . . . for the time being ;)