25/9 War museum & 60's TV shows

Tuesday 25^th

We became aware today by circuitous means that my daughter is in the final 7 contestants for the role of face of the year for a Perth fashion house. She was a bit late drumming up facebook “likes” but has a good score already – what will the judges think? In other photographic daughter model news this week, my other daughter sent graduation photos. Alas she is apparently too short for modelling because she certainly has the looks.

We had signed up to take the backpacker trip to North Shore today but we both felt a tad queasy so we took a free shuttle to Hilo Hatty’s tourist ripoff emporium instead. Part of the commentary on the way there referred us to a primary school where a certain Barry Obama features in the 1972 yearbook.  It also took us past the marina where Gilligan et al set off on a three hour tour and also the hotel that Garrett stands on in the intro to Hawaii 5 0(the original).

On the way back we got off at the army museum and had a look at the fort where the big guns were kept during the war. The most interesting exhibit was the 1970s era Cobra attack helicopter. What an astonishing array of rockets, cannons and multiple machine guns – surely enough to sweep the neighbourhood clear of tanks trucks and men.  They had tried to demolish this fort to make way for a new hotel yet the wrecking balls didn't make a dent and explosives were out of the question due to nearby high rise buildings.  There was a plan to build the hotel over it but that was quashed and the site became a museum instead.

 

We also saw the Rhapsody in harbour but missed its departure - as with our boat yesterday. The sunsets here are extremely beautiful. We ventured out again later and discovered the local market full of voracious stallholders. We had a wry laugh and resolved to wait until next week in Hong Kong. We thought we had a lavish weight allowance from here on but we haven’t weighed our bags since the latest influx of quiz booty and the Great Alaska Tshirt grab.

The trolley bus to Hilo Hattie is free and it drops you at various places on its route.  One being the War Museum which is free to enter.  So todays activities were free.