The Quirke Tribe: Hawaii - Oahu

In Waikiki, with spots of spare time in between organised tours, we found some other activities to keep us busy. Waikiki Aquarium was one stop, not as big as some of the others we had been to but fun for the kids none the less. Here are some of their favourite things.

Clams, something of a rarity in Tonga, as they get eaten before they can grow to any reasonable size.

Lots of Dory's and Nemo's

The beautiful Nautilus shellfish.

Dylan and friend

Now this is how big and old clam shells should get!!!

A day trip to the fabulous "Hanauma Bay" is apparently also something not to be missed. We must be spoilt because for us, this was not a good beach and the snorkeling crap! Nothing much to sea except dead coral, a few slimy rocks, and few little fish. I did see a big green sea turtle but was not quick enough to get a photo of it. It looks absolutely beautiful from up top and because it is part of a National Park, everyone has to sit through a 20 min video on how not to feed fish, not to step on coral and not to drop rubbish into the sea.

At least we can tick it off the list.

This holiday was defiantly a movie tour holiday, this beach is where alot of Elvis' "Blue Hawaii" was filmed

No idea what Emily is doing but she wanted to take this statue home for our garden by the pool

Emily and I coming back from our snorkeling tour

Not a great view looking back up the hill, the lagoon is the middle of a dormant volcano, so not much grows up the sides

This is about the only decent fish picture from the snorkeling here

With most days accounted for we had a few spare hours on the Friday night. Lucky for us the Zoo had a night session. Great we thought, a twilight wander through the zoo and that will cover it. Little did we know it was actually a personalised tour, three times the price and only 15 in the group, no body else in the zoo except us and the animals. The kids couldn't believe their luck having the zoo almost to themselves. It certainly made getting around alot easier and faster.

Strangely enough we had enough energy left to jump with joy.

Emily's new best friend

The elephants were a big hit

This is a plaster cast of a real sized elephant tooth

At the end of the zoo tour we went to the educational centre to learn abit more about the animals and get hands on with some of the exhibits.

This was Dylan's favourite - a warthog skull

You were not allowed to take photos at night due to the flash disturbing the animals so sorry not many photos from the night time tour. However, we had such a great time that the kids begged us over and over again to go back the next day to see the remaining exhibits...so with a bit of activity rearranging, and at the expense of the museum, we went back and spent most of the next day there.