Day 5 - "And to your left..."

Being independent souls, the very idea of guided tour buses tends to offend both myself and Caroline. Being cooped up, only seeing the sights through a window while the driver talks to you, unable to stop and get out and explore?

So it was with a little trepidation that we had a 5am wakeup and onto a tour bus for a visit to Pearl Harbour and then a drive around the island of Oahu. And to be honest - I take it all back.

We had the most amazing guide. Kenn, a cross between Isaac Hayes and Morgan Freeman delivered a commentary that mixed facts, advice, laughs and displayed how much he genuinely loved living in Hawaii. At a couple of stops, he would gather us together and then show us some interesting flora, or perhaps pull over to point out some particular wild animals. We got the full monty and felt that we weren't customers, but valued guests, being shown around by a person immensely proud of his adopted home.

The tour started at Pearl Harbour. I was a little apprehensive of this, to be honest, as there is little more cringe inducing than American nationalistic sentimentality. However, the memorial to the USS Arizona is handled brilliantly, mixing the right amount of patriotism and respect.

The early start was necessary as the tours start at 7.45am and tickets are handed out strictly on a first come, first served basis. The tour consists of a 20 minute film, then boat out to the memorial, 15 minutes and then boat back. Even with us arriving shortly after 7am, and with each tour consisting of 150 people, we were visit number 3. By 10am, all tickets for the entire day had gone.

We were ushered into the viewing theatre to see a short film containing footage of the day - no reconstruction, this was the real thing. Narrated in a sympathetic, factual manner, it was no tubthumping exercise, no attempt to pull on the heart strings. The actual facts are moving enough - a Japanese admiral ordered to make an attack he thought was a mistake, yet planning and executing it brilliantly. A sleepy US Navy, making mistakes (a radar operator saw the planes on his screen and was told "don't worry about it"). Finally, the most shocking moment, actual footage of when a bomb exploded in the ammunition storage area of the USS Arizona, instantly killing over 1,000 men.

It is the wreckage of this ship that you are taking out to see. A platform is built over the wreck, the clear blue water giving you a good view of the hulk beneath. There is a wall decorated with the names of all those who died, along with a smaller piece of marble listing survivors who chose to be interred with their shipmates. It was completely silent on the memorial, save for the shuffle of feet and clicking of cameras.

As Kenn explained later, there is one thing that everyone remembers when they visit the Arizona. The smell. The Arizona went down with 1.5 million gallons of oil on board and it leaks still, with about 400,000 gallons left. You are totally unprepared for "The Tears of the Arizona", small rainbows of oil leaking from the wreckage, the smell of it transporting you back to 1941 much more effectively than any film or interactive experience could possibly hope to do. The oil reminds you that over 1100 dead men, some of them just 17 years old, lie just feet below where you stand. I'll never forget it.

The rest of the day was taken with a tour around the island, stopping off at the various beaches and sights. There was the usual touristy stops - incuding Dole Plantation, the largest grower of pineapples in the State. I consider pineapples to be Evil, something to be fished out of my sweet and sour chicken at all costs, yet I have to admit, fresh pineapple, really fresh pineapple is pretty damned tasty.

Of the tour itself, Oahu can be summed up in one word - Scenery. And it needs the capital S, as jaw dropping vista followed jaw dropping vista. Volcanoes, rainforest, sandy beaches, ocean of the deepest blue. Paint a picture in your mind of what you think Hawaii looks like and it will not match the reality.