Nawiliwili, Kauai

December 24 was the first day that was really warm. The sun was brilliant. Having been in Honolulu many times we took no tours and simply enjoyed the warmth as we spent part of the afternoon in the Spa pool and hot tubs. As you saw, I did get a journal post and a few photos uploaded. To do that I took the 15 minute walk from Pier 2 to the Aloha Tower where free WiFi was available. It required less than 10 minutes to do what had taken nearly an hour using the ship’s internet service.

Since departure from Honolulu was not until 11 PM a group of girls aged six to 16 came aboard to show us how the Hula was done. I think we have watched some of these children grow and develop over the last three years. Once again they were amazing. The group attempts to keep Hula in the forefront of Hawaiian culture. I honoured their request to take no photos but, as you might imagine, the five six and seven year old dancers captivated the audience. 

There are quite a number of passengers who, like us, have taken this Christmas Cruise before. We concluded the evening doing a little dancing and chatting with people we recognized from past years.

Christmas morning began at about 6:30 AM with the usual coffee. The lights of Nawiliwili, our Kauai port, were just visible in the darkness. As the sun rose the Captain and Pilot maneuvered the ship through the narrow harbour entrance and gradually rotated the Emerald Princess through more than 180 degrees and brought it to a gentle stop alongside the berth. From the channel to the harbour entrance to the berth is actually nearly 345 degrees. There was one tug visible, firmly moored and definitely not assisting with the docking. In Honolulu where there seemed to be plenty of manoeuvring room we had tugs pushing and pulling. Hmmm!

From the ship’s upper deck we can see Kalapaki Beach and the hotel beyond which is the tallest building on the island. After two attempts to build tall buildings on the island were demolished by successive hurricanes building height was limited to “the height of the palm tree”. The hotel is the only remaining structure exceeding that height restriction.

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