Aloha!

Warning; photo heavy!!

For the last (nearly) two weeks,  I have been a very lucky and happy Ganma spending time with our newest little grandbaby girl, Olive. 

Quite an adventure, too, as our son and his partner now live near Honolulu where her work is based.

Olive turned 4 weeks old while I was there, so she really is a newbie!

Of course the attraction was the wee baby girl and the cuddles, and giving her parents a bit of help and down time.

But we did also do a bit of sightseeing. After a day to rest after my flight, we drove to the eastern coast of Oa'hu, stopping at the beaches to soak up the warmth,  paddle in the equally beautifully warm water, change nappies, and so on.

(In the beach photos I'm just going by the location given with the photo on my phone. I don't know if the actual beaches are called what I've written, or if it's just the general area of where we were.)

Punalulu 

We even whale watched, an event I didn't catch on camera, and okay the whales were out to sea but we could see the splashing and the odd fin.

And a big turtle sunning himself —

Turtle at Kaneohe 

 

Haleiwa beach

We then had 3-4 days of really bad weather,  a Kona storm, not quite so bad where we were, but it caused some quite bad damage around the islands and blocked off some of the areas we had visited. 

Never to mind,  there was a baby to tend, and Ganma got her fair share of time with her. 

I'd been looking forward to watching my son play rugby for his Honolulu team but sadly all the grounds were closed.

Walking the dogs during a fine spell

We went for a drive another day, in another direction where my son surprised me by delivering me to a Fabric Mart at Pearl City, which apparently had the best selection of Hawaiian fabrics around. 

I had regretted not getting a few pieces at the Dole Plantation shop on our previous travels, so it was thoughtful of them to hunt this place down for me. Yes, I made a few purchases, including a fun children's print my daughter-in-law picked out for Olive.....hmmm that's pressure to actually do something with it!

This was followed by another coastal drive, on the west coast this time. The ocean was really churned up after the stormy weather and the water was not the beautiful Hawaiian colour it usually is, apparently. There was a lot of driftwood on the beach and the kids were busy building wee huts and structures with it.

Waianae.

It was a very interesting look around. Definitely not an affluent area, many homeless camps, the hills and mountains were fascinating. Usually not as green,  I believe, and we could see where waterfalls had been a few days before. 

These photos were in the Waialua area (with my son) —

A close up of part of the fascinating mountain range - 

The last big outing was a get together at Waikiki, taking advantage of the overlap of visits between myself and another grandparent, plus a few friends. 

The beach was beautiful and I can see why it's such a tourist attraction —

It was Spring Break and the kids were really taking advantage of the pounding surf.

As you can see - quite a lot busier than the other beaches we visited!

Below, the odd looking Banyan tree which sends roots down from the branches to become the interesting trunk formation you see here —

The park had a few statues. The restaurant we dined at was named after Queen Kapi'olani, photo below. I loved the way all the statues had Lei draped on them —

View out towards Diamond Head from the restaurant. 

And all too soon, my visit was over! How lucky was I?! Hopefully it won't be too long until I see sweet baby Olive again ♥. 

I had to have one last tourist photo at the airport —

Leaving Auckland Airport on the last leg of my trip home —

'til next time,

Happy stitches,

Raewyn