POLYNESIAN ADVENTURE – PART 1 

The first time I flew on an airplane was in 1967. My mother and I boarded an Eastern Provincial Airways flight at the Summerside Airport that would take us first to Moncton, where we changed to a bigger plane, and then on to our destination, Montréal, where we’d visit Expo ’67. Those were different times: paper tickets, no boarding passes, a good meal on the plane, and NO SECURITY CHECKS! I was 13 that summer, and had never been to a big city. We stayed with friends, the Thibault family, and I went to the World’s Fair site every day by bus and Métro, even making the trip to and from all by myself before the week was out. This experience marks the beginning of my wanderlust.

We boarded an almost-full Boeing 737-8 at Alexander B. Campbell airport for the early-morning flight. Before doing that, we had to wait in line a good half-hour to get through security. I was even told to remove my open sandals and plastic belt; I suppose to make sure I didn’t blow anybody up! We were treated to stale coffee and a cookie on the way to Toronto where we boarded an Airbus A220 for the flight to San Diego.

The reason I mention the names of the aircraft is to illustrate how times have changed. The plane from Charlottetown to Toronto has a capacity of 210 passengers and was full while the one from Toronto to San Diego held only 120 and had more than a few empty seats. It’s not that long ago that that we’d have flown from Charlottetown on a De Havilland Dash-8 with a passenger capacity of 45 or so! There may be a message there. I’m not sure what it is, and I’ll let readers arrive at their own conclusions.

It was our third visit to San Diego, one of our favourite American cities. It doesn’t have the charm of other favourites like Charleston, Savannah or St. Augustine, but it’s clean, has a very nice downtown and a lovely waterfront. After checking into our hotel in the Little Italy quarter, we took a walk down to the Navy Pier and past the massive USS Midway, a floating museum featuring the retired aircraft carrier and a collection of 60 or so vintage aircraft displayed on its flight deck. The Midway, 1,001 feet long, operated from 1945 until 1992 when she was decommissioned. She’s that big that it’s hard to capture her in a single photo frame.

We visited the nearby elevated plaza called A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military. From a distance, it looks like a small crowd assembled around a man standing at a microphone. It’s a bronze likeness of Bob Hope, the legendary comedian and entertainer, in his prime. Before his death in 2003 at age 100, Hope had entertained US military audiences in far-flung theaters of conflict, from World War II to the Gulf War. The photo captures Hope’s unmistakable profile and his adoring audience.

On Day 2 of our visit to San Diego, we decided to revisit a couple of our favourite attractions, Coronado Island and Old Town. We got a few tips from the hotel receptionist and set out to get around by public transit. I’m not sure why but I just love travelling with the locals. The San Diego Trolleys are an above-ground version of a subway and they’re cheap and very easy to use. The Green Line took us to a transfer station where we boarded the bus to Coronado, stopping at the luxurious Hotel Del Coronado, circa 1888. At $700 to $1,200 per night for a standard room, we couldn’t justify staying there and, with a sushi lunch advertised at $100 CDN, a meal wasn’t an option either. But, as La Sagouine liked to say: “On pouvait quand-même regarder…” The beach is fantastic and, since it was the end of the peak tourist season, we were there on a rather quiet day.

Back in the city, we boarded the Blue Line trolley for a visit to Old Town, the location of the first Spanish settlement when San Diego was founded in 1769. The State Historic Park makes for an interesting stroll and features many Mexican-style restaurants, gift shops and historic buildings. The theme for this time of year was the Festival de los Muertes, the Festival of the Dead, as Hallowe’en is known in Spanish. All in all, it made for a very relaxing day. And we finished it by watching Forrest Gump. We’d forgotten how good a movie it was!

The next morning, we hoofed it down to Pier B to board the MS Zaandam, our home for the next 34 days. Since taking our first cruise on the MS Rotterdam VI in September 2013, we’ve been Holland America fans, and we feel at home on their ships as soon as we step aboard. We found ourselves surrounded by the usual Holland crowd: grey hair, walkers, wheelchairs, motorized chairs, oxygen tanks, canes, the odd facelift, and lots of wrinkles, including ours! The Zaandam may be a bit dated, but she’s got a lot of charm just the same. We watched from the top deck as the ship sailed out of the harbour past the USS Abraham Lincoln, recently returned from its infamous deployment near the Strait of Hormuz.

Five days at sea may sound like a long time, but you soon get into the routine. The food is excellent and you don’t have to wash the dishes, your room is serviced twice a day, there are interesting lectures to attend, entertainment in the evening, a fully-equipped fitness center, and pools and hot tubs to soak in.

Polynesia is one of three major cultural areas of the Pacific Ocean islands, along with Melanesia and Micronesia. The Polynesian triangle extends from Hawaii in the north to Easter Island in the southeast and New Zealand in the southwest. The first humans reached Hawaii through deliberate long-distance ocean voyages by Polynesian navigators using stars, ocean swells, and natural signs. They sailed roughly 2,400 nautical miles across open ocean from Samoa or the Marquesas Islands, arriving around 1,200 AD. I still can’t get my mind around the fact that they travelled that far without any instruments, just handed-down knowledge and observation of natural phenomena. How many of them were lost at sea we’ll never know.

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. The last State to join the Union in 1959, Hawaii is home to 1.4 million people, most of them of Polynesian or Asian descent, and it's the only State with two official languages, Hawaiian and English. Its economy relies heavily on tourism and military defense.

The islands were formed by volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called the Hawaii hotspot, essentially a hole in the earth’s crust. The process continues to build islands because the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves northwest continually while the hotspot remains stationary. It works like a conveyor belt; the oldest islands, including Kaua’i, are to the northwest and the newest to the southeast.

Before we knew it, our ship was docked in Nawiliwili on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. We’d been to Kaua’i before on a cruise in 2019. That time, we’d rented a car and driven west and east to cover most of the island’s roads. This time, we walked to the Enterprise car rental agency, picked up our vehicle and headed up the east coast of the island. While there were a few places on our list, we just drove until we reached the end of the road at a State Park. Along the way, we stopped at this beautiful and almost deserted pocket beach where a creek flowed into the ocean, forming a small pond ideal for children to swim in.

On the way back, we stopped to check out this beautiful United Church in the town of Hanalei, famous for the beach of the same name. Then, we stopped at the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge overlooking the lighthouse and, finally, at Wailua Falls. All in all, a full and interesting day.

Next, we set sail for Honolulu on the island of Oahu, where we’ll spend two days.