Day 4: 9 March - Beach Day

Today was going to be a very relaxed, do-what-I-want kinda day. I didn't have any tours booked and could find whatever I wanted to do. After a quick brekkie (Vegemite on toast - thank goodness I packed that!), I walked. And walked and walked. Walking in Waikiki is just amazing, because there is always something to see, or places to duck into. Today, I walked down to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Mum had said that Sunrise was filming there, and being a camera whore, I definitely wanted to check it out. The village and the beach were so beautiful so I was happy to have walked down to see.

When I got there, it was like an Aussie reunion! Obviously the word had spread! I do actually like to watch Sunrise, so I got a kick out of seeing them in person. I was also happy to get some news - I feel like I've been in isolation! It wasn't until I got there that I found out that Guy Sebastian was performing too! Yay, I picked a great day to go! I managed to get a great spot in front of the stage and waited for him to perform. He ended up only singing one song, but it was bloody fun anyway. I was also pretty happy to make my friend Jo (AKA huge Guy fan!) very jealous!

After my brief stint of fame (yes, I got on TV), I walked back along the beach. When I got closer to my hostel, I found a board rental tent on the beach and went to organise a surf lesson. This didn't really work out as there were no other people for a group and the surf was pretty crappy, so I ended up hiring a stand-up paddle board. Best. Idea. Ever!

The water was incredibly beautiful. There were minimal waves - though enough to knock me off my board a few times! - and it was clear blue. I paddled out a few hundred metres from the shore and enjoyed beautiful views of Waikiki... Ahh the serenity! After a too-short hour, I had to return the board back to the beach.

After paddle boarding, I headed down to Ala Moana Centre, Honolulu's top shopping location. I was starving at this point, so I had an early dinner - a Philly chicken cheese sub. It was amazing, and I don't know why we don't have Philly subs here!

I then just had a quick shop, mainly for souvenirs and explored the wonderful big stores! I had so much fun just looking around the stores, while keeping myself from buying too much. The stores were massive. My favourite was definitely Victoria's Secret, which was about the size of 5 regular stores - it was like a maze of underwear.

Once I got back to the hotel, I made friends with a few Aussies - Alice, Berto and Graeme - and made "acquaintances" with the creepy guys that they were hanging out with. The creepy guys convinced us to head down to the beach for a few beers, which in hindsight, was probably a silly thing to do - the guys were creepy, but harmless. We ended up meeting up with their local Hawaiian friends, who were all drinking out of Burger King and Starbucks cups, and getting high. Alice by this point was very drunk (thank goodness I was sober!) and managed to get in a fight with one of the other girls, which resulted in a big slap to the face! We left pretty quickly after that and headed back to their room to hang out.. That was certainly an interesting night!