Tsunami Warning Welcomes Me to Honolulu

View of Waikiki from the Ocean-side.

Saturday evening at 8:10pm, I departed Seoul and, after spending nearly 8 hours watching countless movies (The Informant, An Education; New York, I love you; 9), reading the Financial Times and the IHT; and desperately trying to sleep (without any success), landed in Honolulu at 9:00am Saturday, 11 hours before my departure. How cool is that! I wish all my days could be so magically productive.

As we disembarked from the plane, crowds of eager passengers waited to board our plane back off the island. One departing passenger made a comment, “You should turn around and go back. We’re all trying to leave.” I was surprised at his comment, which was unsolicited and seemed rude, but I didn’t think too much of it until later when I learned the reason he and the others were trying to leave. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake had devastated Chili while we were in the air and, as a result, a tsunami was heading towards Hawaii. My first trip to Honolulu and I’m greeted with a tsunami. What an awesome, once in a life-time opportunity!

View Out to the Pacific Ocean

I couldn’t wait to pick up my rental car from Avis and get to a high vantage point from which to witness the giant waves. Unfortunately, Avis and another car rental agency decided to join the evacuation protocol and closed their offices without informing anyone. After waiting over 30 minutes at the rental car shuttle pick-up curb, watching Hertz, Enterprise, Thrifty, Budget shuttles return four of five times without even a glimmer of an Avis shuttle, I asked the Hertz shuttle driver if he had seen the Avis shuttle and he replied, “They must have evacuated; their office is closed.” He offered to take us to Hertz instead. As the shuttle drove by the dark Avis office, I saw a small gathering of travelers, standing next to their lugggage and their Avis cars, looking about the parking lot as if they weren’t sure if they were in the right place. I felt sorry for them. Obviously they were returning their vehicles to Avis, but no one was there to receive them. Hertz honored the rates that had been promised by Avis, gave me my keys and sent me on my way. In the future, I may have to rent from Hertz just because I liked how they helped me and the rest of the stranded Avis travelers.

View out of Greg's Garden

I had offered a coworker, who lives in Hawaii and happened to be on the same flight, a ride home. Well, it’s a good thing I did because he talked me into staying with him and his family. Since I could not check into my hotel until the afternoon, I had planned to drive up to the North Shore after picking up my rental car. Because of the tsunami warning, he and his wife advised me against it. Unfortunately, most of the roads were closed, including the ones leading to my hotel in Waikiki. My coworker told me to rest a bit with his family instead of driving around the island.

Banana Tree in Greg's Backyard

I traded my cashmere sweater and jeans for a tank top, linen pants and sandals, and then joined my friend out back to help him cut a bunch of fresh apple bananas from one of his many banana plants. Gosh, I felt so exotic eating a ripe banana off a tree, and the bananas were delicious! I ate quite a few of them because they were very tasty and small, the same length as my iphone.

After a few hours, we picked up some sushi to go, my friend opened a bottle of J, and I enjoyed a lazy Saturday afternoon with my friend and his family. Thank you Greg et al!

After the authorities lifted the tsunami warning, and the roads opened back up, it was nearing 3pm. I thanked my friend, he gave me a bunch of bananas for the road, and I headed for Waikiki.

Fresh bananas off the tree

In the end, the 12 foot waves were more like 12 inches. Fortunately, nothing more than a slight swell in the waves crashed onto the beaches of Waikiki. Some residents seemed relieved, some tourists were disappointed, and I was happy to be in Hawaii. Had it not been for the tsunami warning, I would have missed spending the day at my friend’s, meeting his warm family and seeing his beautiful home, and enjoying freshly cut bananas.

~ by djangoqueen on March 1, 2010.