Cruise vacation to the homes of Hollywood stars, Pierce Brosnan & Julia Roberts

I’M beginning to feel a little out of my depth.

“Surfing, sailing and jumping off waterfalls — they’re my favourite things to do,”Marko, my guide.

6

6

And there was I thinking I had signed up to admire the ­finest waterfalls of Hawaiian island Maui on a hike through the ­rainforest.

True to his word, at the first two waterfalls he is straight in the water, clothes and all, scrambl­ing up the rocks and leaping into the plunge pool below.

It’s not me. My feet remain on terra firma.

Marko is an information mine about the plants around him, even when he’s not doing a lot of publicity.

Exotic breadfruit trees, mango and tapioca plants, a rather scary-looking lipstick ginger you can’t eat and something called taro that you can.

In Hawaii, its roots are used to make a starchy paste that is unappetizingly bland called poi. “You must try it,”Marko. There are many things I have to do here, but I don’t think that this is one of them.

Hawaii is home to many hotels. You can also fly between islands for a change in scenery. Why make it so hard?

Far better to do as I have — fly into Honolulu, jump on Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship Pride of America, unpack and sit back while the ­captain takes you from one island to another.

This was quite an endurance test. It took ten hours to fly from London to Seattle on British Airways. After a five-hour layover, it was time to fly six hours with Alaska Airlines to Honolulu. Then, the entire thing went backwards.

But what a brilliant ­itinerary. We’re ticking off volcanoes, zipwires, surfing, movies and more on calls into Maui, Big Island — officially called Hawaii, where we have two stops, in Kona and Hilo — and Kauai.

I’m also going to Pearl Harbor at the end of the cruise, to see the USS ­Missouri, aka Mighty Mo, the battleship on which the Japanese surrendered in 1945.

Not just that, but we’re staying the night in both Maui and Kauai because there are two things you really must do while on the islands.

Firstly, see the sun rise while 10,000ft above Maui and secondly, go local at a luau — a traditional Hawaiian party — in Kauai.

Which is how I find myself on a winding road heading up Haleakala volcano at 3.30am, staring out into the pitch black but wide awake as I’m still on UK time, 11 hours ahead of the islands.

It takes about two hours to reach the top. Preston our guide claims it is the most remote area on the remotest islands in the entire world.

He could repeat that again. Hawaii might be the 50th state of the USA but it’s in the Pacific, almost 2,400 miles from America’s mainland one way and 3,900 miles from Japan the other.

Not that we’re at all lonely up here. Half the population of Maui are here, I believe, and they’re all waiting, cameras in hand, to capture that magical moment when the sun rises over the horizon.

6

6

There it is! Mission accomplished. It’s time to head back to Pride of America for breakfast.

The ship is a monument to all things Stateside. The crew and most passengers are American — I have lunches in the Cadillac diner, dinners in Jefferson Bistro, drinks at the Ocean Drive Bar and watch live bands in the Mardi Gras lounge.

And in a nod to Hawaii, there are hula dancers as we embark, local grub in the Aloha Café and Big Wave beer behind the bar.

Our next stop is Hilo. It turns out that Hilo is the most unlucky of places.

It was hit by a ­tsunami in 1960 that killed 61 people and a volcanic eruption in 2018 that sent ash and lava spewing 11,000 feet into the air, destroying more than 700 homes.

I’m visiting Volcano National Park where Kilauea still smolders after the explosion.

“If anyone needs a bathroom, there’s one over there. We call it a lava-tory,” jokes guide Lili.

She informs me that a volcanic activity is creating a new island 20 miles away. My excite­ment is tempered when I learn it’ll be hundreds of years before it surfaces.

Fire juggler

Kona turns out to be a tender port, where we are being taken ashore in the ship’s lifeboats because Pride of America is too big to dock. That’s Plan A.

Sadly we wake to news there’s too much swell to get us ashore safely.
Take a day at sea

6

6

It’s disappointing but hastily arranged trivia quizzes, water aerobics, line dancing, movies and more keep us entertained.

Kauai is Hawaii’s Hollywood, home to celebs including Pierce Brosnan, Bruce Willis, Bette Midler and Julia Roberts, and movie sets for Jurassic Park, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, King Kong and countless other blockbusters.

I’m going to the luau — a fun evening with a free bar and hula dancers, singers and a fire juggler who act out how Polynesians arrived in Hawaii centuries ago.

I followed it up the next day with a boat trip on Wailua River from Fern Grotto. This is a popular spot for couples who are tying their knot.

There’s more hula and ­singing, this time a local ­wedding song. “You’re all married Hawaiian-style now,”As we begin to leave, our host exclaims.

I choose not to tell my husband.