WE ARE aussies who have about 10 days in Hawaii...have seen oahu/wakiki before.
I guess he is out of fashion but am interested in seeing Cook sites..
believe there is a good museum exhibit in honolulu and the monument on the bi...anything else?

Suggest you take the snorkel trip aboard the Fair Wind II out of Kona to the Captain Cook Monument area. Check out guidebook: "Hawaii-The Big Island Revealed". I believe access to the Big Island Monument is not easy by car.
website for guidebooks:
http://www.wizardpub.com/bigisland/bigisland.html
Also "Oahu Revealed" should help you.

And good day!

Correction, according to link below:
http://www.wizardpub.com/oahu/oahu.html
"Oahu Revealed" Guidebook is still a work in progress.

Have you folks read the book Blue Latitudes , by Horiwitz? If not it has a lot of useful Cook info that may help. I thought it was a great book. I think there are Cook locations/monuments on the big island and kaua'i too.

In light of Jay26 response, suggest also checking out "Ultimate Guide to Kauai", listed as being available at "Dymocks" in Australia. Price may be lower in US, but I'm not sure of currency conversion.

Here is a website with info about Captain Cook and Hawaii:
http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu12.htm#H
Aloha.

Gotta second the Fair Wind II in Kona. Took our two boys, 11 & 13, and it was great! The boat looks small but is actually very spacious. Nice bathrooms too! The snorkeling was great! You get breakfast, lunch and refreshments too. Getting the guidebook "Hawaii-The Big Island Reveavled" was the best thing we could have done to prepare for the trip.

An even better idea for the Cook monument on BI is to rent a double kayak and paddle across the small bay. We have done this twice, with and without kids. The best part the second time were the spinner dolphins swimming around us. They put on quite a show, jumping and spinning all around us.

Thanks so much for your replies

what is the politically correct view of cook in the "sandwich islands"?

I am fascinated by the academic debate over "Cook as the hawaiin god".

OK so the big island is in....want to see where he was killed..the kayak across the bay sounds great.Also see the volcano park.

What about the Cook exhibit at a museum on oahu?

Whats this about Cook and Kauai?

I have read and enjoyed Horowitz "out of the blue"..and a couple of other Cook bigraphies.Horowitz is a yank who lives half and half usa/sydney i believe.

Of course i read from the oz perspective...ie skip the boring bits that don't have australia/new zealand in them!

Just returned from the Big Island a few weeks ago. Both the Fair Wind tour and the kayak rental are good choices to get to the monument. You also can rent power boats. We rented one from Kona boat rentals and spent the day touring the Kona coast. Would highly recommend it.