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Hawaii News

New Zealand prime minister is Obama’s new golf buddy

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama walked to the second green at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay on Thursday.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama walked to the second green at Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay on Thursday.

President Barack Obama paid a visit late Thursday afternoon to the cemetery where his grandparents are interred, then took his daughters to Hono­lulu Zoo.

Most of the president’s vacation on Day 13, however, was on the golf course — skipping a morning workout at the gym for the second day in a row. Obama played Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii with an unusual partner: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. Obama rarely plays outside a close circle of friends and advisers.

White House officials said in addition to sharing their mutual interest in golf, the leaders talked about working together to deepen trade, enhance security and support demo­cratic values shared by both countries.

Key owns a vacation home in Hawaii. Obama invited Key to golf, the White House said in a statement.

The president visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, where his grandfather and grandmother, who helped raise him, are interred.

The president also brought daughters Sasha and Malia with him to visit the grave of Made­lyn and Stanley Dunham.

Their motorcade left Kailua at 4:14 p.m., arrived at the cemetery about a half-hour later and left before 5 p.m. for the Hono­lulu Zoo. The zoo closes at 4:30 p.m., so the president and his daughters had the facility to themselves until they left just after sunset.

A zoo visit is a tradition for the Obama family. They also took a zoo tour during their 2011 and 2010 vacations.

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