A couple of Australians in Hawaii – our trip report

[Raison]

Here it is folks, I certainly hope it is not too boring and long winded, well it will be long because we were lucky enough to have 3 weeks to enjoy in Hawaii .;)

I tried to write this report each day so I could remember the little details as we went. We took our net-book computer so I would tap away on the keyboard whenever I got a chance. It really is a bit more like a travel diary with helpful information included. Because I wrote this each day, it may read a bit funny, the tense will probably seem odd! Some days I only took notes and left them to fill in the details when we arrived home.

A bit of background info about us to set the scene! We are a couple of Australians in our late 40’s, well DH is actually 50 (much to his disgust!) We enjoy travelling and seeing what other places have to offer. We are not gourmets and often find a sandwich will do us, however we also enjoy nice meals. We are easy going and are flexible when travelling. No point on stressing out while trying to relax!

We decided to do back to back cruises as we had a little over 3 weeks time allocated for our trip and we did not know which island we would prefer to stay on after doing one cruise. So our plans became 9 days in Honolulu, and back to back cruises on POA. Doing back to back cruises was fantastic. There are so many activities on each island, we still had to miss out doing some things due to a lack of time. We were also able to have more relaxing time by doing 2 cruises. If we had only done one, I would have felt the need to cram more stuff in to each port day!

I hope to get a significant portion of this review/report posted this weekend, the ironing and housework will have to wait:D

 

Thursday March 17 2011

The long awaited departure date has finally arrived and we left home at about 8 am and headed south for the drive to Sydney. I was a bit confused as to why we needed to leave at 8 as I thought leaving at 9 would have given us plenty of time, but who wants to start a holiday with an argument...so 8 am departure it was. The reason for the early start became clear later in the day - hubby thought our flight left at 4.30 pm, wheras it actually left at 6 pm. All the work I had done on the itinerary and planning and he hadn’t even read it yet! Oh well, at least one of us knows what we will be doing for the next 3 weeks. I am pleased to report that he has read it now!

 

Our drive was about 4 hours to the place we would be leaving our car. I was dropped at the train station with all the luggage and hubby took care of locking the car in our friends garage. We boarded the train and settled down for the 1.5 hour journey over to the International terminal at Sydney airport.

 

Due to our unnecessary early start we were now too early for check in, it was at this point that we had the conversation about the time the flight left! Not to worry, we had time for a nice lunch at the airport.

 

Check - in was slow but uneventful. The plane was late leaving due to the baggage not being loaded in time and then we lost our place in the take-off queue, so ended up taking off about 45 minutes late.

We had several babies and teenagers around us on the plane, so it wasn’t a quiet flight, but not too bad either. Not much sleep happened though!

 

Our early morning arrival in to Honolulu was lovely and thanks to the International Dateline, we now have another Thursday to complete! We departed the Customs area quickly and were calling Mark from Hawaii23 transport within 45 minutes of the plane landing. This was a very efficient way to get to our hotel. Mark is a lovely young man and $23.00 for both of us to the door was a great price. I would recommend this service!

 

Check in was also quick and as we had booked our room from the night before we were able to get in straight away! Bliss! After a long overnight flight, we needed a rest and shower. Our accommodation was the Waikiki Marina Resort at the Ilikai hotel. Our room had a full kitchen and a balcony . Our view was over the lagoon and pool area of the HHV and out to the ocean. Lovely room, not huge but big enough for the 2 of us. We had a desk and 3 seater lounge as well as a single lounge chair.

 

We unpacked and had a rest – bit of a nap really . Then we walked to the Ala Moana Shopping centre to get some lunch and do some basic supplies shopping. We also had to get a phone organised. Which we did straight away.

Grocery items sure seem expensive here! $7.00 for a box of breakfast cereal! I enjoyed having a look around the Foodland supermarket, this is something that I like to do when in a different place. It interests me to check out the different products available over the world – I think it drives DH nuts though, oh well a bit of payback for not reading the itinerary I had slaved over for months.

 

Walked back to Ilikai and unpacked. About 4.30 we headed out to walk to Waikiki, along the waterfront. A lovely walk and lots of people out enjoying the afternoon in this pretty place.

We left the beach area at the Royal Hawaiian (boy it is pink!) and wandered along the street past the shops. We went through the International Marketplace and looked around. Then decided to head back as we were both getting tired by this time – we walked along the street this time and came upon a Farmer’s Market, had a look around and bought some fresh mango and strawberries - yummy.

 

Back at the hotel, we had fruit and sandwiches for dinner and were lucky enough to have a view of the HHV luau on the roof . We watched bits and pieces of that and then had an early night. 8.30 pm early, cause we were both exhausted.

Funniest sight of the day – older lady in shorts and bikini top, driving around a Waikiki corner in a topless four wheel drive car with her left foot hanging out the side , the radio blaring and she was singing louder than the radio! I think she needed some attention, she probably was ignored as a child!

We were both surprised at the beautiful temperature and lack of heavy humidity in the air today. We were expecting it to be more like Fiji I think.

[shazz43]

Hi Raison, I will be reading your trip report with interest, we are from Australia as well, the west coast, and will be doing the cruise in May :),

Just wondering how you contacted Mark from Hawaii 23, or was he waiting for you at the airport :confused:, I will be looking forward to more of your trip report :), and probably have a lot more questions :confused:

[Filcha]

Shazz, which date in May are you sailing? We are also from the west and sailing May 7.

[katef]

Hi Raison! It was so nice to meet you and Steve during your second week on POA.

 

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review since I'm already laughing about the unread itinerary. I also planned for months and printed out many choices of things to do on each island but hubby didn't bother to read any of it. Grrrr! Oh well, we still had a fabulous time!

 

I'll try to be patient and not ask too many questions until you've finished your review. I'm curious what the highlights of the trip were for you and Steve.

[Raison]

Hi Raison, I will be reading your trip report with interest, we are from Australia as well, the west coast, and will be doing the cruise in May :),

Just wondering how you contacted Mark from Hawaii 23, or was he waiting for you at the airport :confused:, I will be looking forward to more of your trip report :), and probably have a lot more questions :confused:

 

Mark gave us a free call phone number and we called him from a pay phone at the airport.

We were not using our Australian mobile phones over there so the pay phone worked really well. Given how fast Mark arrived,I would say he was very lose to the airport when we called.

[Raison]

Hi Raison! It was so nice to meet you and Steve during your second week on POA.

 

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review since I'm already laughing about the unread itinerary. I also planned for months and printed out many choices of things to do on each island but hubby didn't bother to read any of it. Grrrr! Oh well, we still had a fabulous time!

 

I'll try to be patient and not ask too many questions until you've finished your review. I'm curious what the highlights of the trip were for you and Steve.

 

 

And it was lovely to meet you as well Kate:)

Ask as many questions as you like!

[Raison]

I am going to try to add a few photos too...

 

the view from our room at the Ilikai:

 

[Raison]

Friday March 18 2011

A relaxing start to the day, with breakfast on our lanai. Then we walked up Ala Moana Blvd to the Ali Wai canal and walked along it to Kapiolani St. Walking towards Honolulu to find the golf shop – the number one priority of the day for one of us! ;)

 

We passed the Honolulu Convention centre where the Auto Show was being held, so we went in and found that the show would begin at 12 noon, so we decided to come back and check it out later. Headed off to the golf shop where Steve bought his golf shoes for half the price he would pay in Australia. Dano (he calls himself “book em Dano”) served us and was helpful. If you have never watched Hawaii 50, that last sentence will sound really silly!

 

Walked back to the convention centre via a drinks stop at Ala Moana shopping centre. Spent a couple of hours drooling over the nice and sometimes expensive cars. Had a nice chat with a member of the Hawaii Corvette Club and he was nice enough to let us in close to his car for photos. It was good to see cars that we don’t have in Australia – Acura which is the upmarket Honda brand and Infiniti which is the upmarket Nissan brand. I liked the $248,000.00 Bentley Roadster of course, but I also liked the Infiniti G convertible for an affordable $40ish grand.

 

Lunch at the Wailana Coffee Shop opposite the HHV – ok food and reasonable prices. So far it seems to be cheaper to buy meals than to buy the food and make meals at our hotel! Odd I know.

 

Back to hotel for an afternoon rest. Not for long though!

 

Caught a bus into Waikiki – got off in Kapahulu St and walked out onto the Kapahulu Groin and admired the view of the beach, Diamond Head and the surfers.

 

The Bus is a most efficient and easy way to get around Waikiki and Honolulu and we used it a lot while there. The drivers we encountered were helpful and polite – except one who was having a bad day and was a bit grumpy. Remember to have the correct change for your ride – all fares are $2.50. This includes one transfer within 2 hours of the original ticket purchase. They seemed to be very lenient with the 2 hour time frame as well. In fact we never saw a driver check the time on a ticket that was being used for a transfer!

 

We wandered along Kalakaua looking at the shops and sights. Saw the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, adorned with flower leis. The beach area here is lovely although quite crowded, but then all of the Waikiki beach area seems to get very crowded.

 

Found 'The Walking Shop' and looked at walking sandals and shoes. Hubby didn’t get any but I did, wore the ECCO sandals home and they are very comfortable.

 

We walked through DeRussy Park and back to the beachfront, just as the sun was going down – very good timing. Grabbed a few pics of the sunset and had a drink in the bar at the bottom of our hotel.

 

 

Dinner in the room and then we were able to watch the Friday night fireworks at the HHV from our balcony. They scared the daylights out of us when they first started going off. If we hadn’t known about them we might have thought we were under attack. Fantastic view of them and they were very pretty! We also watched Hawaii Five-O (the original) and were able to see some of the places we had been walking that day – there was a boat/land chase around the Ali Wai Canal.

Another early night, still getting over the flight I think.

[shazz43]

Shazz, which date in May are you sailing? We are also from the west and sailing May 7.

We are going on the 21st :rolleyes:, hope you have a great trip, I will look foward to your trip report :)

[shazz43]

Mark gave us a free call phone number and we called him from a pay phone at the airport.

We were not using our Australian mobile phones over there so the pay phone worked really well. Given how fast Mark arrived,I would say he was very lose to the airport when we called.

Was the pay phone you used free :confused:, we won't be using our Aus mobiles either.

Looking forward to more of your review :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Good start to the review! I can't wait to read the rest.:)

[Raison]

I have most of my trip report in a word document that I intended to copy and paste into posts here.

This worked once last night and then again this morning, but the paste option doesn't seem to work now...does anyone know if there is some time limit on posting like this?

 

 

Also I would like to post more photos in a bigger size, but I can only work out how to post little thumbnails, any hints welcomed please.

[Raison]

Was the pay phone you used free :confused:, we won't be using our Aus mobiles either.

Looking forward to more of your review :)

 

Yes the pay phone was free because we were calling Mark's free number. Otherwise we would have had to pay.

 

If you book with Mark ahead of time he will be expecting you and will be in the area, he will track your flight so he knows if it is on time.

 

I think he can't wait in the airport pick-up area and has to wait slightly outside it, hence the need to call him when you are ready.

 

Getting through customs/immigration can take some time, especially as you have to have your photo taken and fingerprints recorded. I must say though, this process didn't take as long as I expected it too.

 

Getting back into Sydney airport last Sunday night was a total nightmare in comparison!:rolleyes:

[Raison]

Saturday March 19 2011

 

We decided that breakfast out would be a good idea this morning, and DH wanted to try the Wailana Coffee House breakfast, so we headed over about 8 am. Only to find the line of people waiting t get in was out the door, so on to Plan B.

 

Around the corner on Ala Moana Boulevard there is a little bar called Snappers...breakfast of 2 eggs, bacon and pancakes or toast was only $2.99 per person!:) Thank you very much! Great value.

 

We walked to Walmart after breakfast, I know many people will wonder why we would visit Walmart while on holiday. We don't have Walmart in Australia and we wanted to have a look and see what we are missing out on. As it turned out, not much! We have very similar stores in Australia. Although the prices were certainly better than home.

 

We picked up a few things for the cruise - ziploc bags, soft sided cooler, water shoes and a few other bits and pieces. DH bought his first Hawaiian shirt today, and hopefully the last! Don't get me wrong, I like Hawaiian shirts but seems that each time we holiday in a beachy type place we gain more bright flowery shirts that sit in the wardrobe at home taking up valuable dress space.

 

Next stop was Nordstrom and DH finally got the walking shoes he was after. Thank goodness the shopping was over! I must be one of the few women who does not like shopping while I am on holidays.

 

Back at the Ilikai we dumped our stuff and decided to catch The Bus into down town Honolulu and do the Historic Walking tour from the Frommer's guide book.

 

All was going according to plan until DH said "let's stay on the bus and see where it goes". Famous last words - we ended up at the airport! Wife not happy:(

 

We caught a bus back and got off in Chinatown to have a wander around the markets and shops. If you are in the market for chicken feet, then this is the place to get them!

 

Then we thought we would walk up to the places in Honolulu we wanted to visit....several wrong turns later we finally hit Fort St and at this point we gave up and decided to catch a bus back to Waikiki. We had been on the bus less than a minute when we came to Iolani Palace, oh well. We will have to return another day!

 

After a late lunch we decided on some relaxing time on the lanai watching the ocean and surfers. It was a lovely way to end the day.

 

We had some scattered showers today, not too much though and the wind was so strong we were dry again very quickly. It seems to have been very windy in Waikiki this week.

 

Again a quiet night - we are definitely not late night party animals!

[Raison]

Sunday March 20 2011

 

Today we had a Royal Circle Island tour booked with Enoa Tours. We were picked up at our hotel at 8.15 am by Lisa our guide and driver for the day.

 

There had been some rain overnight so we headed to the Pali Lookout first with the hope that we may see some waterfalls along the way, which we did.

It was incredibly windy up on the lookout! But we were still able to enjoy the lovely view.

 

The bus was a 27 seater - but it wasn't full on our tour. It was quite comfortable, but I would advise taking the seats on the right hand side as they have more legroom than the left hand side ones.

 

From the lookout we headed down to Kane'ohe and picked up the H3 to take us back to Honolulu to meet up with the H2 to head north. I had read a lot about the H3 freeway and had hoped we would be able to take a drive on it at some point in our stay, so I was happy we were going to get to do this.

 

It is an amazing feat of engineering and the views of the fluted Ko'olia Mountains are terrific.

 

Heading north, our next stop was the Dole Plantation - we had a look around the shop, tried some Pineapple Whip in a waffle cone and wandered around the gardens. We didn't have enough tome to get lost in the maze though!

 

Loved the Pineapple Whip, very refreshing and another thing I had on the to-do list!

 

There are also some lovely rainbow gum trees in the park area on the left hand side of the main building. I didn't know these were here and as it had been raining earlier, the colours were shining.The gardens were lovely to look around too.

 

Heading further north we went to the North Shore. This is one area I would have liked to spend more time in. The tour we were on really hits the highlights (which we knew) but doesn't spend any significant time at places.

 

We stopped at Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beach. The surf was rolling in with waves of around 20 feet. It was terrific to watch the surfers ride the waves. We had about 15 minutes at each of these beaches. I would love to see the really big waves that come in here in the winter time!

 

There were lots of sightseers this day - this meant lots of traffic on the road and not much parking.

 

On the beach there was a group of Japanese tourists watching the waves and having there photos taken at the edge of the water. I saw one of them with her back to the waves get hit by a wave, luckily she only got wet and wasn't washed off her feet. Just goes to show, never turn your back on the ocean!

 

We drove past Shark Bay that I had read could be a good snorkel spot. It was very choppy and rough here today and there is no way anyone could have snorkelled there.

 

The north shore area was not as developed as I had thought it would be and therein lies its charm. It still has the surfie village feel and I hope that is not lost by hotels and resorts buying up the land and developing it for tourism. As a sign I saw on a fence said "nuff hotels already". Yeah bro, I agree, keep it like it is!

 

Lisa drove along at a very good pace for us to be able to see all the places that we weren't stopping at.

 

La'ie is a beautiful place and we enjoyed our brief look here.

 

Our lunch spot was the Crouching Lion Inn. Lovely views from here and the lunch was quite good too.

 

The road down the east coast really hugs the coast in places and makes a very scenic drive.

 

Our next stop was Moli'i Fishpond where we went on a short boat ride out on the pond. It was interesting hearing how the pond was made and its uses. Wonderful views of the Ko'olua Mountains as well.

 

We also stopped at the Macademia Farm shop next to the Fish pond - I think both of these places are a part of the Kualoa Ranch, but I may be wrong. Free samples of nuts and coffee and of course a gift shop!

 

On the road again we headed to the Byodo-In Temple. This is a lovely peaceful place and quite beautiful as well. I think we had about 30 minutes here.

 

Continuing on we arrived at Halona Blowhole where we stopped to watch it and look a at the beaches on either side - Sandy Beach and Halona Cove (also known for its role in the movie "From Here To Eternity". Both lovely spots.

 

Hanauma Bay was our final stop for the day and I was excited to see where we would be coming back to to snorkel later in the week.

 

Our drive back to Waikiki included looking at some of the lovely and very expensive homes in the area.

 

The tour was a good orientation of Oahu and a great way to see things without us having to drive. Of course, you lose the flexibility to stop longer if you want when on a tour. But as we didn't want to drive this was a good option.

 

Our guide was great and the bus was comfortable and not a huge size, so we weren't waiting for people all day long.

[Raison]

Sunday evening...

 

After a long day on our circle island tour, we refreshed with a swim and the decided to head around to the House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel.

 

We walked around the beachfront and were able to get a table in the cocktail area after about a 5 minute wait. This was such a great night.

 

The sunset was spectacular and the entertainment - music and hula dancing was very nice indeed.

 

We were lucky to have chosen this night as there was a group of students there from the Kamahanaha School who shared their talents with us - singing and dancing. The regular musicians also had members of their extended family there too. They also joined in the entertainment.

 

The regular hula dancer is Debbie Nakanelau and she is beautiful, elegant and very graceful.

 

We enjoyed it so much that we stayed on for dinner. The meal was lovely and topped off a lovely night.

 

Here are a few photos from our day:

 

[Raison]

Monday 21 March 2011

 

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny. We were picked up from near our hotel for our tour today, the Hole-In-The-Wall food tour.

 

We read about this before leaving home and it seemed like it would be fun and a bit out of the ordinary.

 

Our guides for the day were Greg and Sahara and they were a lot of fun and a wealth of knowledge about local restaurants and places to eat.

 

We headed to various places in Honolulu to try local foods. There was a lot of information about the places we visited and the history of the areas as well.

 

We tried many different things through the day, including Baked Manapua at the Royal Kitchen in Chinatown, rice noodles in China town - we were able to watch them making these too which was interesting.

We sampled many local fruits and treats from bakeries and food places in Chinatown, ice cream from Bubbies Ice cream and malasadas from Leonards.

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed this tour - it was different and a fun way to spend a day.

 

After the tour we headed to Snorkel Bob's to organise a snorkel mask for DH, who has very bad eye-sight. Without the RX mask, DH would not be able to snorkel as he wouldn't be able to see anything! We wanted to make sure that he would be able to see before we booked the snorkel shuttle tour to Hanauma Bay. They held his mask for us and we collected it the afternoon before heading off to snorkel.

 

This completed, we walked back to the Ilikai and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon reading and doing the things you do while relaxing in Hawaii.

[Bucky3]

Thanks for your great review. The Halekulani is one of our very favorite places. Which restaurant did you choose for dinner there?

[Raison]

Thanks for your great review. The Halekulani is one of our very favorite places. Which restaurant did you choose for dinner there?

 

I am not sure of the name of the restaurant we ate at...it was in the same area where the nightly entertainment and cocktails are. I think it was all a part of the same place.

[GypRasc]

Sunday evening...

 

After a long day on our circle island tour, we refreshed with a swim and the decided to head around to the House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel.

 

We walked around the beachfront and were able to get a table in the cocktail area after about a 5 minute wait. This was such a great night.

 

The sunset was spectacular and the entertainment - music and hula dancing was very nice indeed.

 

We were lucky to have chosen this night as there was a group of students there from the Kamahanaha School who shared their talents with us - singing and dancing. The regular musicians also had members of their extended family there too. They also joined in the entertainment.

 

The regular hula dancer is Debbie Nakanelau and she is beautiful, elegant and very graceful.

 

We enjoyed it so much that we stayed on for dinner. The meal was lovely and topped off a lovely night.

 

Here are a few photos from our day:

 

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Wow! That was some wave at Sunset Beach. We didn't see any waves nearly like that when we went to North Shore.

[FloatYourBoatSince2003]

I have most of my trip report in a word document that I intended to copy and paste into posts here.

This worked once last night and then again this morning, but the paste option doesn't seem to work now...does anyone know if there is some time limit on posting like this?

 

 

Also I would like to post more photos in a bigger size, but I can only work out how to post little thumbnails, any hints welcomed please.

 

Sometimes I find CC freezes up on me and I restart it.

 

As for the photos...you can get the "big" ones by uploading your photos to something like Photobucket (create an album then upload the photos). Then when you click on each photo you see a bunch of linking options. Click on the "IMG" link and it will paste the link into your clipboard. Then paste that link into the post where you want the picture. There is a limit of six per post, and you can test them by clicking preview.

 

It may not make sense as you read it but it's pretty self-explanatory as you're doing it.. Plus all your photos are backed up in offsite storage.

[Bucky3]

Raison - By your description of where you had dinner at the Halekulani, that area is known as "House Without A Key." We love the casual atmosphere there. Great pictures there, and your photo of Sunset Beach was amazing. Looking forward to the rest of your review, and thank you again.

[FunCruiser56]

Enjoying every bit of your review so far, looking forward to more! The Circle tour sounds like just what we want to do, don't want to rent a car cuz then the driver never gets to see it all!

Thanks for taking time to post your review

 

Bev

[heart286]

Thank you so much for your review so far! I am really wishing be had booked a few days early in Honolulu! We only have about 24 hours before we board the ship! But I intend to make the most of those hours!;)

 

We are with the group sailing on may 7th!

[Raison]

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone!

 

I am still unable to cut and paste my review from my word document so I have been re-typing it straight into the site. I notice that our Pearl Harbour day is not here. I typed it up last night and posted it, but sometimes around 6 to 7 pm my time the site is difficult to access. So I guess I will have to do it again!

 

Monday morning here so I am off to work...and the review will have to wait!