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‘SUP Hannah Montana?
Day 12 and as we near the end of our holiday we decided that we hadn’t done enough snorkeling so headed to Hannah Montana Bay aka Hanauma Bay, a marine embayment formed within a tuff ring and located along the southeast coast of Oahu.
Image above: the C shaped bay of Hanauma Bay with bright blue water and lots of coral visible through the water.
Getting there from Waikiki is pretty easy; we all jumped on a bus and 25mins later we were ready at the parks entrance watching the mandatory “don’t touch stuff, don’t stand on stuff” video, before heading down the steep incline into the bay.
Once you’re inside the bay even though there are a lot of people on the beach, and you have to walk a fair way to find a clear spot, it didn’t feel that crowded. We also managed to avoid bumping into people while snorkelling, which made it a pretty pleasant experience.
Once in the water we saw so many different varieties of fish it was hard to keep track of everything we saw, however one noticeable difference from when we’d been there 10 years ago was the lack of colour in the coral which was a shame.
Images above: Underwater photos of some of the fish we saw.
Day 13 saw us jumping on another bus to head over to the North Shore to Turtle Bay Resort (where they filmed the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshal). We decided to take the 2+ hour bus trip rather than get an transfer across to save money (we saved about $80US per person) which meant we had to be on the bus at 6am. At the time we all were pretty grumpy about it, but the bus ride across to the other side of the island turned out to be such a scenic drive, we all said it was something we would do again just for the views. Along the way the bus took us right alongside the coastline and past all these beautiful mountains. If you’re ever in Oahu and looking for something to do that gets you out of Waikiki, we recommend jumping on the number 55 bus to Turtle Bay Resort for a $5.50 round trip tour.
Image above: Photo taken from inside the bus on our way to Turtle Bay Resort, there is lots of beautiful volcanic mountains.
When we arrived at Turtle Bay Resort it was time for SUP with a PUP, stand up paddle boarding with two adorable dogs (Kahuna and Hina), our guide Rocky, an ex-pro surfer and now the official trainer of the surf dogs. When we met the dogs they were – if it was possible – even more excited to be SUP’ing than we were. They instantly warmed to us and even shared the car ride to Kawela Bay with us.
Image above: Kahuna, Luke and Kate sitting in the back of the car smiling for the camera.
Image above: Hina giving Kate a puppy kiss on the cheek.
As we got closer and closer to Kawela Bay the dogs excitement grew even more until we arrived and they both bolted out of the car and right into the water to show us how it was done.
We then spent the next hour or so paddling around the bay with both Kahuna and Hina jumping from board to board depending on who they wanted to catch a ride with. We were lucky to see not only the crystal clear waters of the bay but a baby hammerhead shark and some turtles.
Images above: Kate, Jason, Greg and Luke all SUP with a PUPing.
When we arrived at Turtle Bay Resort, we were instantly impressed with how beautiful it was, and going off a recommendation for “the best Mai Tai on the island” from Rocky, we decided to grab lunch at the pool bar. Not only was it the best Mai Tai we ever had, we were able to sit and enjoy our lunch watching over the nearby surf where Kahuna was surfing with another happy customer.
Image above: the pool area at Turtle Bay Resort on the ocean.
Image above: Kate holds the famous Mai Tai in front of a palm tree
After a few Mai Tai’s we were back on the bus and heading back into Waikiki when we realised our bus had to go back past Ala Moana, so we decided to get off there where Nicole met us for yet more shopping at Skechers. Thanks to Greg’s love of Skechers and his influence we’ve managed to buy 13 pairs of Sketchers between the 5 of us!
Image above: Greg smiling out the front of the Sketchers store.
Sadly, Thursday was Nicole’s last night with us before she headed back home to Sydney so we had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant before bidding her aloha and a ua halawai hou.
Image above: Greg, Luke, Jason, Kate and Nicole sitting around a table smiling.
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A palace, some sharks and ice ice baby.
Day 10 in the land of aloha saw us take a slower start to the day with a well-deserved sleep in before jumping on a bus and heading downtown to check out Iolani Palace.
Image above: Greg standing in front of Iolani Palace.
Image above: Jason, Nicole, Greg and Luke sitting waiting to enter the palace.
Serving as the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1845 through to 1893 (when the monarchy was overthrown), it’s now listed as a National Historic Landmark and offers self guided audio tours to the public to fund ongoing restorations.
Image above: a diamond necklace inside the palace
Image above: The throne room inside the palace with two formal ladies dresses on mannequins.
The palace is not only grand in appearance, but at the time boasted many luxuries not heard of including a telephone, a bathroom off the dining room for VIP guests, and it also had electricity before Buckingham Palace and the White House.
Image above: A close up photo of a quilt hand made by Queen Liliuokalani during her 8 months imprisonment in the palace.
Image above: The view looking outside the palace from the front entrance.
We spent a bit of time wondering around Iolani Palace as well as the Ali'iolani Hale across the road (known as the new palace), which now serves as the State Supreme Court and the on-screen headquarters of the Hawaii Five 0 team, before heading to lunch at Café Julie and then back into Waikiki ready for our sunset cruise.
Image above: The new palace.
Image above: Jason sitting at a small desk inside a court room pretending to be a court stenographer
Image above: A court room set up with Greg sitting as the judge at the front, Nicole, Kate and Jason as lawyers.
Image above: The large windows at Cafe Julie.
The sunset cruise was a big item on our schedule. We took this cruise 10 years ago and had so much fun we wanted to recreate that night including a photo Kate and Nicole had with the captain. When we climbed aboard the catamaran we noticed the captain was different and found out that sadly the previous captain had passed away due to a heart attack exactly one year to the date. We still managed to re-create the photo with the help of the new captain and had fun trying to keep up with a tiny Japanese grandma who was making sure she took full advantage of the unlimited cocktails on offer (we couldn’t do it, she drank more than all of us!).
Image above: The original photo of Nicole and Kate with the boat captain.
Image above: The new photo of Nicole and Kate with the captain.
Image above: Jason, Kate, Luke, Greg and Nicole all sit on the boat holding a cocktail
Image above: Luke, Greg and Kate with the Japanese Grandma at the end of the cruise.
Image above: The sunset from the boat.
Day 11 and it was shark time! As with the sunset cruise, this is something we’d done 10 years ago and were really excited to do it again this time with Greg and Luke. We were lucky to have amazing weather, saw a huge pod of dolphins and were first in the water when the sharks were excited to check out what was in the cage.
Image above: The view looking back to the North Shore from the boat as we headed out to the shark cage.
When we’d done the tour 10 years ago, the laws were different and the tour operators were able to drop some bait into the water to bring around all the sharks in the area, however now the law states that you can only feed marine life if you have the intent to kill and eat it. It didn’t matter though; we still had lots of Galapagos Sharks swimming around to entertain us.
Image above: The original photo in the shark cage from 10 years ago with Jason, Kate and Nicole.
Image above: The new photo in the shark cage with Nicole, Jason, Kate, Greg and Luke.
Image above: A shark swims by the cage very close.
Image above: Two sharks swimming close to the cage.
Image above: A shark swims up to say hi to everyone in the cage
Image above: Greg and Luke under water throwing a shaka
Image above: Kate under water in the shark cage with a shark in the background.
Image above: Jason underwater in the shark cage.
As we’d organised a later transfer back to Waikiki we spent some time wondering around the north shore town of Haleiwa where we grabbed some of the famous Matsumoto’s Shaved Ice. The first few mouthfuls were full of so much flavour, however after you were half way through it, it became sort of a sugary mush. Still totally worth the sugar coma though.
Image above: The shaved ice being made and topped with bright coloured syrups.
Image above: 5 bowls full of brightly coloured shaved ice ready to be eaten
Image above: The shops in Haleiwa
Image above: Jason, Greg and Luke sit in the “man chair” waiting for Kate and Nicole to finish shopping.
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Arnie’s Hawaii Ten Oh.
The last few days in Hawaii have sort of blurred into one mega day so may be a little out of order, but I’ll try and capture the highlights.
Over this trip, we’ve seemed to mix it up with a luxury experience and then move onto something more relaxed which is working out perfectly to give us a taste of everything Hawaii has to offer (and Kate gets to have a few outfit changes a day…).
On Friday, we started with a really fancy Champagne high tea at Orchids, the beautiful restaurant in the Halekulani hotel on the water. We’d done this before, however this was our first time where they made us a vegan high tea. It was good, although the dessert component was just fresh cut fruit which was a little disappointing.
Image above: Luke, Kate, Jason, Nicole and Greg sitting around a table with high tea plates in the middle.
Image above: The vegan high tea trays next to a glass of Champagne, on the bottom is sandwiches, on the top fresh fruit.
With a few more hours of daylight we headed to our new favourite spot, the Beach Bar at the Moana Surfrider, for cocktails in pineapples where we were lucky enough to have a great spot to watch a hula dancer and see a rainbow across Diamond Head.
Image above: Luke, Jason,Nicole, Greg and Kate sitting with cocktails served in pineapples.
Image above: Luke smiling and having a great time while a hula dancer performs in the background
Image above: A giant rainbow beam across Waikiki Beach.
We then ended the night watching the Aloha Friday Hilton fireworks which sadly only lasted 3 mins (not at all worth the 45 mins we waited for them….).
Image above: Jason, Greg, Luke and Nicole waiting for the fireworks on the beach.
Image above: the Aloha Friday fireworks from the Hilton in the distance. A bright red firework explodes across the water.
On Saturday, we were booked into do a shark cage dive, however due to heavy swell on the North Shore, our tour was cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday. With nothing booked in, we decided to hit the outlets at Waikele to see how much more money we could save (we’re all buying saving so much this trip!).
Sunday was the big Hawaii Ten Oh – our 10-year anniversary. While so many people come to Hawaii and fall in love with it, we fell in love IN Hawaii which is why it’s such a special place for us and not just another holiday destination. We love that it holds so many special memories for us here, from our first date at the Cheesecake Factory, to sharing it with our friends and family for our wedding 7 years ago, Hawaii will always have a special piece of our hearts.
To celebrate 10 years, we started by exchanging Tiffany T rings (T for Tiffany, T for ten years right?), which replaced the turtle rings we’d bought for our 5-year anniversary.
Image above: Kate’s diamond T Tiffany ring sits in the black ring box next to the blue Tiffany and Co box.
Image above: Jason wears his Tiffany T ring, it’s black with a silver T across the middle.
Dressed up and blinged out we headed for a fancy breakfast at the Moana Surfrider Veranda where we’d pre-booked “the best table in the restaurant for our anniversary breakfast” and they did not let us down. They had us at the most amazing table which was almost like our own private room with 180 degrees of glass around us looking across Waikiki Beach and back to Diamond Head.
Image above: Jason and Kate dressed ready for breakfast smiling into a mirror
Image above: A peach bellini sits on the table with the ocean in the background.
Image above: Greg and Luke enjoying their buffet breakfast.
Image above: A surprise dessert the restaurant delivered to the table, it’s a carrot cake with ice cream and a small chocolate that has congratulations written on it.
Keeping with tradition, we headed for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory where we were a little worried about going back now being vegan that we wouldn’t be able to eat anything, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so many vegan options on the menu. Our server Matt even went out of his way to check things with the chef to make sure they were vegan and made recommendations of things they could make for us that were not on the menu if we couldn’t find anything we liked.
Image above: Jason sits at the table in the Cheesecake Factory ready to order smiling.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon getting ready for our anniversary dinner and for a photoshoot we’d organized for before the dinner. We realised that the only professional photos we have of us are from our wedding so decided to use this opportunity to get some nice photos of us with Nicole, Greg and Luke since we’d all be dressed up. Our photographer was great and had us going in and out of cute hotels to use their chairs and unique features as backdrops and we finished up in the gardens of the Royal Hawaiian for some more Hawaiian style photos.
Image above: Jason and Kate dressed ready for dinner smiling looking into a mirror.
Image above: Greg and Luke pose for the photographer in the gardens of the Royal Hawaiian.
Feeling like we all just stepped off a photo-shoot for Ralph Lauren and dressed to impress, we made our way to Noi Thai, an upscale Thai restaurant in the Royal Hawaiian for what turned out to be an amazing dinner experience in a semi private dining room.
Image above: the place setting for Kate at the restaurant which says Aloha Kate printed in 3D.
Still going on the buzz of Champagne and good food, we did a quick costume change and headed for a drink at the Tiki Bar to recreate a photo we’d had taken 7 years ago when we were here for our wedding. Even though it’s just a photo recreation, it means so much to us that we’re here with Nicole, Greg and Luke and that they’ve been a part of our lives for so long and we’re loving having them there with us for this holiday adventure.
Image above: 5 Tiki cups are lined up across the table. Jason is smiling behind them.
Image above: The photo taken at the Tiki Bar 7 years ago verses the photo taken today.
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The bands back together.
The last few days in Hawaii have been ah-muz-ing. To start, Nicole arrived which means we’re all here now and the party has well and truly started.
Image above: Greg, Nicole, Luke, Kate and Jason smiling standing in front of a giant neon Aloha sign.
After a great lunch at Duke’s on the beach, Nicole and Kate headed to a day spa for a girly afternoon of facials and massages in the gardens of The Royal Hawaiian, while Jason headed to the Yard House to catch up on some World Cup games.
Image above: Nicole and Kate wearing pink robes inside the day spa.
Image above: the outside massage area at the Royal Hawaiian, two beds are inside a small tent in the middle of the garden.
After a pretty relaxing day, we headed for a quick swim before retiring to bed relatively early.
Image above: Jason swimming on Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head is in the background.
With the band back together, it was finally time for the main event – the 4th July sales at Ala Moana. We were all pretty excited so arrived well before the shops opened and stayed until the 8.30pm fireworks, which we watched from across the road. They were ok, apparently the “35th best 4th July fireworks in the US of A” but we were all a little disappointed with them in comparison to what we’ve seen in Sydney over the years.
Image above: Greg, Kate, Nicole and Luke all smiling sitting on the bus on the way to Ala Moana, stop requested!
Image above: Nicole, Greg and Luke walking around Ala Moana waiting on the shops to open
Image above: Kate holding a bright red Kate Spade shopping bag that is almost as big as her.
Image above: Jason, Luke, Greg and Nicole watching the 4th July Fireworks off in the distance.
Waking up to a glorious day on Thursday, we headed out early for a turtle cruise which we’ve done lots of times before, and has never disappointed us before. Unfortunately this time there was a group of scuba divers scaring the turtles away underneath us and a group of Japanese tourists who didn’t understand the one and only rule of swimming with turtles (don’t chase the turtles) scaring/chasing them when they came to the surface, so there weren’t as many turtles as we’d seen on previous trips. We* did still have a nice time sailing up and down the west to south coast of Oahu (*except for Jason who managed to get pretty sea sick…).
Image above: Jason, Nicole, Luke and Greg standing on the beach with Diamond Head in the background ready to get on the boat.
Image above: Nicole, Greg, Luke, Kate, Jason sitting on the boat sailing out to turtle canyon.
Image above: A turtle sticks it’s head up through the surface of the water to grab some air.
Image above: A turtle dives down from the surface of the water
Image above: A turtle swims past the camera very close
Image above: Luke, Greg, Nicole, Kate and Jason all under water posing for the camera.
Image above: view of Diamond head and Waikiki from the cruise, the water is a bright blue and the sun is shining.
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Welcome to the Jungle
Day two on the island of Aloha was pretty low-key for us (other than Greg an Luke aka Gruke arriving – yay!). We took the day pretty easy with just a little shopping and cocktails by the beach.
Image above: Kate standing out the front of Tiffany and Co holding a Tiffany and Co blue shopping bag
Image above: Jason, Greg, Luke and Kate sitting at a beach bar drinking cocktails
Day three however has been much more adventurous. Bright and early we were on a bus heading over to the eastern side of Oahu for a full day full of adventure at Kualoa Ranch, a 4,000-acre private nature reserve which has formed the backdrop to many movies and TV shows over the years including the Jurassic Park series, Jumanji 1 and 2, Lost, Godzilla, 50 First Dates and Hawaii Five-O to name a few.
Image above: Jason, Kate, Luke and Greg standing in front of the Kualoa Valley
We started our day by jumping into a large Jeep for their Jungle Expedition which took us through the beautiful Hakipu`u Jurassic rainforest. This stunning tropical valley is where they filmed many of the Jurassic movies, Kong Skull Island and Jumanji scenes so it was great to see things up close and see how real they can make seemingly basic props appear on film, in particular the main cage where they keep the hybrid dinosaur in Jurassic World and the snake pit in Jumanji 2.
Image above: Jason, Luke, Greg sitting in the Jeep at the start of the tour
Image above: the gate to the hybrid dinosaurs enclosure on Jurassic World
Other than movie locations, our tour took us around to beautiful spots high up in the valley for panoramic views across Oahu’s eastern coastline as we learnt about the history of the property and Hawaii, before making out way back down to the centre of the ranch.
Image above: View across the eastern side of Oahu through a valley towards the ocean
After our Jungle Expedition, we headed across to Secret Island Beach and jumped onto a catamaran for a loop out to find some turtles (we found heaps!) and get a great view of Kualoa Valley from the water. Looking back across the crystal clear blue water towards the prehistoric cliff face, we couldn’t decided if it looked so cinematic because we knew it had been in so many films, or if it’s been used in so many films because it’s so beautiful.
Image above: Jason sitting on the boat
Image above: Luke, Jason, Kate and Greg on the catamaran looking for turtles
Image above: The iconic Jurassic Park cliff face as seen from the water
Next on our itinerary was a buffet lunch, followed by an ATV movie sites tour. After a quick safety demonstration (which was basically just a video telling us what not to do), we jumped onto our ATVs and followed our guide through the Jurassic Valley past the famous fallen tree branch that Sam Neill’s character hides behind to avoid being trampled by fleing Gallimimus, the giant Godzilla footprint (which they had to fill in slightly because cows kept falling into it) and many other movie sites. This was, as our guide called it “a scenic tour” with only one stop for a quick photo and the rest we took in the views as we drove on past possibly 20+ movie sites we all recognised.
Image above: Jason, Kate, Luke and Greg sitting on ATV’s in a row taking a sneaky selfie after the tour guide said don’t take photos when on the ATV’s.
Overall, the day at Kualoa was incredibly well organised and even though there was so many people there, you never felt like it as they spread out the activities so well that you hardly see anyone else when you’re on your tour. When you arrive you’re given your personal itinerary of where you need to be an when, but it’s all timed and planned so well you never feel like your rushing, yet never feel like you’re sitting around waiting for the next thing.
Tomorrow Nicole arrives which we’re really excited about; then the party can really get started!
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Sunshine and rainbows
After what has felt like foooorrreevver the day finally arrived when we left the Sunshine State for the Rainbow State.
Image above: Jason and Kate standing at their front door ready to fly out to Hawaii. Nala is sitting in front and hasn’t yet realised she’s not going...
After probably one of the best Australia to Hawaii flights we’ve ever had (thanks to some noise cancelling headphones, if you don’t have any go out and buy some now!), we arrived on the island of Oahu ready to start our two week Hawaiian adventure.
Image above: Jason and Kate wearing noise cancelling headphones on the plane
Image above: Aerial view from the plane window out across the plane wing as we landed in Hawaii
Since it’s our 10-year anniversary, we decided to splurge and book an Ocean View room at the Alohilani Hotel, right across from the beach. The Alohilani is a newly renovated 5 star hotel and even though we’ve only been here a few hours, you can see how it’s earned those stars with 5 star views, facilities and service all round.
Image above: Jason standing on our hotel room balcony looking across Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach
Image above: Jason sitting enjoying our complimentary welcome Mai Tai at our hotel
After checking in, we decided to start our trip, as we have many, many (many many many many) other times, by heading to Lulu’s however we sadly found out that they don’t have anything Vegan on the menu so after downing a cocktail (Blue Hawaii of course) we headed to a new Mexican place we found nearby.
Image above: view across to Waikiki Beach with lots of palm tress in view from our seat at Lulu’s.
The rest of the day was pretty low key and in a jetlagged haze. We strolled up to check out the new International Market Place, which sadly didn’t have the same feeling of aloha that the old market place did and more or less is a mini version of Ala Moana with lots of high-end designer stores. The only saving grace was that they have saved the giant banyan tree that formed the heart of the old market place and have built around it making it the focal piece of the center.
Image above: front main entrance to the International Market Place
Image above: Lots of big trees inside the International Market Place
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27 days and counting
When we say we’ve been talking about this holiday for 10 years, we’re not exaggerating. Way way way back in 2008 when a much younger Jason and Kate found themselves on an accidental date in Waikiki’s Cheesecake Factory, we joked that if we ended up being together for 10 years, we’d come back to Hawaii to celebrate. Little did we know in that 10 years we would go back to Hawaii a few more times and even get married there, both of us would change careers (and change careers back for me), we’d adopt the most gorgeous dog, travel the world, and pack up everything we own and move to Brisbane which, just happens to be closer to Hawaii if you hadn’t noticed…
Photo: Taken our last night in Hawaii 2008 on a sunset cruise, less than a week into our relationship.
Needless to say, we’re pretty excited not only to be celebrating 10 wonderful years together, but also to be going back with friends who have been there with us from the very start, Nicole, Greg and Luke (aka Gruke).
Photo: shark diving in 2008 with Nicole
Photo: The Tiki Bar, Hawaii July 2011 for our wedding
This trip, we have a few exciting things planned including diving with sharks again, driving ATV’s around Jurassic Park, swimming with turtles, SUP with a PUP (stand up paddle boarding with a dog sitting on the board with us – eeek so much excitement!) and possibly the best activity of all, the 4th July sales at Ala Moana!
So, if you’re keen to follow along with our shenanigans, we’ll be using this blog again to share all our adventures as we once again head into the rainbow state for some aloha.
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These are a few of our favorite things
Our last day in Hawaii turned out to be a “best of” of the things we love about Waikiki.
We got an early start to the day and managed to see the set up from the night before for Hawaii Five O filming which was happening right next door to our apartment and we had no idea. I can’t believe we missed it again, but it was still cool to see the crew packing up again.
We did a few laps around the block to make sure we really couldn’t see any of the cast (I will find you one day McGarret!) and made our way to the beach for an early morning swim. An early morning swim in Waikiki is the best time for a swim. It’s warm without the blazing sun, there are less people and the sunrise casts a beautiful light across the beach.
After we’d had a swim, we headed to our favorite coffee place for a cup-o’-Joe, Island Vintage Coffee (if you love your coffee and need a hit when you’re in Hawaii, this is the only place to get it from). It’s located in the Royal Hawaiian Centre and there is always a line and you can never get a table, but the wait for your coffee is worth it. Plus there is a great little garden downstairs where you can enjoy your coffee in peace.
Even though we’d done so much shopping this trip (ok it was me, I’m bringing home another full suitcase…), we still headed back to Ala Moana but not for shopping (ok I did a little more...), but to head back to the Mai Tai Bar for some pulled pork sliders and our favourite drinks, Jason a Blue Moon beer, me a passionfruit mojito.
We also grabbed a Cinnabon while we were at Ala Moana (another favourite) which I totally recommend you try if you’re in the states, just be sure to get the extra dipping frosting. Yum!
After we’d spent a few hours at Ala Moana, we headed back into Waikiki (accidentally taking the wrong bus and having to back track – we both swear the bus driver had the wrong number on the front of the bus) and to our apartment to pack, then headed out for dinner at another favourite place, The Tiki Bar.
The Tiki Bar is a place we’ve been going every time we’ve been here since the first time we came to Hawaii 8 years ago. It’s on our “must do” list for Hawaii, however we’re going to take it off the list. The food was good (good, not great like it used to be) and the service was terrible. It’s turned into a real tourist spot full of Aussie bogans who just made the experience in there cringe worthy and made us try and hide our accents. Plus they advertised there would be live music and hula girls, of which there was neither.
The night did end on a high note though; we headed to the beach just in time to watch the final sunset on our time on these beautiful islands. We walked along the beach as the sun was setting to the Beach Bar at the Moana Surfrider where we enjoyed our last cocktail while live music played and a hula girl danced. It was a perfect end to a perfect holiday.
As for now, we’re having breakfast at Lulu’s one last time (with an extra side of bacon of course) before we head back home. It’s been an amazing holiday and we’ve had so much fun, but I do miss the fur babies so am looking forward to getting home to see them.
Thanks to everyone who followed along with our adventures, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading along with us. The Hawaiian’s don’t ever say goodbye as it’s to final. They say “a hui kaua” which translates to “until we meet again” so with that, aloha and a hui kaua.
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Lazy summer days
Our second last full day in Hawaii isn’t really blog worthy. We still had a great day but compared to helicopter flights, ziplining and sailing along the Na Pali coast, it’s actually not going to be much fun to read about, but here goes.
We started the day with breakfast at a place we hadn’t been before (which is rare, we’ve pretty much been to most places in Waikiki across our trips to here). It‘s called Hula Grill and is located above Dukes on the beach. You had to walk through a hotel lobby, up an escalator and then across another foyer to get there (which is probably why we’d never seen it before), but when you get there you’re rewarded with a view right on the beach that is unrestricted by a pool full of tourists like you get at Dukes.
After breakfast we hit the beach for another swim, went to Rum Fire for a cocktail (a great bar if you come to Hawaii as it has amazing views), went to a chocolate store we love and just spent the day enjoying the great weather and sunshine.
In the afternoon, I had an appointment at my favourite day spa, Abhasa. It’s ranked as the number 2 day spa in American (and number 1 in Hawaii) so I always try and get there when we’re here as its one of the best ways to spend an afternoon in their outdoor garden cabanas getting a lomi lomi massage and then spending some time chilling out in their spa area. When I met up with Jason later at the Yard House, I was so relaxed I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was drunk.
We then had dinner reservations at another place we love, Il Lupino, an Italian restaurant set in the gardens of the Royal Hawaiian. We were lucky when we arrived early there was a hula show right next to the restaurant, so we watched the show for a bit before eating another great meal in Hawaii.
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Shopping! Shopping! Shopping!
As we wanted to do different things today, Jason and I went our separate ways today. He wanted to go to the movies (boring), where as I wanted to go to the outlets to go shopping. It was actually good that he didn’t want to go as he only slows me down when shopping anyway.
I’ve been to the Waikele outlets a few times before and it can be hit or miss. I think it depends on what part of the season you go there and if they’ve just had a shipment of goods, but today I was lucky and it was full of great things at good prices.
I managed to do some serious damage to our bank account (I bought 3 bags and a wallet just in Kate Spade alone!), but managed to get some great stuff.
After a full day of shopping, I headed back into Waikiki and met Jason (who had managed to do some shopping of his own at Ala Moana) where we changed and headed out for dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo, a teppanyaki restaurant we discovered last time we were here.
The chef serves up your meal with so much flair and showmanship it’s not only a great dinner but a fun show to watch. Plus for some reason we had on our card they gave us “VIP Inform Manager”. We don’t know who they thought we were (we checked and no one else at our table had the stamp), but we just went with it.
With a full belly, we headed around the corner to Cuckoo Coconuts to see Shawn Garnett play. Shawn plays Cousin Flippa on Hawaii Five-O and I’d been chatting to him via Instagram to find out where he was playing so we could go see him when we were in Hawaii. He has sung on the show before but hearing him live was amazing, I hope he puts out an album soon. We were lucky enough to also meet him, which was pretty cool as he was such a nice guy.
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Hawaii Five Oh-no we missed you
Day 10 in Waikiki started with breakfast at our favorite place in the entire world. Lulu’s Waikiki. Not only is the food amazing but the views across the ocean are spectacular. It could also help that Lulu’s was the first place we visited the very first time we came to Hawaii 8 years ago so it has sentimental value. Either way, we love it there and had a great breakfast and awesome start to the day.
By the time we’d finished breakfast, it was 10.30am and only 2 hours until we had a lunch booking at Duke’s (did I mention we’re coming back fat?), so we decided to walk down Kalakaua Avenue to try and work off breakfast and make room for lunch.
Along the way we found some cute shops to check out, including a Christmas shop where we bought a custom made decoration for our little ohana (family). The Christmas shop was so beautiful and had so many things but was run by a surprisingly grumpy lady who you think would have been happier working in a Christmas shop in Hawaii.
So about 2 hours after breakfast we were seated at Dukes on the beach for lunch. We couldn’t eat that much (although did manage to fit some cocktails in), but we’d made the booking before we left Australia so decided to still go.
When we’d finished lunch, we heard that they were filming Hawaii Five-O just up the road at the Hilton Village so we headed up there as fast as we could to check it out. Catching them filming Five-O has been a goal of mine since the show came out (it’s my favorite show), but sadly we just missed them and only could see the crew trucks packing up.
Since we were up that end of the city, we decided to go for a swim and catch up on some reading before heading slowly back to our room to shower and change to head back out for dinner.
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Oh my!
Day 9 of our aloha get away started with something we do every time we come to Oahu and something we recommend to everyone who asks us what to do in Hawaii. The turtle sailing cruise.
The cruise costs only USD$60 (which is about $217,536 AUD thanks to the crummy exchange rate) and for that you sail out to turtle canyon and up and down Waikiki beach. Located just off Waikiki, Turtle Canyon is a reef where the turtles come into the turtle day spa to get cleaned by all the little fish. You get about an hour to snorkel around with them and then sail up and down Waikiki a few times. It’s always a great way to start your holiday in Waikiki.
We think this was our 6th time on this cruise so we knew the drill and took our own snorkeling gear, including flippers as they only provide you with a mask and snorkel so it’s harder to swim down to the turtles without flippers. We were pretty much the first ones in the water and the last ones out and saw so many turtles. At one point it was hard to stay two-arm lengths away from them as they would keep coming up to the surface for air and to check you out.
Unfortunately when it was time to sail up and down Waikiki, it started to rain so we sailed along in the rain. But, we were already wet from snorkeling and it was still warm so it didn’t really matter. Plus, we decided a bad day in Waikiki was still better than a good day at work.
After the cruise, we both went out separate ways, Jason to the Honolulu Comic Con where he saw some interesting costumes and lots of cool comics and comic-related toys and merchandise. He also chatted with a few artists and writers who have never made it down to visit Australia, as well as Mr Sulu himself, George Takei!
I headed to my happy place, Ala Moana where they’ve done some major renovations and it’s now even bigger and better than before. It was shopping heaven! I managed to buy lots of cute dresses and even a pair of ballet flats that look like pointe shoes.
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Goodbye Kauai, hello Oahu
Our last day in Kauai was a mixture of feelings. We were sad we were leaving the beautiful island (and Peggy Sue’s baked goodies) but feeling happy that we’d been fortunate enough to explore everything we wanted to do.
After a lazy start to the morning, we packed up and checked out of the Hotel Coral Reef on the coconut coast and headed south to go check out the Spouting Horn in Koloa. The Spouting Horn is similar to the Kiama blowhole; with every wave, water shoots upwards. The effect is spectacular but even more so is the hissing, growling sound it makes which is why according to Hawaiian folklore the islanders thought it was a giant lizard that protected over the island.
As the morning was wearing on, we decided brunch was in order and found a cute little spot under some palm trees for a bite and some mimosas, cheers-ing to a great week on Kauai and not able to decide what our top 3 things were as everything was so much fun.
We then slowly made our way back to the airport where possibly the greatest thing happened. It turns out, after you go on the SSSS review and terrorist watch list and get completely looked over by the USA before boarding a flight, once they realise you’re just some white chick who likes to watch border security a lot, they put you on the TSA pre-checked list. As someone who ALWAYS gets “randomly” bomb checked every time I fly (literally every time) this was a treat. I was given my own special priority lane (although I opted to be the good wife and stay with Jason in the regular people’s lane – which they then gave me a bright yellow card to carry so everyone knew I was pre-approved and didn’t need to be checked out), I didn’t have to remove my shoes (Jason even had to take his thongs off), I could leave my jacket on (if I had been wearing one) and then I could walk through the normal metal detector, where as Jason and everyone else had to go through the full body scan.
Once we’d made it through security, it was just a short 30 minute flight over to Oahu and a 20 minute drive to our new apartment that would be home for the week.
Our new apartment is great (we found it via AirBNB, totally recommend doing that in Waikiki rather than paying for a hotel, you get a bigger better place for less), but as soon as we’d dumped our stuff we were out the door and I was on my way to Sephora and Kate Spade, while Jason headed to his favourite place The Yard House, a bar that has the most beers on tap than any other in the world.
As we had dinner reservations at Morimotos (one of our favourite restaurants in the world and owned by one of the original Iron Chefs Chef Morimoto), we headed back to shower and change before grabbing an Uber down to the Modern Honolulu for dinner and something we’d pre-ordered (thanks to the tip by Alanah ) the fireball dessert. The serve you a chocolate ball which is impressive on it’s own, but then they come and pour liquid fire over it until it’s melted into a gooey mess of chocolate and marshmallow. It was so good but I did struggle to then to get to sleep thanks to all the sugar.
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Welcome *dramatic pause* to Jurassic Park.
After waiting all week, the day was finally here. The day we’d fly by helicopter to Manawaiopuna Falls, aka The Jurassic Park Falls.
We’d chosen to do the first flight in the morning, which meant we had a 7.20am check-in time at the heliport. But, it was well worth getting up early and missing baked goodies for breakfast from Peggy Sue as when we checked in we found out that the weather was always clearer in the morning and there wasn’t as much glare from the sun.
Once we’d been weighed (thankfully it’s all in pounds so I can’t figure out how much weight I’ve put on) and signed a waiver that we wouldn’t use our photos of the waterfall for commercial purposes, we were given life vests and boarded our helicopter with our pilot who looked about 15 but thankfully had grey hair so we felt comfortable he was old enough to fly.
Now, I am not good with heights, I don’t do rides especially roller coasters, I hate flying on a plane, I cried when we caught a seaplane on Hayman Island because I thought we were doing to die and I’ve only been on a helicopter once before and that was for a very short flight. So as we were taking off all I could think of was “oh man, I hope he plays the theme song from Jurassic Park when we land at the falls…”.
He didn’t disappoint. After a few minutes of flying, he told us we were approaching the falls and then it started…..
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Approaching the falls was spectacular and really like you were arriving at some prehistoric land that hadn’t been discovered. Our tour company is the only company allowed to land at the falls so we had an amazing solo flight through the valley until we landed next to the falls while all the other tour helicopters circled above us.
The waterfall is nothing short of amazing. The size of it makes you feel like a tiny ant, but it’s so peaceful and calm you instantly feel relaxed by the sounds of the water rushing over the rocks.
We stayed there for about 15 minutes taking photos (and played with the toy dinosaurs I’d taken with me) and then were back in the helicopter on our way to fly across Waimea Canyon, aka the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, which spans 26 x 21 miles. Then it was down to the Na Pali Coast, back through more valleys, across the taro fields, past upwards of 20 waterfalls until we’d done a full circle of the island and were back at the helipad.
By the time we’d finished the flight it was only 9:30am so we headed off for breakfast and then slowly made our way walking in and out of the shops in Kappa until we made it to the Nani Moon Mead company for a tasting. I had no idea what mead was but Jason explained it as wine made from honey so I was in.
When we arrived we were the only ones in the store so started the tasting on our own. The server was telling us the history of mead, how it’s made, why it’s sort of like wine but not really and how each one is so different. After trying all 6 flavours, we decided to buy two different bottles (a pineapple and lime one and a ginger one) to take home.
On our walked back to our hotel, we found a bar that had a soup of the day Jason wanted to try so we ducked in for a bite to eat and then ended up spending a lazy afternoon by the pool with some fresh mango, pineapple and coconut we’d picked up at a fruit market along the way.
We fly back to Oahu tomorrow and we’ll be sad to leave Kauai, it’s so beautiful and relaxing here and we’re having such a great time, but I am pretty excited about a little place called Ala Moana… Stop requested!
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Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
Day six on Kauai and we’re pretty much living like locals now. We’re on island time, we drive around without the GPS on while listening to Hawaiian reggae (yes, it’s a thing) and we’re starting each day with a big dose of aloha from Peggy Sue, an elderly Hawaiian lady who bakes for all the hotel guests each morning with so much aloha if you looked up the word in the dictionary there would be a photo of her there smiling.
After filling up on breakfast we set off for our adventure on the northern side of the island, zip lining through the pristine private lands of Princeville Ranch. I didn’t know this before we booked, but the ranch is also where they filmed the battlefield scenes from the Hunger Games movies.
Once we had checked in and signed our lives away (they really do like to make sure you don’t try and sue them here), we were harnessed up and on our way to the 9 zip lines we’d be zooming down.
The lines started pretty small, the first one was only around 50m to get everyone used to zipping and give anyone scared a chance to back out, however they built up higher, longer and faster from there until you reached the final line “King Kong”. To zip down King Kong you need to climb up a 10m tall tower where you jump off holding hands with the person next to you (I didn’t want to pay the USD$40 for our photo so I took a photo of the screen with it on it so you can all see). You then zip down at speeds of up to 80km per hour down a 400m line. It was pretty scary being at the top of the tower, but I think that was just because the tower was shaking so much in the wind. Once we were zipping along it was really fun twisting and turning around.
Our guides had asked us if we wanted any local tips on what to do or see while we’re on the island so we asked where was the best place to grab lunch. They recommended the kalua pulled pork nachos at Kalypso, about 20 minutes down the road, which ended up being a great recommendation. However, there are 3 things no matter how many times I visit the States I just can’t get used to. One: Tipping everyone and anyone who smiles at you. Two: All the celebrity endorsements for random products (Bon Jovi did you really need to sell insurance? Are you really out of money?), and three: The food portion sizes. My nachos were so big I honestly don’t think I even eat that much food total in a week. I joked with the waitress that it was a large portion and she said “yeah and you got the half order”.
After lunch we drove around a little more checking out some local villages before heading back our hotel for some R&R time on the deck over looking the water. It’s so relaxing here, and so different to Oahu, I’m surprised more people don’t come to this island (we’ve only bumped into one other Australian group so far).
Tomorrow we’re up early again for our re-scheduled helicopter flight, fingers crossed the weather holds out for it.
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I like turtles.
We set off on our day five adventure with no real plans other than heading towards Princeville and seeing where the road took us. Ok that’s a lie, I’d planned out the entire day to the minute, but it sounds way more adventurous if we stumbled onto all these amazing things rather than I’d research them meticulously by reading review after review online…
So – we set off on our day five adventure, taking the highway north towards Princeville, a 30 minute drive from our hotel that saw us weaving in and out of mountains that kept us humming the theme song from Jurassic Park.
Along the way we stopped off at a lighthouse and bird sanctuary where we were lucky enough to see a monk seal sunning itself on a rock and dolphins swimming in the ocean below.
After we watched the Great Frigatebirds (aka pirates of the island) flying above us for a while, we were back on the road and headed to Hanalei Pier. The pier was built in 1912 (it was originally built in 1892 in wood but extended to its current state in 1912) and was used by the Hawaiians to transport sugarcane off the island. The pier was also the main filming area for the 1954 movie Beachhead and the 1957 film South Pacific.
Feeling hungry, we decided to head up the road to the St Regis Princeville, a 5 star hotel located in Hanalei. We had wanted to stay at this hotel for a few nights during our stay on Kauai, but the cost would have been our entire holiday budget so we thought just grabbing some lunch there was a better idea.
When we arrived, we drove around and around past all of the “No parking” signs and weren’t sure where to park as the only sign we could see was for “Valet Only”. Knowing in Sydney valet parking is $80 at The Star, we called ahead and were surprised to find out valet parking was free as long as you were a hotel guest or dining in one of their restaurants.
When we drove up to the valet parking, I have to admit, thanks to watching lots of American TV, I acted like a pro leaving the key in the ignition and nodding to the valet like I do it all the time (and then when we picked the car up doing the hand shake giving them a tip).
Walking through the hotel you could see why it was so expensive, it was in the most beautiful spot on the island and we were pretty happy to find a spot at the beach bar for lunch.
The food was pretty good, but you were really there for the view across Hanalei bay.
After lunch, we jumped back in the car and headed towards Tunnels Beach, a spot I’d read is the best snorkeling on the island. When we arrived, we managed to get the last parking spot (and then smiled at everyone slowly driving around trying to see if we were just arriving or just about to leave), grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed through the bush to the water.
When we got there the view was better than expected as the forums I’d read only spoke about what was under the water, not above it. The cliffs that connected with the beach were spectacular and made the entire experience even better.
Once we were in the water, while the coral still wasn’t as pretty as it on the Great Barrier Reef, there were so many fish swimming around that were curious as to what the two giant things floating above them were. We saw so many bright and beautiful coloured tropical fish but the highlight was seeing a turtle.
I still don’t know how I saw him sitting on the bottom as he looked like just any other piece of coral, but he moved one of his back flippers and I knew it had to be a turtle so floated for a little longer to see what happened. Lucky I did as we floated above it for a few minutes, and either it was curious to see what we were or in need of some air, so it swam up to the surface between us, coming as close as a meter from us both, had a good look at us before swimming back down to where he was originally between two rocks.
After swimming around for a bit more, we headed back into shore and were back on the road on our way to our hotel for dinner and an early night so we’re well rested for zip lining tomorrow.
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The calm after the storm.
At 5.30am our alarm went off and we were out the door and on the road to the west side of Kauai by 6am. It was just shy of an hour drive but I think I’m finally getting the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road in a backwards car so the drive wasn’t as scary as I’d thought.
We arrived in Waimea and checked into Na Pali Riders, a 3 hour Zodiac boat cruise that would take us long the Na Pali coast where they filmed the scene in Jurassic Park where they’re approaching the island in a helicopter.
Once we’d registered, covered ourselves in sunscreen and listened to a safety briefing, it was a short drive down to the harbour where we were loaded into the Zodiac.
Before heading out, we were warned by our tour guide that it would be a bumpy ride and how to hang on, but once we got out on the water and out of the harbor the water was surprisingly calm. The Captain told us it was the calm after the storm that made weather conditions perfect out on the water – there wasn’t a cloud in the sky (apparently quite rare along this section of the coast) and the water was relatively calm. The Captain later told us it was extremely rare to have these two conditions at the same time and the weather we had was the best he’d seen all year.
The ride towards the cliffs was spectacular; we saw dolphins jumping and playing in the water, a seal laying on the beach and the brightest blue water we have ever seen.
After about 20 minutes of bouncing around in the raft, we finally approached the start of the Na Pali coast. As soon as I saw the first of the peaks I couldn’t help but hum the tune from Jurassic Park as the cliff faces are so recognizable from the movie, but even bigger and better in real life.
As we headed down the side of the coast we ducked in and out of natural sea caves, something that apparently you can’t normally do unless the conditions and tide are just right.
We traveled along the coast for about an hour stopping for photos and to see if we could see the naked hippies on the beach (spoiler: we could) until we came to a spot where we could jump off the raft and go for a snorkel.
The Captain kept telling us how great the conditions for snorkeling were – and they were – the only problem was we’ve grown up spoilt snorkeling in Australia on the great barrier reef so the coral and fish weren’t as beautiful as we’d seen before. It was still fun snorkeling inside some of the caves but it really does make you appreciate what we have at home more and how much we need to really look after our reef.
After a short snorkel, we jumped back on the boat and within half an hour were back onshore, in the car and on the road to our next destination, glass beach.
Glass beach isn’t listed in any guidebooks. I’d read in an online forum that the locals don’t want tourists to know about it as they keep taking the glass. When we arrived (after driving through a factory that looked like it could be in a zombie movie) there was 3 groups of people all walking along collecting the brightest most colourful pieces of glass so we could see why they wanted to keep it a secret. It’s a shame people can’t leave things for others to enjoy as while it was still pretty and the little brown and white glass beads did sparkle, it would have been even prettier with the bright blue and green beads that used to be there.
Feeling a little disappointed in glass beach (it took everything I had not to tell off one woman taking home a entire bucket full of glass beads with her) we jumped back in the car and headed for the town of Koloa for a Puka Dog, the famous “Hawaiian style hotdog”. There was some crazy soup nazi style order rules but we managed to get what we wanted without any dramas, both of us going for the meat hotdog with mango chutney and the Hawaiian style mustard. It was pretty sweet (P.S. I’m coming back home fat thanks to all the sugar we’ve been eating) but a pretty tasty lunch.
The rest of our afternoon was spent slowly making our way back to the east side of the island, stopping at any small village we found along the way, checking out the shops, and possibly grabbing some ice cream. Ok, definitely grabbing some ice cream – it’s really hot here! P.S did I mention I’m coming home fat? #dontjudgeme
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