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Hawaii 2019
  • Bec Taylor
Sep – Oct 2019

Hawaii 2019

Our big Honeymoon to Oahu, Kauai and Maui 😊 Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 30, 2019
    Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Nearly ready

    September 30, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Let's see if I can keep this updated throughout the whole trip this time.
    Just have a few bits and pieces to do today before getting the train down from Cardiff around 3pm. We don't fly out until 9:40pm tonight, but should arrive at the airport with plenty of time to have dinner and look around the duty free shops.
    Not long now!    Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Sydney Airport

    September 30, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Linden dropped us off at Cardiff and we caught the train down to Sydney this afternoon. Watched some Netflix and listened to 3 ladies talk about their shenanigans as they drank out of their 'soft drink' bottles. They were getting a little obnoxious by the time we got to central, but they were pretty amusing. Checked in and passed through security pretty quickly and now we're just getting a bite to eat before looking through the duty free booze. Hopefully we'll get some sleep tonight.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Made it!

    September 30, 2019 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Yesterday aka Monday 2.0 was alright. We didn't get any sleep on the flight so that was a bugger. Plenty of snacks and shows to watch so that was good at least, just went a little too long without sleep. Had the usual security, customs and waiting for the bags once we landed then our transfer to our hotel. We're staying at the Sand Villa for 2 nights, it's older but lovely and right on the canal and only a block from the beach. We were able to check in early and had a little lie down before heading to Dukes, a restaurant on the beach and we went there a few times last time, so good. We had some pupus (haha) finger food/entrees and I had my first cocktail of the trip, as good as we remembered. We were still pretty wrecked so went back to the hotel via a few ABC stores to pick up some supplies and ready for a more decent nap. Around 6pm we made a move and wandered through the shops in Waikiki, there's a Christmas shop! Ben dragged me away pretty quickly, but I'll try and get in there today. Cheeseburger in paradise was for dinner, we shared the mac and cheeseburger and the pastrami cheeseburger, both really good. Back through some shops then ready for bed. I didn't set an alarm for today so it's about 9:30am Tuesday morning right now, plan is to go to the shopping centre Ala Moana and getting a bus from there to Manoa falls, see how we go 😊Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Day 2 and feeling much more normal

    October 1, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Had a nice lazy start to the day and we're both feeling like normal humans again. Went for a wander down past a few shops, decided we weren't hungry yet so got on a pink trolley (open air bus) to the big shopping centre, Ala Moana. Good thing we did a Google before leaving, there's a bus from there to Manoa falls, well, the falls trail is shut on weekdays as of last week for repairs, so that's a shame, but also it was more of a nice time filler rather than a MUST DO. We went to the chemist to grab a few things and a look around the shops, now at Bubba Gump for lunch, I'm so excited for food!Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Shopping day

    October 1, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We hung around at Bubba Gump for a while and had a few drinks while watching the movie in the background. The drinks make shopping more fun and interesting! This shopping centre is huuuuge! We both picked up a few bits and pieces and went back up to Mia Tai bar for another few drinks, happy hour this time! I haven't been asked for ID so many times for a while, it's amazing haha! More shopping then a visit to cinnabon and we thought we'd head back on the trolley. Went via the abc store again for more 'supplies', freshened up at the hotel and went downstairs to loco house for dinner. The food has been great as it was last time, less of a thrill though I guess? Since we have so much at home now, fancy burgers, pizza, cafe brunches etc. Still great! I just remember last time the food was a real novelty. We had ribs and pizza for dinner then went to the foot spa, it's solar heated and is good when you've been on your feet all day. I feel like we'll need it more later in the trip but that's okay. Early night for an early start today. Ben has gone to pick up the car while I maneuvered the many bags down to the lobby, cruising around the east coast of the island today before getting to our accom on the north shore for the next 2 nights.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Koko Crater aka Mount Doom

    October 2, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Why do I keep doing this? 'Oh that hike looks great, what a fun thing to add to our holiday', gahhhhhh!
    First stop, Koko crater aka Mount Doom. The Koko Head trail is an old railway with 1048 stairs, what a great way to start the day, said no one ever. Driving into the carpark and you could see a clear path up the giant mountain next to us. It was bloody beautiful, don't get me wrong, but we (mostly me) had to stop so many damn times on the way up to not die. There were a few military people who do it 5 times a day then go home. FIVE TIMES! One lady was on her phone just having a chat with a friend on the way up, while I'm struggling to breathe let alone talk. It was tough, but the view was unreal! Took us just over an hour to get to the top and about 45 minutes to get down. Going up was obviously more strenuous, but going down was really tricky, a lot of the steps you have to literally climb up, some were up to my hip because sleepers in between had fallen away or eroded, or some were a weird size anyway. There was also a section where there was no ground underneath at all, it just dropped off. There were some dogs doing it with their owners (the crazy runners) and on our way back down there was a girl heading up with her family and she said that if a dog could do it, she could. We had a laugh but refrained from telling her that it's a trap. Finally got to the bottom, absolutely dead, like.. ready to vomit dead, so that was an unpleasant half an hour while my tummy settled. Ben ran in to some shops nearby and got some water, coke and Gatorade so we could switch between the drinks to hydrate and get some sugar back into us. I'm glad we did it, but yeah.. once is enough.
    Oh! Nearly forgot, guess who did the whole thing in pluggers?! Quite a few people mentioned it to him and were dumbfounded haha, Ben's usual response was 'I'm an Aussie, mate'. Hahaha, typical 😅😅    Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Cruising along the coast

    October 2, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Once we were a bit more alive, we stopped at a food truck for Leonard's Malasadas, Portuguese (I think) doughnuts, we got the filled ones but didn't eat them until later because we were still feeling a bit off. We stopped off at Sandy beach first, original name right? I had a quick shower there, had to get out of my sweaty clothes from the hike. Got some photos along the road at different lookouts and the makai research pier. We missed most of these ones last time so it was nice to stop off and have a look.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Revisiting some old favourites

    October 2, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Next we headed for Lanikai, it's a really cute little town on the beach (of course) and if we came with other people, it'd be a really nice spot to stay in a house for a few days I reckon, could also cost a bomb, who knows! Ho'omaluhia Botanical gardens was next, you can drive your car through and it was nice to have a look, especially as we got closer to the mountains. There weren't really many flowers which seemed weird, but it was so green and beautiful. We stopped off at the Valley of the Temples and Byodo temple again, nice little stop off where I got a Vietnamese iced coffee, it was so good, I've been craving a good one sinxe Screemin Veemis closed in Newcastle. Anyway! The Macadamia farm was next, tried a bunch of different flavours and cracked some macadamia nuts open to snack on.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    SHRIMP

    October 2, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    It was time for a late lunch at Giovanni's shrimp truck! It's on the side of the road and looks kinda dodgy but damn it is good! Scampi for us, so much garlic. Really what we needed. After rinsing the garlic and butter off our hands we headed for Banzai Pipeline beach, the surf was a lot better than last time, we hung around for a bit then thought we'd try to find the turtle beach. We think we found it and we were starting to walk along when it started raining pretty heavily. Decided we'd come back tomorrow, also it was starting to get dark. Found our Airbnb, it's a guest suite but a little closer to the main house than we would have liked, but it's nice enough. We've just been relaxing for the last little bit and I'd say we'll be in bed soon, it's been a great, but long day.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Thursday morning and still sore

    October 3, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We had an earlyish start this morning and started with breakfast burritos at Kokos. They were huge and absolutely packed full, so good and pretty cheap too! Our first stop was back at Laniakea beach in hope of spotting some turtles. That was pretty easy, none on the beach itself but as we were walking down we saw a few heads pop out of the water. We went over to the rocks were a few people were standing and there were a few more there, eating the seaweed off the rocks, it was really cool!
    Waimea valley was next on the agenda, there was a bit of road work which was annoying but didn't really add too much longer onto the drive. Waimea valley is a big botanic garden with a waterfall you can swim in at the end. It was maybe half an hour to get to the waterfall, it was paved and relatively flat, but I could definitely still feel all of my sore muscles from yesterday. If you wanted to swim you had to wear a life jacket, which made a lot of sense looking at most of the other people around and watching them try to paddle.    Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019
    2

    Pineapples everywhere!

    October 3, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We wandered back and headed for the Dole pineapple plantation for some dole whip. A lot of the reviews we've seen said it's a tourist trap, but really lovely if you've got kids, there's a train and the world's (i think it was) biggest maze and stuff like that. We went anyway but didn't do the tour or any of the activities like that, but there was still a heap to look at, the shops inside were huge and you could watch a pineapple demonstration, the time wasn't right for us to watch that, but we were intrigued haha. Here's a pineapple, the end. Got our dole whip, it's pineapple ice cream and it was so good but also very sweet. There were also some rainbow trees where we were sitting, don't know what they were exactly, but they looked nice.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Thursday afternoon exploring

    October 3, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Next we jumped on the highway and headed for the West coast, we haven't been over there before and or wasn't too far away. The highway went most of the way which was good, because it was fast, but also it meant we couldn't see the ocean very well. We could see the mountains and makaha valley clearly and stopped off a few times to take some photos. Ben got used to driving on the right pretty quickly, me though as a passenger, not so much. First stop was Kaena point and cave, it was a pretty little stop. As we were cruising around, stopping in and out of other spots we came across so many shanti towns, pretty permanent looking set ups. There are a lot of homeless in Hawaii, but we haven't really come across any this or last time, I think we found where they've been hiding. We went looking for the mermaid caves which are underground off one of the beaches, you can climb down when the tide is low and it's like a mini, protected beach. We found it, but the holes to climb down were a bit tight for my liking and we could hear some American accents down there too, so we decided not to climb down. It was time to cool off so we relaxed and swam for a while at Forac beach. Nice little spot, no big waves either which was good. It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we dried off and headed back to the north shore. We've seen a lot about the shaved ice and Matsumoto is apparently the best, so we tracked it down and tried some. There were so many different flavours to choose from, we went with lemonade, orange and bubblegum. It was tasty and refreshing. We had a look through the boutiques and it was dinner time. Haleiwa Joe's for dinner, we got a few small plates to share then headed back to the accommodation. Pretty quiet night, just watching The Incredibles 2 and playing Mario Kart.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Seeya Oahu!

    October 4, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    This morning we were just getting organised to check out as we head to Kauai today. Stopped off at Breakers for a feed before heading down to Honolulu, it's about an hour trip and we had to drop the car off as well. Shamsul rented the car to us and when we dropped the car off, he dropped us to the airport. He was talking about how very different the 3 islands are and that Kauai is definitely a much slower pace and that you'll almost feel like you've gone back in time, sounds good to me! Baggage drop was pretty quick, turns out it's a good thing we packed a suitcase in a suitcase because our 2 bags are currently borderline for being overweight, we'll definitely need to use the third bag on the way home. Although baggage was quick, security took forever! We were with everyone going to the other island and mainland US, so it was chockers. Made it through with time to spare and no rushing, but it took longer than we'd thought. Sitting at the gate now waiting to be called.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Hello Kauai!

    October 4, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    The flight was quick, bags were ready as soon as we walked in and picking up the car was nice and easy too. We were a little early for check in so went for a drive and a shop, found Wal-Mart! No ridiulcous people inside so that was disappointing. We're staying at Kauai Shores for the next 5 nights and it is such a nice spot, it's right on the beach with the restaurant and lawn games overlooking the water. It has such a nice feel to it. We had a look around, relaxed for a bit and decided to try the restaurant on site for dinner. At the lava lava club we got pupus to share, ribs, loaded potato gems and of course, more shrimp. Had a cocktail each as well, they were delightful! We went for a walk after dinner then headed back to the room to relax and watch a movie.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Amazing day on Kauai

    October 5, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    A bit slow to get moving this morning but what a great day we had! Because of the slow start we went to McDonald's for a quick breakfast, it's pretty much the same except the coffee is even more garbage than at home and Ben's bun was actually mini pancakes, that was interesting. We headed down to the south coast on our way to the canyon, it wasn't too long of a drive and it was really pretty. We stopped first at the Red dirt falls, a spot on the side of the road, it was bizarre but a lovely little spot for some photos.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Waimea Canyon

    October 5, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Next we headed to Waimea canyon, there are lots of spots along the way to pull over and admire the views, also a few big 'proper' lookouts. We headed for some of the furthest spots so we could make our way back for our sail this afternoon. The canyon is so beautiful, lots of colours and goats! Cute little goats jumping around. Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian islands which explains the canyon, much more time for erosion from old rivers and wind etc. We wound our way slowly back down the mountains, stopping in and out of spots for more photos. Also got our first sunburn, swapped bags over this morning and forgot to grab the sunscreen, whoops!Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Captain Andy's Na Pali Sunset Sail

    October 5, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We had to get to Port Allen for 2pm for our Napali Coast sunset tour, we still had about an hour to play with so we had a look through some towns, Waimea and Hanapepe, dropped into a shop to get sunscreen and some water and stopped in at a little taco stand on the side of the road. It was colourful and cute so thought why not? Oh my goodness, such a good choice! It was so cheap and the food was amazing! Ben was pretty chuffed and we even topped up our order because we wanted more.
    We made it to the port in time and got ready for our cruise, we had to leave our shoes there, Ben was slightly worried about his pluggers, and on we jumped. The crew were lovely and there were only maybe 40 people? So not too busy and easy to grab a seat. We got a good spot out the back with some shade and facing the coastline of Kauai. The views were spectacular! Most of the photos are on my actual camera but I haven't transferred them over yet, they also won't do it justice, but it was an awesome afternoon. Once we spun around to head back the bar was open and food was ready, all included, we had just a couple of 'sneaky tikis', so good. The captain turned the engines off and we sailed a good part of the way back as we watched the sun set. Once we got back and collected our shoes, we headed back to the hotel via a few stores, including Safeway. We've been trying to track down dip, like French onion or corn relish etc. Nope, it's hummus, lots of varieties of hummus or this weird, non refrigerated goop in a jar. Bah! We bought some snacks for the next few days, but no dip!    Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Sunday lunch

    October 6, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We've had a few big days, so decided not to set an alarm for this morning. I stirred a few times but Ben slept right through of course. When we got moving we headed into the main street of Kapaa which isn't far from where we're staying. Lots of little shops, boutiques and cafes, lovely spot. It also seems to be cooler on Kauai. Still warm, but the breeze always seems to be moving and cooling us down. It got a bit steamy yesterday after 10 mins of rain, but that was it. We found a nice cafe in Kapaa town, Olympic cafe and had an early lunch. It was the biggest meal we've had so far! I got a salad, A SALAD, and it was huuuuuge! Ben got the seafood platter, also ridiculous. Really good value but we couldn't quite finish our meals.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Kayaking and the '25 minute walk'

    October 6, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Next we headed to Kamokilo hawaiian village to hire a canoe for a while. What an interesting choice that was! Much cheaper than most rental places and closer to the walks and waterfalls, so that was good! We canoed for a while and pulled up at the walk to the falls which the video said was a 25 minute walk. Yeaaaah about that. That rain I said we haven't been getting? Well, it's been pretty wet here because most of the walk was muddy and slushy, nearly lost my plugger so we took them off and embraced the mud. The people coming the opposite way were absolutely covered in mud.. should've realised then. Anyway, we didn't fall over this time but we were slipping all over the place. Finally made it to the waterfall and it was so worth the muddy walk! Absolutely stunning. We had a swim and relaxed for a while then we had to head back to get the canoe back for 5pm. Well, it rained the whole way back, it was pretty funny really, but my god we were saturated, muddy and hungry by the end of it. Luckily we brought our dry bags along! Got to our canoe and flogged it back to the village just in time, what an adventure, just a good few hours!Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Carb loading

    October 6, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    After our big adventure we were ready for a big feed and spotted an Italian place right near our hotel, so we went for a wander. There's a shopping village and a bunch of food places in the plaza which is handy! We ended up at Bobby V's italian and got pasta and pizza to share, it was a very good feed. Headed back for an early night.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Mountain Tubing

    October 7, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We had an early start today for our mountain tubing tour at 8am. We headed for Kauai back country adventures, only about 15 minutes down the road. We arrived and had to size up for helmets and gloves, then we waited for a little bit for our ride to the mountain. Our tour guides were entertaining and full of knowledge, telling us about the former sugar plantation we were on, now owned by Steve Case, one of the founders of AOL. We got to look at Mount Waialeale where the water we'll ride on comes from. The mountain gets around 452 inches of rain a year, it's an old volcanic crater and the C shape catches the winds in and forces it upwards creating the clouds we always see up there. We got to get off to take photos of the mountain which is right near where the goat scene from Jurassic park was filmed (the one where the car falls down the hill). The tubing itself was really fun! We rode through the irrigation canals, Ben somehow flew through to the front of the pack and I ended up at the back, constantly spinning, luckily this kind of thing didn't make me motion sick. Like I said, it was so fun, we went through 5 tunnels and we turned our headlamps off for some of them which added to the fun! The last 15 minutes were in the 'lazy river' where you could climb out of your tube and meet back up with your partners or groups and just relax. The water was pretty brisk, still enjoyable, but brisk! And the lazy river had the sun shining straight on us, so I may or may not have tried to nap. After the tubing we had a sandwich bar lunch near the river before heading back to the starting point. We would definitely do this again, there's something similar in NZ which I'd say we'll try and line up while we're there.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Poipu and surrounds

    October 7, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    After the tour we headed down south for Poipu via Koloa town. It's very touristy down that way, lots of resorts so it was busy, but really nice. We saw the Spouting horn, Shipwrecks and Gillins beach and that's where we came across a tortoise refuge and Makauwahi cave. It's Hawaii's oldest limestone cave and we had to crawl through a little hole to get inside where it opened right up. There was an American couple in there and the man started exclaiming about a spider he could see and that it was the biggest spider he had ever seen! I asked him to show me, then laughed. He had a laugh too and said he recognised our accent so it made sense that we thought it was tiny. It was! Poor sweetheart haha.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Happy hour!

    October 7, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    On our way back to happy hour at our resort, I stopped in at a Starbucks we saw in hope of a decent-ish coffee. It wasn't terrible but also not great, best I've had though! We stopped off at a few lookouts we missed yesterday with the rain. Made it to happy hour and had a few cocktails each and an early dinner of tacos, sliders and chilli cheese fries, so good! We played some of the lawn games for a while after, need to make our own cornholes set when we get home I think. Decided we wanted more drinks so Ben got stuck into his hard lemonades and me into the vodka, we had leftovers from pizza last night as well so we had that later before bed.Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    North shore of Kauai

    October 8, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We started our Tuesday a little dusty and with brunch at JavaKai, a cute little cafe with a Darby street feel. Good ol breakfast burritos again, we're working our way through them all to decide on the best. We ended up chatting with the lovely American couple next to us, they were over visiting their granddaughter and were asking us all about our holiday, wedding, sports, jobs, Australia etc, haha. Big talkers, but they were really lovely.
    We headed north today, first stop at Kilauea lighthouse and wildlife refuge. We were looking at the Nene, local ducks, and couldn't believe how big they were, turns out they're actually Hawaiian geese, much prettier and less aggressive than our stupid geese. The lighthouse is only quite small but has lots of historical significance as they usually do. We had a look around for a while then headed for Anini beach to have a look. A lot of beautiful beach houses and the beach itself was much quieter than some of the others we've come across. Kept heading north, ducking in and out of lookouts, beaches and little towns. Hanalei town and pier was lovely and a good swimming and kayaking spot, a lot of the other beaches on the north coast are really heavy dumpers, not sure they'd be the best for swimming. Time to head back and I had a nap, haven't had many naps this holiday but we had a few drinks last night and it was a bit of a later night than usual, I needed it, haha! Headed to the Bullshed for dinner and Ben got stuck into his surf and turf while I had more prawns. After the great feed we headed back to do a load of washing and get organised. We head to Maui tomorrow 😊    Read more

  • Bec TaylorTravelerHawaii 2019

    Goodbye Kauai and Hello Maui!

    October 9, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Absolutely beautiful morning here in Kauai, we finished getting our things sorted then went to Lava Lava club for breakfast. Such a beautiful spot and very central to everything, would definitely stay here again. Same as usual at the airport, drop bags, security, chill at the gate. It does take up time island hopping, but we're okay with it, probably the least busy we are and it's good down time just floating around. Probably one of the more unpleasant flights we've been on, turbulence wise, once we could see Maui out of the windows we were rocking around the whole time until we landed. Had a bit of a wait for the rental car because the Wi-Fi kept dropping out and the bloke was trying to call us. All sorted and we headed for our accommodation in Kihei for the week. We relaxed for about half an hour then headed upto the Haleakala Crater for sunset. There are a lot of sunrise tours and it's meant to be spectacular, the tours also start at 330AM. So we did a Google and sunset is meant to be pretty beautiful too and we could just drive ourselves. The weather changed so quickly on the way up, as did the terrain, it was like we were on an alien planet, so bizarre! We reached the summit and it was sooo windy and cloudy, couldn't believe how cold it was as well. The elevation at the summit is 10023ft or 3055m, bigger than Mount Kosciuszko! It was really hard to see and barely any parks up top so we decided to go slightly back down to some of the other lookouts we spotted on the way up that seemed to be between the sets of clouds. What a view! Seriously! Unreal! We had a picnic while the sun was going down and headed back once it was gone. Massive day tomorrow, planning on doing the road to Hana, a bit like the Great Ocean road by the sounds of it. Windy roads, lots of beautiful places to stop along the way and just a big day.Read more

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