Hawaii 2019

September - October 2019
Our big Honeymoon to Oahu, Kauai and Maui 😊 Read more
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  • 9.2kkilometers
  • 8.1kkilometers
  • Day 13

    Halfway point and Ben the hoon

    October 12, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We stopped off at the Halfway to Hana rest stop to take a few photos, to get a hotdog and their famous banana bread, it's the 36th anniversary this year.
    Ben is a pretty confident driver, a bit too confident to other drivers I think, a lot of the cars ahead of us would pull over to let us through, haha. But also we're not in a jeep or mustang like the majority of the tourists so maybe they think we're locals. There was a courtesy sign at the start of the road asking to let the locals through so they're not stuck behind slow drivers.Read more

  • Day 13

    Garden of Eden

    October 12, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The Garden of Eden is botanical garden with beautiful ocean views along the road to Hana. We stopped in here and spent some time walking around and taking photos. We moved on and stopped in and out of a few lookouts when we reached the halfway point.Read more

  • Day 13

    Start of The Road To Hana

    October 12, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Early start today, but we moved a bit slower than we'd planned, all good though, no rush. Got fuel for the drive just before 7 and we were on our way, but first, malasadas! We made a quick stop at Hookipa beach to see how the turtles were going. Lots had already moved out and you could see their slide marks where they'd dragged themselves to the water.
    The Road to Hana is 52 miles, has 617 curves, 54 bridges and is either very tight or single lane for a lot of it. We stopped first at the twin falls, there was a little bushwalk involved so it was good to do that first before it got too hot. The falls were quite little but pretty, I grabbed an iced coffee from the farm van out the front and it was probably the best I've had, even beating the caramel Starbucks one. On our way to the next stop, we got stuck behind a bloody porkchop in a jeep who was either driving in the middle of the bloody road (one lane but still), or he was going 5mph and couldn't work out how to give way. Ughhh. Luckily the scenery was a nice a distraction. Some houses along the road had food for sale or their toilets for sale, $1 a use, good idea we thought!
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  • Day 12

    Paia and surrounds

    October 11, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Poptarts to start the day! Such a healthy breakfast, haha! They were pretty good, sweet though! We headed for Paia today, it's a town at the start of the Road to Hana, thought we'd go have a look around because we won't have as much time tomorrow to stop in. It's a cute, little, older town with lots of little shops, we stopped in for lunch at Milagros, burritos and burgers, so good. After lunch we wandered through the shops, somehow ended up in a shop that reminded us a little of something you'd find in Byron bay or Nimbin, lots of organic health foods.
    I read about a beach that has a nice outlook and you might see a turtle or 2, so we headed there. MORE LIKE 21 TURTLES! I was a little bit excited. They were just chilling in the sun, slapping each other with their flippers and going into the water when they got too hot. We spent a while there just watching them, it was really nice. We didn't want to bother them, so we went to another beach for a swim, so refreshing but super salty. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. For dinner we went to a deli for a French dip and pastrami sandwiches, so good! Big day tomorrow!
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  • Day 11

    West Maui Circle

    October 10, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We drove through Lahaina which is another popular tourist area, I can see why, lots of food and shopping, and right on the beach. We stopped at Whalers village for an early lunch at Hula Grill then a bit of a shop. Great spot, right on the beach and we could see 2 of the other Hawaiian islands from there, Lanai and Molokai. We continued along the loop, stopping at lookouts, blowholes and beaches along the way. After the olivine pools the road got really tight and windy, we kept going but it was a bit scary being up so high and most of it being single lane. I think the road to Hana is meant to be pretty similar, but less of a drop off. Kahaluloa village was in amongst the crazy road, a lot of locals live there and there were a heap of pop up markets and side of the road stores, it was really nice. The roads widened again and we were close to our last stop at Iao Valley. It was green and beautiful. We paid our entry and walked up to the monument, we thought we were being childish because it kinda looked a little suggestive, then we read the information board and it said it was the 'phallic stone of the god of the ocean'. Made sense. Warriors used to perch themselves on top of it to be on the lookout for incoming attacks. We headed back after a small stock up of snacks, drinks and poptarts at Safeway. Yes we know we have them at home, but why not try them where they're a staple? We relaxed in the aircon for a bit then headed out for dinner. We were feeling seafood again and found a little spot called Eskimo candy. Basically a ridiculously good version of a fish and chip shop. Shrimp scampi for me and the captain's platter for Ben which had fish, chips, scallops, oysters, calamari and prawns. Such good value, so tasty and big serves! Back to the accommodation for some drinks, bit of Netflix, the heaps up game and bed.Read more

  • Day 11

    Change of plans

    October 10, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Last night we were flicking around online and the weather came up that it was meant to be full on raining out Hana way all day. We read a few reviews about doing the drive in the constant rain and decided to push it back until Saturday when it seems to clear a bit. There's always a little bit of rain on that side of the island apparently, but when it's all day, it's different. So change of plans today, just did a shuffle and we're heading to the western circle loop of Maui.Read more

  • Day 10

    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

  • Day 9

    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 😊
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  • Day 8

    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

  • Day 8

    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