The New England States

Due to the late Hawaiian time zones, today is actually our three year wedding anniversary. Ted started the day making us eggs on muffins for breakfast. We had arranged to hire a car to drive around the island today, mainly since our time here has been dragged out somewhat due to unforeseen circumstances. Whilst Hawaii is seen by most as an escape, we’re partly wishing we could escape it!

When we went to collect our car from the car rental agency, the agent pulled a rather shonky deal - he said that because we were slightly early we either had to come back later and queue again, or pay for a more expensive car. Since we couldn’t be bothered waiting in the huge queue again, we took the pricier option even though it wasn’t what we’d wanted. We didn’t let it sour our day though, as we’d been looking forward to seeing something over than Waikiki.

Our first stop was the Pali lookout, which we weren’t sure about as there seemed to be heavy cloud cover. We didn’t need to be concerned though, as the view from there was spectacular as always. Ted had been keen to see the town of Kailua nearby, mainly due to the beautiful beach scenery. After spending so much time in Waikiki, we had been feeling somewhat jaded with Hawaii, but seeing the other parts of the island restored our faith.

The next stop was my favourite place in all of Hawaii - the Macadamia Nut farm! Even though it may be touted as a tourist trap, the marketing there is amazing, as they offer free coffee and free samples of eight different flavours of macadamia nuts, as well as selling body lotions, chilli jams and souvenirs. We didn’t end up buying anything but the visit alone was worth it.

We then stopped at another famous Oahu sight - the view of China-mans Hat Island. Ted had been interested in going to his favourite Mexican restaurant on the North Shore, but the journey there was a challenge due to roadworks. We were lucky to wait only ten minutes, as the line of traffic stretched for several miles.

We hadn’t originally planned to visit the Dole Pineapple factory, but decided to go and try the Dole Whip which is famous there. Clearly the place was trying to recover some of its losses during Covid, because a single soft serve cost $7.50, which is about $10 for us. We aren’t being tight with money on this trip, but we are trying to be smart so we decided to forego the experience this time.

Our journey back to Waikiki was an adventure. After getting petrol, Ted turned into the left lane instead of the right, and we nearly collided with the incoming traffic. As the traffic was already starting to get bad, we had to exclude seeing Diamond Head crater today, and returned the car to the agency instead.

We ate dinner in the apartment before going for a nighttime walk along the water. Seeing Waikiki in the evening light was beautiful, and it was the perfect way to farewell Hawaii before our flight to New Zealand tomorrow. We have been checking the passenger loads for the flights we were meant to be booked on, and know now we made the right decision by purchasing full fare flights. We continue our journey home tomorrow!Lue lisää