Papeete

Land! 

 Waking up to see land after five days at sea was a strange experience. We'd made it to our first destination. No vomiting, no fighting between friends, and no major damage done by our sea legs.
Izzy did run full pelt into a wall handle, but go up straight afterwards and kept running. They continued to call me dramatic for noticing that waves made the boat move :P.

The view from our room

black sand!

clear water :)

 I think Papeete and Moorea were my favourite stops. Papeete for the time that we had (it was like 9am-11pm), so we could take our time. Erin and Dave learned that Immy and I require constant feeding.
For our first stop we found a lovely little French place to have lunch, Chez Loula et Remy. ah it was so good. And we met a cat that eats pasta.
We stopped at two beaches, the first one was too shallow for me to snorkel at, but the kids loved it (the photo of the fish was from the first beach, a white sand beach). The black sand beach was just gorgeous to swim at, it was near Venus Point. Only thing - no fish! But Chlo and I did enjoy a swim out into the black looking (but clear) water.

white sand beach

For dinner we went to the food trucks that were at the harbour next to the cruise ship. We had crepes. Rhys and I were pretty pleased with about our French food reading abilities hahaha, speak it? no, Read it? no. Read menus, why yes. hahaha. Shows our travel priorities right there, 

Travelling with kids

Arch needed to be potty trained before we went, so that he could go to kids club, I was pretty amazed that we actually managed to get him there. He seemed to be stubbornly resistant to the toilet until about a month before we left.

No more nappies!

Ri said, if we got nothing else from this trip, at least it we got him potty trained.

I found this book at Honolulu zoo, which really helped Arch

I finally found a copy of everyone poops, I found a book by Taro Gomi while we were in Japan in 2014, but it wasn't everyone poops. The kids LOVE it. It's funny and straight forward. If you eat, you poop. Arch was in need, he needed to be told it was okay to poop.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Arch would NOT drink American milk

It looks like we are saying good bye to bottles too! Arch would have milk in his bottles, but it had to be Norco. So we took a few bottles and tried to present him with American milk and he would not have a bar of it. Like me with my coffee, he didn't drink milk again until he was in Sydney and the cafe made him a babyccino with Norco.

Both of our flights had the seats broken into threes, so we sat as two sets of two. I got Immy and Ri Arch. On our flight from Sydney to Brisbane Immy looked at the back of the seat (which didn't have anything on it) and asked where the TV was. I explained that planes didn't always have TVs in the seats and that when I went overseas when I was a kid I had to go without an iPad "Why?" asked Immy, "They didn't exist" I replied, "Did your parents leave them at home?" hahahaha oh dear "No there were no iPads" **look of horror crosses Immy's face** **I feel old**.

Pacific Cruise Sea Days

When Erin and Dave first mentioned the idea of going on a cruise, I’m fairly sure I would have said no. Or maybe, which is pretty much me for no. But they worked away at me slowly. Their cruise photos always looked amazing and it did seem like a good way to go to a few countries with two young kids. So we skipped straight to a 18-day trans pacific cruise, because if you’re doing something you may as well go all in.

On the first day it was decided that feeling or mentioning that the ship was rocking with the waves was very quickly labelled as being ‘over dramatic.’ I tumbled into the breakfast booth and asked if this level of rocking was normal. Yes, yes it was.

Good news – the kids and I don’t get sea sick.

Bad news – we are unco.

Erin sat down across from me and breakfast with the ‘fun times’, orange highlighter out, things to do places to be. And then we ended up at the pool sipping cocktails (not highlighted) and Ri and I took our kids and Izzy to mini golf that afternoon (also not highlighted). I've never been very good with schedules, Ri and I were always late if Erin wasn't there to get us to events on time. 

An unexpected part of the cruise was how Immy and Archie took to kids club. We thought it would be a battle and even bribed them to go on the second day (and went to serenity – the 18+ pool- awesome). By day four or five they were begging to go during dinner. Awesome. I took a book (A Clash of Kings) and actually managed to get about half way through it.

Ah the serenity... oh so white

view from our balcony

Kids club, kids club, KIDS CLUB :)

Thanks Jamal

At the front of the boat, on level 9

Our room, a balcony on level 8, was amazing. The view was great, after leaving Hawaii we were taller than any surrounding building until we got to Sydney. I liked just chilling on my balcony and not highlighting anything.

Jen, Lewis and Clark, any of the musicals with music from the 70s or earlier (Triggered).

I think one of my favourite things to do was going to the comedy club. Good times. 

Hawaii 2016 Oahu

We left Henari at home. Devastated, he has been with us on every holiday since our first overseas trip in 2007, I remember the day we bought him in Osaka. But with two kids and just over three weeks to pack for, he was left at home. Boo.

This time we have travelled with another family of four, a friend of mine, let's call them "Erin", her husband "Dave", their 11-year-old "Chloe" and their five-year-old (who is just five days older than Immy) "Izzy".  

A year ago we went to a cruise expo and decided to go on a 17-night cruise from Honolulu to Sydney. So we booked, procrastinated, planned and discussed (mostly procrastinated) and finally we found ourselves at Brisbane (BNE) international airport. Our eldest is now five and baby Arch was two and a half the day we left. We had some dinner and mentally prepared ourselves for a flight with a toddler. But there were no tears during take-off, for most of the flight Arch slept, ate or played happily. My baby is all grown up and ready to travel. It was a bitter sweet moment, my babies are growing up too fast.

Immy, arriving in Hawaii like a boss

We left Brisbane at 5pm and arrived at Honolulu at 6am that same day. This was our third flight to Honolulu since Immy was born, and it’s the most sleep I’ve had, with about 4 hours of broken sleep (usually we are landing with 0 sleep).

Somehow (it’s a bit of a blur) we retrieved our bags, the boys picked up the rental cars and we were on our way to Waikiki. Taking a friend to one of your favourite travel destinations is like showing them your favourite movie, but way more stressful. You keep looking at them to see if they love it yet. Do they get it? Because it’s awesome.

Four days in Hawaii is not enough. I’ve decided you need at least two weeks for Hawaii.

But we did our best. Back to the first day, we had eggs from eggs’n’things by the beach and then went for a swim/passed out on the beach from exhaustion/got sunburnt. The kids and I feel asleep in the car on the way to the hotel and that night was a write off, Ri managed to get a cranky wife and two kids up to the room, before we all passed out.

My boys

Waiting for eggs n things

On the second day we grabbed our walkie-talkies and drove up to the North Shore, stopping at Haleiwa for shave ice from Matsumoto, on our way to Waimea Valley (where they were shooting the 2016 version of Jumanji – Dave and Erin totally saw the Rock heading down to the set). Code names were important, they were Pink Panther and we were “Purple and Pink Tiger with a friend who is an elephant.”- what happens when you let your kids pick the code name.  

Walkie talkie fun 

We saw some beautiful rainforest and the movie locations for the Hunger Games (a big deal for Chloe). They were filming a new Jumanji, Dave and Erin are now mates with The Rock (I swear).

That night we went to a Luau at Paradise Cove.

Luau

The third day was our shopping day with time spent at Ala Moana and the Outlet shops, ah I LOVE shopping in Hawaii.

The fourth day, there was more shave ice (from the general store this time), on the way to the North Shore food trucks (10/10 would recommend). We tried snorkelling on the north shore and couldn’t see a thing. Chloe and I ended up swimming out as far as we dare, Chloe humming the Jaws theme. My kids are still too young to snorkel, so Ri and I have to take turns, it was nice to have a snorkel buddy.

My boy behind the wheel on the WRONG side (he loved it)

At the food trucks

Cheese cake 

The fifth day (cruise day!) Ri and I took our kids to Hanauma Bay for some snorkelling at the nature reserve, I almost drowned (not really) I headed towards some big waves to check out what they were breaking on, the waves filled up my snorkel and I couldn’t empty it before the next wave came up. I swear the ocean is out to kill me (something I say a lot). Despite aspirating salt water, I still had an amazing time, it’s a gorgeous spot and we saw lots of beautiful Hawaiian fish. We went to the Zoo for lunch. And then it was cruise time. 

Hanauma Bay - those waves... still beautiful though

Big Island 2012

The Cottage we stayed in had this tree on the porch. Immy thought it was magic.

The Cottage near Volcano National Park

 So the one thing I didn't expect to be in Hawaii was cold. We were lucky that the cottage that we stayed in had big jackets for our trip to Volcano national park, as well as a VHS player and a copy of Pearl Harbour on VHS (WTF).

Immy loved the lava 

 We drove into Volcano national park and followed the road down to the water, stopping to investigate the lava.

Rainbows and Hawaii

Me at volcano national park 

Rocking socks and sandals - as we were totally not prepared 

 Ri talks to an American: We were pulled over, so we could grab some lunch, when an American came over and asked Ri if he could have a nappy for his toddler, Ri said "No worries" and the American stood there and said "so...no?" and I said "That means yes in Australian."
The language barrier is real.

The zoo 

In the borrowed jacket

The zoo

Wild Nenes

Big Island is where Immy came out with her first phrase "Where is daddy?' came out of her mouth as clear as day. She had been speaking fluent ImogEnglish and then boom, she started speaking. She was almost 18 months old. 

Maui 2012

We saw a whale while we were eating at this place, I missed out on a photo of a whale, but here is Immy colouring

 Maui has to be one of my favourite places. Even after our near death experience, she says dramatically. Our hire car stopped working when we were driving along the cliffs on the waters edge on the way to the south side of the island from the north. Ri and I have had a lot of interesting experiences with driving while travelling, like driving down the Amalfi coast in a smart car, cruising around the Tenderloin district in a little yellow tourist car and navigating "two way" streets in Scotland, but during those terrifying instances I was only afraid for my life (a maybe a little for Ri, but hell, he was driving), but this time MY BABY was in the car. By the time Ri managed to get the rental car to limp into an IHOP parking lot I was super cranky, why were they renting out cars THAT STOPPED when so much driving on the island involved GIANT CLIFFS with the potential for a DRAMATIC WATERY DEATH.
Okay, so that was the one bad experience, the rest was a dream, lots of time on the beach, relaxing by the pool, a day at the ocean centre and our first luau.

The beach next to our resort

 Immy loved smashing all of Ri's sandcastles.

The ocean centre

 Before we went to the ocean centre we had lunch at a nearby restaurant next to the water and a whale came so close to us (I'm so cranky you can't see it in any of my photos). It was just magic.Was not expecting that at all!

The pool at the resort 

 I loved this resort so much, the restaurant Dukes delivered food to you at the poolside. The pool was great for toddlers.

After dinner at Bubba Gumps, the sunset 

Ocean centre

FISHY!

Relaxing by the pool... waiting for some hula pie from Dukes 

Our first Luau

Family photo in Maui