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