2 weeks in Hawaii

[Jim Walsh]

Family trip to meet up with Sister in Laws family from Chicago, Hawaii seemed to be in the middle. This isn’t up the pointy end by any means but when you are paying for it it does seem to be a bit extravagant. Airfares for 2 adults and 3 children were about $8500 which included 3 internal flights. Thanks to Virginia at Flight Center Gordon for arranging the flights

18 Dec SYD-HNL Hawaiian Airlines 452 A330 -200 Sched 9.20pm Act 10.17pm – duration 9 hr 36mins

Interesting time to leave as you beat the airport traffic but you have to have something to eat at the airport, then onto the plane and sit for an hour while they offload someones bags. Drink service comes out then a meal which wasn’t the best as it would have been sitting for an extra hour. Didn’t do my guts much good later on. Breakfast was a joke. Overnight flight and we get into HNL late missing our connecting flight to Maui. Service is a lost art in the US and the service desk had a huge queue and one staff member. We managed to get onto a later flight

Poor mans lounge, seat shot and the food


18 Dec HNL 364 HNL Kahului (Mauii) but we caught later flight, Boeing 717 duration 21 minutes

Love a flight that spends more time on each of the following - boarding, taxing and deplaning than it does flying. Basic seats and you can tell this is a a commuter shuttle, with some nice views.
We arrived and eventually got our hire car and upgraded to a Jeep, biggest lump of rubbish I have ever driven. Wide up windows, noisy and the kids referred to it as the Sh**tbox.
We headed up to the Westin Villas in Ka'anapali Maui Resorts | The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas | Maui Luxury Resorts after a few wrong turns. It is amazing how disorientated you get when the sun is in the south and all you have is a free map. We had joined rooms and had a few great days just hanging out. I love how it is acceptable to have a Bloody Mary at 10 in the morning !!

Finally arrived

 

[Jim Walsh]

Did the drive up to Magnetic Peak 10,000ft and it was Cold and Windy but well worth it. We also did the drive to Hana which is all about the journey as the destination was a small village and it was raining. Recommend you drive via the south road as it is amazing arid landscape and suddenly you are in a rainforest. It is not the best of roads but a great journey. Lots of single lane bridges. I am amazed though that the two largest populations in the world have the worst drivers.

Magnetic Peak, South Side Mauii, Another water fall near Seven pools, the two photo's are 20kms apart



Also snorkelling at Ka’anapali Beach and a jump off black rock, about 20ft up and was amazed all my kids did it, even the 9 year old.
Great spot and two rounds of golf at Kaanapali – Kai $75 including a cart if you tee off after 3 but they let us on early and enough to get in 18 holes, as we had the course to ourselves. Normally $175. Second round was at Kapalua Golf Club Bay Course, late tee off and $109 vs $219, we got in 16 holes as there were some people in front slowing us down

Kapalua 5th Hole, managed a par !! and what else do you do the day you turn 50 - jump of a rock
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[Jim Walsh]

25 Dec HAL 359 Kahului to Kauai Island Lihue Municipal Apt 45 minutes Boeing 717

Thought I would be smart and sit the kids next to the windows, forgot that down the back there are some big noisy engines that block the view. Massive fail Dad

Kauai is much more laid back the Mauii and we stayed at the Westin Princeville Villas. http://www.westinprinceville.com/ It was a bit colder so not as conclusive to swimming but again did some drives up to Ke'e Beach and back to Hanalei. Fantastic degustation menu at the resort restaurant. Menu below
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A game of Putt Putt and visit to Hanalai beach, then A trip to Waimea Canyon followed by a fantastic boat trip from Port Allen along the western side of the island, at lot of Jurassic Park was filed there, The next day a round of golf at Wailua County Golf Course, $60 including a cart followed by Koloa zipline http://www.koloazipline.com/ through he forests. That was Amazing fun and the last line was over ½ a mile long.
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[Jim Walsh]

20 Dec HAL 110 Kauai Island Lihue Municipal Apt HNL 32 minutes Boeing 717

7am start meant up at 4.45 – ouch, seeing as we finished our time with the others we had a few reds. As before, more time deplaning than flying and why do people sit and wait before they decide to get their luggage out of the lockers.

Hired a car but a tip Thirty/Dollar rentals aren’t in the airport to you have to bus it to the rental depot. Got charged a second day because we picked up at 8.15 and dropped off at 9.30 the next day.

Waikiki is like the Gold Coast on steroi_s and after the laid back island time not much fun. Shopping at the outlets, Lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise, which included a tipping guide with the bill, Swim at the beach, drive around diamond head and that’s all we had time for. Had breakfast at MAC 24-7 | Restaurant in Waikiki | Best Restaurant in Waikiki but the pancake for 2 would have fed all 5 of us with leftovers. We stayed at the Aqua Aloha Surf Waikiki and frankly $360 for a small room with the world worst bed was a complete ripoff.
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31 Dec HNL – SYD Hawaiian Airlines 451 A330 -200 Sched 11.40pm Arrive 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Jan 7.20 pm 10 hrs 40 mins
Being terrified of being late we got there with plenty of time in the end. Not much at HNL airport and leaving from Gate 34 there is absolutely nothing out there. Drink service on takeoff followed by same meal as we had on the way over, no need to post a photo. Managed to slip a few Longboard Lagers in on the trip. However we missed NYE as we were crossing the dateline but it meant the flight had plenty of spare seats. We manage to have 2 rows of 4 and 2 rows of 2 for the 5 of us. Final snack of an egg sandwich – yuck, before that bittersweet feeling when you realise the Carnival is over.

Any questions feel free to ask.

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[a330j]

Ha ha, had to laugh at your description of the Jeep. My kids and I came to the same conclusion after driving around California a few years ago. That was an "upgrade" as well.

Thanks for the report. I have only done Waikiki in Hawaii and would love to see the other islands.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

31 Dec HNL – SYD Hawaiian Airlines 451 A330 -200 Sched 11.40pm Arrive 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Jan 7.20 pm 10 hrs 40 mins

Being terrified of being late we got there with plenty of time in the end. Not much at HNL airport and leaving from Gate 34 there is absolutely nothing out there.

Drink service on takeoff followed by same meal as we had on the way over, no need to post a photo. Managed to slip a few Longboard Lagers in on the trip.

However we missed NYE as we were crossing the dateline but it meant the flight had plenty of spare seats. We manage to have 2 rows of 4 and 2 rows of 2 for the 5 of us.

Final snack of an egg sandwich – yuck, before that bittersweet feeling when you realise the Carnival is over.

Any questions feel free to ask.

View attachment 61900

I believe this is what HA call their 'high tea'.

 

[RooFlyer]

Nice report, thanks .

 

[Jim Walsh]

One thing I forgot was the free wifi standard at all the Hotels, up to 10 devices can be connected at the Westin and speeds were great. Makes a joke of charging for Wi-fi in Australian hotels. Also the free wi-fi at Sydney airport was next to unusable. McDonalds was our saviour in Waikiki when we got lost as we were able to connect and find out we were only 1km from where we were meant to be.

We also cached Google Maps before heading out so had full usage without being connected.

 

[kermatu]

We also cached Google Maps before heading out so had full usage without being connected.

Good tip! Thanks for the TR.