A pre-wedding Honeymoon? (21 days around Asia)

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 16 (Part 1):

This was probably the ultimate R&R day for the trip. With loose plans involving food, drnks and plenty of pool and beach time. Waking up to this view, we were sure it was going to be a satisfying day.



Halekulani has 2 breakfast options so for our first morning we picked Shiroux, which is a french restaurant of an evening and does set breakfast meals of a morning. Being in a club room we had breakfast included which consisted of fruit and yoghurt, juice, coffee or tea and choice of a main as below


I went with the pancakes and my partner the eggs benedict. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.





All of it was spectacular, from the fresh fruit to the beautifully poached eggs and hollandaise on the benedict. The star was undoubtedly the pancakes though. Fluffy and thick but light to eat and that hazelnut sauce with a drizzle of maple to add sweetness was to die for. Easily the best breakfast I've ever had.

After breakfast it was time for pools number 2 and 3. First it was the quiet pool which also offers a swim up bar and is (like the ocean terrace pool) adults only. We spent a bit of time here as it also offered an amazing view and as soon as the bar opened we had a coughtail each.




After this we spent a little bit of time at the signature orchid pool. This is a much larger pool and more family oriented but beautiful nonetheless and what you most likely see featured in resort promotional material.



After baking in the sun for a little while we checked out the indoor pool and onsen/spa in there but it more of a lap pool or option for if it's raining. We decided it was lunch time so returned to change and head down to a restaurant called Shogun Burger that I had my eye on.

The staff at the hotel took us in the complimentary golf carts to the northern gate saving us a fair bit of time walking. From here it was about 5 minutes up the road. We had beef burgers and their loaded fries. Both were spectacular and I'll argue no one makes a beef burger as juicy and tender as the Japanese. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the Mentaiko mayo on some of the fries as I'm not a big fan of the taste of Mentaiko.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 16 (Part 2):
Following lunch we walked back passed the hotel to a public beach for some snorkelling. The rules around snorkelling within Japanese resorts and indeed on many excursions are pretty strict with regards to wearing life jackets. Now while I understand the cautious approach of many Japanese to this, particularly given that ocean swimming is not as common as Aus and many tourists to Okinawa aren't good swimmers, but I am obviously not a huge fan of this as it massively detracts from being able to explore underwater properly.

Luckily just up from the hotel was a public beach with no real rules so we spent the next hour or so in the water exploring the coral and abundance of sea life!




After this we returned and changed for afternoon tea in the club lounge. This consisted of a bit of a different assortment of food to the evenings and some specialty drinks, as well as the free flow champagne.








There was time for 1 more ocean terrace pool swim, before returning to the club lounge for more champagne and then making our way out of the resort (once again on a golf buggy) to then the 50 mtrs walk to Hale'aina HOA for dinner. This was right outside the resort and therefore a lot more affordable. It's Hawaiian themed as per the name, something that is massive in Okinawa if you haven't picked that up yet, and offered quite good meat and seafood.



For around $30 that surf and turf was unbelievable and the hibachi chicken was also super tender and a big hit. It was a bit of a shame not to get to check out some of the other restaurants in the hotel but with most starting at 15000y per person for food only, and with a couple of unexpected big purchases before our trip, we were happy to settle for something more affordable.

After dinner we hit up the local Lawson across the road for some more dessert before hitting the hay after a big day in the sun.

 

[Trekky1]

Enjoying your TR very much!