Aloha!

Waikiki Beach
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CLOCK OFF FROM WORK , OFF TO THE AIRPORT

It's finally arrived and soon I will be on the plane heading towards Hawaii. The place i've been wanting to go for ages.  I go to work as normal and in no time I'm closing my programs and heading off home. I anticipate Ed's arrival. When he arrives we realize we are cutting it close. Ed rockets back to his place after picking me up and we don't waste anytime, jump into his parent's ride and head off. All the way to the airport  we had to be reassured that we will get there on time. I was happy to pull up at the International departure. We said our goodbyes and head to check in. Everything runs smoothly. Our bags are checked in and we now have a couple of hrs to kill. We have dinner at McDonalds, then head to duty free store. Have a browse and soon enough hear our flight is called. We make our way to the gate. The excitement starts to kick in. The 9 hour flight was excruciating. I nearly went insane a couple of times. They fed us a good meal but it was a mission to get to sleep. I was able to get in a few hours whereas Ed got next to nothing. Some little girl kept staring at him for most part of the trip. A couple of hours before we touch down and I wake up in time for a muffin for breakfast.  At 10.45am we touch down at Honolulu airport

International MarketPlace
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ARRIVAL IN HONOLULU AIRPORT

My first impression was it looked very old fashion. Everything seemed like it was back in the 1970's. The decor was very retro in a way. Alot of brown colours going on.  We head to a customs check. We are lucky to get an unfriendly officer who was just plain rude. Treated us like we were criminals. But it wasn't too long that we get our arrival stamp and head out. We follow all the other passengers and everyone seemed to be getting on this bus waiting outside. Ed and I just followed and just hoped it was correct. Lucky for us it was and the bus drove us from one area of the airport to the arrivals section. Here people with Lei's and tour companies were waiting.

Random cop that dropped in to say Hi. He was extremely friendly which was as relief as we had originally thought we were in trouble
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I couldn't for the love of me find ours. So after searching around, we find him behind a pole. Our luggages are taken and we get on a bus.

The drive to Waikiki was interesting. The areas we drove past were very run down.  People were sitting on the back of pick up trucks casually. Motorcyclist driving around without helmets. It was odd to see. 45 mins later we are in Waikiki.

CHECK IN

Everyone is dropped off to their hotels. Ed and I were the last ones and so we were stoked to find our hotel was only a block away from the beach. We head in and find we are not able to check in til 3pm. So we just keep ourselves occupied until the time arrives. When it does,  we drop our stuff in the hotel and then head of to do some discovery.

A night out on the streets of Hawaii. It was always so nice and warm so strolling around was always pleasant
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We head to a bar called Dawghouse. This place was in the international marketplace which is a popular market in Waikiki.

Enjoyed a beer and then headed off. It almost felt like we were cruising around Surfers Paradise , the only difference was everyone had accents.

We head up to another sports bar. The drinks are ridiculously cheap at this place and Ed is loving it. I get a pizza and we sit down for drinks and lunch.

The bar guy kept us company until we decided to bail. The remaining of the evening we are cruising along until we decide to head back and rest. It been a long day and the time difference is getting us all whacked.

This is an actual picture of the sunset on the beach. It looks like a post card. Evenings in hawaii were always this beautiful
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GETTING ACQUAINTED. ABC STORES WHAT ARE THEY?

We wake up too late for our Welcome breakfast held by the tours. They didn’t even bother to call us, unless they did and we slept through it. Ed and I decided to go find our own breakfast. We get our things ready and head out again.

We go to the International Marketplace and walk around. Most of today was spent just cruising around getting acquainted with the surroundings.

We notice there are a million ABC stores, which is like a 7/11 but sells everything from gifts, booze, food, you name it. I was stoked. You walk 2 shops and there will be another all around Waikiki.

Paradise Cove hula dancers. With the sunset , it was truly an amazing experience
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Later that night we head out to Sheraton Waikiki. A hotel which have live bands playing which is open to the public. The scenery was absolutely relaxing and romantic. The pool adds that extra to the environment. Ed and I go for some drinks at the bar. I order a ‘non alcoholic’ cocktail. We sit and enjoy the music for a while and then decide we would head out. This night we head out to Tsunami. A club nearby. It was dead at first but then it picked up. Some of the locals start cruising in.  We are both stoked on the different ranges of drinks they have available. We sit for a while at the club and then meet a couple of locals. They take us on board and we find ourselves heading all around Waikiki. It was great as we are getting into clubs without having to queue up. We head out to a couple of bars and then ended up at Scruples. A bar where all the waitress are wearing next to nothing. Me and Ed separate from the group and are in our own world and have a bit of a groove. We stay out till late and then stumble back to our hotel.

Paradise Cove. Free time to walk around and enjoy the scenery.
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RETAIL THERAPY AT ALA MOANA MALL

We decide to take a trip to the big mall in Hawaii. Ala Moana Mall. We take a bus there. It’s a 20min drive. It’s an open kind a mall. Similar to the one at Surfers Paradise. We shop around for a while. Then stop by and had a drink at the bar inside the food court. I again had a non alcoholic cocktail. We go for a walk to the nearby Yacht dock next to the shopping mall. The views were amazing. You can see the mountains and the city from our location. We sit and relax taking in the scenary. On our way back we decide to stop by and take some pics. Low and behold we see a cop racing towards us in his 4 wheeler bike thing. I have a heart atttack as I think we’ve done something wrong. He approaches us and then tells us to hop on his bike for a pic. It was sweet. So we got some cool pics with this random cop. We chatted for abit and then he left us to it.

Bikini contestant at Scruples Bars in town. The place was quite fun. They had the best Pina Coladas by far
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We head back, but this time catch a trolley. The reason why they call it that it looks like one. The seats are facing sideways and its open without doors. So you  sit and enjoy the ride back to Waikiki. It was great of traveling around. We get back to our hotel rest and then head off for another night in town.

PARADISE COVE LUAU

Another day in paradise. We decide we have been here and haven’t gone to the beach. So we start the day at the beach. It was wretched hot but nice. The beach is filled with all sorts of people. Every inch of the beach is covered with human bodies along side fluro beach balls, floaties. A majority of the visitors have these fluro floaties and we found out it was because they were only $3 at the ABC Stores.  We sit by the beach and then go for a walk all around. In  between we enjoyed some lunch under a shade near the beach.

Peal Harbor
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We decided to head back to our hotel and laze around by the pool and went for a dip. We then had to get ready for our first tour which was the Paradise Cove Luau.  We get picked up in front of our hotels. Felt like it was an excursion. Everyone being loud and rowdy.  The bus ride to the cove was about 45 mins. We arrive and soon head in. We are greeted with Mai Tai’s. Ed goes for the alcoholic one and I go for the non alcoholic. Surprise surprise. We are greeted by lei’s and head inside. Its an awesome atmosphere. Thousands of tables lined up like an outdoor big dinner. We have leisure time before dinner is served and the show begins. We go for a walk. I go into the toilets and stupidly leave my Dolce and Gabanna sunnies in the toilets. Someone of course got to it before I could.  I was bummed. I decided to cheer myself up by heading to the arts area where the ladies were making beautiful flower bands. I had one made for my head. It was great. We go help ourselves to our free cocktail drinks. We get a blue hawaii a common drunk around here and being a cheap drunk I was feeling tipsy by the first drink. We take in the views. We watch a ceremonial dance at sunset which was breathtaking. No doubt an unforgettable experience. Not long til dinner is serve. It was delicious and I’ve never stomached so much food. We sit across the seat with some girls from California. They were nice and so we chatted for most part of the show and dinner. The traditional show was awesome. Made me want to learn how to hula dance. There was short break and me and ed went for a walk around the place. It was amazing. The night ended around 9pm and we all got our souvenirs and headed back our bus. I was sad to have to go, as It was an awesome place. We get back to our hotels late and opted to staying in. We were both completely buggered.

Mai Tai anyone?
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DAY AT THE BEACH

Next morning. we decide to spend the day at the beach and so grab our stuff and make our way to the Waikiki beach . It is very busy and there is plenty people with their fluro blow up floaties. However its an awesome hot day and nothing could be better then relaxing on the beach today. Finding a spot on the sand was a mission as there was so many humans scattered around the place. We did finally get a spot.  The water was fantastic and refreshing. We enjoyed the sun and the warm waters. We head to grab lunch and ate by the beach.  I had fruit salad and the pineapples are out of this world. Soon head back to the hotel and rest up ready for a night out into town.

RANDOM DAYS OUT IN HAWAII

During the remaining of our trip we did a various of other activities. We headed out to the Palu Lookout. Had an awesome view but it was windy. For anyone who did not have a hair tie you would have been struggling. But apart from that, the view was wonderful. We then headed out on a City Tour. This took us downtown to china town and othe parts of Honolulu, included the Queen's Palace. It was very educational and interesting to hear about the history of the land. The tour drained us somewhat as it was a full day tour but we were glad we went as we learnt quite a few things during it. We also made a trip to Pearl Harbor which to me is a must see if you are heading to  Hawaii. We arrived just in time because as soon as we got a spot in the line which wasn't too long at this stage. Seconds after arriving,  the bus started rolling in and by this time, the line extending metres upon metres of vistitors. We had the honour of meeting one of the survivors who was greeting all the vistiors at the entrance. We are led into a room where a short film is played documenting the event. Once that is complete, we are on a boat which takes us onto the memorial. We have a short moment on the memorial but it was enough time to appreciate it.  We board the boat which takes us back to shore. The rest of the trip is abit of haze. I know it involved alot of eating. Alot of walking and alot of spending. I returned back to Australia with 3 pairs of shoes.

Spent the night before our departure back to Sydney trying to fit all my purchases in my already small luggage. I enjoyed my time in Hawaii and would love to go there again in the future.