Hawaii Day 1

It does not seem like only 12 hours since we have been here in Hawaii.

After flying out of Auckland at 9pm last night (Monday NZ time) we arrived at 7.30am this morning  (Monday Hawaii time) having had a few hours sleep on the plane.

Boarding the plane in Auckland

First up we had major accolades for the staff and systems at the airport. Smooth and quick, we were processed through seamlessly and out in the arm 30 degree air. Certainly by far the easiest and smoothest international airport experience. Ive just been watching a video about Hawaii and it said the Hawaii airport is one of the busiest in all of America and it processes over 20 million people a year.

Took this before I saw the "no camera, no cell phones" message!

In a taxi we headed for the hotel. Beachfront in Waikiki. What a place.  The beach is literally at the front of the hotel. Although, as it was only 8am our rooms weren't ready the hotel gave us a courtesy room for an hour to have showers and freshen up and then we stored bags and went exploring.

The view from out on a small jetty looking back at the hotel

Wandered around and explored a little and then had some breakfast in a lovely restaurant overlooking the ocean. After a quick dash up to a local shop for sunscreen, hats and more appropriate footwear, we came back and had a long swim in the ocean. Beautiful refreshing water with a lovely gentle swell pulling us back and forward.

The view from my room

Then the kids wanted to explore the pool. A cocktail by the pool was nearly our undoing- we were trying hard not to go to sleep until the evening so we adjusted quickly from a night of plane sleep.

Post cocktails...poolside

After showers to get rid of the sand, we entered out, found a bus and headed down to a mall. A mid afternoon late lunch-early dinner beckoned- we knew we’d be asleep pretty early tonight. The kids were rapt when we then stumbled onto a large discounted shoe store and they had a ball finding some new footwear. 

Alertness waning on the bus

5pm and time for ice creams at Ben and Jerrys and then finding a taxi to take us back to the hotel. The biggest highlight on the way back was seeing this dog strapped into its harness on the back of the motorbike.

We spent some time exploring options and booking onto a tour for Pearl Harbour later in the week and then decided to call it a very early night. Catch up on sleep and be raring to go tomorrow morning.

The week ahead is going to be great. Wallowing in 30 degrees heat is a lovely epreive from New Zealand winter temperatures- especially the chilling temps of the last couple of weeks. Its great to spend some real time with Lester and Sanna and have time to have in depth conversations with them about anything, nothing and everything. And an awesome opportunity to spend some time with Evan and Lexi connecting with them in a  way that a weekend visit once or twice a term cannot do. 

  

So looking forward to the rest of the week.