Hawaii 2006
It all started when Air Canada finally credited me for the air-miles from my trip to China, I had all these points built up, and knew my next time off would be around Christmas.
We knew we had enough points for two free tickets to somewhere warm and tropical, the trick was whether we would be able to find something through Aeroplan. We started with Mexico...
Cancun, Cabo, Huatulco... Everywhere was fully booked, no seats available. We worked our way through Aeroplan's website, Acapulco, Bora Bora, Costa Rica... we figured we would get to Zimbabwe without any luck...
Maui, nope, Honolulu, YEP! Available, and on the dates we wanted.
We could leave the Saturday after my last day of work, and still be back on Christmas Eve. Booked... done... well not quite.
Our flights to Oahu were booked, but where to stay, what to do? We have never been big fans of the BIG CITY travel experience, Honolulu and Waikiki are nice, but they just didn't feel like a vacation where we could relax. After some research we decided to split our time between Oahu and Kauai, and after a lot of condo/resort hunting, I ran across a company called BeBackHawaii.com, they are a husband and wife company that represents condo and home owners, but only if they have stayed there to make sure it meets their standards and they know what the places are like. They asked what we were looking for, what our price range was, and when we were arriving, then sent links to photo albums of appropriate places... a few e-mails and a phone call later we had what appeared to be our perfect accommodations booked. The last steps were booking rental cars and the inter-island flights ($39 each on Hawaiian), and then all we had to do was wait, and wait and wait.
Oahu
We were supposed to arrive in Oahu and fly right away to Kauai, but 1 week before we leave, Air Canada screws us yet again with one of their flight changes. Our flight is now going to arrive 2 hours later, which means the flight arrives after the last flight to Kauai, so we spend our first night in an airport hotel. You can decide whether an airport hotel in Hawaii is better than shoveling snow, 2 inches had fallen the night before we leave. It starts out a little sketchy as we are checking in after 9:00pm and most of the restaurants are closed, except for a place called L&L BBQ which is a deep fried fast food place. Not a great meal, and now we had indigestion, so we crash early for an early start on the next day.
Kauai
We fly out first thing the next morning on our 25 minute flight, and because of our previously booked condo, we can check in right away. After picking up our rental car, it's a short drive to Poipu Beach where our Condo "Poipu Kapili" is located. The pictures BeBack showed us didn't do it justice.
A nice sundeck and sliding glass doors looking out at the ocean, a huge living room complete with TV/DVD and surround sound, a massive kitchen and everything you need in one, Wireless Internet (if I needed it), 2 bathrooms with dual head shower, washer/dryer, and a massive bedroom with a king size bed. All trimmed out in beautiful wood, and non-tacky hawaiian influenced decor. The complex had a great little pool, with a patio area and BBQ, and nice beaches are just a short walk across the complex.
The view from our Living Room/Deck and the beach in front of our complex
First things first, we head to a really unique restaurant for breakfast, it is on Kiahuna Golf course, called Joe's on the Green. We eat eggs benedict while watching the mountains and palm trees, and the landscaped greens and fairways. Birds and butterflies are all around, and we watch the brightly colored red-crested cardinals snoop around the tables for crumbs, and the geckos waiting for their breakfast.
As we stop at a grocers to stock up with food and drinks for the place, we notice there is two local birds commonly found in Hawaii, the little white egrets on the sides of the road, and the wild chickens and roosters that are everywhere. Even the parking lots of the grocery stores are home to the colorful chickens.
We get back and walk over to the Poipu beach at the Sheraton hotel, we play in the surf for a while,
watch the surfers, then crash their pool area, and use their loungers for some sun-time.
The pool is nice and complete with a slide and some natural lava rock decor... and as per my travel tradition,
I receive my traditional injury for the trip. While swimming around, I back into the lava rock and scrape my arm up, should be a couple nice scars. :-)
In the afternoon we wander up the road to a place called Spouting Horn, it was a natural lava tube that now sprays the surf into the air every time a large wave crashes into the rocks and shoots down the tube.
Coming back to our beach area we wander further along and find a Monk Seal sleeping on the beach, some locals have put up a rope barrier to protect him and the tourists from each other. Apparently there is only 25 Monk seals left in the hawaii area, and here is an 8 foot long one resting on our beach. As is always the case, some dummies have to get really close and take their pictures, too bad the seal didn't wake up and bite them, or drag them out to sea.
We relax on the beach and watch the first of our Hawaiian sunsets, not quite what I was hoping for, but it certainly beats looking at a grey Vancouver sky in the rain, or the slush on the streets we left behind. The Monk Seal didn't seem very impressed either, he just stretched a bit and went back to sleep.
Nearby to Poipu beach is the historic Koloa Town, our destination for dinner the first 2 nights, and host to some unique Christmas elements, 'surfer Santa' and a cardboard cutout nativity. 80 degree weather just wasn't quite enough to put us in a Christmassy mood, yet.
The next morning we head north, our first stop is the Kilauea lighthouse, the historic lighthouse was built in 1913, and also serves as a wildlife refuge for migrating birds.
Walking up to the lighthouse we see groups of Nene, very similar to the Canadian Goose, the hawaiian goose is their state bird, and they are very protective of their chicks, hissing just like our geese.
The hillside is covered in nesting birds, on one side is the red footed Booby's, on the other side are the Albatross', graceful in the sky, and clumsy on the ground. A small island is covered in tropicbirds. We look around in wonder at all the birds that migrate here, with our mouths closed of course.
We traveled a little further to the North Shore beaches, we wanted to see the big surf (but it was calm that day), and of course see the famous beaches where movies such as 'From Here to Eternity' and 'South Pacific' were filmed... the next day we would see where 'Jurrasic Park' was filmed.
Anini Beach and Lumahei Beach on the North Shore of Kauai
We check out the Art Galleries and shops in historic Hanalei, pick up a few unique souvenirs for our Christmas tree, I am forced to buy a Hawaiian shirt :-) , and we have a bite of some local seafood before speeding back to the south of the island for a sunset/whale watching cruise. We arrive just in time.
The Blue Dolphin Sunset Cruise is supposed to be a whale watching tour on a catamaran sailboat, as it turned out we did see the tail of a whale twice, and a spout, but it really should have been called a Dolphin tour. Not just a couple dolphins, but a huge pod of spinner dolphins, the captain adjusts his course and speed, and for about 30 minutes, we are in a group of about 50 dolphins, leaping and spinning, and playing in the wake of the boat. Norine and I are right at the front bow of the boat, watching as a dozen dolphins zigzag right below us, adults and babies all swimming together.
The dolphins make the trip, it is so cool to be amongst them, it overshadows the rest of the drunks on the boat, apparently the local Skydiving company is having their Christmas party on the boat tour, and taking as much advantage as they can of the included Mai Tai's and beers. One girl nearly flies overboard when she tries to bounce with the waves, and another guy falls down rather dramatically and cuts himself. It really shouldn't be funny, but being the only sober ones on the boat besides the crew, it is hard not to laugh. We watch another sunset (it's a little plain again), and make our way back to port.
We had already booked a helicopter tour for noon, but when we called to confirm our flight they told us the weather was so nice we should go earlier. We have enough time before it leaves to wander down to a little harbour we had heard Sea turtles were seen earlier in the week.
A local Hawaiian was hiking in with his little girl and littler dog, and told us to follow him. As we are walking I go to step on a big rock, and realize it's not a rock, several large (3-4 feet long) turtles have pulled up onto the rocks to rest. After the excitement of watching the turtles, until they swim away, we wander back out just in time to see a Humpback Whale leaping out of the water, coming straight up and slamming back down as he moves along the coast. This little taste of wildlife will be hard to beat.
It's only 9:30 and it seems like we have seen so much already. It had only started when we loaded into our Eurocopter AStar for our Island Helicopter tour, our first time in a helicopter. The ride was amazing, smooth as could be, and amazingly maneuverable, the sights were even better. I was jealous of Norine's window seat as I was crammed in the middle with another big shouldered guy.
We start out hovering a few feet above the grass and drift of over the island to our first point of interest, the famous Manawaiopuna Falls seen at the opening of Jurassic park. We hover over Waimea Canyon, past the NASA station and along the rugged Na Pali coast line to the North Shore. Our hippy-dippy surfer pilot takes us into Mount Waialeale Crater for the sights of the mountaintops and more waterfalls, apparently we are on our tour on one of only 20 days it isn't cloudy and raining here. With an average of over 472 inches or 39 feet (12 meters) of precipitation each year, Mt. Waialeale is the rainiest and wettest spot on earth, but not today. Finally we stop at Wailua Falls, the famous waterfalls seen in Fantasy Island.
Our pilot tells us about Wailua Falls, and a great little trail that leads down to the base of the falls, so after we land we decide to check out this unique perspective of Fantasy Islands Waterfalls. We soon discover our pilot may have been a little misinformed, it is a shear vertical climb down, roots and slippery dirt. When we get to the bottom and head towards the falls, we discover the trail doesn't go through, and short of swimming the rest of the way we have to turn around, and climb back up the steep trail. We find out later that we were actually human sacrifices to the Hawaiian Mosquito population.
After the brutal hike, we decide a little drive with some scenic overlooks might be better. We drive south, past our base at Poipu Beach, and into Waimea Canyon, a place Mark Twain called the Grand Canyon of the South Pacific. Each stop gives us a different perspective of the Canyon, it's waterfalls, and the wild chickens that hang out in the parking lots. The road ends at a park near the NASA complex, overlooking the Na Pali coast, soon we are heading back to find a stretch of beach we saw on our heli-tour.
Another locale we saw on our heli-tour was an amazing golden sand beach at the end of the road on the South-East corner of the Island. With our rough map we try to find that road, a few dead ends later, we find a sign for Polihale State Park, this must be it. We are down to 1/8 of a tank of gas, and figure we'll just check out this road and go get some gas, we start down the dirt road. The road was a bit bumpy at first, but it seemed the further we got, the worse it got. After bottoming out our rental car a few times, we were slowed down to about 3-5 MPH, and after about 30-40 minutes, just before we were going to give up and turn around, there it was, the rest area, and picnic area sign. We park the car in the sand parking lot, and climb over a sand dune to discover what may be one of the biggest most beautiful beaches ever... us and about a dozen of our closest strangers, alone on a beach several miles long.
We played in the surf a bit, and watched the surfers, but were a little worried about the gas situation, so determined not to be the last ones to leave, we head out before sunset. After another 30 minutes bouncing down the road, we get back to civilization, and stop at Kekaha Beach to watch the sunset, and see the true surfer crowd first hand, as they smoke their "cigarettes", do donuts in their souped up cars on the road, blast their music and surf until the last golden colors leave the sky.
For our last night on Kauai we decide to splurge and go for dinner at the Kilohana plantation, Gaylords is a unique restaurant based in a historic plantation house, and some amazing seafood. I go for the Lobster, and Norine goes for the "Unagi" or something like that... an amazing Whitefish. We are treated to top notch service and food, while sitting under candle/torch light at the edge of the great lawn. A nice way to wrap up one island and get ready for the second half of our trip.
Oahu again
Sadly we had to leave Kauai, and we took our little 25 minute flight back to Oahu. We picked up our rental car, and started to head to our accommodations... H1 highway, straight into gridlock, this was not a vacation, the stress creeped back in until we finally got onto the Pali Hwy, and arrived in Kailua. This was more like it, small town, crossing guards, nice bay and beach areas, we pass them all into an exclusive little neighborhood, when we finally got to our place on Lanikai Beach, all the stress was gone, instantly!
The view we see when we arrive at Secret Lanikai
Upstairs is a 3 bedroom house, downstairs is a studio on a white sand beach, with an amazing view of the Mokolua Islands. We throw our bags into the room, and go sit on the patio... and stare.
The Mokoluas are a pair of little islands of the coast of Lanikai, there is nothing quite like waking up and looking out the window from the bed and seeing this view. You can rent a kayak and go to the islands, or we can watch all the kayakers heading to the small beaches on the islands from the comfort of our bed, or stay on our own beach that we have to ourselves.
The first morning at Lanikai we decide to hang out, catch some rays, swim/float around, and generally just hang out on the beach. Tucked away on our patio is an assortment of floaters, rings, skim boards, and even a surfboard for our enjoyment. Lanikai is protected by a reef, so the waves were small... and my sad attempts to become a pro surfer were dashed.
Once we had a nice bronze glow and the sun went down, we ventured to a local seafood joint for dinner. Buzz's is apparently a fixture at Kailua beach, and we are seated at a table with a little plaque... we were sitting at the same table that President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton sat. I'm not sure if we ordered the same thing, but the meal was great.
After being inspired by my own surfing experiences we head up to the North Shore Beaches (Laniakea Beach Park and Bonzai Pipeline) to see what the big waves are really like. The shores are flagged for expert riders only, and the waves are rolling in at 20-30 feet. I didn't want to make any of them look bad so we stayed on the shore and watched these so-called expert riders, very impressive.
There is a group of about 20-30 surfers floating out there, waiting for that perfect wave, we watch as each wave comes in, 3-4 start as it comes in, and usually only one surfer stays on the crest, process of elimination. We listen as the lifeguards make comments about the great moves, and then laugh as they wipe out. After a while we wander into the historic town of Haleiwa, have a great little lunch, and pick up a couple more souvenirs for our Christmas tree, the blown glass whale seemed quite fitting. I'll hang it beside the hand painted mini-surfboard.
Our last stop on this day was the Polynesian Cultural Center, a venture of Brigham Young University. They use the PCC to pay the costs of students coming from the polynesian islands to attend the university, scholarship, room and board in exchange for the students working at the PCC and sharing their cultures with the tourists and visitors. The PCC is broken up into Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and Aotearoa (Maori New Zealand), each with it's own unique structures, customs and activities specific to each of those islands... it's practically a who's-who of Survivor episodes.
The Evening is capped off with a massive Luau and Hawaiian dinner, an assortment of food cooked in the Lovo style (in the ground), including the bland as can be poi, and purple dinner buns. Apparently taro roots go purple when cooked. All wrapped up with a massive show featuring dances of each of the different cultures, and closed out with a fire spinning finale. Cultured out... we head back to our studio.
Our last day at Lanikai Beach, we are flying home at midnight. We talk to the lady that runs the place and she sadly informs us we have to be out of the studio by 11:00am, some other F!%$#!@ is coming in to stay in OUR PLACE! She then tells us we are more than welcome to use the beach and spend the rest of the day in the Villa next door, use the shower, and relax in the garden. The Villa is a huge complex built in the 30's, a little run down, but pretty spectacular. the back garden is amazing, a grassy area overlooking the ocean, surrounded by Palm trees and flowers. Apparently Sylvester Stallone offered 15 Million for the place a few years back, and on the far side of the garden is the house the Clintons stayed at.
The back Garden at the Villa, and the view from where I was laying.
We spend the afternoon lazing in the sun, and reading. Flora and Fauna abound, so I go on the hunt for some photo opps... crabs, geckos, plumeria, yada, yada, yada... Finally we wave goodbye to our secret little hideaway, and make our way to Waikiki for the final evening of our vacation.
We barge our way through traffic and find ourselves in Waikiki just before sunset. We find free parking right at Waikiki harbour, with a perfect view of Diamond Head, and the reds oranges and golds as the sun drops below the horizon. Finally on our last night in Hawaii we get the sunset I had been looking for.
Our final meal in Hawaii had to be a special one, something that was purely Hawaiian, tropical flavors of the islands, and nothing could be better than the seafood feast we had at Red Lobster. 8-)
One of our last sights in Waikiki before heading to the airport is Santa Claus in the lobby of the Hawaiian Village, a reminder that tomorrow morning we arrive back home on Christmas Eve. It seems to me, that a tropical holiday is a pretty spectacular way to get ready for Christmas.
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaiian for Merry Christmas
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou is Hawaiian for Happy New Year
So I wish you all, Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!