{"id":2766,"date":"2013-04-05T18:34:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T08:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=2766"},"modified":"2013-10-07T22:52:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T12:52:20","slug":"hawaii-2012-part-1-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=2766","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii 2012 part #1 \u2013 Arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_1878-5\"<\/p>\n

It might be a little clich\u00e9 to honeymoon in Hawaii but can you really argue? Sun, surf, sand (if you go to the right beaches) and still plenty of sight seeing, activities and shopping to more than keep you busy.<\/p>\n

I knew very little of \u201cthe rich man\u2019s Bali\u201d prior to researching and after viewing google maps and the associated scaled distances I was expecting it to be a lot smaller, however after a rather slow crawl through traffic from the airport to our Waikiki hotel it was instantly recognisable, for good and bad, as just about any other major American city.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0139-2\"<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0124-1\"<\/p>\n

But first, getting there. Like the savvy travellers we are, we held off till we could nab some crazy cheap flights and lo and behold a couple months out, Air Pacific<\/a> had a sale and we were set. We heard and read a few horror stories about this budget Pacific carrier but didn’t really encounter close to a Tiger Airlines facebook post. <\/p>\n

\"DSCN3422-1\"<\/p>\n

Of course the trade off for cheap flights is usually an extra stop over, which was in Fiji<\/strong>. Better than a slap in the face yea? Unfortunately it was more like a slow slap in the face, we were scheduled to arrive early evening so the choice in venturing out was limited and with the sun all but gone, it wasn\u2019t even worth a look at the beach outside of the Nadi<\/strong> airport. So with 7 hours to kill we made the most of what the airport had to offer, 2 levels of shops and a food court\u2026.cool, now there\u2019s only 6hours 50min left to go. Yep, the place is small, the shops uninspiring and mostly redundant. The food court is based mostly around a carvery style vender which served a variety of meals from classic American to a few Asian dishes. Prices were ok and the quality not too bad. Best thing was they took AU (or USD) currency without a transaction fee but you got your change in Fijian dollars.<\/p>\n

Travel Tip: Carry small denominations of AU or USD notes to minimise the amount of unused Fijian currency you\u2019ll have to get exchanged or just keep it for your return stop over.<\/em><\/p>\n

So to kill the time? We came prepared with a season of Fringe<\/a> on a netbook, then we just commandeered a table. Later we mixed it up and pulled up some carpet near an unused powerpoint. <\/p>\n

Travel Tip: If you get bored from counting the number of Aussie girls with French braids or corn rows and want a bit of piece and quiet, head downstairs to the airline lounges. You can pay a small fee for creature comforts inside or just stretch out on the floor\/seats out the front for free.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"(not)

(not) Christmas Island<\/p><\/div>\n

\"(not)

(not) Christmas Island runway<\/p><\/div>\n

Time marched on with the slumping body language and expressions of center staff till we were finally on our way – but wait, whats this? An extra stop at Christmas Island<\/strong>??? Ok first shock was the previous no mention of a second stop and the second was Christmas Island?? Isn\u2019t that in the opposite direction?? Turns out its part of Kiribati<\/strong>, a tiny little island that\u2019s more lagoons and oases than island – but a perfect place if you want middle-of-no-where picturesque beaches, endless fishing and literally nothing else. The ground crew there reflected the laid back environment, some rode up to the airliner on bicycles, most were either wearing thongs or were barefoot and shirtless. One even took a break from doing nothing by lighting up a cigarette, apparently avgas is so laidback here it couldn\u2019t be bothered exploding :-\\<\/p>\n

After another hour of sitting around (minus the break where US border patrol entered the plane and searched seats …and the poor guys that fit the stereotypical profile) we were on our way.<\/p>\n

On arrival at HNL airport we picked up our hire car from Alamo<\/strong>, despite some negative reviews for this location we had no problems at all and even ended getting to choose a VW Jetta <\/strong>over a Ford Focus<\/strong>. After spending a couple thousand miles in a Focus last time, it was an easy decision to choose the German\u2026 and it wasn\u2019t just because it was red \ud83d\ude09 You can get around the island quite sufficiently using public transport and mopeds but nothing beats having the freedom and convenience of a car especially when you have multiple activities planned for a day and a bunch of shopping to go with it.<\/p>\n

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Travel Tip: For the best prices on hire cars go to www.DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com<\/a> – basically a blind selection from dealers of your car category choice, or better. Once your preferences are entered, you\u2019ll get an email from the hire company with pick up details. A little daunting not knowing what you\u2019ll get or from who, but they only deal with the bigger name companies so you should still have some choice depending on your nominated category. If you\u2019re choosing \u201cconvertible\u201d you\u2019ll be mostly limited to a Mustang<\/strong> or Sebring<\/strong> \u2026 realistically you\u2019ll end up with a Sebring (which is essentially an old Ford Taurus with the roof cut off. Yep, as ugly as it sounds) To give you an idea, a week hire for a \u201ccompact\u201d, which going by the Jetta felt more like a mid-size was about $150 for the week, total of $350 with insurance which is always the killer. Still, at $200 less than the cheapest online advertised price, it was an easy decision.<\/em><\/p>\n

The prepurchase of a $50 ebay gps complete with current US and Europe maps instantly paid for itself as we made a steady crawl towards Waikiki and our hotel for the week, The Outrigger – Ohana West<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Waikiki\"

Waikiki<\/p><\/div>\n

There is of course a plethora of hotels to chose from, most going from \u201cmore than your flights\u201d to \u201cyikes!\u201d but thankfully this (not so) little gem was significantly less than surrounding places including sister hotel, Ohana East<\/strong>, a mere half block away. Having the deal sweetened with Zuji\u2019s package special made it even better. The only reason we could tell for the difference in price was from the d\u00e9cor. It looked like the last reno in the rooms was during the 80s but other than that nothing to complain about, good service, large room and balcony and a 5min stroll to the beach. There’s also Chili’s Bar and Grill<\/a> on the ground level and a Denny’s<\/a> just across the street, both with a wide range of foods and meal deals.<\/p>\n

Travel Tip: Parking is a premium almost every where in Waikiki and of course they capitalise on it. There are a few cheaper long term parking spots but all a few blocks away and most not secured. Ohana East offers paid parking at about $20-25 a day with discounts for longer stays, which makes unloading and loading alot easier. The trade off is, the carpark is very limited so they tend to run out of spaces from mid to late afternoon but if you have already paid, you get directed to Ohana West down the road.<\/p>\n

\"Waikiki

Waikiki Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Waikiki

Waikiki Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

Travel Tip: A lot of the beach front hotels have \u201cprivate\u201d beaches ie. Its easiest accessed through the hotel. For off the street access you\u2019ll want to head straight for Kuhio Beach Park (Waikiki Beach). Possibly one of the busiest beaches in Oahu, it has levies for shelter and corrosion prevention (I read somewhere that they actually import sand from Australia!), though the native sand is rather coarse. Great spot for a quick dip and kid-friendly but if you want to do anything other than a fun splash\/cool down then its best you try elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Bags dumped and a quick shower, we were ready to hit the streets of Waikiki!<\/p>\n

\"DSCN3518-1\"<\/p>\n

Hawaii 2012 part #1 \u2013 Arrival<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #2 \u2013 Waikiki<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #3 \u2013 Honolulu shopping \u2013 Part A<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #4 \u2013 The Big Island \u2013 Volcano tour<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #5 \u2013 Shopping Honolulu \u2013 part B<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #6 \u2013 Tattoo Honolulu \/ Boardshorts: A Perfect Fit art exhibits<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #7 \u2013 Pearl City area<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #8 \u2013 Swap meets and Made in Hawaii festival<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #9 \u2013 Cook offs and Car shows<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #10 \u2013 North shore<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #11 \u2013 Windward shore and Sealife Park<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #12 \u2013 Chief\u2019s Luau at Sealife Park<\/a>
\nHawaii 2012 part #13 \u2013 South shore \u2013 Diamondhead crater, Hanauma bay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It might be a little clich\u00e9 to honeymoon in Hawaii but can you really argue? Sun, surf, sand (if you go to the right beaches) and still plenty of sight seeing, activities and shopping to more than keep you busy. I knew very little of \u201cthe rich man\u2019s Bali\u201d prior to researching and after viewing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1883,388],"tags":[1507,1891,576,1889,1272,1894,1895,1886,400,563,1892,1888,1887,1893,1896,50,525,100,488,391,1890],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2766"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3545,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions\/3545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}