Day 13 - Kihei, Maui

This morning I took Jemma to the doc. Our insurance covered the cost which would have been $250. She has a topical antibiotic eardrop to take four times per day. We spent the day by the pool, cooked up some chicken kebabs on the pool barbecue. 
Later in the day we took a drive through south Kihei, Waimea and stopped in at ‘Big Beach’.The waves were enormous! I was worried that Ryan was going to get washed out in the suction. We drove as far south as we could to Le Perouse Bay.

Big Beach, Maui

Day 10, 11, 12 Kona, Hawaii to Kihei, Maui

Tuesday was a travel day. Our flight was at 1:07pm so we had some time before the flight. Everything went really smoothly, again. Alamo were super fast. We were ushered onto the shuttle bus and whisked away to the Hawaiian Airlines checkin. Through security and on to our 25minute flight to Maui. The flight seemed like 10 minutes. Hardly time to buckle in before we were coming in to land. The Kahului airport at Maui is massive compared to Kona. It’s more live YVR’s domestic terminal than the tiny open air airport in Kona. We located our bags and went off in search of Alamo. A full length Alamo shuttle bus was just pulling away as we got to the back of a long line up but another bus arrived just moments later. We didn’t get on that one but the next bus was right behind that. A steady stream up people and a steady supply of buses. These guys are on their game!The Costco is just a couple of blocks away so we picked up $314 of groceries including another large chunk of sushi grade tuna, a tray of tuna sashimi, steak, chicken etc. The only trouble was our trunk was full of luggage so we had to cram the groceries between the kids on the back seat.

Day 11 - Jen and I got up early, grabbed a coffee and went for a walk up the beach.After breakfast we grabbed our boogie boards and headed over to Kama’ole Beach II, right across from our Condo.The surf was great and the kids boogy boarded their buts off. After a couple of hours the wind picked up and the airborne sand forced us to flee to the shelter of the pool. We were getting sand blasted!That evening I cooked up the chunk of tuna. I would like to photograph it but it gets snapped up too quick!

The View from Our Condo, Kihei Akahi

Some palm tree maintenance

Kama'ole Beach II

Day 12 - Jemma now has an ear infection. Too much seawater and sand in the old ear-hole.We spend a quiet morning at the pool and Jemma kept out of the water. We have been putting polysporin drops in her ear but it does not seem to be helping. Time to check in with our travel insurance provider.We drove up the coast to Lahaina and Napili Cove. The beach is really steep and the waves go all the way up. We hung out for about an hour and at one point the waves built right up to about 10ft tall and soaked Jenny who couldn’t get up quickly enough. And we were at the top of the beach! We will go back and get some photos. We went back down the coast in to Lahaina and saw the Ulalena show at the Lahaina theatre. It was really good.

Day 9 - Kona Beach, Humpy’s and Night Dive with a Manta Ray.

We had to slow the pace down a bit. This holiday is exhausting! We took our time getting up. Now we are up at 8:00am (from 6:00am). We decided to go back to Kahaluu beach. This time Jen and I went out on our own. The kids wanted to go to a surf beach - wha wha wha! We took lots more photos and then took the kids back to the condo where they could hang in the pool. 

A turtle was right up at the beach. Jenny almost stepped on him.

I think we are getting the hang of the camera.

Kona Isle Condo (our home for the past five days) - Beachfront Gardens

We were saving our energy for our big adventure - a night snorkel with Manta Rays! First we had dinner at Humpy’s - a beach bar in Kona. To our surprise there was a hockey game on. The Stanley Cup Final! Wow, I had no idea it was still going on. We were able to watch the final minutes of the final period of the final game and really, at the end of the day it was like fast forwarding to the end of a murder mystery movie. Look at the hours we saved by not watching a single game!

Sunset on our cruise out to the Mantas

Anyway, after a huge burger , fries and a couple of beers at Humpy’s - a great idea before snorkeling - we headed out to the marina to meet our boat. It took about twenty minutes to get out to the area where the Mantas feed. They use huge lights to attract krill and the Mantas eat the krill - usually. But tonight, alas, no krill and no mantas.
Wait a minute. That’s not all. Here’s how it went. We cruised out to the spot to see about a dozen other boats packed with divers and snorkelers. We put on our wet suits, the kids doubled up and wore two wet suits, and hopped in the water (after watching the sun set). Six of us in total held on to a boogie board raft and our leader, Tim, towed us out to the middle of the pack. The boogie board had about eight powerful flashlights aimed down into the water so we could see the bottom as we were towed along. We were taken to an area called the 'campfire’ a large cluster of lights set up on the ocean floor pointing up to attract more krill. It was surreal, like something out of Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Lights everywhere, divers with flashlights, schools of fish and tons of people BUT NO MANTAS!

A blurry image but you can get an idea of what it was like

In the water heading to the 'campfire'.

We paddled around for about thirty minutes and then Tim said ‘Sorry no krill, no mantas. Let’s try again tomorrow?’ WHAT! We are off to Maui tomorrow! We headed back to the boat, heads down, dejected and dropped Ryan, Jemma and Jen off as Ryan was getting cold. Tim said he would take the three of us back out if we wanted even though there was little chance of seeing anything now and what do you know, a single manta showed up and saved the day. It could have been a diver in a manta suit but I didn’t care, I got to see a manta. It was sad that Jen and the kids missed it. I had the camera on record pretty much the whole time.Here’s the link to the website to see what we should have seen konaoceanadventures.

Day 8 - Kona. A Beach Day

Jenny here.  The condo is just lovely and fully stocked.  We had tea this morning, a change after two days of me making coffee, grinding my own beans and everything.  It’s about $28 bucks a pound to enjoy these supreme beans.  Anywho, after ‘face timing‘  Lisa, Barry’s sister, we headed out to “Two step” and Captain Cook to experience the “best” snorkeling in Hawaii. 

Kona Isle Condo

Ryan is a good little snorkeler!

Hey, get off my blog! Barry here. Once Jenny starts there will be no room for photos. We Skyped Jenny’s brother, Jeff last night. It’s crazy, its really easy to stay in touch with technology. We have a postcard started but we will probably end up bringing it home with us!
Two Step, actually called Honaunau Bay, so named because the natural rock steps make it really easy to get it into the water, really is one of the best snorkeling places I have been to. There was tons of coral and lots of fish.  
After snorkeling we drove up the hill to a breakfast place just outside the town of Captain Cook called The Coffee Shack. This restaurant is on the main #11 highway and overlooks the steep mountainside down to the ocean. The main attraction is the bright green geckos that run along the walls. Sorry no photos. We left the camera in the car. After breakfast we went to White Sands beach where the kids could play in the surf.

White Sands Beach, Kaileua

We decided to eat in last night. We picked up a huge chunk of fresh Ahi tuna and swordfish steaks and cooked them on the barbecue. Perfect!

Day 6 & 7 - Kona, Hilo and Volcano National Park, Hawaii

The flight to ‘The Big Island’ was very smooth. The 45 minutes seemed for like 25 minutes. We landed, picked up our car and headed the 5kM into Kona as the sun was setting. Jenny found our apartment while doing her 150 hrs of research. It’s a privately owned condo about 15minutes from the Airport on the other side of Kona.

Day 6 - Kona, Hawaii
We woke up the next morning and headed straight to a snorkeling beach. We were so keen to get out that we didn’t take the camera but it was  great beach with schools of bright yellow fish.We then drove North, past the airport out to Hapuna Beach

Photos taken by Ryan

 

Too much sun?

We ended the day watching the sunsetting over Keanalele Beach (seriously I don't make these names up!)

Day 7- Hilo and Volcano National Park, HawaiiHawaii is the biggest of all the islands, larger than all of the island put together. It is still growing as the Kilauea Volcano spews tons of lava daily into the ocean. The Mauna Loa  volcano is the largest mountain in the world rising to 12ft above sea level and down another 40,000ft to the ocean floor. We drove the 2 1/2hrs from Kona to Hilo along the northern #19 highway. Hilo is the opposite to Kona with 120 inches of rainfall each year while Kona has 10inches per year. We drove up to the Akaka Falls, took some photos and then stopped at the coconut fruit stand for some coconut water and freshly picked pineapple. Yummy!

Akaka Falls 

We stopped in Hilo for a swim in some lovely rock pools and then headed up to the volcano. The volcano is massive. There is smoke spewing steadily from the crater but, sadly, you can’t go near it unless you want to die from the fumes. We drove along crater rim drive and took in the sights. We were planning on staying to see the lava glowing after dark but decided I would rather do the 2 1/2 hr drive back in daylight.We stopped at a hole in the wall shack for some Korean barbecue ribs and seafood. It was surprisingly delicious.

Day 5 - Oahu, Hanauma Bay, Hawaii, Kona

Jenny got us up at 5:45am today so that we could get to Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a coral nature reserve on the other side of Diamond Head and is protected by the State Parks. It is closed on Tuesdays (we went on Thursday) and opens at 6:00am. We have heard that it is very popular and can get quite crowded and churned up later in the day (Thanks Cher). That’s why we got up so early while on holiday! Plus you could argue that it is 8:45am Vancouver time!

We found a parking spot and was told by a Park employee that because we were so early we didn’t have to pay the $7.50 per adult entrance fee. Bonus.

Hanauma Bay, Oahu

The tide was on its way out and the pools were very shallow. The coral was quite beaten up by the thousands of tourists but we did see some cool fish.

We were done by 8:30am as a steady stream of people weaved their way down the hill to stir up the sandy bottom. We ate breakfast at McDonalds spending the $15 we saved. 

We parked the car back at the hotel and then spent our last few hours back at our favorite spot on Waikiki beach. We rented two boogie boards for $5 each and had a blast! The waves are awesome. We picked up a couple of shave ice with ice creams and were all set!
At 3:00pm we headed over to the airport for the short flight (45mins) to Kona on The Big Island of Hawaii.
At this point I would like to say how awesome the hotel, car rental and Waikiki were.The Ilima Hotel is a few blocks back from the beach. That means its not too noisy at night but just a 15min walk through the International market to the beach. It was clean, small and personal and very reasonably priced at $110 per night.Alamo had a brand new VW Jetta for us and everything went super smoothly. The shuttle picked us up right away when arriving and whisked us away literally five minutes after parking when we returned the car.Finally, Waikiki was awesome. Maybe its the time of year. Fewer people travel here is the summer. Maybe it’s more hectic at Christmas and Easter? We found everything to be reasonably priced - we were expecting to get gauged. Shave ice on Waikiki beach was just $4.Boogie boards just $5 and even a steak dinner at the Shorebird, a beachfront restaurant was $99 including tip (15%) WITH three drinks!

Day 4 - Oahu. Making Leis, Manoa Falls, Udon and Sunset Beach

Wow! We were tired last night! We all just fell into bed. Today was a restful day. The kids went straight down to the pool after breakfast and then kukui nut lei making in the hotel lobby at 10:00am. The leis were actually really nice and no cost!

Kukui nut leis

We went down to the Marukame Udon restaurant for lunch just around the corner from our hotel. We knew it must be good because there is an hour line up in the evenings. 

Marukame Udon Restaurant

After lunch we drove the 20mins to the base of Manoa Falls. We were warned that it would be muddy and muddy it was. 

Hiking to the falls

The jungle

Manoa Falls

Back to the hotel. The kids went for a swim and I had a two hour nap. Driving is tiring!We ended the evening with a swim at the beach down at Waikiki. 

Sunset at Waikiki

Tomorrow afternoon we are off to Kona on the Big Island.

Day 3 - Pearl Harbour, North Shore, Dole Plantation, Turtles, Polynesian Cultural Centre

Dinner at the Shorebird was delicious. The beachfront restaurant has a huge buffet and a large barbecue grill so that you can grill your own steak. Jemma kept going back to grill slices of pineapple. 

Mmm, barbecued pineapple.

Waikiki and Diamond Head

Sunset at Waikiki Beach, Oahu

We made our way back along the beach and through the International Market. Ryan has always wanted a shark tooth necklace. At the last moment Ryan changed his mind and bought a boar tusk necklace! Nice.

The next morning, we ares till on Vancouver time, we headed out at 7:30am to Pearl Harbour. After the rain shower we saw the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen! Right over Pearl Harbour. The visitor centre was excellent. Lots of great information.

Rainbow at Pearl Harbour

After about 2hrs we headed North to the Dole Plantation, pineapple centre of the universe. We stayed just long enough to see that pineapples grow in bushes, not on trees and to experience the legendary pineapple ice cream.So little time, so much to see. We kept going North and soon hit the small town of Haleiwa on the North Shore. We had been told to eat shave ice and eat from one of the many shrimp trucks scattered along the coast. Well, it was only 10:30am but its never too early for shrimp. We stopped and ordered a couple of plates. Sorry, no photos, our hands were too greasy and the shrimp only lasted about 5 minutes.

The shrimp truck.

Nothing but empty shells!

Just out of town, across a narrow bridge we noticed cars pulled off to the side of the road opposite a beach. We had heard that there are turtles in the area so we pulled over and pulled out our snorkeling gear. We were not prepared to see so many huge turtles. There must have been at least 20 of them, some right up on the shore.Time to test out the underwater camera. Darn it. The batteries are dead! Ryan took about 100 photos at Pearl Harbour. No worries, back to the car to get some spares. Jemma and Ryan are naturals. Ryan freaked out a bit when he was momentarily surrounded by two of the 100lb creatures, happily chewing on seaweed

Isn't Ryan cute in his wet suit?

The sea turtles.

Next stop...The Polynesian Cultural Centre. Everything is close on Oahu so it was only another 15 minutes before we hit the PCC. The water was very calm today so there were no dramatic waves at Sunset Beach or the Bonzai Pipeline.The Polynesian Cultural Centre was like a disneyland for polynesian culture. It features the main polynesian cultures, Tongo, Samoa, Aotaorora (New Zealand), Hawaii, Fiji and Tahiti. There was a full program of events including an Imax movie, a floating pageant featuring dancers from each culture plus tons of events going on at each cultural village. You could learn to weave, drum, throw spears, climb coconut trees and of course hula.

Polynesian Cultural Centre floating pageant.

Pina colada anyone?

My supper!

Drinks at the Luau

At 5:50pm we went to our Luau and ate barbecues pig and a great buffet of chicken, raw fish, and tons of salad. The evening ended with a 2hr hula presentation culminating in the famous fire twirling. No photos or video allowed!It only took 45minutes to get home along the newly paved highway and we were exhausted!Tomorrow, an easy morning. Hang at the pool, necklace making at 10:00am. 
It’s only day three!