January 16, 2019

Aloha…..

So.. yet again I find myself lagging in keeping the site up to date. I’m not sure how proper bloggers do it… but I find life just gets in the way and all my good intentions just vanish.

Anyhow…. this summer marked a milestone birthday for my mother so how better to celebrate than a family trip to the sunny lands of ….. Hawai’i. July 2018 we embarked on our first proper trip to Hawai’i. A few of us had done a 48 hr layover stint a few decades ago, but seeing as it was a whirlwind trip back then, I don’t really remember it.

We flew on Aeroplan points to reduce the cost of flights and we booked some fabulous accommodations. Choosing a condo resort instead of regular resorts allowed us flexibility with space and dining options. We settled on 2 islands as we were only going to be away 10 days. Seeing as we flew into O’ahu we figured we’d stay there for a bit and not hop on yet another flight right away. The other island we selected was based on a random poll of our friends and acquaintances which yielded thumbs up for Kaua’i.

Oahu

We arrived midday on a beautiful day although a little cloudy (more on that later). Picking up our rental van, we quickly drove across the island and made our way to the Ko Olina Beach Villas Resort. It’s a resort area consisting mostly of condo resorts and location on five man-made lagoons. Our condo resort was wedged inbetween two undeveloped pieces of land and further beyond was the Marriott and the Disney Aulani resort.

Ko Olina

We had a 3 bedroom villa in the Ko Olina Beach Villas Resorts. Perfect for our group of 6. There was a full gourmet kitchen, 3 bathrooms, laundry and the biggest lanai or balcony you could dream of. The resort had 2 pools, a massive koi pond and only steps to Lagoon 2.

View from the condo with pool and lagoon in view.

View of resort from Lagoon 2 beach. (notice how few people there were.. it was like our private beach).

Hurricane Lane

Grinning ear to ear…why not… it’s paradise…. hurricane…? wha?

So…. we happened to select the one week where a hurricane has come the closest to the Hawai’i islands in many many years. We rolled with it and experienced the atypical Hawai’i vacation but still managed to make the most of it.

We watched the news outlets start with mild warnings to 24 hours later advising people of being ready. Never in my life have I seen empty shelves in a grocery store. Thankfully, the Hurricane blew by and was downgraded to a tropical storm. It still left an impact, lots of flooding and changed vacation plans but we were ever thankful that it wasn’t more serious than it was. We spent the day of largest concern in our spacious condo with… PUZZLES… and a little.. tv.

We managed to squeeze in as much beach time during the few sunny days we had.

Lagoon 2 snorkelling, calm waters with the wavebreak, beautiful white sand.

Who knew hiding out from a hurricane could be so tiring.

Luau

We had prebooked the Luau at the neighbouring Aulani Disney resort before our trip. Thankfully we did as it sold out. By the time, I reserved the tickets, the premium package tickets (early entry to pre luau activities, better seating and unlimited beverages) were sold out but in the end we were let in shortly after the premium folks with lots of time to do the various activities and you were too busy with activities and eating to get many drinks so, so we didn’t notice missing out on anything.

The luau started with pre luau activities including pounding Poi (a local food- consisting of mashed taro, temporary tattoos, making lei’s and flower corsages, print making, and ukelele playing. The activities were followed by a buffet dinner (a little rushed in our opinion) and an evening show.

Activities

We managed to squeeze in lots of fun in addition to the Luau and hurricane prep. Side note, the only people hoarding supplies at the grocery stores were visitors…. local folks when you talked to them (including a police officer) were quite skeptical of the impending storm.

Surfing

I found North Shore Surf Girls online, and they were fantastic! We booked a session first thing in the morning and we each had an accompanying instructor. My daughter (5 yrs) had her instructor on the board with her which completely put her and me at ease. We started with a quick on land lesson and then proceeded to the ocean and wow… by the end of the 2 hours we all got up and rode a few waves.

Props to the awesome, encouraging and supportive instructors at North Shore. Including the ones who repeated towed me out beyond the break. The tropical storm saved us from blistering sun as it was an overcast day and it made the waves a little more fun!

Beaches, eats and more….

We visited numerous beaches and even had more on the schedule had the hurricane not eaten up a day sitting indoors. Amazing how at every turn there was a recommendation about a beach or waves to find.

We also had to discover the eats every blogger, vlogger and travel writer wrote about.

Garlic Shrimp… garlicky goodness – North Shore – Giovanni’s

Shave Ice … not shaveD but shave. Matsumoto on the North Shore. Refreshing after surfing

Next Island… Kaua’i

After 5 crazy and fun days on O’ahu we bid farewell and headed west to Kaua’i for the garden island.

Tropical storms couldn’t dull the enthusiasm

A short 45 minutes later we found ourselves on Kaua’i, the island yet to feel the impacts of the hurricane/tropical storm. It seems the storm was following our travel itinerary.

Wapouli Beach Resort

Midway along the eastern shore is the community of Kapaa and where our next condo was. Wapouli Beach Resort was like a full resort, large pool, 2 hottubs, a restaurant on site and a strip plaza across the street for any supplies you would need.

Our giant lanai, even larger green lawn and yes… that’s the ocean in spitting distance from the lanai…. perfection.. a little sun would have been too perfect.

Activities

Being so close to the beach, we were content to just play play play. The beach had a rough undertow and with the affects of the tropical storm, there wasn’t a soul on the beach. Life jackets and fully supervised, we played in the shallow waves…

And with a fantastic pool with barely a soul in sight…

Field Trips

Seeing as our Sail up the Napali Coast was likely to be cancelled, we thought we’d squeeze in some fun and spent an afternoon at the Kilohana Plantation. Train ride to see the 50+ fruit and vegetables that are grown on-site and to see and feed the various animals on display. Koloa Run also has a store on site with requisite Tastings offered. Koloa Coffee Rum was too good to pass up on; it came home with us as well.

Animals at Kilohana Plantation on Kaua’i

Hanapepe swinging bridge – you can see how brown the water was due to the excessive rain causing massive dirt runoff.

Opaekaa Falls – chocolate milk waterfall owing to the recent excessive rain

Animals

So…. we were warned about the wild chickens.. little did we know they were serious…

Wild chickens… EVERYWHERE on Hawai’i Islands.

Apparently wild pigs are also prevalent but the pigs aren’t quite as brazen as the chickens and we never did see a wild one. We also happened on large snails after the rain stopped.