Day 1 - Kaua'i

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Well the day has finally arrived! The kids and I were up super early (my idea so we would sleep on the plane), then a quick trip to the office to print out the rest of the travel docs cos the printer at home ran out of ink (on a public holiday no less) and then had to make a quick stop at the school to drop off some paperwork that just couldnt wait till we got back. THe kids (read Jordan) were pleased to see their friends for just a few last minutes.

The taxi turned up 10 mins early which thru us all in a bit of a spin. Thankfully we were all ready to go - well the cats missed out on a top up - but there was a awful moment in the txi when my mind went completely blank and I couldnt for the life of me recall if I had put my tablet IN my bag or on the floor BY my bag. Thankfully a quick check of my bag at the airport revealed thetablet was inside which wsa a big relief - begging the kids for access to theirs for the entire trip wasn't my idea of holiday fun.

The flight to Sydney was uneventful. The flight from Sydney to Honolulu was almost a complete success thanks to some forwrd planning. Subway for dinner and homemade apple cinnamon muffins kicked the in-flight meals butt. Unfortunately I was reduced to having to buy some drinks to get us thru the flight at $3 each. But beside that everything went really well. So well we arrived in Honolulu 30 mins early, which would have been fabulous if not for the fact we sailed thru customs negating my assumptions of delay leaving us with a 5 hour wait for our connecting flight 😞

The flight to Kaua'i was a mere 20 mins and provided a chane to get a good view of the islands. However, Jordan and I both crashed out during takeoff. We did manage to wake up in time for the landing however all the magestic cliffs were out the other side of the plane.

The rental car was a rude wakeup call. i had managed to book a great special of $90/wk for the rental. But then there was the tax to add to the top ($142). I had attempted to add the insurance during the online purchase for $11/day but there was a glitch and I had to do at the counter. the glitch ... turned out to be that the insurance was going to be $50/day!! Some bargin!! So my $230 car turned out to be $497!! And the worst part is that I had no choice. Kaua'i is an island that really needs a car to get around on to see properly. So I was stuck.... unhappily so.

Driving in the US wasn't half as bad as the last time. Tho that could be due to the fact that the average speed was between 25-35mph tho there were still a few hairy moments when I had to cross the flow of traffic to get into our hotel. Speaking of which - our hotels is not bad for its $85/night rate. Granted the outsde could do with a new coat of apint but inside,its clean, spacious and we have a kichenette that we are able to cook for ourselves in. Its right on the beach but itwas too rough to go swimming. Maybe tomorrow.

So we jumped back in the car and headed to Safeway to stock up on groceries. While we were there, we signed to 'the club' and managed to get some serious savings. Gotta love saving money - especially after the hire car incident. We came back and decided to watch a bit of tv before dinner, the next thing I knew it was several hours later. We had all crashed out. I got up and made some super spicy tacoes, it as time to crash out again.

Yes I know - not a highly exciting start to our holiday - but we are bunked down, stocked up and have wheels. Let the holiday fun begin

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