Onto Honolulu!

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We had our final breakfast bagel at the good cafe, and packed our bags ready for the flight to Honolulu. The Brazilian girls were leaving today too, so we wished them safe travels, thanked the staff at the hostel and hailed a cab to the airport.



I am sad to be leaving Maui and the hostel, it really has been a great experience staying here. We checked in our bags for $30 (fingers crossed they don't get lost again) and wondered what to do to pass the time in this tiny airport for a couple of hours. Daryl happily found a massage chair and relaxed in that for half an hour whilst I went to look at the overpriced souvenir shops, before having a bite to eat.



After searching on line for flights I'd booked with Island Air as it was a lot cheaper than most others, plus the baggage was cheaper to check in and the flight times were still as good, and as Hawaii is so expensive, saving a few dollars here and there really does add up and make a difference to put towards other things. Gladly the saying 'buy cheap buy twice' didn't apply here and the flight was great, and all the staff waved us off from the runway! no sooner had we set off, it was time to land-literally a 40 minute flight. Makes you wonder why flights can't be this convenient and affordable within the UK!



The views were awesome and the coastline looked beautiful as we waved goodbye to Maui. Coming into land we had a good view of the Diamond Head Crater in Waikiki we hope to visit in a few days. The staff waved us in at this end too, which was nice again, and thankfully as we made our way to baggage reclaim, we were met with ours (thank god).



We caught the shuttle bus to the car rental place, and if we managed to get this bit of admin done without a hitch, then we were pretty much sorted for the day.......

There was a hitch. Somehow on booking (and I can only presume I'd started typing Honolulu and clicked on the wrong one on the drop down menu) but I'd made the booking for Hilo Airport instead of Honolulu. Hilo is on Big Island (i.e. Not Oahu) After a bit of tooing and froing we got the booking changed (I think the man just tried to make it sound like he'd done us a huge favour, as he started off by sucking his teeth saying 'we don't normally change bookings' I'm thinking 'you're a car rental place at an airport, of course you do' but we played along with him, told him we were very grateful, for the keys and checked into the hotel, which was just behind the rental place so we needn't of bothered getting the car so early! Anyway we were going to Pearl Harbour tomorrow so probably best we didn't have to sort out all the admin before we leave at 7am.



We booked the hotel in Honolulu as it was close to Pearl Harbour and saved driving into Waikiki to drive out again. We managed to get the parking for half price as well seeing as we are Armed Forces. Unfortunately the first room we were given was stinking of stale smoke, despite it being advertised as smoke free premises. We asked for a move and to be fair they were really helpful. Straight away we went down to the pool where I chilled out and did a bit of reading and due to noisy American Kids, Daryl didn't manage to doze off as he would usually.



We showered and got some food in the hotel restaurant, which was nice but as you can imagine on the expensive side. The waiter was one of those who was SUPER helpful, to the point where Daryl said 'I might ask him to pull up a chair,' no need-he pulled up a chair anyway and was telling us where to go on the North Shore, and what foods are good. This made me chuckle whereas I think Daryl was wondering what was going on. He seemed to me like one of those genuinely nice people in life, and we left him a tip anyway.

Back in the room I could barely keep my eyes open as we watched a film on TV, and it wasn't long before we were asleep. As we had moved rooms, we now had a bed each rather than share one so we made the most of this luxury after a week in a hostel. Car cock up aside, all was well in Oahu, and tomorrow is our visit to Pearl Harbour, which I'm sure will be a day to remember.

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