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Published: January 18th 2012
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Paul and I recently spent a week in Hawaii for my birthday. Hawaii is an amazing place where you instantly feel like you’re on holidays as soon as you arrive. The week went so fast, as I knew it would but we had plenty of activities and things to see and do, that we had little time to actually relax!
We stayed at the Outrigger Hotel, which is right on the beach at Waikiki, in an ocean view room. This place was probably the best place to stay – central to everything – beach, the main tourist strip and all the yummy restaurants we were recommended. I’m so glad we stayed there.
There is so much to tell you so I will highlight some of our key experiences:
The best part of Hawaii is the
shopping (and food, but we will come back to that). The shopping is ridiculously amazing! Paul & I went over with hand luggage as we wanted to buy a lot of stuff – and that we did! Paul brought an entire new wardrobe. I’m talking – Levi jeans, Gap shirts, Tommy Hilfiger shorts, Adidas gym gear, Asics shoes, Sketchers, plus much more! I
brought 3 Guess handbags, 2 Guess wallets, 2 Guess watches, all new Nike gym outfits, Asics shoes, Victoria Secret lingerie, Gucci sunglasses & much more. The prices are amazing! It’s well worth it to pay for a flight to Hawaii – just to save on shopping in Australia!
The second best part of Hawaii was the
food! It’s gigantic in size and so delicious! Of course its super bad & fatty and I think I’ve put on at least 7kg in a week, but I enjoyed every bit of it. People in Hawaii usually share a meal (because the meals are huge) but Paul loves to eat and wouldn’t share. He would eat all of his and sometimes half of mine. Places I recommend eating & drinking include: The Cheesecake Factory – we ate here many times; California Pizza Kitchen (seriously the best salads & pizzas); The Top of the Waikiki (Fine dining and a little bit more expensive, but not compare to Sydney. A main meal is about $30. You get to experience the best views of Waikiki); The Yard House – great for dinners & lots of fun for drinking! Lots of locals hang out here. We
sat at the bar and had dinner and drinks and met some cool locals; Dukes – Great location and live music and Hula Grill.
One of my favourite days in Hawaii was our last day there. We
hired a convertible and drove around the island! It only takes about 3 hours to drive around the entire island of Oahu – but with stops along the way, it’s a whole day activity! It was awesome driving a convertible and on the opposite side of the road! I would definitely recommend visiting the North Shore of Hawaii. It’s so beautiful and green. Jurassic Park was filmed on the North Shore and you can tell. The mountains are amazing and I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. On top of all the greenery, there are also the beautiful beaches.
The beautiful beaches up north include
Waimea Bay – a great place to relax and
Sunset Beach – which is where all the big surf events are.
While driving around the island of Oahu, we stopped at a few of the famous shrimp trucks for lunch. These are roadside stands that serve fresh cooked shrimp (prawns) and are delicious &
cheap!
Another day, we enjoyed an
early morning sunrise followed by a morning of
snorkelling at Hanauma Bay. This place is famous for snorkelling and seeing a diverse range of marine life and a rich coral reef. It’s one of the best protected coves and you have to watch an educational video and pay money before you’re allowed to enter the beach! It’s well worth it and Paul & I had a lot of fun.
Last Saturday, after a big few days of eating lots of yummy, fatty food, we decided it was time for a bit of exercise. One thing I really wanted to do was hike up
Diamond Head. Diamond Head is a part of the Honolulu Volcanic Series and displays the best views of Honolulu. It takes 45 minutes to hike up to the top, but we started from our Hotel (as we were told it was only a 20 minute walk to the beginning of Diamond Head – but in fact it was really an hour walk to start the 45 minute incline!). Big day, but lots of photos – that’s the main thing! Haha!
There is so much to do and see
in Hawaii and we didn’t get time to do it all. I really wanted to do Paddle boarding but I did buy a big pool lilo (pool float) and floated on the flat waters of Waikiki Beach for half a day. It was so relaxing 😊
We did lots of shopping (as mentioned at the Outlets) but also at the
Ala Moana Shopping Centre. The Victoria Secret is AMAZING there and seriously I was in there for over an hour and it still wasn’t enough! Unfortunately Paul was getting bored and wanted to go to a guy’s shop so he too could buy something! He actually brought more items than me, but spent much less money! For example his gym shorts were only $6.00 for Adidas, yet I paid $30 for Nike (which is cheap as Nike is usually $60).
We wanted to experience some traditional Hawaiian culture, so we went to a Hawaiian luau. We went to
Germaine's Luau and enjoyed a spectacular show delivered at the ocean’s edge (on a private beach), under the stars and palm trees. Here we enjoyed an all you can eat Hawaiian feast – which included eating a pig that was
cooked in the ground (I have photos of them unveiling the pig from the ground). This was a wonderful evening out and would recommend it.
On top of all these amazing experiences, we enjoyed just being in Hawaii, walking the streets, meeting locals and just chilling out!
I hope you enjoy the summary of our trip to Hawaii & the photos!
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