Leaving Sydney airport we had to take a RAT within 24 hours of arriving in Hawaii. This equated to trying to get a doctors appointment late on Sunday afternoon (before a public holiday) or on the day of the public holiday. So we opted to do our test immediately before our flight, which retrospectively was pretty simple but very nerve wracking. We didn’t know wether or not we were going to get to the plane until the last minute! Further to this we also needed: an ETSA (which is the visa to USA), a copy of our international vaccine certificate, copy of our travel insurance, and a declaration that detailed where we were staying on the island. Fortunately we all skated through with Dani trying covid 10 days before we left, John not getting it at all and Jono and I attending a wedding on the Saturday prior to leaving! Preflight anxiety has never been higher. Also sleeping with an N95 on is impossible and Jetstars $15 airplane food has hit an all time low.

Landing at 6am in Honolulu left the entire day for us to introduce ourselves to the island. First stop was picking up our car rental via Enterprise which was a cute red Jeep. We then got breakfast as soon as we go out of the airport at iHop and headed out to Haleiwa.

Cutting straight up the island the road to the north shore goes past Dole pineapple farm and the coffee plantations, we didn’t feel like stopping but we definitely pulled over for a picture with the cute vintage sign to the town. We kept driving towards Waimea Bay to see the waterfall and go for our first swim in the Hawaiian sea. The waterfall was closed and here is a short video of their first dip in the surf.

We kept driving up to Turtle Bay and then turned back to stop at Banzai to watch the big waves instead of being wiped out by them, then one last stop for shaved ice before heading into the city.

We had talked up the Cheesecake Factory so much that – after our check in to Waikiki Resort Hotel – was our next stop. But it was more than disappointing, the service was shit, the food was crap and there was literally a dead cockroach on our seat. Ick. Anyway the cheesecake was still good so save this one for dessert kids.

The rest of the day was spent having a little rest, we walked around the shops, enjoyed the beach and hotel bed. We had dinner at Kirin which was 10/10 Chinese food and I would definitely go back again, super fresh and tasty. Of course I had another desert from Cafe Kokoro. So cute!

This concluded the worlds longest possible day, we woke up at 5am on 25th in Goulburn, to catch our plane at 4pm, we arrived in Hawaii (without sleeping) at 7am on the 25th and preserved until about 9pm before making it to bedtime.