A Couple Days In Paradise Before Turning South
Our time back home in Winston-Salem (15 days) was a bit of a whirlwind. Between planning and packing for the second leg of our adventure, making sure the kids saw friends (and Cameron and I did too), and a quick trip to Bald Head Island for our NC beach fix, it ended up not feeling like enough time at home. But, at the same time, had we stayed a day longer the kids would have had to start school and it would have pushed our return right into or past Christmas. When we planned this part of our trip we wanted to fit it in between the beginning of school and the holidays and still maximize our 90 day allowance to be in NZ without a visa. And, since we were going to be right next door to it we wanted to hop over to Australia for a couple weeks because who knows if we will ever make it to that part of the world again. With those parameters in mind our stopover in Hawaii was much shorter than we would have liked. Enough time to start to acclimate to the time change ahead of us in NZ, but not nearly enough to really explore Oahu.
Our reasoning for stopping in Hawaii was twofold. My Aunt Cheryl (my dad’s little sister), her husband Dave, and their two kids, Ashley and Josh, all live there and we rarely get to see them. In fact, Ada and Jackson had never even met my cousin Josh. The last time I saw him was at our wedding in 2003. Almost my entire childhood, I spent weeks with them every summer when they would come stay with my grandparents in Virginia Beach. Our second reason for stopping was to break up the flight to NZ a bit since it would be the longest any of us had spent in the air at one time. Had we gone directly to NZ, we would have had a minimum 14 hours straight in the air and I was a little tentative to dive right into that not knowing how any of us would handle it. By stopping in Hawaii, we trimmed our longest flight down to 9 hours, which would get us from Honolulu to Auckland. On top of those two reasons, our resident WWII historian Jackson really wanted to visit Pearl Harbor and it’s Hawaii, so at the least it’s a beautiful place to spend a couple of days.
My Aunt Cheryl recommended that we stay away from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu and Waikiki so we booked an Airbnb in Waianae on the west coast of Oahu. We drove to Raleigh on Sept. 25th to spend the night before our early flight on the 26th. Coincidentally, our flight to Hawaii that morning was leaving within minutes of the 2019-20 school year starting at the kid’s middle school. We had two easy flights to get to Honolulu. Seat back televisions with on-demand movies and television shows was all Cameron and the kids needed to survive the 11 hours of travel. I was the only one that slept on either flight. We landed in Hawaii shortly before 2 PM (local time) and were greeted by Cheryl and Josh who placed beautiful leis around our necks, gave us a backpack full of local snacks and treats, and helped us lug our eight bags to our rental car. Knowing it was going to be an early night for our family with the inevitable jet lag, they sent us on our way and we made plans to get together the next day. Cheryl has easily filled the shoes that my grandmother left empty when she passed away in 2008- always wanting to make everyone comfortable, offering hospitality, and appreciative of every moment with family. Josh, now in his mid-30’s, is still the sweet, gentle soul that I remembered. My newly sentimental self was thrilled to see both of them again and excited to see Dave and Ashley in the next few days.
On Tuesday morning we got up and went out for breakfast at a local spot. The west coast of Oahu is less developed than many other parts of the island so there aren’t a lot of restaurant options. As we did on our summer travels, we relied on the recommendations of our Airbnb hosts and they did not disappoint. After breakfast we went a little further down the road to do a quick hike up Gorilla Mountain and get a panoramic view of the coast. It had been an unseasonably warm week so we were probably a little late getting started on the hike to beat the heat. There was an almost constant breeze that made it bearable and the view from the top was awesome. Jackson, who didn’t love the heat going up, was excited to see that there were “pillboxes” at the top that we were able to go in. These are military bunkers that were built after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941 and were to spot Japanese planes and/or ships trying to attack again. Since the planes that attacked Pearl Harbor flew in from the north and right over that location they were important elements of defense. Instead of tearing them down, these pillboxes, along with others on the island, have become centerpieces of some of the most popular hikes on the island.
After our hike we went back to our place and then walked a couple of minutes down the road to Aki’s Beach, a small neighborhood spot we had briefly checked out the night before and that is known for being a favorite of sea turtles. It’s a narrow beach that is meant more for sunning and snorkeling than swimming. Our Airbnb had lots of snorkeling gear we could borrow and Cameron and the kids made good use of it. Ada and Jackson were blown away by the number, size, and exoticness of the fish right off the beach. They snorkeled for a couple of hours with only brief stops. Not long after we arrived on Tuesday I spotted a big dark spot in the water near Jackson and Ada that turned out to be a sea turtle. The sight of something that big in the water shocked both kids and they quickly ran out of the water. Once they realized it was something that wouldn’t hurt them they got back in the water in the hopes of getting an underwater view of it. Not long after that the turtle swam up on shore, walked out of the range of the water, and settled in for a long nap. About thirty minutes later we saw another sea turtle enter the cove, feeding on the reef that lined the shore. This time the kids were able to snorkel near it and they were thrilled. By the time we left the beach there was a third, smaller turtle also swimming around. We then spent the afternoon at Pōkaí Bay where the kids and I paddle-boarded for a little while. That night we met Dave, Cheryl, and Josh for a delicious dinner in Kapolei and made plans to spend time together on Wednesday.
We started Wednesday by visiting Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, the USS Arizona Memorial was closed because of repairs being made to its dock so we were only able to drive by it on a boat. I had visited the memorial when I went to Hawaii with my grandparents when I was 15. The thing I remember the most about that visit was that it made by grandfather visibly upset. He had been too young to fight in the war so he worked in the naval shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia instead. Even in 1993, almost 60 years later, his memories of that time were still so visceral that the calmest, sweetest man I’d ever known couldn’t hide his anger. Our tour guide on the boat, a marine veteran himself, did an outstanding job conveying the significance of the memorial and we all were moved by his words. I encourage you to read Ada’s blog post about our visit to Pearl Harbor as she was able to convey our reaction to it much better than I ever could.
After visiting Pearl Harbor, Ada and I dropped Cameron and Jackson off at the Navy Marine Golf Club to play a round with Uncle Dave, who is one of the golf pros at that course. While they played eighteen, Ada, Cheryl, Ashley and I went to Kaneohe on the southeast corner of the island to do a short hike to Likeke Falls. Ada was thrilled to climb up the falls and I was excited to get some time to catch up with Ashley. After our hike we went back to Cheryl’s place so Ada could play with their sweet dog Hope and we could spend a little more time together. When we went back to pick Cameron and Jackson up we all tried some delicious poke that Dave had brought for us to sample. After saying our goodbyes we headed back to our rental, already planning for our next trip to Hawaii (perhaps even on our way back from New Zealand). That night we packed and had a short night’s rest as we got up at 4:30 to try and get to the airport before Honolulu morning traffic set in. We made it to the airport in plenty of time, checked all our bags, and got our minds right for the nine hour flight to Auckland on Air New Zealand. Without question, that was the best flight I’ve ever been on and it didn’t feel close to nine hours long. It wasn’t a full flight so we had room to stretch out and the food and entertainment options were wonderful. That flight to Auckland, our process through customs and immigration, and our final flight to Queenstown all made a great first impression of New Zealand. Kiwis are so welcoming to visitors and really are the nicest people.
After gathering our luggage and getting our rental car in Queenstown we tackled our first drive on the “wrong” side of the road as we drove an hour to Wanaka, our home for the month of September. Cameron did a great job driving the dark, winding roads and we got unloaded into our rental house and snuggled into warm beds (courtesy of heated mattress pads). We were all exhausted, but content, and excited for what the next three and a half months brings for our family.