Oahu, Hawaii

March, 2016.

Vive Hotel

When we booked our stay in Hawaii at the Vive hotel it looked gorgeous on the website and was great value for money. When we arrived…WOW. It was fantastic, I was just so happy, especially when we got a complimentary glass of Pineapple juice and a hot towel when we checked in. Very fitting.

The décor was very cultural. It was extremely colourful, with orange, silver and black detailing which fitted around Buddhist-styled statues and murals. All the furniture was miss-matched and quirky. Our room was beautiful too, I could see the beach from our window. It had everything we needed and more. The hotel staff were the most helpful people I have ever met. Every time we walked through the lobby they were so welcoming and chatty. Everything about the hotel was perfect.

Take a look at our hotel here. Its so beautiful.

Go Oahu Card

The Go Card provides a multi-attraction pass so once you have paid for the pass it gives you access to almost everything you could want. We used our Go Card for the Polynesian Cultural Centre, Swimming with Dolphins, Pearl Harbour, The Movie Hike Tour and more. The Oahu Go Card was totally worth. It saved us money which could then be spent on attractions. With the Oahu Go Card we just simply turned up, flashed the card and were good to go. Not only did this make visits to attractions simple, but it motivated us to visit things we may not have if we didn’t have the card.

If you would like to read more about what the Oahu Pass has to offer click here.

ABC Stores

The ABC Store is a shop you cannot miss – there are on every street corner. They sell everything that you would ever need while you are in Hawaii, from flowery dresses to snorkelling gear. There’s food and drink as well.

As soon as we arrived into Hawaii after a six-hour flight I was pretty hungry, so I headed toward the crisps section of a nearby ABC. After purchasing a large packet of family-sized Lays crisps (my favourite), I literally ate the whole bag. Oops!

Honolulu Cookie

I found out about Honolulu Cookie via Instagram. I instantly started following them, after seeing pictures of delicious-looking cookies. Although we visited a few of Honolulu Cookie stores while we were there, we didn’t actually buy anything, but we had a little mooch. When you walk into the shop they have a sample section where you can try a series of different flavoured cookies. We kept coming in and out and trying different flavours! Prices weren’t too extortionate though, I would definitely recommend trying these samples if you walk by.

Hard Rock Café

As usual, we visited Hard Rock Café and, as usual, we loved it. It’s always great. Food is yummy, the atmosphere is electric and the staff are incredibly kind and inviting. On our first visit there our waitress, who was called Blair, was covered in tattoos – she was totally cool. We couldn’t decide on what we wanted, so she basically made up a meal for us that wasn’t on the menu by mix and matching everything we wanted into one dish. It was delicious.

It was a very open HRC. The shop was on the bottom floor and as you walked up the stairs you were greeted by an entire wall – floor to ceiling – of guitars. Along one side of the second floor was an open balcony, which gave it a really authentic, Hawaiian-feel. Also, while we were there, ‘Miss O’ahu’ was having a photoshoot.

Shaved Ice

Shaved Ice is probably one of the best things I have ever tasted! When we first arrived we kept seeing signs saying ‘Shaved Ice’ and seeing long queues near them, so one night we thought we would try one. I got strawberry-flavoured and Rich got Mango. Oh my…they were delicious!

I think throughout the whole holiday we must have had about 10-12 between us. They were only a couple of dollars as well. All the more reason to get one! I would advise going into their local shops for one rather than the ones you can buy at beach huts as the ice wasn’t as thinly shaved as the others and therefore not as juicy.

Waikiki Beach

Waikiki beach is one of the most incredible beaches I have ever been too. It was litter free, alcohol was not allowed and nobody smoked – in fact I didn’t see many people smoking in Hawaii, at all, which is one of the many reasons I loved it so much.

There is always a lot going on at Waikiki beach (the ultimate people watching opportunity), the obvious thing being surfing lessons. It was fun to see how it’s actually taught and how those taking part in the lessons quickly went from not being able to stand on a board to taking on their first wave.

Looking out to sea, everyone is surfing, splashing about and having fun. We even saw a guy doing a headstand whilst surfing!

Duke Statue

The Duke Statue is located at Waikiki beach and it’s a photo hotspot for all tourists. While we were there we found out that The Duke, whose name I can’t pronounce, ‘Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku’ was a competitive swimmer (five-time Olympic medallist) and was integral in popularising the sport we know today- surfing. He was also a law enforcement officer, an actor, a beach volleyball player and a business man.

The statue pays homage to him, with passers by leaving leis surrounding the statue. There is also a webcam looking at the statue, so if you are visiting, tell a family member to go onto this website http://www.honolulu.gov/cameras/waikiki.html and you can give them a wave!

Royal Hawaiian Centre

Located along Waikiki beach, The Royal Hawaiian Centre is a bit odd. In a good way, of course. Imagine plonking a forest with seating and a stage at the side of a road, between popular high-street shops. That’s The Royal Hawaiian Centre.

A great place to sit down with takeout food or just come along to enjoy the activities, it featured everything from young choir performances to group yoga lessons.

Helicopter

I’m probably going to start sounding like I’m scared of everything,  I’m not but I was really scared to go on the helicopter – I’ve never fancied going on one.  When we were booking Hawaii so many reviews said to get the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter around the Island because the views are the best in the world – so we did. I wanted to do it because I knew I would love the views; I just wasn’t sure how I would cope going on the helicopter. It was only about 20 minutes in when I started to actually feel sick with motion sickness – and the heat didn’t help either. But the views powered me through and we actually saw three whales. Three!

I was sat in between the pilot and Rich – definitely the best seat in the helicopter. The pilot was amazing and funny, she was even poking her head in on our selfies. She flew us over hiking locations and a series of different valleys were Jurassic Park was filmed!

It was incredible! I think I would go on a helicopter again, but only if I knew what I was going to see would be mind blowing.

Buses

One thing we were unsure about on our holiday was transport i.e. the bus, which we mainly required to get to Pearl Harbour as it was the furthest away. However, we found it very simple. The bus drivers were chatty and incredibly helpful. When we arrived at Pearl Harbour, the bus driver made sure we knew where to go before we got off and even told us to have a “wonderful day”. The buses also run on a strict schedule, which made planning our return journey very easy.

Pearl Harbour

Going into Pearl Harbour, I didn’t really know much about its history, except that there was an attack. However, upon our arrival, its history was explained to us in full via a brief but detailed documentary. Perfect. As soon as you walk in there are ticket kiosks where you choose exactly what you want to see at Pearl Harbour, as there are many different things to see there. It was at the Arizona memorial that we watched the documentary.

Afterwards we got on a short ferry ride over to the memorial. It gave us goosebumps arriving up to it, meeting the large shadow of the sunken USS Arizona beneath it. As you step into the memorial and look over into the water, you can still see oil leaking out the battleship. It is sad to stare down knowing that soldiers still lie in the sunken ship. Lots of people were paying their respects to the fallen, pulling off flowers from their leis and throwing them into an open hole in the centre of the memorial. It was very moving.

FACT: Elvis Presley held a concert to raise money for the Arizona Memorial in which he raised over $64,000. Elvis, along with his manager, made an additional contribution to these funds, resulting in the memorial being built. Apparently they put a plaque up at the memorial to thank Elvis for his help, but The King requested it be taken down, stating that it shouldn’t be about him, it should be about the brave men that gave their lives.

Manoa Falls/ Movie Hike Tour

Manoa Falls has a really special place in my heart now as Rich proposed to me there! The Manoa Falls formed part of a movie hike tour which encompassed locations featured in films such as Jurassic Park and The Hunger Games. It was so picturesque because we were in a rainforest. Before we left we lathered ourselves in sun cream and mosquito repellent to be prepared for anything that could happen.

The actual hike wasn’t very challenging – the humidity and heat of the rainforest was the toughest part. When we reached the Manoa Falls we took a few pictures and watched everyone go by. We decided to sit down on some rocks to have a drink and a snack. I turned away from Rich to take a picture and was greeted by a beautiful ring when I turned back around. He asked me to marry him! It was the most magical thing I’ve experienced and wouldn’t change it for the world.

Manoa Falls was probably my favourite part of the holiday, for obvious reasons.

Engagement celebration meal at Hard Rock Cafe

To celebrate our engagement, we went back to the Hard Rock Cafe (obviously) hoping to be served by Blair again because she was lovely. We didn’t get Blair, but the guy Chris that served us was equally as lovely. I decided to order the same as last time – chicken tenders. Rich got the same too with BBQ chicken wings with extra hot sauce on top. It was a lovely evening, listening to great music and indulging in fantastic food.

Mopeds

The mopeds were the only thing on the holiday that I was dreading – I’m scared of motorbikes so the thought of going on a moped petrified me. I did it though – not sure I would do it again. We hired our moped for the day at Hawaiian Style Rentals & Sale and it cost us $35 each. We decided that when we hired the mopeds we were going to take the opportunity to drive up the coast to go to the Dolphin encounter. Before we went to the Dolphin encounter however we stopped off to do a hike. We considered hiring a pedal bike to ride up the coast, which I was totally on-board with, but when we came to hire the bikes we were told that we were ‘totally crazy’ to do that. This then changed our minds to go with the mopeds.

Before you are good to go, you have to watch a safety video, pick the right sized helmet and then practise driving around the block. The guy who was showing us how to use the mopeds was so enthusiastic about ‘riding’ – so much so that he seemed to get ahead of himself and assume Rich and I knew exactly what we were doing on the mopeds. Rich went on his practise ride – which he was fine with (I wouldn’t expect anything less) and then he encouraged me to go for my practise run – although because I’m a bit of a wimp I asked him to come with me. I survived, so I just thought let’s do it!

Driving along the coast was beautiful, I could have happily stopped every 5 minutes to just sit and take pictures. The one thing I was really nervous about was what the cars on the road would get frustrated with how slow I was driving (I went a maximum of 30mph). The drivers were amazing though, they either stayed behind me without beeping or overtook me without showing any abuse. A driver actually slowed down at one point, just to reassure me and say “you are doing a great job hunny!”

We drove all the way to the dolphin encounter and back. And I survived! I am still so proud of myself, I never thought I would do it, I don’t know how I done it, but I did! I had been driving so stiff because I was nervous, that when it came to handing the mopeds back I couldn’t relax my shoulders for a bit. The relief of handing them back was great, and knowing I overcome a massive fear of mine was uplifting. I’m so glad I done it, but like I said earlier, I don’t think I would do it again.

It was only when we returned to the hotel that we realised we had wicked sun burn, with toasted wrists and grilled shoulders.

Makapu-u Light House Trail

The Makapu-u Light House Trail was our first stop on the mopeds – I was so excited to get there so I could put my feet on the ground! We locked our mopeds up and released we had no storage for our helmets so on top of having to carry a back pack each with had to carry our helmets. This trail involved no climbing as such just a path that went up on a gradual incline constantly until you reach the top.

The views where unbelievable – certain spots you could see whales which was something I’ve never seen before, and this was the second time of the holiday that we seen them.

This hike was hard work, it was around 10am and the sun was cracking the flags, we done it though with no blood, lots of sweat and no tears just pure determination! Go us!

Dolphins

Swimming with Dolphins is something I never thought I would do – I like Dolphins, I just fear the ocean and all things swimming in them. When we decided we were going to go for it, I was a little apprehensive to say the least. The Sea Life Park, where the dolphin encounter was held, was a pretty cool place. Firstly, we had a look around at all of the other animals there, just like you would at a zoo.

After that we moved onto the dolphin encounter office. We put on our swimming costumes and our life vests. There was about 30-ish people in our time slot to swim with the dolphins so we were divided up into 3 groups. We walked over to our area and sat down for about 10 minutes, receiving a safety briefing as we did. Then we were asked to walk into the pool in a line and stand along the edge.

Our dolphin was called ‘Kaleo’, who had gone blind over the years due to his old age. He was so cute. The dolphin instructor was amazing, she was so enthusiastic and friendly. She walked up and down, with Kaleo swimming alongside her, teaching us about his anatomy and the different ways to signal him and make him do tricks. We then got a photo opportunity with him where we could give him a kiss and have a dance with him. It was brilliant.

Tikis Grill and Bar

Tikis Grill and Bar was yet another great recommendation from the hotel staff. You had the option to sit inside or out, so we decided to sit outside overlooking Waikiki beach. We were also sat right next to a Tiki man, which made me happy.

It was happy hour so Rich got a few Rum and Cokes and I had a Pinacoloda out of a coconut – I’ve always wanted to do that. I even got to keep the coconut for $4 more. Rich ordered barbeque wings…again and I got a burger. Both were delicious. The bun of my burger was purple, which seemed odd at first, but I later found out that that was because it was made of Poi, which gets its purple hue from the Tara Root (which it’s made out of). To top the evening off they had a live act on, in fact every bar/ restaurant in Hawaii come evening time had live music playing. We listened to popular songs but with a Hawaiian twist. It was incredibly mellow and very appropriate for the setting.

Sunrise – Tai Chi

One morning we decided to get up at 5.30am to catch the sunrise (which was at around 6.30am). Sunrise on Waikiki is so beautiful, I couldn’t take enough photos.  As the sun was slowly rising, people were gradually gathering behind us. What were they doing? Tai Chi, what else!

This must be why Hawaiians are so beautiful and healthy. There were already people out surfing on the sea, too.

Diamond Head trial

This was probably the easiest hike we complete out of the three while we were there. The walked up to the hike on the other hand was pretty challenging. We set off around 5.30am because it had been so hot and humid on previous hikes we thought we would try and miss the peak of the heat – we did, but it was still very humid. I think everyone else had the same idea. As we were walking in toward the start point, people were already walking down. It was so lovely to watch the sunrise as we were making our way up there, everywhere was just so picturesque!

The hiking area itself was incredible. The hike was around a massive crater and the walking route was already set out for you. They made it quite easy to walk up; they set the route out in a zig-zag formation so you were going higher and higher gradually, reducing the severity of the incline. Before we knew it we were at the top looking at the most stunning views of Waikiki beach. Turns out we had complete our hike and got back to the hotel before 7.30 in the morning, so we were ready to start the day.

Honolulu Zoo

We didn’t plan on visiting the zoo – we considered it but didn’t think we would have enough time. Turns out we did! Admission was $14, a lot cheaper than i though. For the few hours we were at the zoo it was boiling hot – so we got an ice cream, obviously. This was actually our first ice cream of the holiday.

Anyway… The zoo was beautifully laid out and easy to navigate. I couldn’t help singing songs related to the animals; Elephants “Elephant March”, Warthog “when i was a young warthog!”,  Aligator “Never smile at a … aligator” etc. We saw some beautiful animals, I just kept falling in love with them all, especially the Meerkats and Penguins! The ‘typical zoo’ animals were there too as well as some scary looking birds. If you are around the zoo, which isn’t far from the beach, you should have a mooch.

Polynesian Cultural Centre

The Polynesian Culture Centre has a lot of similarities to EPCOT in Disney World Florida – so if you have already been there, you will love this! The park is split up into all of the Polynesian Islands, which are Samoa, Aotearoa, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii.

When we entered we were greeted with a shell lei, which I think is a lovely gesture. Simple things like that make a big difference in a place like Hawaii. The Polynesian centre is great because you can walk around and immerse yourself in different cultures, with stage performances and activities. For example, in the Hawaiian Island part we watched Hula dancers, then learnt how to Hula dance, then took part in a Poi Poi tasting session. It’s very educating.

By the end of the day Rich and I were walking around with New Zealand tattoos around our arms, a shell lei, a leaf head band, a leaf fishing toy and a coconut. It was so much fun. Definitely worth a visit if you are heading up to the northern part of the island.

Pineapple Festival

On the penultimate day of our holiday we went for a walk along Waikiki beach and through the shops – and we came across a rather curious-looking Pineapple festival. Literally everything was pineapple – people were dressed up as pineapples, people were eating pineapples, shaping pineapples into glorious decorations. People in Hawaii are pineapple crazy!

Ala Moana Centre

We only found out about the in-door Ala Moana Shopping Centre late into our holiday, so we waited until our last day to attend as we heard there was a windy storm hitting the beaches that day. I realised that I hadn’t seen many mainstream American shops, other than Forever 21. After Googling their locations, they all seemed to point to one place, Ala Moana. Hollister, Ron Jon Surf Shop, Victoria Secret, The Disney Store, Hot Topic, Pac Sun – you name it, it’s there.

We took a nice walk down to the shopping centre and it was lovely. It was all outdoor although it was very easy to keep dry from the rain alongside the shop fronts. They even had a little stage for hula shows – which was fantastic to watch. There were so many places to shop and eat. I loved the fact that the mall was half inside and half outside, so we could still soak ourselves in the sun.

Dukes

We saved Dukes, pronounced ‘Dooks’, until last and I’m so glad we did. Everyone kept recommending it to us. Seen as though it was our last night on the Island, we thought we may as well use up the rest of our money and give it a go – so we did.

I got the most delicious steak in the world that came with asparagus, garlic mash and a cute purple flower on top. Rich got barbeque wings – he seriously likes barbecue things. Dukes is situated alongside the beach too.

Everything was so delightfully beautiful and tasty.

Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory Honolulu was massive and again set out so beautiful. We took our cheesecake away with us because it was so busy. This time we got the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake to share. It was so tasty and again, we were defeated. So…Cheese Factory 2, Jenn and Rich 0.

Overall

Hawaii overall is by far my favourite place I have visited. It had absolutely everything I could have asked for.

Hawaiians are the loveliest people, the islands are beautiful, the food is great and there is just something magical about their culture. You can’t help but smile when you are there.

If you fancy a trip over to Hawaii, i found Go Hawaii very inspiring.

AMAZING HOLIDAY!