– I thought Barbados was going to be my last stop on my trip, and I guess it was the final country. But since I returned, was getting used to being back in the USA and started to look for a new, I had the opportunity to go out to Hawaii for a week and I jumped at it. So February 4-14 was an amazing 10 days in Hawaii. My friend Milena moved out to Honolulu for a few months and invited me to come over and since all of my job searching was done with the Internet, phone or skype, I figured I could continue my job searching from Hawaii (while Milena was at work) and then enjoy the beaches in the afternoon.
– My biggest issue was how I could afford Hawaii, and lucky for me, Milena was also on a budget and together, we knew we could find a way to have lots of fun, yet limit our expenses and that’s what we did – starting with using miles for my ticket (so I only paid $7 in taxes to get there) and I was able to stay with Milena so that kept my housing costs down.
– Milena was my tour guide and was able to show me all around Waikiki area and the first stop on Saturday was the beach. It was sunny and nice and just felt so nice to enjoy the sunshine again. My second day in Hawaii was Superbowl Sunday, so we did a little research to find a good bar that was right on the beach with lots of TV’s and we were off. We made lots of friends at the bar, including a bunch of young guys that were in the army and heading out to Iraq in a couple weeks to fight for the country. It was very fun to watch the Superbowl in the middle of the day (as the game started at 1pm Hawaii time) and sit outside in the sun with the beach right over our shoulder. Heaven!
Manao Falls
– On Monday, Milena and I decided to go hiking and heard there was a great hike to a waterfall. So we headed out on the local bus to get to the Manao Falls Trail. After about an hour hike through, through some of the most lush and green hills and a bamboo forest, we finally reached the Manao Falls. Sadly – once we got there….there was so little water, you could have missed the waterfall. We later learned this falls is nicknamed “The Trickle” in the off season as there is little water. In the end, it was a nice hike, beautiful area to explore and a success.
Hawaiian Luau
– Milena had worked the time share presentation circuit before I got there and was able to score us two free tickets to a Luau and Monday night was our time. It was fun as it was Milena’s first Luau and we had all the traditional foods, dancing and entertainment. The big highlight was the fire performers. Some luau’s have one or maybe two fire performers and this luau had four amazing fire performers and we spoke to a couple of the fire performers after and they said this luau troop was the one that performed at Obama’s presidential inauguration. So pretty high caliber!
Time Share Presentations = FREE STUFF
– Tuesday was my turn to hit the time share presentation. This was part of the way we planned to help keep costs down and it was actually ok – as Milena was at work and I was able to earn $260 worth of rental cars and restaurant vouchers. Two after attending two different time share presentations, avoiding the hard sale and walking out with my incentives, I was ready for the beach! I will say – the time share presentations were very good and it does make sense in the long run, but it wasn’t right for me now.
Short Trip to Island of Kaua’i
– Milena had made friends with someone that worked at Go Airline and he said they had an expo for the Honolulu Marathon and could use our help at the expo. So if Milena and I worked 3 hours each, they would give us a free round trip airline ticket. So we figured…why not? Three hours for a $160 flight each? No problem. So we headed to Kaua’i on Wednesday and Milena had made another friend that was temporarily living in Kaua’i and he invited us to stay at his hotel since he had a suite. So at this point, we had our free flight, free rental car (from the time share presentation) and a free place to stay for two nights. On top of this, the friend in Kaua’i, Alan, was able to get us super discounted tickets for an afternoon whale watching trip and sunset cruise.
– So we were off to see the Na Pali Coast. From the minute we got down to the boat, we were greeted by a family of five sea turtles that were popping their heads at the surface. Once we started to sail in our boat, we were all on the lookout for whales, and I was the first to spot two whale spray. The captain was a little surprised we saw two so close to our starting point and we continued on north. As we continued, we were all excited to see dolphins as well, but the captain said they tend to only come out in the morning, so we most likely won’t see them. It was about 10 minutes after his said this, that a pod of about 20 spinner dolphins came right up to our boat and were jumping all over the place. The swells were really high, so it was hard to get a steady photo, but so much fun to watch them.
– The main highlight to the whale watching cruise was seeing about 50 humpback whales breaching all over the place. You could easily call it whale soup as every minute we turned and more whales were breaching, spyhopping and surfacing. It was so unreal and unlike any other whale watching trip. Even the Captain said this was the most active day he has seen with the whales in a long time. He was guessing it was since there was so much rain in the north, the whales tend to be more active and breach more.
– Our second day in Kaua’i was a little more relaxing. Milena, Alan and I hit the beach in the afternoon and then Milena and I decided to drive up to the north shore in Hanlei for sunset and dinner. It was a beautiful hour drive north and we made it to the north shore – where the road literally stops right at the water, and saw an amazing sunset. it was perfect. While we were watching the sunset, we started talking to another couple and asked them to take a photo of them. After a little small talk, the couple was from Napa and spent three weeks in Kaua’i every year, so they knew a lot of the best places to go to. We asked for a dinner recommendation and they told us of a place all the locals go to on Thursdays and it’s in an old school house. They said they have the island’s best fish tacos and it’s all locals and a fun experience. So that was our plan (and we ran into them once we got there). I will say – the fish tacos and secret sauce were amazing!
– We had a little more time on Friday morning before our flight and decided to go visit Wailua Falls. This waterfall was the famous waterfall from the opening scene in Fantasy Island. It was nice and glad we stopped. I was laughing more as there were so many chickens and roosters all over the island of Kauai’ and at these falls, there some more that I thought may hop into our convertible while we were at the falls (as we didn’t want to put the top up). We were told Kaua’i has a huge problems with wild chickens since there aren’t any predators and we saw so many all along the freeway.
– Once we returned to Honolulu, Milena and I worked the expo (to officially earn our free flights). It was actually a fun expo as all we had to do was talk to people (which both of us would do without problem) and get people to come over and guess how many runt candies were in a jar to win a free flight. Since it didn’t really take two of us to do this job, we were each able to explore the expo and check out the other booths. So it was an easy and fun 3 hours and we got to talk to a lot of locals.
– Right after the expo, we headed out to a photo gallery special event we got invited to. It was the Peter Lik gallery (www.peterlik.com) and he had some of the most amazing photos – where the lighting enhances the photo more than I can describe. These photos are really something I would love to have in my house one day. It was a cocktail party with a special unveiling of a new photo and there was a raffle, so we had to enter. We stayed for an hour, then went out to dinner and had to come back at 11 for the raffle drawing. Glad we did, as Milena and I both one and our prize was one of the beautiful coffee table books of his photos. I won the book of American sights and Milena won the Australian one. We were thrilled as the books were $75 and really nice. So all in all…a great day!
Saturday, February 13th – My 34th birthday!
– Last year I spent my birthday in Antarctica and this year in Hawaii…and I feel so lucky! So year, Milena and I decided to go scuba diving and based on my flights to Kaua’i and back home, Saturday was the only day I could dive. In Hawaii…scuba diving trips leave really early and we had to wake up at 5:30 to get to the dive center in time for the dives. I’m glad we did go scuba diving as we did two great dives, one at a World War II ship wreck and the other with some great sea life. At the ship wreck, we even saw four giant sea turtles…so that was a fun sight to see.
– After our diving, we decided to go out for a fun birthday lunch and headed to Dukes right on the beach. It started off right as the bartender gave me a free cocktail for my birthday and later the waitress brought me a free Hula Pie – which was one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time (macadamia nut ice cream, chocolate fudge, Oreo crust and whip cream). I could had this for lunch alone as it was so huge. Milena and I had a great lunch with cocktails and it was super fun!
– To make my birthday even better, Milena and decided go get a massage which was a relaxing 90 minutes. At this point, we were tired as we started the morning so early but still wanted to rally for dinner and a night out. So dinner, drinks and wandering around Waikiki rounded out a perfect Hawaiian birthday.
– Sunday the 14th was my last day and I had to hit the beach once more. Milena’s boyfriend was flying in that night for a week, so she wanted to run some errands and I took the afternoon to relax on the beach and soak in my last rays for a while before I had to head off to the airport.
– So my time in Hawaii was amazing, relaxing and fun. Yet I was able to have two phone interviews while I was there and apply for a couple jobs so it was successful on the job front. On top of that, Milena and I were both able to stay within our budgets yet have an outstanding time living the high life and being out at a lot of happy hours (as that’s the best way to eat and drink in Waikiki).