Holiday to Hawaii in Aug 2013: Day 5 – Honolulu to Kona/Big Island

Woke a few times during the night, but we both slept through to 05:30, so ready to watch the sun rise.

Vick made the coffee for a change, and we sat on our balcony and watched the colours in the sky change over time. I think the sun’s going to come up today…

Well what a day today has been – first time we have been ratty – it’s been a bit of a hassle and things could have gone a lot smoother. Let me explain…

We enjoyed our final few hours at Waikiki in the morning. We had a leisurely breakfast and fought with a load of Japanese to get to the bread and butter pudding (yes you read it correctly – bread and butter pudding for breakkie – I was well chuffed).

It was $28 which was well expensive for the choice of food that was available – we got a small discount for being Hilton Honors Diamond members, so that helped a bit.

We are constantly amazed why people load up their plates with unrelated food items (for example bacon with fruit with muffins), as if they think they only get one shot at breakfast, and if they miss out it’s the end of the world. Even weirder, they even eat the stuff together – a boiled egg with water melon – yuck!

Anyway, we checked out and picked up a taxi to the airport – self check in needed to be explained to us by a very funny character, but we got through into airside without too many problems. Picked up our required Starbucks (see picture), and we got on our flight safely. Very impressed with Hawaiian Airlines – very professional, very helpful and pleasant.

We sorted our strategy for getting the hire car – Vick would get the checked in bags – I would shoot out and get in line. It was a bus off site, but not too far. Immediately the landscape was very different to O’Hau – similar to Tenerife in respect to the volcanic colour and texture of rock formations all over.

So Mike at Dollar had plenty of Mustangs available for me, but advised that due to the low ride height we might have problems getting around some of the less accessible areas of the island – fair enough I thought – so he sold me an upgrade to a Jeep. Negotiated him down to a reasonable price and off we went. ; It had taken 30 mins by this point, so really wanted to get going. Gave it a quick check, and tried to pull the roof back, and found that ;two critical metal sections were broken. So back to see Mike to report what we had found.

Mike asked me to head round the block to returns and they would sort me out. Well another 30 mins go by and we got another Jeep and we got the guy to demonstrate taking off the roof. Good to go and thanks very much.

Arrived at Hilton Waikoloa and was very hot now. Sun shining down on us for 25 mins and we could do with getting into our room quickly. Negotiated with the check in staff to get a room in the Ocean Tower upper floor so that we could see the sunset. Got to the room and there’s no way we would be able to see the sunset, and the room smelt of damp. On the blower to reception to ask for another room and they moved us round a bit – why didn’t they offer this room to start with? Anyway we accepted this room in the end, but not impressed with Hilton’s approach here.

Anyway, the place is not only beautifully landscaped but also huge – they have a tram and river boat for getting guests around the property and between accommodation towers, but there are very few people around it seems. Looks lovely, and I am sure it will be a great place to base ourselves.

One change in plan we implemented yesterday. Instead of staying 4 nights here, we decided that it made sense to flip down to the south of the island so we are closer to the Volcano National Park. So we are staying the third night on this island at the Volcano Lodge in a room overlooking the volcano crater! Looking forward to that.

Finally for dinner we walked down to the Lava Lava Beach Club, where you can eat at tables in the sand and watch the sunset. A stunning end to the day. Walking back was treacherous – the road down to the beach had no lights, it was pitch black and like walking into a black hole. But the payoff was the night sky – we’d never seen so many stars twinkling down on us.

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Hawaii in Aug 2013