After blitzing East Coast Australia in nine days it was on to the next stage of the adventure. Another slightly silly indirect flight via Melbourne (flight 3/9) and mad dash through the airport to find the international terminal and make the bag drop for us onto our first long flight (flight 4/9) to Honolulu. I’d been having sleepless nights about this flight as Ethan and my passports only have three months left on them and despite checking in advance I wasn’t 100% sure we’d be allowed to board the plane to the USA or not, plus the connection time was very tight in Melbourne but we made it just in time and could sit back and watch some movies and enjoy some tasty airline food which has definitely improved loads since I was a kid. Being a ten hour night flight plan was a couple of movies then lots of sleep but different family members had different approaches, Zach slept most of the flight in the excellent baby crib and we enjoyed the leg room in the front row, Ethan and I got a few hours sleep but Em and the girls pretty much none so quite a lot of tiredness and high emotions on arriving in the heat of Honolulu and the retro looking airport. Immigration took pity on us with Iona throwing a loud temper tantrum and fast tracked us, welcome to The good ‘ole USA, super easy!
In typical fashion I had an over ambitious plan for our single day on Oahu, seeing as we’d crossed the international dateline and arrived at 6am I suggested putting most of our bags (at great expense) into left luggage and getting a bus over to the famous Waikiki beach for a surf. Google maps said 18 minutes but the bus took 45 mins and we got off too soon requiring a painfully hot and sweaty walk down endless big hotel dead ends or impassable wave lashed boardwalks. It was now 10am and everyone was tired, hot and bothered and hungry, we found a nice cafe and had the most expensive breakfast ever at 60$US but this was the turning point as with somewhere to sit down and eat and watch the waves and with some food in our bellies things started to look up, despite the heavy tropical rain showers rolling in.
We hired a board and all jumped into the pleasantly warm sea (no westsuits needed, bonus!) for a rubbish surf but great atmosphere with the crowds and cool to see the high rise backed Waikiki beach if only for a day, though maybe one day is more than enough! Back onto the bus for an even slower bus ride back and was looking like we were going to miss our flight to Maui, cue another mad dash through the airport and got to the bag drop just as it closed. Luckily the Hawaiian airlines staff are super helpful and they helped us get the bags labelled quickly and we pegged it through to the gate, of course the flight was delayed anyway but another flight made (5/9, over halfway!!) Again we arrived late in Maui (pattern emerging here) but sadly one bag hadn’t made it and being the one with all the sleeping bags and mats in meant no home for the night either. Luckily it came on the next flight but it meant by the time we’d got the hire car, some food and essentials we were once again trying to find our campsite and putting up the tent in the dark with four tired children, ouch!
First stop the next day was Lahaina, a cool looking beach town to hire a surf board for a few days, then we headed to Lahaina Beach which had some nice mellow waves peeling off the reef near the harbour wall and the kids finally got to get back on the SUP which they haven’t managed to do for ages as it was winter in NZ and too windy or cold in Oz. Far too hot though on the beach so we beat a retreat in the mid afternoon and headed further up the coast to the famous snorkelling beach of Honolua – a lovely walk-in with tasty ice creams in hand, through dense rainforest but sadly the snorkelling was fairly average with recent stormy seas and we got another tropical heavy rain soaking for our troubles. So far Hawaii a bit underwhelming for a “tropical paradise”, much busier than NZ and Oz both on the roads and beaches and the campsites lack useful facilities like kitchens, the current one is an overpriced hot sweaty dust bowl at times, you can hardly survive without the AC in the car to revive you at times.
The next day was much better though, we headed over to the famous North Shore of Maui and stopped at windy Hookipa beach for a better surf, this time complete with loads of giant turtles in the line up and on the beach and some great snorkelling and splash pools for the kids. Having surfed with lots of seals and dolphins before this was quite the novelty and they were massive and swam right under you. The water clarity means the turtles and reef looks really close which makes you concentrate hard on your surfing! In the heat of the day we headed further east along the famous Road to Hana which was super windy to drive but got more scenic the further you went, plenty of waterfalls and coastal views and some impressive rainforest and crashing waves on the Ke’ Anae Peninsula where we decided to turn around and head for home via some amazing roadside banana bread , freshly squeezed lemonade and coconut ice creams to revive us and a swim (and big jump!) at the popular Twin Falls. Our best day in Hawaii yet and hopefully more to come!
Time for a proper adventure so we headed up the crazy road to Haleakala volcano and it’s impressive Martian landscape which is in complete contrast to the dripping rainforest of the Road to Hana. Haleakala rises an impressive 3000m (10,000ft) in only 37 miles taking you from sea level to the very summit above the clouds. The summit itself has an average view but as you descend on the Sliding Sands trail towards the crater the view gets better and better. I had itchy feet and got bored of the kids dragging their feet so I ran ahead to drop a bit further down, going a bit off piste to check out some of the caldera and big rocks in the crater. We all met up again for the long, hot climb out again and I was really feeling the altitude unlike Ethan who was jogging uphill no problems! The clouds followed us back up the hill so we were very lucky with the weather all in all. The visitor centre was excellent too with a helpful ranger who made all three kids junior rangers once they’d made three pledges to care for the environment. A stunning place to visit, very reminiscent of the Tongariro crossing in NZ but a much more family friendly option.
Our last full day in Maui and you’ve guessed it, time to pack in all the things we’d missed, we headed over to the South Shore region which is home to some more stunning beaches and after a much needed visit to the Laundromat – mental note, travelling with baby and muddy/hot and dusty camping is a tough combo!!) we tried to find a nice beach for the day, beach 1 was behind a posh hotel so very busy and the kids did their best to drown me on an ill-advised wave washed snorkel attempt. We bailed soon after and headed further south to escape the crowds, beach 2 (Makela) was beautiful but equally busy and after driving to the volcanic super rocky road end we finally settled on Annie’s Bay which was a great find with sheltered snorkelling and tons of colourful fish and coral to look at. Still time for one more beach (maybe) according to daddy so we headed back to Lahaina for a quick surf at Launiupoko beach which is another lovely palm backed beach with great waves for surfing and SUP rides and a chilled vibe, with music playing under the swaying palms. Definitely time to taste the local cuisine so we headed out for some expensive and fairly average pizzas in a restaurant with a great view of the sunset, washed down with the famous shave ice for dessert.
Time to catch another afternoon flight but keen to get our money’s worth out of the hire board we headed back to Launiupoko for our best surf in Hawaii yet, super shallow reef but super mellow peeling waves meant it felt easy to get long rides across the reef and onto the beach. We heard a car alarm go off but little did we know disaster had struck, some nasty and selfish person(s) had stolen five of our bags out of the car which annoyingly didn’t seem to lock properly. Luckily they didn’t like the look of Ethan’s toys or my day pack with waterproofs in so chucked these on the roadside down the road but we were still missing our tent, a couple of sleeping bags and all of Ethan and my clothes and my running gear. We returned the board, then went to the police station and filed a report and then had our usual mad dash to the airport to catch our next flight to Kaua’i, we made it of course but were all a bit in shock about what had just happened, after so many trouble free adventures this was hard to take. The stuff in the bags is pretty much worthless to others but has real value to us and can’t all be replaced easily. Bizarrely they left all expensive electrical items and seemed more interested in old tents and clothes?
Keen to get the trip back on course we went to Walmart and bought plenty of cool Hawaiian clothes, a couple of cheap tents, a mat and sleeping bag and a budget stove, a few days later we added in head torches and a decent camp stove and so apart from daddy’s sleeping bag we were back on track. To be honest it’s so hot here we’d been lying on top of the sleeping bags anyway so I figured I’d cope! First stop was Anahola Beach Park where we set up camp under the palm trees and hoped our luck would change. Not long after I was arguing with the ranger about whether I had a permit or not, in the rush to leave I’d not been able to print out a paper copy which he wanted to see. Eventually I managed to show him the bank transaction for payment but more negative energy threatening to pop the happy bubble! The rangers didn’t seem to care if you are travelling with a baby, they just want to move you on. The joy riders on quad bikes doing laps up and down the beach at all hours wasn’t great either. We were also now super paranoid about getting robbed again and did lots of moving of stuff between car and tent to keep it close.
I’d only been able to get permits for the world famous Kalalau Trail for the first two days on Kaua’i so no time to rest and catch our breath before we were off to the stunning North Shore and the ever impressive views driving west past Hanalei Bay to the trailhead at Ke’e beach. More issues with permits and we had to drive back 25 minutes to get wifi to gain access to the car park but we made it in the end and were told by a friendly ranger lady we could come and go as many times as we liked in the next two days. Em fancied a run first so the kids and I walked over the hill to some fun caves on pretty Hanakapi’ai beach while Em ran over the next hill to get some great coastal views and plenty of river swims to cool off. It was 26-28 degrees which is hot for running but the high humidity made it feel even worse, I was knackered just carrying a bag and baby over one hill! Em did 14 miles! Back to camp where you’ve guessed it the same ranger needed to see our permit again despite seeing it the night before and worst of all insisted we move our tent to the other side of the toilet block !! More madness!
We didn’t have time to both have a run on the Kalalau Trail that day so came back the next day only to meet another grumpy ranger who said we had wrong permit etc etc, another trip outside park to get wifi and another stressful experience easily saved if they went paperfree or kept a record on a computer, for such a modern country America is pretty backward at times. They even let me in and then wouldn’t let Em and kids back in later, sheer madness! Anyway the good news is once I finally got to do my run that I’d booked months ago it totally lived up to the hype with amazing coastal scenery and vivid colours in the red rocks, lush green trees and sparkling turquoise waters, some cool exposed rocky traverses too and the only limiting factor was the extreme heat, which I coped with by drinking over six litres of water and swimming in every available stream. Despite this at times I felt worryingly close to heat stroke and had to stop and hydrate in the shade a few times. 22 hilly technical miles and a well deserved slap up feed followed of the local “plate meal” aka two scoops of rice, one scoop of macaroni cheese and lots of tasty seafood, fish and chips over at Hanalei Bay, which has amazing tropical mountain views while you eat. The kids (once they’d finally been allowed back into the car park) had a fun afternoon snorkelling and SUPping in Ke’e Bay and we headed back to camp to find a different ranger had written us an angry note and collapsed our tents, honestly you can’t make this stuff up! Lesson learnt, in America always print out your permit, photocopy many times and display all over your car and tent at all times, in fact go crazy, turn your permit into a badge or tattoo it into your face? Enough ranting, I’ll let the stunning scenery do the talking!
Clearly time to leave that frustrating campsite and have a quieter time, though we actually finished with a really positive experience there, a great snorkel on the empty beach and a fun family talent show before heading west into the mountains. First we needed a better stove and some gas which turned out to be hard to source on the island but we got there in the end. I filled the car with petrol and was alarmed to see lots flooding out the bottom of the car but was reassured that it stopped shortly after so might be a leak in the petrol cap? Can anything else go wrong on this trip? Hopefully not! Fingers well and truly crossed!
From Waimea town we drove inland for a change, up the well positioned Waimea Canyon Road and thought we’d try one of the walks into the scenic canyon, as it sounds on paper it is very much a mini version of the Grand Canyon. We chose the Kukui Trail which claimed to be a mile down and a mile back, how hard could it be? The views were great on every turn despite the clouds building up and then light rain became heavy then torrential, we all felt a bit silly leaving all the waterproofs in the car for sure! Ethan ran on down to find some trees for shelter but went far too far down so we we had a long wet walk back up, Iona and I were at the back and my tired legs from the Kalalau Trail weren’t great for carrying but I did my best as she told me she hated everything and this was the worst day of her life! She wants to go “home” to Christchurch which makes me a little sad, hopefully she’ll bounce back like she always does! After we’d changed into drier clothes and turned the car into a wet dog smelling drying room we headed further into the hills into Kokee State Park which had a really nice campsite for a change with grassy pitches and friendly campers. We checked out some more of the Iamazing viewpoints the next day, the highest ones were sadly in the cloud but views down to the Kalalau Trail and into the Waimea canyon from below the cloud line were pretty spectacular. Overall a great place to spend a few nights and to escape the crowds and heat of the coastal areas. I regretted not having a sleeping bag and warm clothes though and shivered in my party shirt and Hawaiian shorts most of the night!
We headed back down the next day to the heat and visited Poipu beach on the south coast which is pretty epic for snorkelling and surfing, the surf looked far too big and scary for us but the snorkelling was like being in an aquarium with large, colourful and friendly fish everywhere and great vis. The currents were pretty strong though so we had to keep an eye on the intrepid mini team who have taken really well to snorkelling especially Ethan. There was also a mini island you could swim out to complete with turtles and dolphins so all in all a great find. Onto our final campsite Lydgate State Park and we nervously looked for thieves, boy racers and angry rangers but were pleasantly surprised to find none, only camping right on the beach, a colourful toilet block and the sound of waves to lull you to sleep, night night, sleep tight….
After all the hiking and snorkelling there was definitely a need for some Kaua’i surfing so we went to Kalapaki beach which we had spotted en route to the campsite, this turned out to be a lovely find with a great reef break just offshore and we hired a fun 10ft longboard (proper Hawaiian style) which got every wave going, big smiles all around and the kids loved jumping the waves and SUPing round the bay. All the surfers were super friendly and shared the waves and all ages from about 3 up to grannies in their 60s/70s, all far better than us! After getting hot and bothered doing some shopping we went to scenic Wailua Falls to cool off. The approach was extreme to say the least with a vertical root section but no problem for our mini flip-flop wearing climbers! The falls were stunning too and a great swimming hole. Refreshing for sure. I ventured behind the falls but bottled the jump back into the plunge pool! We finished with fresh coconuts in the car park which was a nice touch. Back to camp for a final bbq on the beach, still no sign of a ranger, yay!
Our final full day in Hawaii, which we’re actually sad about leaving after a great week on Kaua’i and we decided to go for the big stuff, first stop “the best play park in Hawaii” which was pretty cool and very artistically built out of wood followed by “the worlds best beach” Hanalei Bay for some more surfing, the setting is quite ridiculous with tropical mountain views backing the perfect crescent shaped beach and we hired another 10ft longboard as the waves looked tiny. Turned out to be perfect size for Iona and Sara to practice their surfing and Ethan took Iona on a SUP adventure under the scenic pier and back. Best of all after a very long paddle past the shallow reef there was a great point break with sizeable, fun and glassy waves to play on before the long arm busting paddle back, time for a slap up dinner of Mexican food in a road side food market to round off a great day nicely.
And all too quickly it was time to say Mahalo and goodbye to Hawaii, it definitely grew on us in the last week, and the final morning was a nice touch when a friendly, I repeat friendly!!!, ranger drove up to ask us how our night was. The last campsite was a lovely spot to finish our trip and Kaua’i has some gems like the Kalalau Trail, Waimea Canyon and Hanalei Bay. Just time for a quick play on the amazing play bridge at the campsite and a swim at Kalapaki Beach before the inevitable hot and sweaty queues to get through security and onto our flight to Los Angeles (7/9, getting home slowly!), strange being a domestic flight yet five hours across the Pacific. Worryingly once again the car leaked quite a bit of petrol when filling it up and warning lights started coming on, so glad to hand that one back to be honest! You’d think if you pay over NZ$2000 for a hire car it might work a bit better, we all got fed up with the crazy electric doors and boot by the end! Onto Los Angeles to meet new baby Annabelle and reclaim our cuddly toys that Iona left at the campsite in Maui and we got shipped to LA at great expense!
This may well be the final blog post for the Harrison Family Adventures so if it is thanks for reading this far, we only went to NZ for a year so thought it would have finished ages ago! Onto new jobs, old friends and haunts and no doubt plenty more adventures, hope your life is full of happiness and adventures too, one final key piece of advice I’ve learnt in the last few weeks….
Life’s a journey, travel light! (or get half your possessions stolen, that’s an easy way to lighten your load) 
BONUS SECTION Cousin & Kiln Farm Family Catch Ups and back home in time for the fun of the Ferry Fair….
AND FINALLY………..IT REALLY IS……………THE END
If you’ve read this far a huge well done! Bonus marks if you read every single blog post over the last 2 years and 8 months! 🙂 Chad over and and out……
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 