Our story begins before we set out to drive from the south coast to Sydney to catch our flight to Honolulu.
My best friend from Wisconsin had arrived in Australia at the end of October and we had done a lot of touring about visiting Sydney, Canberra, and various locations on th south coast. The plan was for him to travel home via Honolulu on our flight and he would spend a day on Oahu hopefully visiting Pearl Harbour.
So on Monday the 14th of November we were all packed and ready to go. I had hand luggage only. My friend had 2 bags and hand luggage. My Mum called to advise that Dad was not feeling the best and wanted to go and see the doctor before we left. They thought he had eaten a bad oyster a couple of nights before.
So we stood in my kitchen kinda freaking out a bit - what would happen to our trip if it wasn't something small like that? The hotel was paid for and I had plenty of money saved up so if we had to go on our own we could have but it would have cut into my shopping budget.
Speaking of my shopping budget pls bear in mind I had not bought anything for almost a year and during that year I had lost about 15kg training for this trip, so clothes were high on my list of stuff to buy.
While standing there I got it into my head to leave some notes around the house for the other half. He was not going on the trip with us, he had already taken his 4 weeks of holidays for the year. So i amused myself writing about 20 notes and stashing them in random places.. The fridge, the freezer, in his bed, in cupboards. My American friend suggested I put one in the microwave, which I did, giggling hysterically by this point as I thought of him finding these notes.
Mum called to advise the doctor wanted to send Dad for an x-ray and this was when I got really nervous. But an hour later all was fine and so we got in the car to drive to Sydney.
Dad was fine while he was driving but whenever he stopped concentrating he began to feel nauseous and on a couple of occasions did - as we say in Australia - drive the porcelain bus.
We left the car at park n fly and headed over to check in, where we met up with my room mate for the trip who we will call H. We checked in and got seats together - 6a and b, while mum and dad were on the other side of the plane -and my American friend was in 1e.
We had Qantas club passes so we headed towards the Qantas club via customs and security. I somehow managed to get through ages before every one else so I thought I would volunteer to be vacuumed and frisked as I know those guys have a set amount of people they must vacuum every hour. The guy was flat out shocked that I would volunteer but very happy that I did, and we had a great chat while waiting for the others, who laughed hysterically when they saw me being frisked by a female security person as they made their way through security but that was nothing compared to the laughter when the male security guard told them I volunteered.
I didn't want to buy anything in duty free but I found this opal pendant I liked and I hadn't been spending money on myself for so long, it felt wonderful to just open up the wallet and get out the credit card.
To the Qantas club where I experienced soup nirvana. Cheese and broccoli soup to be precise. It was stunning. I was stunned by soup. I think I had 3 bowls it was so good. Also some spinach and feta rolls, little pies, blueberry cheesecake slice. For drinks I kept it simple, just water.
Onto the plane, where our seating arrangements came a bit unstuck. Somehow the check in person had not changed Mum and Dad's seats as she said she would and this would not have been a problem if not for a stocky and selfish guy who wanted the seat he was assigned. The other person was staff of the airline and was more than happy to stay in the other seat, but this guy demanded my parents move, and so they did. Now they were in the middle of the plane next to someone they didn't know. Mostly they slept anyway, so no big deal but mildly annoying.
In front of them was a guy with his wife and baby. He obviously thought that he would be assigned 3 seats but the cabin was totally full and so he and his wife had to hold their baby on their laps for the entire flight. People, this is exactly what he had paid for, and why he would think that he would be granted an extra seat is beyond me. Let me not go into the multiple reasons why children should always have their own seat on a plane (me personally I would want them in a car seat also too!) but this guys fury and indignation at the fact that he had to hold his own child was amusing to watch.
Push back, take off, and while that was happening I discovered that our plane had seat back teevees with a seat to seat communication system. My American friend and I had a lot of fun with this. Food was awesome as always, I do have pics and will put them up online and link to them once I get home to a regular computer.
Flight was good and I even managed to get a few hours of sleep this time but I had to turn off my own music as I was enjoying it far too much to sleep.
We arrived on Oahu as scheduled and after a very quick walk to baggage claim stood there waiting for everyone else's bags. I had none so I could have just gone to customs etc, but better to stay together. Amazed at the Amount of completely identical black bags arriving on the carousel! People, it is a good thing to do something to your bag so it can easily be identified as yours.
Out via customs and quarantine which took a very short time and outside to find Mark for Hawaii23 waiting for us. He told us about the traffic nightmare that was APEC and also that Barack Obama was staying in our hotel and just about to leave it, so we could be delayed a bit. We did see his motorcade as it left.
My American friend went his own way towards Pearl Harbour and I said lets meet at the apple shop at Ala Moana at 4pm to work out a dinner plan before he headed back to Wisconsin.
We arrived at the HHV and no queue, no waiting, we were checked straight into the Kalia tower. H and I had room 1950 and my parents got room 2034. We did not know at the time but this was to cause issues of turning the wrong way when getting out of the elevator as their room was to the right and ours was to the left. No big deal but a lot of laughs whe we kept ending up at 1934 instead of 1950. :)
Rooms were in excelle t condition, had a quick shower and got changed into Hawaii appropriate outfits, and took H and Mum out to explore the grounds and the international markets while Dad got some sleep. We got a quick lunch at the food court there.
It really is a beautiful walk from the HHV to Waikiki especially via Ross dress for less, which I steered us towards. I also went to Swarovski and got my crystal pens that I had wanted. Swarovski just happens to be on the corner of the street Ross dress for less is on. :)
Back to the hotel to pick up Dad who was still not feeling the best, then to Ala Moana for Kona coffee floats and a wander and to meet my friend.
Coming up next - Bubba Gumps & Macy's.
