Hanuma Bay

It rained heavily at Hanuma Bay just a short time before we arrived there at 9.30 this morning. I have to say it is the most magical place on earth. 

There are wild chickens and roosters that greet you as you arrive. 

The shuttle that takes you up and down the steep decline. 

When you get the the bottom of the mountain there are cats and mongoose too. 

But the most awesome part of the journey is definitely under the water where we found the most amazing tropical fish and coral.

The boys snorkelled for 3 hours before they became exhausted. It was a good thing the shuttle was there to help us up the hill again. Jack was positively amazed at the fish we saw and duck dived down to the bottom and up again. William was very confident to swim right with a noodle under his arms. It was definitely the best part of the trip so far.

Pearl Harbour

We woke up before sunrise for the first tour of the day out to Pearl Harbour. Jack is just the right age to understand and appreciate the devistation and hardship or war and William is just the right age to appreciate the battleships and planes. 

We watched a short film about what happened on the day that Japan bombed the US battleships in Pearl Harbour and then we took a boat ride out to see the Arizona which sunk with 1700 men still trapped inside. It's still leaking oil even 74 years later. We were able to see tropical fish swimming in the water and then we jumped on another ferry back to shore. There was a respectful silence over the ship as we remembered the soldiers that died.

William and Stuart made paper cranes for peace just outside the gift shop. It was a lovely way to end our tour that symbolised hope.

Dole Pine Plantation & Haleiwa Shrimp and Shaved Ice

It took just over an hour navigating some pretty crazy highways to get to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and Garden maze. It really was a-MAZE-ing. The maze is cleverly crafted by hundreds of beautiful Hawaiian plants.

William was munching on an apple when his wobbly front tooth fell out. He was pretty excited but a bit surprised. The others ran off while he demanded to sit down. He was feeling a bit unwell but it wasn't long before he was ready to race around and clear all the check points.

The maze was super hot 100F. Apparently chickens and pineapples don't mind the heat. 

We took a little train ride through the plantation which included plenty of different varieties of tropical fruits. There was sugar cane, bananas, lychees, rambutan, jack fruit, mangoes and a few pineapple too.

Funnily the best view of the pineapple plantation was just on the side of the road outside the Dole Plantation Tourist attraction. 

Stu was pretty happy that we finally made it to a Shrimp van and it was everything he dreamed it would be. The service was fast and the shrimp were fresh. A few wild chickens ran around our feet while we dined under Macky's umbrellas.

After the shrimp experience we drove through the little North shore town of Heleiwa where we found some shaved ice. The sugar hit was just what we needed! Stu found some mochi with ice cream centres and everyone was happy and a little cooler. 

 We avoided any traffic jams on the way home and jumped straight into the ocean. The sunset backdrop was priceless and the boys had a fabulous time. William was a very confident swimmer with the snorkel and no floaties on and Sam even spotted a fish.

For dinner we dined at Cheese Burger Paradise. The cheese burgers were great and there were more televisions than we could even count. On the way back to the hotel Sam's first tooth also fell out. Juliette checked at the reception if the tooth fairy would be able to enter the hotel and it was all ok.

We shopped until we dropped.

We walked a few blocks down the road and enjoyed an ihop breakfast. I had a crepe that was filled with sweet cream cheese and covered with berries and syrup. It was so sweet!

We all jumped in a cab and took a stroll around the Ala Moana Mall. 

The boys enjoyed the Lego store and built their own mini figs. 

We caught the $2 double decker bus back to our hotel so the boys could put their lego together. They played for hours while Jules and I drove out to the outlet mall which was almost an hour long drive in heavy traffic.

Jules had some trouble fitting the new suitcase into the back of the convertible #firstworldproblems but we used the space and sorted it out. It was getting pretty late when we got back onto the H1 but google maps on the iPhone saved us at least 11 minutes by feeding back live traffic data. Amazing!

We drank cocktails from pineapples and listened to live Hawaiian music by the pool of the Marriott Hotel.

It was a completely exhausting but awesome day.