Hawaii - Oahu Island

After our great Australian trip we have spent a little more than one week in Perth. Meeting a lot of our friends, sorting out some things and preparing for the big trip ahead. This one week really passed by very quickly but we were already excited to start our trip abroad. Yes, Australia has become our home, so we find it quite hard to answer the question "Where are you guys from". We generally start off with staring at each other and figuring out what the easiest answer will be, quite funny actually. In the end it is something like "Originally we are from Austria but we have been living in Australia for the last six years".

On Friday 20th June we took off from Perth Airport to Auckland, New Zealand and on to Honolulu - all with Air New Zealand. Loved their safety briefing, this time with the cast of the "Sports Illustrated" Swim Suit Calendar staged in Tonga, how good can it get? (Comment from Marlene: Obviously Stefan is writing this post ;) )

On Oahu Island, we stayed at Waikiki Beach, a suburb of Honolulu. Great expectations are linked to that beach and we were not disappointed. The first impression of Hawaii lived up to what one expects from the tropical paradise you can see on TV. Tropical weather, an awesome beach, holiday feeling, a very relaxed atmosphere. In general I believe that the US state of Hawaii compares to Western Australia and Perth in terms of the "chillax factor". Waikiki definitely has a lot more going on and the beach is "used" much better than in Perth though. 

However, most people come to Oahu for a different reason than us. With only a six hour flight from California for USD 500 return this is the "Ibiza" for the Americans. A beach holiday with nice food and nightlife. We are very different, not too much interested in beaches unless there is great snorkelling, nightlife is expensive and let's face it, we are old.. ;-( Nice food, that's for us, but on a moderate budget, travelling around the world is expensive. Therefore we had only planned three days on this island which turned out perfectly fine for us.

On Day 1 we checked out Waikiki and climbed the Diamond Head Crater, our first volcano. The second day we went to Downtown Honolulu with the only Royal Palace in the US and did a little walking tour around the sights. We even skipped Pearl Harbour because we were not interested in lining up for 2 hours or more to get into the memorial. 

On day 3 we hired a car and went around the island. First we stopped at Haunama Bay, the snorkelling paradise on Oahu. It was very touristy and you even have to line up to see an introductory video before they let you go down to the beach. The snorkelling however was really nice and definitely worth it.

We also visited the "Polynesian Cultural Village" which is a huge open air museum with cultural shows (dance and music performances), historical information on the Polynesian islands and lessons to learn how to hula dance or throw a spear Tonga style, very interesting.

For those of you who are interested what "Polynesia" is actually made up of:

Other highlights on the island included the food. We are sushi and seafood lovers and straight away found out that the Hawaiian islands are going to be a great spot for us, yummie. Well, the Happy Hour cocktails looking out on Waikiki Beach were also the perfect start to our holiday. As Marlene and her sister have always put it: "Happy Hour, Happy Hauer" :-), so true.