J&M got Maui'd!

We will be posting what happened at our wedding here.

This was our last day in Hawaii and since our flight was leaving late a night, we had the whole day to explore and prepare for our trip home. Due to the timing of our checkout from the resort, we had a small window in the morning to visit Hanauma Bay before we had to return, get cleaned up, and check out. This meant that we had to wake up at around six and make it to the bay just as it opened. Unfortunately, I was feeling awfully tired and figured that it would not take long to get there and that half an hour was more than long enough to explore the bay. Maggie overlookin g Hanauma Bay. What I did not take into account was the fact that one needed to watch an educational documentary for fifteen minutes before you were allowed to enter the park. In addition, it takes ten minutes to walk down to the bay from the parking lot. We ended up spending fifteen minutes on the beach. This is a lesson to all of you folks who think that "just enough time" will be just enough t

We got up late and headed to Tamashiro Market to pick up some brunch. The fish there was very fresh and tasty, although by now the two of us did not find poke as exotic as we did the first time we tried it. Picking up lunch at the Tamashiro Market. We spent the rest of the day driving out to the east shore to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center. We were somehow convinced to upgrade our tickets to VIP status, which made us part of a tour group as well as gave us better seats for the evening's dinner and show. The tour of the center was quite informative. Our guide kept calling all of us "cousins" although I think all of the tour guides were that way. We were able to see shows that showcased the various islands in Polynesia but during the middle of the afternoon, we were hit by a huge downpour and spent some time hiding from the rain. I think all of the rain that was held up for the fantastic weather we had in the prior two weeks all got let out that moment. 

We only had one thing planned for the day, and that was to swim the sharks with the North Shore Shark Adventures . We happened to pick the last tour of the day and ended up waiting at the dock for a while with a couple from Australia. We noticed that there quite a number of Aussies in Hawaii, many were there to go shopping on top of the regular vacation activities. Our tour group of twenty some odd people were split up into three groups to dive into the shark cage with our snorkeling equipment and see the sharks. I am glad that we had purchased a waterproof camera as I would not have been able to convey how many sharks we were able to see just from surface photos. It was probably one of the most exciting excursions that we went on during the entire trip. Amazingly enough, we did not recall ever signing a waiver form before, during, or after we got on the ship. Us and the shark cage used by North Shore Shark Adventures . Afterward, we grabbed brunch from Macky's Kahuku

Pearl Harbor was one of the must see sights for me during our stay in Oahu. We were told to show up early to pick up tickets because it was a very popular (and free) attraction. We were a little late, due to the map leading us astray. (Who knew that they redirected lanes of traffic during rush hour?) Maggie in front of the wall of names in the USS Arizona Memorial. The weather, however, was very good. We were able to check out the displays and information booths detailing the events leading up to and during the attack at Pearl Harbor while we waited for our time to visit the USS Arizona Memorial . Me in front of the entrance to the USS Arizona Memorial. The visit to the memorial itself was a fairly sombre one, but we were there long enough to take in the views and to see the wreck for ourselves. Next up we visited the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park as well as the Battleship Missouri Memorial . (Although we only had time for the guided tour and did not really get t

We got up at a respectable time to check out and get ready for out flight to Oahu. The flight itself was not until the mid-afternoon so we had some time to kill. We spent most of that time relaxing and getting ready for our last hours on Kauai. Since the flight was direct we figured that we would have some time to look around after we arrived on the island. Well, the latter was true, but when we arrived, we discovered that Honolulu was a large city, and driving around was as bad as any other major north american city. Yes we drove around during rush our. Having Waikiki not too close to the airport meant that we were unable to go exploring until it was starting to get dark. Maggie on Waikiki with a view of Diamond Head. We walked along Waikiki beach after we had an early dinner at Roy's. It was a nice view of the coast, except that the beach itself looked very.. sad. It was not the vast majestic beaches that I had expected. Erosion and overuse has taken its toll on this once

We actually had two events scheduled for today. The first was zip lining with the Just Live Zip Line Treetop Tour. I had never gone zip lining before, and I have always wanted to try it out. But there was one problem: I am afraid of heights. Things seemed okay as we climbed up the first ramp to the first platform, but when we got to the second one.. Maggie is enjoying herself. Well let us just say that I was able to keep all of my cookies in place and I was still able to enjoy myself even though the ground was a very long way down, and there was nothing between my feet and the ground. Maggie certainly enjoyed herself, and we both even tried some tricks as we got closer to the end of the tour, like going backwards, or going Superman style. I do not feel so safe on these walking bridges but Maggie seems to be enjoying this. We then had lunch at Puka Dog down near Koloa. They were well known for their specially filled hot dog buns, but Maggie and I found it a little gi

We had the whole day free so we decided to visit Waimea Canyon . It is one of the largest canyons in the world and located on such a small island! We were told that the weather would be unpredictable. Kauai is one of the wettest places on the earth, and it was apparently rare for the sky to be cloudless along the entire length of the canyon. Panoramic view of Waimea Canyon from one of the lower lookouts. Well, today was one of those days. The weather cooperated with us for the entire day, and we had clear, blue skies all the way up to the top of the road. We stopped off occasionally to take photos from the various lookout points. Panoramic view of Waimea Canyon from one of the lower lookouts. Some were fairly official, many were just gaps in the foliage next to the road that happened to provide a great view of the canyon. Maggie in front of the sign for one of the main Waimea Canyon Lookouts. We slowly worked our way up to the top and found the view of the Na'Pali

We got up early for the island orientation but nearly missed it. They offered a discount on the breakfast buffet which was enough incentive to take part. We went over the activities that we wanted to do on the island and was able to schedule only one thing later for this day, and that was for taking surfing lessons with the Garden Island Surf School in Koloa. The drive out to the beach was nice and relaxing. We drove through a grove of trees that completely covered the road and the beach we went to was not too crowded. Maggie and I had another lady in our group and there was another lesson with a younger group of girls next to us. After watching them pick up surfing quickly, I thought that we would be able to learn how to surf in no time. I was wrong. Out of the countless times I got on the board to catch a wave, I was only able to ride a wave once. One single time. Maggie had gotten tired earlier and filmed me while I tried to catch the wave again, but time and time again, I woul

Our flight from Kona to Kauai was close to noon, so I figured that we had some time to try out some parasailing before we left the Big Island. I had booked the parasailing during our day off on New Year's day, and I was a little worried that it might be tight timewise. I need not have worried, Hawaii time allowed everyone to be on time, all the time. In any case, we went in for the full two hundred feet and hovered in the air for fifteen minutes. Considering how quickly the boat was moving, hanging around in the parasail was remarkably quiet and calm. There was no wind, no sound, and everything moved so slowly. It did get boring after a while. The most exciting part was when we got dipped into the ocean as we were being reeled in. Maggie and I getting dipped at the end of our parasailin g excursion at Kona. We certainly got a bit wet when we touched the water. Fortunately my camera was waterproof.. The flight to Lihue, Kauai was pretty uneventful. We had no trouble findin

We had marked off this day to check out the Macadamia factory north of Kona and have dinner at Merriman's in Waimea. This left the morning for us to check out the  Greenwell Store  again, which was open, but the living museum was not unfortunately. It was a pretty informative visit, and it did paint a picture of what life was like on the island in the 19th century.  Going to see the H. N. Greenwell Store. We had lunch and then headed north to the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company . They gave tours of the factory and many free samples - we stuffed ourselves on freshly roasted macadamia nuts! We also picked up some interesting flavours, like spam, to bring back home. We stayed at the factory until close to closing before we headed to Waimea for dinner. Merriman's was the main high end restaurant on the Island and we wanted to check it out. The food was pretty good, although the restaurant was a little out of the way. But I guess being halfway between Hilo and Kona is a goo

We had originally planned on driving to Hilo to check out the east shore but due to time constraints, we decided to stick around the Kona area instead. We reserved the day to check out a number of the coffee plantations in the area. Since we weren't sure what was open we just drove to a number of prospective coffee plantations to see which ones looked good. The first one we went to was the Greenwell Farms . They had regular tours and a nice little boutique where we picked up some roasted (and green) coffee beans. There weren't many people there so Maggie and I ended up being the only ones going on tour with one of the guides. Maggie with avocado next to one of the coffee machines at Greenwell Farms. He took his time to explain how the plantation worked, some history of the area and let us walk off with a couple of avocados that he picked off from one of the trees. I was also able to try out a coffee cherry, which had a sweet and fruity taste. There was very little pulp,

After our exhausting New Year's Eve, we decided to take New Year's Day off to sleep in, relax and plan for the rest of our stay on the big island. Another reason why we decided to take it easy today was because all of the places we were interested in seeing were basically closed today. We only went out to have dinner at Sansei north of Kona. We found out when we got there that dinner was half price if you sat down by six. We arrived just before happy hour ended at six, but did not get seated until afterward and so we got no discount. In any case, we went for the sushi platter since we had read how good the food was here (and at a reasonable price too). Well,the sushi was.. interesting. Maggie was not a fan of some of the pieces that we got, mainly the ones that were tough and actually tasted like a cut of beef - tendons and all! It was not terrible, but it was not something that we were expecting. Considering that we were expecting to eat melt in your mouth fish it was quit