Aloha, from Oahu, Hawaii!

Aloha,

One week ago is when I flew from Sydney, Australia and met my boyfriend flying from Toronto, Canada for a spontaneous 9 day adventure to Oahu, HAWAII! It’s been exactly one week into our trip, and we couldn’t have asked for better. Before we came this is what our weather forecast looked like for our vacation:

We were DEVASTATED from seeing this weather forecast because so much of what we wanted to do was outside. We also found out that Hawaii’s rain season was just ending so this weather was a huge possibility. Rain or shine, we knew we would make the most out of this trip and be very grateful we’ve been able to make this dream vacation together a reality. After our time here so far, I can confidently say that the weather has been picture perfect. It hasn’t rained once, the sun has shined everyday making the most perfect weather for beach days, hikes and all outdoor activities we have accomplished.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND GETTING AROUND:
This trip, we decided to book our accommodations with AirBnB. We decided we’d check out Airbnb and after some looking, we found a great bachelor style place on the North Shore in Waialua. It has all the necessities we need and is a five minute walk to a beautiful, private beach. I would highly recommend staying on the North Shore because it’s not full of tourists. It’s only a 15 minute drive to the grocery store, and more importantly only a five minute drive to their local Starbucks. Its around an hour drive to Honolulu which makes a perfect day trip. If you are planning a trip to Oahu, Hawaii, one thing I’d highly recommend is renting a car for the duration of your stay. There are buses, but having your own car will allow you to get around the island very easily and benefit you extremely.

ACTIVITIES:
Skydiving: On our surprise trip to Hawaii, we’ve done absolutely everything I have dreamed. Something that we are able to check off our bucket lists is jumping out of a plane and SKYDIVING. This has been hands down, the highlight of our trip. We booked our skydiving trip before we arrived in Hawaii, and booked with Pacific Skydiving. The staff was incredibly rude when we first arrived, but all the skydiving instructors/professionals were awesome. Attached below is my full sky diving video: (PS: When you jump out of the plane you’re not supposed to move your legs, so of course I decided to kick them and try to run out of the sky???)

Parasailing: John and I decided we’d also both try parasailing for our first time! It was an incredible experience. We had beautiful views of the ocean and it was so much fun being so high up, relaxing in the air! We booked it with Xtreme Water Sports and actually saved $90 from booking it on Groupon (pictures coming soon)!

Shopping at the Ala Moana Centre: The Ala Moana Centre is ranked the seventh largest mall in the United States. It’s filled with luxury, high end stores, but also has your average stores you love as well. It’s half outdoors so it’s a perfect way to spend an evening (even if you’re just strolling around admiring it all).

Top of Diamond Head Hike

Pearl Harbour Monument: Checking out the Pearl Harbour and USS Arizona Monument was also very interesting to visit. We were able to join the last free tour of the day, which included a boat ride to the USS Arizona, and a short documentary of the Pearl Harbour attack, and the story behind it.

HIKES:

Today we are going to be hiking the Koko Head Hike. So far, we have completed two hikes. The first being the Pillbox Hike, and the second was Diamond Head Hike. Our favourite was the Pillbox Hike because there were a lot less tourists, it was more adventurous and fun, and a lot better views at the summit.

Climbing up to the Pillboxes Hike (Pillbox shown at top of picture)

It took us around two hours roundtrip to complete the Pillbox Hike.  The Diamond Head Hike is a very popular hike and I’d recommend starting with that being the first hike you do on your trip. It took around an hour and fifteen minutes roundtrip to complete, with finishing our hike by getting passiontfruit shaved ice and a mango smoothie from the food truck at the bottom of the hike. For the Diamond Head Hike, there is also parking right at the bottom of the hike, and washrooms available.

Views of Lanikai Beach from the Summit of the Pillbox Hike

BEACHES:

We have also been very lucky to have some fantastic beach days, and be able to check out the beautiful beaches on this island. We have been to Waialua Beach (which is the private beach near our Airbnb), Turtle Beach, and Lanikai Beach. Lanikai Beach has been our favourite with beautiful sand and beautiful views. Today we are visiting Waimanalo Bay Beach Park after our Koko Head hike, and on Thursday we’ll be heading over to Sunset Beach which is only an 8 minute drive from us (yay)!

FOOD:
For the most part of our trip, we have been buying groceries and cooking meals. A few places we checked out because of recommendations was Cinnamon’s Restaurant, Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, The Plantation Grille (at the Dole Plantation), had our favourite lunch at Sprout Sandwiches and had our favourite dinner in Honolulu at Fète . At Fète, we had their Grilled Prosciutto Caprese Sandwich and Chaz Burger which are are to DIE FOR! I also tried this delicious drink with shaved ice and rum based called the Nu’uanu Swizzle. The restaurant is a bit smaller so it was very intimate, and we had great service which obviously made it so much better.

At Cinnamon’s we both tried Eggs Benedict for our first time, which was a great choice. We finished with getting one of their cinnamon buns, and believe it or not, Cinnamon’s Restaurant doesn’t have the best cinnamon buns? But minus that, I would absolutely recommend them for a yummy breakfast place to check out.

The half way point in the crazy line and 45 minute wait of getting food at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck  was insane. It was the busiest food truck out of all the food trucks, and we spent around 45 minutes total, of waiting in line, and then waiting for our food. We got the “Hot and Spicy Shrimp” and believe them when they say how hot this dish is. If you love hot and spicy food like I do, I’d recommend getting the hot sauce on the side. I really thought I’d be able to eat the hot and spicy food (minus the warnings I was given) but it was one of those dishes that were too hot you couldn’t even properly enjoy it.

Casually a rooster just hanging out behind me while I devour the Dole Whip

Dole Whip from the Dole Plantation was highly recommended to us. Since we wanted to check out the plantation anyways, we decided we’d grab a quick lunch and finish off the meal with trying their iconic Dole Whip. It ended up being a great place to check out and browse around. They also offer activities such as the “worlds largest maze” !

Overall, this trip so far has been one of the best trips of my life. I love all the endless amount of activities their are to do, and how incredibly beautiful the scenery is. Our vacation is 9 nights long, so we have 2 more nights of paradise in this dream world! If anyone has any last minute recommendations of what to do in Oahu, we’d love to hear them!

Mahalo,

Courtney