We also ate at Kono’s in Haleiwa and had their kalua pork tortilla for breakfast, was really tasty and their vanilla macadamia coffee was really good :)

We really enjoyed our wedding day, it went by really fast! Hawaii was really relaxing and beautiful – we tried not to do too much so that we could relax.  In Maui we went whale watching, there were sooo many whales it was really cool.  Royal Lahaina also kindly upgraded us to a suite, although we had to wait for while to check in as we arrived around 2 and check in wasn’t available until 3, and then we had to wait a while longer.  Otherwise the hotel was very clean and comfortable and the grounds were cozy and we loved that their convenience store didn’t close till very late haha. We also hired a car for a day in Maui and drove to the lavender fields in Ali’i Kula and then up from there to the Twin Falls. In hindsight it would have been great if we had prepared to drive all the way to Hana – we found driving a lot easier than what we thought it would be.

Big Island was also really chilled, we went on a day tour to the Volcano National Park – it was a long day but was a good way to see most of the island. Kona was probably nicer than Hilo – although the weather that day was pretty wet. The tour guide was really knowledgeable and friendly. The Sheraton was very nice, although their trolley/shuttle into town were fairly irregular.  Their facilities were quite nice, we enjoyed their cocktails in their restaurant – still cheaper than drinks in Sydney!

We enjoyed the buzz in Waikiki after Maui and Big Island – the shopping was ok, lots of high end shops, we couldn’t find that many quality items in the mid range.  We really enjoyed the day we had the car and drove up to the North Shore – we stopped by Romy’s shrimp truck and a random fruit stall along the way – we hung around Sunset Beach to check out the waves and watched people surf.  We also found Waimea Beach and Kahana Beach, they were beautiful.  The scenery on the drive is just awesome! To have the ocean on your left and great mountains just on right was so surreal.  We also ate at Kono’s in Haleiwa and had their kalua pork tortilla for breakfast, was really tasty and their vanilla macadamia coffee was really good 🙂  We also joined a tour to check out Pearl Harbour, and visited the USS Arizona memorial and the USS Missouri – we really enjoyed the tour, it was at times sobering but really informative and the weather was great that day and there were quite a few Aussies on that tour.

We really enjoyed having the transfers between the airport and hotel – was good to get off the plane and have someone there expecting us! The times for the transfers from the hotel back to the airport were mostly too early though which meant we spent a fair bit of time waiting at the airport – we got to Kahului and Kona airport over 2 hours before our flights and they weren’t shared so wasn’t sure why they couldn’t have picked us up later.  The transfer company who dropped us off at Royal Lahaina also didn’t tell us what time they were picking us up and we didn’t think to ask so at the end we asked the concierge to sort it out for us.  We also had a slight issue with the transfer company in Big Island, as they insisted we needed two vouchers for the return transfer – even though the voucher you gave us clearly said it was for a return trip!  Luckily it was the same driver who picked us up for both trips, and I had taken a photo of the voucher before I gave it to her the first time so she ended up just recording the booking reference again against her time sheet.

Also just wanted to add that Park Shore was great!! Thank you so much for arranging the change over for us, we really enjoyed our stay there.

Thank you again for all your help with our honeymoon, we had a great time and hopefully will be back to see more of Hawaii soon🙂

x Jo