Howdy Hawaii!

When we first flew into Hawaii I was apprehensive. I thought I’d seen it all, islands, beaches, sunsets and sights. As I arrived in Kona at our beach house, let’s just say I was wrong.

We met Connie, our next door neighbour- a dress maker (her Etsy is paisleycowboy Hawaii- she makes amazing pants and dresses) with an insanely cute malamute/German shepherd cross called Serena.

We woke up to discover a huge banana tree under the house, where we could eat as many mini bananas as wanted, completely freshly picked and delicious.

We wandered up to the local store full of American treats and realised we are not going to come home skinny like we anticipated (twinkies are too good not to!).

My favourite part of Kona was hopping on the notoriously un-punctual ‘trolley’ bus that takes you into town. For $2 you can ride as long as you like with loads of adorable old couples and dads in Hawaiian shirts while the crazy bus lady tells you to make friends and squeeze a 4th person on your 2 person bench.

We explored coconut grove market where we met some lovely people with great stories, found the manky skatepark we walked 30mins for in 32degree heat to find an old abandoned ramp in a carpark (never again) and I went to my first proper American supermarket.

I know I sound like a weirdo, but you couldn’t wipe the smug grin off of my face when walking round the calorie ridden isles, seeing all the food and products I’d seen in movies and tv shows all my life. Who knew I just needed to see a pack of jolly ranchers to put me in a good mood! However, this whole experience got even better when I got a BROWN. PAPER. GROCERY. BAG. Yes, I said it. I got excited over a bag. As useless as it is in the rain, or with any heavy items, again- I was living my American dream. I would venture on to talking about my wal-mart experience but I’d be here forever. Let’s just say, when you ask an American where the TOILETS are in a grocery store, they get a little confused… (I still can’t get my head around restroom).

If we decided to head out, we’d potter around, sit on the sea wall and soak up the sun. If not, waking up at 11am, getting straight into a bikini and playing cards on our private beach access was absolute bliss. We’d play fetch with serena and sometimes Connie even made us a banana split.

Kona is in my top favourites for many different reasons. But to relax after being constantly on the move and not having a proper bed for a month, we really really appreciated 7 days of nothing (and jolly ranchers!)

After our first island, we then flew to Maui. We landed and headed to our town in Makawao (fantastic name) and went for an explore. Being an old country town, it was pretty much full of old clothes shops, trinket stores and the one general store (they did cracking hot meals). Although it wasn’t very ‘happening’, it had a lovely feel to it and we enjoyed wandering through in the sunshine. The next day we popped to a nearby village and had a look round there too. Obviously, it ended in us going to the skatepark, but fortunately I had cupcakes and a beautiful sunset to watch. After both of our phones dying and it being dark, we had an interesting game of ‘catch the bus’ which wasn’t enjoyable, but we made it back!

Our final day, we decided we had to do the one tourist thing: the road to Hana. After renting a bike (the Asia in us), we headed on the Hana highway. It took hours, and we got laughed at by many smug tourists in their comfy wranglers and mustangs, but climbing The winding roads with the wind in our faces (and the rain eventually) made our final road trip perfect.