Our flight from Las Vegas to Hawaii was filled with a lovely Benadryl induced sleep. It was much needed after our early travels to Vegas and then not flying out of vegas until 1am. We got into Honolulu Airport a little before 6am on November 2 2014. That was just enough time to grab our bags and head over to the shuttle pick up area to get to our rental car. The guy who picked us up on the shuttle was great. He was friendly and made sure we knew where we were headed and how to return the car when we were done. Awesome customer service. Then when we got to the rental car place they were super rude. As soon as you told them you didn't want their "gas refill" option (which means that you can return the car back with half a tank and they will pay to fill it up at a lower rate, but they charge you for half a tank no matter how full you bring it back...this isn't a good option for a one night layover on Oahu) they became terrible and snappy. Then they saw our luggage and told us we had to get a bigger car and pay an extra $10 a day. We explained we had done this in another similar car before. They didn't care. Terrible customer service. For reference this company was Advantage womp womp.
We took our car (we named Chandler) and went Kailua to put our toes in the ocean on Lanikai Beach and then to Cinnamon's Restaurant also in Kailua. So far it's been my favorite breakfast ever. I got my usual Red Velvet Pancakes, but I also had to get the Guava Chiffon Pancakes too. If I can swallow my pride
gulp I'll admit that the Guava Chiffon ones are better. I would love to have those every sunday morning.
Next we headed to the North Shore to enjoy some beach time. Luckily it was early enough in the morning that we got a great parking spot at the Waimea Beach Park. It was glorious there. We played in the ocean, soaked up some sun, and took naps. I love naps. A couple of us ended up a little lobster like from this excursion, but totally worth it for me. I could do relaxing beach days like that frequently.
For lunch I wanted to go get food from food trucks. I had seen a special on the Travel Channel about these little food truck areas on the North Shore and wanted to give it a shot. I had actually eaten at one of them before. Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. Oh my goodness. It was better than I remembered. I had a half order of the lemon butter with a side of their hot sauce. If I lived there I would probably eat that daily. I also got an Acai bowl with granola and honey and banana. Caryn lived in Brazil and ate those before and said the ones they have there were legit. I was not disappointed. I wouldn't mind that for breakfast every day (except the day I get my pancakes).
After lunch I dropped Bri and Caryn off at Pearl Harbor to go out to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. I had already been so I used this time to drive to Waikiki and check us into our hotel. I forgot how terrible the traffic was in Waikiki. It's bad, and there are so many one way streets that are allegedly two lane, but seriously should only be one lane. HATE IT. Then the hotel elevator only worked when you scanned your card. Unfortunately I didn't get this memo so I just kept riding around because other people were requesting the elevator on other floors. I had too much luggage, there was no air conditioning in the common areas of the hotel, it was hot, and I was frustrated. I was almost in tears when I made it back to the lobby and someone explained it to me. I got the luggage up there and then went and picked up Caryn and Bri. It was a glorious 86 degrees that day.
We headed back to the hotel, changed, and walked to Waikiki beach. We walked around there for a bit and spent some time in some of the stores and then headed to bed for sleep in an actual bed. It was a pretty good day in Hawaii.
The next morning we got up, repacked, and headed to the airport. I got to stop by a store that the company I work for owns which was neat. I met people I had talked to over the phone, but had never seen before. It was neat. Then we went and got gas in the car so we didn't get charged the bajillion dollars they swore we would if it wasn't "completely full" and "filled up within 2 miles of the rental car drop off". In case anyone (or future me) needs to know here's the address for the nearest gas station to the airport: Chevron Honolulu, Valkenburgh Street, Honolulu HI. You're welcome. Just say no to their stupid half take gas fill up program. We returned the car and got to the gas station and then got shipped out to the nether regions of the airport where there was no food, no shops, one vending machine, and, according to the crazy lady, only one outlet.
Short little story: We got to our gate pretty early for our flight from Honolulu to Auckland, New Zealand. Because we were some of the first people there we found a spot in the corner where we could set up all of our bags, plug in our phones, and just chill for a couple hours. This middle/older aged lady came and sat practically right next to us. Now this was a huge gate...huge. And if you saw how it was all set up you would realize it wasn't in the main part of the airport so it's not like random people not on the flight were taking up seats from another gate. This was just our gate. She could have sat anywhere. We were watching videos and a little loud which is why we picked a corner of the airport so we wouldn't bug anyone. She acted all annoyed and then came up and said she wanted one of the outlets because we had the only ones in the whole gate. Rude. There were others. So we packed up our stuff and moved next to the completely empty outlets. I hope that lady's phone somehow fell in the ocean. end of story.
We got on the plane to New Zealand and mentally prepared for our 9 hour flight. We watched movies, chatted, read, laughed, and ate the whole way. I might have also taken a small nap. We got into Auckland around 10pm. on November 4th local time. This was 20 hours ahead of our home time. They made us sit there while they sprayed us and our baggage down on the plane. It was weird. Then we walked off the plane into NEW ZEALAND!!
The next morning Erin went to work so Caryn, Bri, and I decided to explore around the neighborhood where we were staying. It's in the Buckland's Beach area. It's really pretty there and right next to the ocean. Erin had told us about a great bakery we had to try so we went down by the water and then "hiked" up the little hill path thing to the bakery. Well they only took cash and we didn't have any yet. We asked this lady where the closest bank/shopping area was that took cards and she said it was about a 20 minute walk. She said she could have offered us a ride if she could. Nice people. It was a pretty day so the walk didn't sound too bad. We were hungry though. We made it to the grocery store (Countdown) and got some meats and cheeses and L&P and pastries and such and took it out to a picnic table to eat. Again we met a friendly lady who was there and chatted for a bit. We got some money exchanged and headed back to Erin's. On our walk back we met up with American Missionaries!! Always fun to run into them. 
While we were basking in the New Zealand sun the other three girls (Liz, Sarah, and Kristina) arrived. When Erin got home we went out by the water again to get Indian Food for dinner. It was really yummy and I saw one of the most gorgeous sunsets. Then we went back to Erin's and got situated. Seven girls in a one bedroom house with one bathroom can get tricky. We made it work though. Some of the girls stayed up and watched a movie, but me and Bri went to sleep since we had to be up at 3am to catch the shuttle to the airport so we could all go to Sydney. Super early, but totally worth it. I got up around 2am to get ready for the day since we would hit the ground running in Sydney. This is when Erin's blow dryer attacked.
