Our flight landed at Honolulu airport around 8am in the morning.  Unfortunately the gate we departed on JetStar was a long distance from the terminal. So we had to wait another 30/40 minutes for a Airport Shuttle to come pick us up. After waiting for a good hour in the immigration line, we we’re finally on the way. The taxi ride from Honolulu Airport to the Sheraton in Waikiki was about $40. Don’t forget, you need to tip the taxi driver between 15-20%. Coming from Australia the tipping system can be annoying and confusing. I will write more on tipping later on. We arrived at the Sheraton Waikiki at around 11am. We were way too early for check in which was around 2pm. We we’re both so tired from the flight (no sleep) that we decided to pay the early check in fee, which was only around $25 from memory. Thankfully the friendly lady at Sheraton managed to find us an already prepared room.

After a shower and some sleep, we we’re off on our first walk to explore Waikiki. Waikiki reminded me a lot of the Gold Coast in Australia. It has a very similar feel and layout. Anyway, our first walk had a meaningful purpose…food! And on our very first walk, we managed to find what would become our favourite place to eat out, The Cheese Cake Factory. In spite of its name, the Cheese Cake Factory does serve more than just Cheese Cake. In fact, it has a huge menu ranging from Pasta, Pizza, Mexican, Burgers, to Salads and Breakfasts. You can check out more about the Cheese Cake Factory at their website. For lunch I ordered the Chicken Quesadilla’s, and my girlfriend Alicia ordered the Burrito Grande. And let me tell you something, they we’re not kidding about the Grande part. This burrito was huge! Needless to say, Alicia managed to eat about a quarter of it. My Quesadilla’s we’re great. Crunchy on the outside, and cheesy in the middle. No complaints here! Anyway, after eating and drinking a few Coronos, we decided we we’re too full to eat any cheese cake. So we ordered some to take back to the hotel room for later. The rest of our afternoon was spent walking around the shops then off for an afternoon swim at Sheraton’s beach.

Dinner - We we’re fairly exhausted still from our lack of sleep, so we decided to try and find somewhere close for dinner. Underneath the Sheraton, which I must say looks more like a shopping mall than a hotel, is a bar/restaurant called Rum Fire. The Rum Fire is a very cool place to be at night. Positioned right on the beach, and surrounded by flaming torches, it creates a very pleasant atmosphere. To keep on theme with the Hawaiian mood, I decided to order a traditional Pinacolada, and Alicia ordered a white wine. For dinner I ordered the Rum Fire Lettuce Wraps, which consists of wok fired spiced garlic chicken, sweet chili oil, firecracker sauce. Alicia ordered the Baby Back Ribs. We both decided the Lettuce wraps we’re the way to go. Just a quick note, on the Rum Fire drinks menu, they offer their own version of the Pinacolada called the Deconstructed Pinacolada. This is nothing like the traditional Pinacolada. So if you are expecting a fruity creamy tropical drink, I do not recommend you order the Deconstructed Pinacolada.

As expected, we slept in until around 1:30pm. Although the Hawaiian time zone is not hugely different to Australia, it still took a while to adjust. We both awoke with the Cheese Cake Factory on our minds, so we salivated our way there for lunch. Since I had not yet eaten, I decided to try one of their breakfasts. I ordered the Joe’s Special, which consists of scrambled eggs mixed with spicy chicken sausage. Alicia decided she didn’t want to eat anything this time round, and went straight for the Cheese Cake. After indulging ourselves with food, we decided it was time to burn off some calories..and went for a walk towards Diamond Head. To make the walk more interested, we decided to stroll a long the sand of Waikiki beach. The weather was nice, and as you can imagine the beach was very busy.

On the walk to Diamond head, besides passing many bikini babes, we also walked pass the Zoo, and the War Memorial museum which looked like it was closed for renovations. After reaching Diamond head, we decided it was time to turn back…this time we walked along the foot path, checking out shops on the way

After our walk, we we’re understandably hot…and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon swimming at the beach. The water was beautiful and warm…and the Japanese tourists seemed to have fun getting dumped by every wave that rolled in

That night we decided to treat ourselves to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for dinner. Unfortunately we did not make a booking, and the restaurant was very busy. But we just sat at the bar drinking until a table was available. I recall ordering a nice juicy Fillet Steak, and a bottle of South Australian Shiraz. Both the food and service was great! No complaints here! Was a nice way to finish the day

Day 3 was a bit of a write off. Still struggling with the time zone change, we slept in until 2pm. Doh! So the rest of the afternoon was spent finding lunch, a little shopping, and more swimming at the beach.

Day 4 we booked a shuttle service to Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a popular snorkelling location, not too far from Waikiki. Our Shuttle service was with Tommys Tours, and I have to say, they did a great job! Our driver was a native Hawaiian lady who went by the name “Home Girl”. Home Girl was a funny lady, who recalled jokes and stories for our journey both ways. Actually, I remember at one stage she had the entire shuttle bus singing along with her Anyway, Tommy’s Tour was basically a transport service to Hanauma Bay, and they also provided us with snorkeling gear.

On arrival to Hanauma Bay, we we’re required to watch a movie  before we could begin snorkeling. The movie basically covered some rules and guidelines in order to protect the bay and its sea life. I was fortunate enough to visit Hanuama Bay back in the 1980’s, and I must say the coral and sea life was much more abundant and colourful. I guess having thousands of tourists a day over a 20 year period has really taken its toll on the reef. The water was very rough the day we arrived, so we did not spend too much time snorkeling. But it wasn’t a total waist of a day…we managed to do a lot of swimming and sun baking

For dinner that night we went to a place called Gyu-Kaku. Gyu-Kaku is a Japanese BBQ restaurant, and would end up being our favourite place to eat…yes, even out ranking the Cheese Cake Factory There is nothing special about eating at Gyu-Kaku…just your standard Japanese BBQ, but damn the meat is soooo good! And service is great! I highly recommend dining there!

Today we went shopping at the Factory Outlets in Waikele. Waikele is on the West Coast of Oahu. We travelled to Waikele via “Trolley”, which looks very similar to a tram…but obviously not on tracks. It seemed like a long journey to the Factory Outlet shops, I am sure it was at least 1 and a half hours. The trolley is a little slower than travelling by car..so if you wish to cut travel time, I recommend hiring a car. Once we arrived at Waikele, we had a decent range of shops to explore. Alicia and I went our separate ways. I won’t go into exactly what we purchased, but the prices there we’re incredibly cheap in comparison to here in Sydney. Plus the US and Australian dollar we’re almost parity at the time, which made things seems even cheaper. My best purchase was a pair of Versace Sunglasses. They RRP for $400, but the shop was having a 50% off sale. When I went to purchase the sunglasses, the lovely shop assistant noticed the lens had a small scratch, so she discounted them as damaged..for the price of $80 After a day of shopping, we hopped back on the Trolley with bags full of clothes, and a lighter wallet. To end our long day of shopping and Trolley travel, we had dinner at a Restaurant called Paradiso located across from the Sheraton. The Paradiso is like a bar and grill…I recall ordering Steak with Shrimps. Was a pleasant way to end the day

At 10am this morning, we we’re booked in to swim with the Dolphins (Dolphin Quest).  I booked this more for Alicia as she has always wanted to swim with the Dolphins. Basically we had 60 minutes to learn about and swim with the Dolphins. The dolphins are very intelligent, very well trained and looked after by the Dolphin quest girls. Having the opportunity to swim, touch and play with the dolphins was an amazing experience, but it was also quite expensive. It was over $600 for the 60 minutes, plus another $40 for 3 photos. Is it worth the money?? Alicia would tell you it was worth every cent.

After swimming with the Dolphins, we had lunch at Cabanas Seafood Grill. Cabanas is another one of the restaurants attached to the Kahala Resort. We basically spent the rest of the day swimming at Kahala’s private beach. The view from the beach is absolutely amazing. I recall looking down the coast line from the water. The view was that of a post card picture, with palm trees bending over the clear turquoise water and white sand. We spent the rest of the day swimming sun-baking and sleeping.

That night we had dinner at Hoko’s, another restaurant within the Kahala resort. Being our last night, we decided to order the Seafood mountain and a nice bottle of white wine (from New Zealand of course)…After dinner it was time for us to start packing, as sadly tomorrow morning we would be heading back to Honolulu airport, then back to Sydney Australia.