Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007 - 18/5/07

Just to fill you in. I've been saving Qantas Frequent Flyer points for close to eight years to earn a reward flight for the three of us to go someone and enjoy. We chose Hawaii because I've been there before and thought that there were plenty of wonderful things to show my son and wife. It was about as far as we could travel on the points that I had and seemed like pretty good value. On to the trip.



After getting to bed at 11pm last night I was up at 5am to go to work early just to get a couple of extra hours in. I worked from 6-12 and tidied up quite a few loose ends. Set the phone to take messages and email to auto respond that I'm on leave.

Rang home to tell them that I was on the way. Miky was having a shower so couldn't take the call I was told by the boy. On the drive home Miky rang. I pulled over and rang her back. She wanted me to take some library books back - 1 1/2 hours before leaving for the airport! Once home I called the library to extend the borrowing period. Miky made sushi for lunch and to have on the plane as we were flying Virgin Blue and they don't serve free meals.

Caught the taxi after much rushing around packing, storing items in the shed, washing the dishes, taking out the rubbish, getting Yu-Jin to write a letter to the next door neighbour to collect our mail, turning off unwanted power and locking the windows and doors. Lot to do in a limited time. We were ready for our taxi with four minutes to spare.

Upon arrival at the airport we were informed that our plane would be late in arriving as its departure had been delayed. That added an extra 40 minutes to our waiting time.

Miky waiting at Perth Airport.
Mark and Yu-Jin waiting at Perth Airport.

I feel that the windows in the plane are made for little people as I have to stoop to see out of them. During the flight there was a screaming baby only two rows behind us. It drove Miky to go and find another seat. It was one hour into our flight before the flight attendant asked me if I would like to purchase something and my reply was, "Something to shut up the baby."

I would rather be at work with ringing phones, people and emails than put up with crying babies and noisy kids and parents.

Somebody got told off for walking around the with the seatbelt sign on - Miky.

After landing at Sydney's domestic terminal and collecting our luggage, where one guy took two different bags, including one of ours, and both turned out not to be his, we walked outside to be greeted with putrid cigarette smoke. Short wait for a taxi and a very quick ride to Hotel Ibis Sydney Airport.

Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007 - 19/5/07

The Hotel Ibis Sydney Airport is perhaps home to the world's noisiest toilet. The shower handpiece had a split in it, air filters were blocked with lint, the drain had broken off the basin and you could hear other guests moving about, but, the bed was comfortable. I'd still stay again though.

Busy day today. And we were lucky with the weather. The past few days in Sydney had seen major disruptions due to a pea soup fog. Walked down to Mascot train station and bought a day-trip ticket. Took the train to Circular Quay and walked to The Rocks to have breakfast at Löwenbräu - Aussie breakfast and rucola. Miky finished early and went for a walk to the markets and lost her camera bag. I waited for Yu-Jin to finish and then got a nasty surprise to see that they had rung up tips worth $4.10 without even asking. The cheek.

The Rocks in Sydney.

Breakfast view of Sydney Harbour Bridge.


Wandered around the markets for a while and then took photos of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Looked at Cadmans Cottage from 1816 and a gallery.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Miky and Yu-Jin.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Harbour Ferry.

Cadmans Cottage.

Had a quick snack at McDonalds before walking to the Sydney Opera House. Then caught the train to St James to see Sydney Tower. Miky only gave us 45 minutes before wanting to meet up and our ticket included OzTrek and the tower. OzTrek itself took all of our 45 minutes. Met Miky and had enough time to go back up to the tower. Fantastic view although the Opera House and the Bridge were partially obscured.

Sydney Tower.

Sydney Tower view of Sydney Harbour.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House look small from up here.

Just tall enough to see.


Grabbed a spinach and ricotta pide for lunch. Yum. Caught the train back to the hotel. Free baggage storage and free phone for the taxi was a bonus. Taxi collected us within four minutes.

Arrived at Qantas check-in and lined up for 40 minutes before being served only to discover that we needed to go to the Jetstar check-in. Well, I was taking a Qantas frequent flyer rewards flight so how was I supposed to know? Had to line up for another 10-12 minutes and Miky spat the dummy. As we were checking in the guy left his post and we found out that it was to check Miky's visa requirement. It had seemed a tad strange that he just left us.

Miky bought a camera bag from the duty free shop. We split up after wandering through the duty free are and Yu-Jin and I went to the waiting lounge next to our gate. There was a random search area just before the gate and we were able to walk past. Miky, who came later, had her bag searched. A fifteen minute wait before boarding and a game a I-spy.

Our Jetstar flight and the Sydney skyline.


Unfortunately, even asking to be placed away from screaming babies we had two babies in the row in front of us. Oh no! Disaster looms. And on an overnight flight too.

A bit of crying was evident, more so than service. Jetstar appears more of a jet and less of a start. Very disappointed, I was, to say the least. We sat at the second o front row of economy and so were one of the last to be served at mealtime. By this stage there were no full meals left. I was informed that most of the meals had been pre-booked. The flight attendant would ring around when she finished to see if anyone else had meals left. The attendant on the other aisle wasn't doing well for meals either. Then I explained that I was a Qantas frequent flyer and had booked this flight in December and I hadn't been told about the service or pre-booking the meal. She looked at my boarding pass and then found three beef meals, although Miky wasn't happy with having beef. Add two drinks and it cost A$49.00!! And to top it off my beef and pasta had three slices of beef and almost all rubbery pasta. What rubbish. The salad wasn't nice at all either.

It was really interesting to land in Hawaii on Saturday morning after leaving Sydney on Saturday evening. Try explaining that to a seven year old. The wife found it a bit hard to understand too.

We had a Korean as our immigration officer and, after exchanging cash as I was unable to locate my travellers cheques in the suitcase (just one disaster after another), we then caught a taxi to our hotel and our driver was a Korean. He lives six months of the year in California, which has been his home for 32 years since completing his military service, and six months driving a taxi in Hawaii. There were a noticeable amount of Korean shops around Waikiki.

We arrived at Aqua Islands Colony at 9am only to find that check-in was 3pm and the hotel had been full the night before. But, the person who was in the room set aside for us had already checked out. Before we could store the baggage we were informed that the room had been cleaned and we could check in. Something starting to go right on the holiday.

All had a shower then went out for lunch at a Korean BBQ place. Had a look around Waikiki Shopping Plaza. Across the road was DFS in the Galleria centre which is a Japanese store where almost all of the assistants are Japanese, the public announcements are made in Japanese and everyone speaks to you in Japanese. And, to get to the duty free shopping is more onerous than entering into the United States through immigration. Spent a bit of time there but wasn't too interested in spending US$250-345 for a purse. Looked at more shops before Yu-Jin and I went to Waikiki Beach whilst Miky went to Waikiki International Market Place (WIMP).

We both visited WIMP before finding a supermarket - Food Pantry. Royal gala apples from New Zealand (can't get those in Australia due to quarantine restrictions) were US$1.69/lb, orange juice US$3.89 for 946mL, and bananas US$0.99/lb.

Back to the hotel for a sleep and then watched Heroes which was a few episodes in front of Australia. Played cards with Yu-Jin after tea then we headed down to Waikiki Beach for a wade - the water was nice but too rough for a swim at 7:30 when it became dark.

Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head.

Diamond Head up close.

Diamond Head again.

Waikiki by night.


Honolulu becomes busy in the night. From the hotel lobby I phoned a tour company for Hanauma Bay snorkelling tour and my 50c went very quickly. The guy at reception rang from the hotel phone for me. It was 8:45pm and I was still able to book for a 9:30am pick-up.

Yu-Jin had so much energy for someone who went to sleep on the plane after us and didn't have a sleep in the hotel before going back to the beach.

UPDATE
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A few weeks after returning home I provided feedback by way of email to Qantas Frequent Flyer relaying the message that I wasn’t happy with our treatment on the flight to Hawaii. I also explained that I had receipts for $72 for meals that I had been forced to purchase even though as a Qantas passenger I was entitled to.

All I received was an automated response thanking me for my feedback which said that not all emails were responded to. A couple of weeks past and I hadn’t heard anything. So, Friday last, I decided to send some more feedback. Just before doing so I thought that it required a phone call this time. I spoke to one guy who then put me through to a lady. This lady, his supervisor, listened and offered to refund the charges that I had receipts for. This resolution made me much happier.

The next night on the way home I dropped in at Harvey Norman as they were having a special of 15 cents for digital prints up to total of 200 photos. It’s not far from the post office so I wandered over there too. To my surprise there was a letter from Qantas. Surely they couldn’t have posted a letter the same day I had complained again? No, they hadn’t. It was a letter nearly two weeks previous apologising for the experience. Enclosed was a Qantas Gift Voucher for a total of $150 which I could utilise in the next 12 months.

One annoying part of the letter stated, “While I can appreciate your disappointment with the difference in service provided, all information about product and services is available online when you make your booking.” I failed to notice the terms and conditions that stated outbound flights wouldn’t be serving meals and inbound flights would be. They just had to have the last word – we’re apologising but we’re still right.

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Frugal Bastard's Hawaii 2007 Trip - 20/5/07

Up just after 7am - last night was difficult to sleep because of jet lag. I went shopping for breakfast and bought some healthy stuff followed by two pancakes, two strips of bacon and two scrambled eggs for US$3.65. Not too healthy. I am on holidays.

We managed to get read for Nelson's Hanauma Bay Best Snorkeling our (tel 391-4300 or 306-8068) for US$12 ea. It came to US$38 including tax. This included a 45 minutes ride for the collection of other people. Our van ended up with 14 passengers, the driver and her friend. Hanauma Bay is a national park. Admission is US$5 for adults and kids under 14 are free. Everybody has to view an eco-movie for nine minutes which explains how to interact safely with the reef and the wildlife for your safety and their protection. Then there is the steep walk down to the beach.

Hanauma Bay from the parking area.


It took a while for Yu-Jin and Miky to get the hang of snorkelling but they really enjoyed it. I saw some large blue fish 50-60cm, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (State fish), convict fish with their black and white stripes, wrasse and several other species of fish. It's amazing how close you could get to them and you could even hear them biting the coral.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a - Hawaii's State Fish.

Colourful wrasse.

A bigger fish.

Another fish.


Gosh the sand on the beach was hot. You had to wear flippers so that you wouldn't get burnt. What an excellent day of fun. We just managed to get cleaned up and walk up the top to catch our van back to the hotel. I regret not having bought a 27-shot underwater camera for $US10 before going to the bay. Could've taken some lovely pictures of the fish underwater. As it was the pictures above were taken close to the beach.

Hanauma Bay reef.

Hanauma Bay beach.


Couple of showers later we caught the #8 bus to Ala Moana Center for lunch - it was four o'clock when we arrived. Finally found the restaurant area, on the 4th floor, and visited Ruby Tuesday. Not cheap but very nice food. US$11.99 for a Premium Burger, which I expected to be huge in a country known for gluttony, but it was just a normal-sized burger. Paying 15 bucks for a burger is a bit rich but it did taste great.

We shopped at Sears for some Levis jeans and bumped into two Aussies from Sydney. They were shopping for jeans also because of how cheap they are in this country. The Disney Store had some attractive bargains. To go shopping until 7pm on a Sunday night was great. We caught the bus back to Waikiki, on our free transfer, and did some grocery shopping.

R2D2 UPS post box.


Back at the hotel and Yu-Jin had a lot of writing to do for his diary which is his homework whilst he is on holiday.

Frugal Bastard's Hawaii 2007 Trip - 21/5/07

Bit slow to get going this morning as we had to pack ready to fly to Kauai. Stored our luggage downstairs and caught TheBus to Ala Moana Center for Miky to go shopping and Yu-Jin and I continued on to Pearl Harbor. Purchased Explorer's Tour tickets for the USS Missouri as the Captain's Tour, which I had a discount voucher for, was too late in the day and we would have missed our flight. No backpacks, fanny packs, handbags, bags, etc are allowed and these items had to be checked in. Then you get taken over by bus to the USS Missouri. And guess who we sat next to on the bus - the Australian couple we had bumped into in Sears yesterday. It's a small world.

USS Arizona Memorial.


She's a big ship. Josh, our tour guide, was a Hawaiian who also took Japanese tours. There are 16" guns onboard and a group photo was taken in front of them. The 16" guns can fire a shell a distance of 23 miles (37 kms) with pinpoint accuracy and they required some 1800 pounds (850 kgs) of explosives to launch. We viewed the officers' mess (also known as the wardroom - so called because the big tables were used as an operating ward as they were centrally located on the ship), sleeping quarters, control room, deck where a kamikaze pilot struck the ship, inside No. 3 turret (where 110 men worked), the Truman line (so called because President Truman lined up with the men instead of pulling rank) for the canteen for ice cream and on deck where the Japanese surrendered. Fabulous tour.

USS Missouri's big bombs

USS Missouri's 16 inch gusn.

USS Missouri's upper decks.

USS Missouri's 16 inch guns up close.

USS Missouri's gun on deck.

USS Arizona Memorial from the deck of the USS Missouri.

Chief Engineer's room.

Wardroom operating table.

USS Missouri's sleeping quarters.

Even the vending machine has a theme.

Kamikaze pilot's damage.

Million dollar Tomahawk cruise missile.

Radio and comms room.

More of the radio and comms room.

USS Missouri's control room equipment.

The guy in control of the USS Missouri's control room.

USS Missouri's war decorations.

Site of the Japanese surrender in World War Two.

The kamikaze pilot was given a full military honours funeral even though the crewmen just wanted to dump his body overboard. Reason being was that the pilot had done his job and successfully evaded all the men onboard whose job it was to shoot him down. Although his bomb had fallen off as the plane struck the ship it went in the other direction and didn't explode.

When the Japanese surrendered the USS Missouri was anchored in Tokyo Bay - enemy territory. The guns were all aimed at Tokyo as nobody knew if the Japanese would really surrender and they had to have a bargaining chip so that the Japanese upheld their part of the deal.

Caught the bus back to the USS Bowfin to collect our checked baggage and just started eating an apple when TheBus arrived. Although I knew that it went to the airport and added 20 minutes to the journey I didn't want to wait for a #42 bus and so took it, the #20 that is. One and a half hours later we arrived at the hotel and only 10 minutes before Miky did. I was glad to see that she had bought something for tea as we hadn't managed to have lunch.

Grabbed our belongings and went to hail a taxi. I was unable to do so and asked the hotel and they called one for me. Our Vietnamese driver had better English skills than most Vietnamese in Australia. It was peak hour and the road to the airport was really busy. Our driver went in the on-ramp lanes, down a side street, did a three-point turn instead of a U-turn (bloke in front of us did a U-turn and got pulled over by the police to receive a US$100 fine, one demerit point and a day in court) to get back onto the highway. Man, it was busy. But our driver got us to the airport in time. I gave him US$50 for the US$34 fare and he gave me US$10 change. I couldn't argue about the US$6 tip considering how he got us there.

Quick flight to Lihue, Kauai. Yu-Jin was enjoying playing and didn't appreciate the disruption of us coming in to land. He wanted a longer flight. There was nobody at the Dollar car rental but the courtesy driver said to come with him if I wanted to hire a car. I'd had a look on the Internet before leaving Australia and a compact car would set me back US$26 or I could get it as low as US$24.61. Hadn't booked it before arriving however.

There was nothing small available to rent for less than US$92/day but they had lots of minivans for US$60/day which we had to settle for. Then we you put the loss damage waiver insurance of US$19.99/day , the supplemental liability insurance of US$12.99/day, the general excise tax of 4.166%, the ConPermit(?) fee of 8.1%, the rental vehicle surcharge (applicable to non-residents, I think) of US$3/day and the vehicle license fee of US$0.31/day you arrive at US$319.01 in charges for three days car hire. Not bad, eh? Considering that it would be impossible to get around Kauai without a car I wasn't left with a great deal of choice. I was thinking that I should have taken up our hotel's package offer to include a car for an extra US$30/day.

Our hotel, the Aloha Beach Hotel Kauai, was easy to find. We drove to a restaurant area nearby but couldn't find anything that we liked, even the shop/market staff were very unhelpful and lacking in goods, so we drove into Lihue and a found a 7Eleven and bought some food. Had ourselves a meal back at the hotel.

Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007 - 22/5/07

Up reasonably early today to get ready for our Jack Harter Helicopter ride. We were a bit early so Yu-Jin played on a rusted out truck and chased a rooster around. Kauai is known for its feral chickens and they are everywhere. Every person taking a flight has to be weighed and your seating allocation is based on the weight. Cornell, his first day on the job, drove us to the heliport and provide us with a life jacket. FAA rules stipulate if you are flying over water you must wear a life jacket. At least in a helicopter. Our fellow travellers were Sandy from North Carolina and Bruce and Pamela from Cleveland.

The tour was brilliant. There was an abundance of beautiful waterfalls. We journeyed through the Waimea Canyon, up the Na Pali Coast (not as spectacular as I expected because of a lack of perspective, size-wise), the north shore, Mt Wai'ale'ale (perhaps the wettest place on earth) - where it started raining incidentally and Wailua Falls before returning to the heliport.

Jack Harter Helicopters Office

Life jackets make me look sexy

Our Jack Harter helicopter

A boy in a helicopter

Marriot Resort on Kauai

Kauai countryside

Cascading waterfalls

Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon 2

Waimea Canyon waterfall

Waimea Canyon 3

Flight control over the Waimea Canyon

Striking photo of Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon 4

Weathered rock of the Waimea Canyon

Classic photo of Na Pali coast

Secluded beach on the Na Pali coast 2

Kauai coastline of the Na Pali

Secluded beach on the Na Pali coast

Arch on the Na Pali coast

Verdent coastline of Na Pali coast

Striking coastline of the Na Pali coast

Four thousand feet high cliffs

Grotto on the coast

Na Pali coast

Jagged coastline of Na Pali

Valley on north side of Kauai

One of the seven rivers eminating from Mt Wai'ale'ale

Waterfalls near Mt Wai'ale'ale

Wailua Falls

Three satisfied customers


Grabbed something for lunch and headed to Port Allen to eat when Miky chucked a spaz. Wasn't happy about doing more than one activity for the day as I planned to drive to the Waimea Canyon. Had lunch at the port next to a rubbish bin, under a shady tree mind, before visiting all of the catamaran/snorkelling tour companies. Not much available for two days time - except at 6:15am on Thursday. I don't even know what day it is. I like the fact that Hawaiians don't have daylight savings but just bring their tours forward by an hour for the summer season. Booked the Thursday morning cruise. Drove back to the hotel for a short rest.

Then we hired a snorkelling set for US$5 from the hotel before heading down to Kauai's only enclosed swim/snorkel cove at Kamalani Playground in Lydgate Park. Great to sea fish up close. Spent probably 1 1/2 hrs there.

After showering we went to Pizza Hut for tea. Cost US$20.49 for a medium pizza (14") but just US$7.50 for an additional pizza of the same size so we bought two. Couldn't quite finish both of them. Cherry Pepsi wasn't particularly nice tasting. The super supreme pizza was great and the pepperoni pizza was probably better than back home.

Hot rod pizza


Grocery shopping at Big Save before shopping at Walmart (they have a Walmart on Kauai?) - sold out of Linkin Park's latest CD - Minutes to Midnight. Nice to shop there - paint shop, auto parts, etc.

Returned to hotel and did the washing. Booked a hotel in Hilo - most hotels didn't have rooms available. The first one I found was US$211/night but I found one for US$119/night. Hired cars from Dollar for US$42.78/day on Hawaii and US$18.90/day on Maui. For the same model, would you believe?