My husband and I first visited Hawaii as young twenty-somethings. Spud had just graduated and spent four months on a J1 Visa working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was in my final year of law school.
What made this trip so special?
I’d never been out of the country. My parents had never been out of the country. One of my grandmothers had never been out of the country. Most of my friends had only done three- or four-year degrees, and had already returned from their two years of overseas experience, usually in the United Kingdom. I was wondering if my life would take place within the confines of New Zealand. But Andrew got a special travel deal. He could return to Auckland via Honolulu for only $100 extra. Did I want to join him there?
Yes, I did.
So, I got myself a summer job in a shoe store in Wellington, and became a close personal friend of the lady at the Air New Zealand Travel Centre across Lambton Quay. All summer I saved and deposited money into an account, and I booked the cheapest flight to Hawaii, and the cheapest hotel in Waikiki. It took twenty minutes of walking to reach the nearest piece of sand.
Hawaii on the cheap
Andrew and I ate $5 pancakes and sausages for breakfast. We ate our leftover dinners for lunch. And our dinners were cheap and cheerful burgers and pizzas. We walked almost everywhere we visited in Hawaii: to the zoo, and the aquarium, and Diamond Head. And we walked UP Diamond Head.
We took the bus to Pearl Harbor, and another to the Dole Pineapple Maze. Because of the lovely and vivacious musician I ended up next to on the plane, who loved my little love story, we scored free tickets to a Queen and Abba tribute band. We caught the bus to Honolulu and got blisters on our feet rushing around the city trying to find the theater. But it was worth it. We had a great time.
We allowed ourselves one treat in Hawaii: a luau. Which, let me assure you, cost a whole lot less in 2004 than it does it now!
Would we ever make it back, again?
All in all, it was an amazing Hawaiian vacation. But we said if we ever came back as proper grown-ups we wanted to see at least one other island besides Oahu. We figured we’d end up on Kaui or Maui. We never imagined when or where the future would take us.
Find out HERE.