Winter is Coming....
July 24th
These Wildings from House Sopata have no idea much cooler temps are a day away as we will arrive on the South Island in the middle of winter.
We knew traveling to New Zealand would be an ordeal so we quickly decided to break up the trip to give the kids time to adjust to the time zones and for us to catch our breaths. What is half way between Virginia and New Zealand? Hawaii! (kind of ). When we told the kids we would be spending some time there before arriving in New Zealand, they quickly became more excited with seeing where mom and dad use to live than the idea of spending a year in New Zealand.
The time in Hawaii did not disappoint. The first order of buisness was to visit Chinatown to get their leis and then swing by our old house on Nuuanu Pali drive. After dropping off our bags in Kailua, we headed straight away to our favorite beach, Lanikai.
Two things were apparent right away.
1) Going to the beach with four kids is a bit different than just going with the two of us.
2) The secret of Lanikai beach is no longer a well kept one. There was quite a few more people than we remember. Of course we showed up with four new ones too.
We soon discovered the kids were far more interested in seeing where we use to get Shave Ice, instead of where we worked, lived, etc. So every afternoon, was highlighted with a trip to the nearest Shave Ice dispensary to test and compare against the others. In addition to ranking her top three places Lilly also photographed the shave ice machines for future reference. Santa is not getting one of those down the chimney.
TOP THREE Shave Ice Stands
On Ohau
Jack and Meredith's favorite part of Hawaii was spending every spare minute in the backyard hunting, catching and taming the various lizards that could be found in the landscaping. They were obsessed. We would be relaxing at a beautiful beach with perfect weather and waves, and they would not fail to remind us that from 2-4:00 is prime lizard catching and it might be best to start heading home. Of course, catching wasn't enough, we soon had to place them unsuspectingly on one another
We had packed all of our snorkels, masks, fins and life-jackets, so we were definitely going to go snorkeling rain or shine. Luckily, we had good weather and calm seas. It was a joy to take the kids to some of our old snorkeling spots, Three Tables and Shark Cove. They were able to see quite a few fish, coral and even a lone turtle. Jack was now in the habit of carrying a net everywhere, so he spent most his time afterwards checking tide pools or diving underwater to chase after them with net in hand.
Aloha Hawaii!!
If this one has her way we will be visiting again on our return.
