Goodbye Australia, Hello Hawaii

Hawaii is a special place, because it is truly "the 50th state" for us! Yes, we have now been to all 50 of the United States.

We've also been to all 32 states of Mexico, as well as all 10 Canadian provinces and two of the three northern Canadian territories. (One day we will make it to Nunavut!)

We left our AirBnb in Sydney with plenty of time to spare, and a good thing we did. We had originally planned on walking to the airport, but we still had some credit left on our transport passes, so we took the train two stops to get just a little closer. I think we ended up walking about 2.5 kms (1.5 miles).

Packed up and ready to go!

We were flying with Jetstar, a discount Asian based airline. The flight price was good, and we paid for one checked bag each, but did not purchase any of their add ons or options. So we had a 9 hour flight coming up, but they only give you water unless you choose to spend more money.

We had food to use up, plus Ruth is really good at making things to eat on an airplane!

Something like a quiche, but without the crust.

Crepes with chicken salad to make wraps.

At the train station.

Walking to the airport.

Sydney airport has a special walkway for pedestrians and cyclists.

We got to the airport and found our check in desk. No self check in allowed because this flight was going to the United States and they had to do extra security precautions with everybody.

We spent 45 minutes in the check in lineup, and we had arrived there right when it opened at 1:00pm!

But, no problems and we still had lots of time to relax before the flight took off.

We had paid $251 AUD ($226 CAD, $170 USD) each for the base flight of 9 hours between Sydney and Honolulu. Plus, we each checked one bag at a cost of $36 AUD ($32 CAD, $24.50 USD).

The plane was a 787 Dreamliner, so it was a nice flight and everything went as scheduled.

We have liftoff!

Our last view of Australia.

It was an overnight flight, plus it was a time travel flight! We left Sydney at 4:30pm on Monday afternoon... and we arrived Honolulu at 6:00am Monday morning!

The customs and border people were all very friendly . Must have something to do with living in Hawaii!  It took some extra time, but we didn't have to be at our car rental place until 9:00am.

Our first glimpse of Hawaii when we stepped out of the terminal.

We took the city bus from the airport to the beginning of Waikiki at Honolulu. They have a "carry on bags only" policy on the city bus, and that was all we had. (We had checked our main carry on bag because of the weight limits on the plane).

The bus cost $2.75 USD ($3.70 CAD) each.

Car rentals are expensive in Hawaii. I had searched and searched for a deal over the last two months and the best I could come up with was $40 USD ($53 CAD) per day for three days. But, it's the only way to see the island in a short period of time.

They gave us a Nissan Versa, so at least it's fuel efficient.

We had hardly slept on the plane, so we were beat. We drove to the center of the island to our Airbnb. Our host is at work, but she had left a key under the mat.

By the way, accommodation is also expensive in Hawaii. We are paying $55 USD ($73 CAD) per night for a bedroom in somebody's condo townhome.

We had a nap, and just woke up!

Obviously, there will be more of Hawaii coming your way over the next three days! We are spending all that time only on the island of Oahu. It's a fairly big place to explore. To give you an idea, it is four times larger than Barbados, and there are a million people living on the island.

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