Kapolei, HI

Sat Dec 19th

This was our first morning waking in Hawaii and Ali headed out at 6.40 am for a run and then on to the hotel’s 7.30 am Yoga class. Mark and I didn’t head out for our walk until after 8 am though which was a rather late start for us and we paid for it by having to battle more people on the path than we normally would .

We all gathered for a late breakfast before Mark and Tom left to pick up the car whilst Ali and I had a look around the shops and around the hotel.

Mark and Tom made it back to the hotel by about 1 pm and we then headed to Whole Foods to pick up some supplies before venturing on to our next accommodation. Whole Foods was an interesting experience primarily because one of the staff had never heard of tea bags. He thought Ali and I were a bit crazy but we know where that mantle should rest! Anyway, $340 USD later, and with only a very modest load of groceries, we left to make our way for the 40 min drive to the Villa at Ko Olina.

Our lodging for the next 6 nights was to be at Ko Olina Beach Villas where we had a 3 bedroom Penthouse suite. Ko Olina is 27 km north-west of Honolulu and about a 40 min drive north-west from Waikiki. It is essentially a resort enclave and the ‘soon to be recipient’ of a one billion US$ investment from a Chinese consortium to develop three parcels of land into an uber resort. Thus, this may be the first and only time we can afford to visit here! Our Ko Olina Villa complex was situated between the Marriott and Disney Resorts with the Four Seasons just beyond the Disney resort but this is currently under renovation.

The condo was lovely and just as described and was going to offer us comfortable lodging for the next few days. Mark and Tom left at around 5 pm to pick up Matt and Annabelle who were flying in from LA. We had a lovely night catching up on their news and had a BBQ dinner with a beautiful and well traveled Sonoma red wine. This wine had done….. Sonoma-Sydney-Hawaii! We were all pretty tired after dinner and turned in before 10 pm.