Two Weeks in Paradise!

[njc]

After waiting what seemed like an eternity between the wedding and leaving, we just got back from our honeymoon in Hawaii! It was simply amazing... everything was so perfect! Im already planning the trip back

We spent 4 nights in Maui at the Kea Lani (HeartProngs--im still speechless!), then off to the Big Island for 3 nights and then 6 nights in Kauai. We did anything and everything… snorkeling, hiking, swimming, star gazing! I got the Hawaii Revealed: The Ultimate Guide books for each island that we went to (actually checked them out of the local library). They totally rocked. From finding awesome hidden beaches, waterfalls, etc to great places to eat, those books were like bibles to us!

If I had to do it over again, I would have spread the time out a little better. 6 days was a lot on Kauai and I wish we had had another day or two on the Big Island. You also loose pretty much a whole day flying from island to island. The other thing that kinda sucked (which was apparently the theme to the ENTIRE trip home) was our flight leaving to come back wasn’t until 9:30pm. We could have stayed at the hotel, but we decided not to and that proved for a very long day because we only wanted to do things that wouldn’t make us nasty for the trip home.

But anyways… happy to be back and here is a couple of pics from the trip!

This is hubby watching the sunset at the Kea Lani just up from the beach...

 

[njc]

Sunset the first night...

 

[njc]

Flying into the Big Island over the lava fields. They were just amazing. We went star gazing on Mauna Kea here... almost 10,000 feet above sea level, and that isnt the top of the volcano! It was ridiculous the number of stars you could see!

 

[njc]

Us hiking to the falls in Waimea Canyon on Kauai.

 

[njc]

Last one for now... Hubby being attacked by a wave. If i had waiting 2 seconds longer to take the pic, you would see him soaking wet! We had no clue the wave was going to come up like that.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I am glad you had such a great time. It looked beautiful!

 

[Mara]

How fun...isn''t it funny how after a while when you are gone from home, reality blurs so??

The last few days of our honeymoon in Tahiti were kind of like that...we had been in Hawaii for about 2 weeks (before wedding prep, wedding, then a few days after wedding for relaxing) and then in Tahiti for a week so being away from home for 3 weeks was kind of getting to us mentally. Everything started to feel SURREAL...like laying on the beach and driving around islands on a scooter was normal! HAHA. We were ready to come home by the last day I think.

Also we stayed in a beach hut in Tahiti so when we came home to our house, it smelled soooo sterile and looked so barren, it was hilarious. It took a good few days for us to re-adjust to the house being so quiet and there not being geckos on the wall etc. Funny what you get used to!

Love your pics, esp the sunset!

 

[curlygirl]

So glad you had a wonderful honeymoon. Your pictures are gorgeous. You and your hubby are just adorable!!!

 

[AndyRosse]

Gorgeous pics! Glad to hear you guys had a good time!

 

[JC]

WOW! Those pictures take me back to my honeymoon. Definitely jelous. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Those are awesome pictures....

 

[njc]

Thanks so much guys. It really was a great time.

Mara - i know exactly what you are talking about. Everything had gotten very surreal and the when we walked into our house with all the windows and doors and plain old trees vs. the beach, it was like ughh... this place sucks!

Thanks curlygirl!

Josh - i already wish i was back there!

 

[Angel7]

Congrats. Looks heavenly!
One day I hope to go to Hawaii!

 

[cutes814]

njc,

Welcome back! I''m glad to hear you had a great time. Thanks for sharing the pics with us. Paradise looks gorgeous!

 

[MissGotRocks]

Your pics are great - thanks for sharing. I am so glad that you had such a good time. Even though you may not get back there for awhile, you will always have those wonderful memories!

 

[Kaleigh]

So glad you guys had such a great honeymoon. I loved seeing the pics and you 2 are too cute!!!!

 

[ame]

Wow! Sounds like oyu had a blast!

I can COMPLETELY relate to the flight home issue. OUrs wasn''t til 1030 that night! We spent about 5 hours on our last day (a SUNDAY) in a borders on Maui in Kahului. We had no desire to read anything else after that

I also wish we had spent more than a day on the Big Island. Next time we will be doing that. I LOVED Maui as well, it''s probably my favorite but we missed out on a LOT on Hawaii. I could have met K-mom!

 

[atroop711]

So glad you had a great time

....We went to those Islands for our 1st anniversary and we LOVED the Big Island....the BEST SNORKLING

I can''t wait to go back....I hate to fly but I LOVE HAWAII!!!!

Congrats!

 

[belle]

glad you''re back njc! your pics are great...hopefully you can at least relive some of paradise.

 

[njc]

Oh man... the one bad thing about 2 weeks in paradise... playing catch-up at work and at home!

I have had no PS time!

Thanks everyone! Hawaii totally rocks. Although flying from the east coast does kinda suck.

Ame - Luckily i had brought beach towels with us, so we spent 3 hours on a random beach, with our clothes on reading and sleeping. It SUCKED trying to kill time. We eventually gave up and went to the airport early. The whole time we were gone i was wondering were K-mom lived (i never looked it up or asked her). Turns out we were right around the corner from her! Did yall go to Kiholo Bay when you were there?

Atroop - you are right... Out of everywhere we went snorkling, the Big Island was the best! Of course we would only go off the beaches. We didnt do any big fancy tour thing.

 

[njc]

This is Kiholo Bay on the Big Island. There were tons of turltes around. The water here is brackish because of a fresh water spring, which made the water really cold and had like an oil and vinegar kinda effect on it... you could see the cold water on top of the warm ocean water. Made it hard to see while snorkling but was really cool to see the water like this.

 

[njc]

Cool picture from the Lua on the Big Island

 

[njc]

I named this picture Hanalei Bay, but im not sure that is right. This is a beach on the North Shore of Kauai where they filmed the "Im gonna wash that man right outta my hair" seen in South Pacific.

 

[njc]

Kilauea Lighthouse on the east shore of Kauai.

 

[njc]

Wailua Falls... the waterfall from Fantasy Island.

 

[Tigerbear]

Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures! I know this may be a hard question but which island was your favorite? We want to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon but will only be visiting one island (probably for 5 nights). I''m trying to decide between the three you visited.

 

[heart prongs]

Oh...NJC...it''s tough to be back, isn''t it??? I''m so glad you two had such a fabulous time...it really is paradise. Great photos too! I knew you''d love the Kea Lani. How amazing are the suites, the service, the pool bar, the adult pool, etc...??!! I''m happy for you that you made such great memories... now, enjoy the bliss that goes along with the planning and the check writing being OVER!!!

klr

prongs

 

[njc]

Hi Tigerbear! If i could only go to one island out of the ones i went to, I think i would say Maui. IMO it really depends on what you want to do and see though.

Maui was cool because the Fairmount Kea Lani ruled and if i had the money to spend, i would do it in high style, since its only a couple days. It seemed like there were a ton of 5 star hotels on the island... south side where we were and also on the west side. There is also a little bit of everything there... nice beaches, volcano to hike/watch sunrises and sunsets/star gaze, fun drives (Hana), neat little towns, aweseome restaurants.

I thought the big islands lava fields were beautiful and Kona was an great town. Some cool hikes, Mauna Kea star gazing is by far the coolest thing ive ever done. I definitely want to go back.

Kauai was cool, but i think we were starting to get tired. We did a lot of hiking, which was awesome. The north shore would be a nice ritzy type place to stay.

My best advice is to look through the Revealed Books i mentioned above. They pretty much tell you whats on the island to do, and you can pick from there. Would love to know where you end up!

HP - It was tough to move on to the next hotel! We had a 1st floor room with a cool little lawn area. The best part... they didnt have any king sized beds to give us, only 2 doubles, so to make it up they gave us free breakfast every morning!