Month: July 2017

Yesterday the 8th July

A very lazy day yesterday, Amanda and Kate go shopping! Yes again! But that’s what sisters do! I decline the invitation preferring to lounge by the pool and catch-up with the weekends football. It’s our last night in Honolulu before we fly to Maui. Jim & Kate are keen to take us to a new restaurant “Nobu’s” on Ward. Nobu Matsuhisa has moved his famous Waikiki restaurant to the up and coming Ward centre in the Ala Moana district. Chef Nobu is considered an artisan, bringing fresh seasonal produce to the table in a Japanese Hawaiian western fusion style.
As is just about any want you may desire, Nobu’s is just a short walk through the warm tropical dusk to our destination. We are greeted and seated at a table that is in the midst of many others, with music blaring from ceiling mounted speakers and the loud buzz of the diners, talking to each other is going to be a challenge. The hostess is more than happy to move us to a quieter section of the restaurant where we are seated and able to converse freely. 

The waiters are attentive, soon explaining the menu. Small plates and sharing is the theme, degustation menus also available for those diners with a large appetite and deep pockets. The Japanese of course love their ingredients fresh, so fresh that a good deal of the items are uncooked. They also like their hot sauces, some of the listed ingredients sound deadly. Jim and Kate are vegetarians, it seems they have far less of a minefield to negotiate than we do. After a good deal of discussion Amanda and I decide on four courses to share. Oysters wrapped in thin slices of King Salmon (this one for me as these raw ingredients are not on Amanda’s must have list). Mixed tempura vegetables, Rock shrimp tempura with jalapeños sauce and Bay scallops with wasabi salsa. Thankfully both the jalapeño and Wasabi ingredients lacked extreme heat. We order two glasses of Lanson Brut Rose to toast our hosts and settle down to await food service. The food is beautifully presented, plentiful and tasty, service impeccable. Belly’s full we walk home to the Hokua through the warm night and under the almost full moon that is shining down on us through a haze of humidity that looks heavier than it is down at street level.
Today 9th July

Back to the airport after repacking for our flight to Maui, again the weather is superb, we just wake every morning and hit reset and repeat. We bid farewell to Kate and Jim, It being Sunday traffic is light and with the airport only a short distance away we are soon there. Our Hawaiian airlines flight makes the short jump to Kahului airport situated on the northern side of Maui. When we arrive the weather here is decidedly warmer/hotter and windy, nearly blowing off my newly acquired Truffaux panama hat. Since the cooler winds predominantly blow from the south off the ocean we are hopeful that our final destination at Kaanapali will be somewhat cooler. I need to check myself here arrived two minutes ago and I am complaining about the heat, bring it on, I say. Next stop pickup the rental car, we shuttle across to the rent ‘a’ car hub thankfully the process is smooth. I still don’t understand why they ask you to reserve a particular model or size vehicle, no matter which company you choose they never have the car you booked and they always try to up sell you.

Having secured a red Hyundai Elantra we hop back on the shuttle back to the airport baggage claim to await the arrival of son Matt who is scheduled to arrive on the 2.19pm from Honolulu. 
Matt arrives on time and looking fine after three consecutive flights from Adelaide then Sydney and finally Honolulu to Kahului. Starbucks has provided us with some much needed caffeine sustenance while we waited, we top up and make our way again by shuttle to pick up our transport. The road to Kaanapali awaits, a little nervously we take to the wrong side of the road and chortle off towards our destination. The road takes us south across the neck of the turtle shaped island that is Maui, ahead to our left in the distance is the cloud covered Haleakala volcano. We turn north west at the ocean travelling along the coast line most famous for its resorts and the old whaling port of Lahaina. The island of Lanai rises out of the deep blue water now ironically a whale safe haven. It is Sunday the locals are picnicking along the coastline their four wheel dual cab utilities lined up for miles along the coast keeping watch over mums, dads and kids playing in the surf. The smoke from BBQ’s can be seen rising above the low craggy trees that hug this part of the coast. No doubt their boom boxes are beating out a rhythm to match their playful spirits.

We drive on towards Lahaina anxious to settle into the resort hotel, pickup some supplies and slip into holiday mode. 
By 6.30pm we have settled in to our self contained apartment, discovered a nearby supermarket and stocked our fridge with enough supplies for a few meals complete with matching wine. Matt has lasted the day well but is starting to fade. As darkness falls our 7.45pm dinner reservation time is rapidly approaching. Dukes is the hotels only restaurant, set facing the beach with full beach decor, tables set under straw covered cabanas, sit amongst palm trees, torches with their yellow/orange flames flutter in the light breeze completing the scene. A male Hawaiian singer sits on a stool strumming on an electric ukulele under one of the cabanas accompanying himself to a rambling indeterminate song that is punctuated with bursts of Happy Birthday. 

Matt and Amanda order some beach fare, good American burgers with shoe string fries, beer and wine for them. I opt for some flamed grilled Opa, a tasty in season local fish but not before savouring my first piña colada for the holiday, do real men drink cocktails? I had to ask myself as the waitress hands the drink to Amanda, looking at me somewhat askance as I tell her that drink is mine! After our meal we return back to our beds along the fairy light lit pathways passing the sparkling pool the full moon shining brilliantly above us. An Hawaiian resort employee notices us staring at the brilliance of the moon and tells us that this is a Mahealani moon and that the ancient Hawaiians used the phases of the moon and the stars to guide their canoes on the long ocean voyages across the pacific, and so it guides us to our ships of dreams tonight.

The sky is a clear diamond blue, the outline of the mountains to our north stand out crisply, no mountain mists or rain clouds that so often crown them are visible today. The Ala Moana area along the south west coast is continually changing. We have watched those changes over the years with interest. First visiting the district in the late 80’s to shop and have a meal at the Ward centre, a then thriving modern if a little funky shopping centre. Of course Ala Moana was always a Mecca for the shopping tourist, where an Australian dollar could buy so much in those days. Now though the district is a residential neighbourhood, new towering apartment buildings arise from the ground every year offering accomodation from affordable to Uber luxury.

On an island of 1545sq kilometres (Kangaroo island is 4405sq kilometres) the only way to house a growing population of around one million people is up.

As each building is completed an influx of new residents make their new homes in the district as so do new and old businesses vie for newly created retail spaces.

We venture out into the warm Hawaiian air to investigate some of the stores, coffee shops and restaurants, also to wander through the now old Ward Centre district for the last time as it is due to be demolished in August 2017. The demolition will herald the building of another apartment block with a refreshed shopping precinct below.

‘O Ke’alekūpuna ke kilo, nāna nō e kuhikuhi nei i ke ala e naue aku ai.

The pathways once traversed by our ancestors are the same paths that we should follow toward success.

A little history of the area

The Ward Centre was named after Victoria Ward, the daughter of James (a British ship builder) and Rebecca Robinson (who was of Hawaiian descent), Victoria Ward was born in 1846 under the reign of Kamehameha III and was raised by her mother in ke ‘ano Hawaii (the Hawaiian style) where Hawaiian was the first language spoken in the household. In fact, when she married Curtis P Ward in 1865, Kamehameha V and the entire royal court attended the ceremony. They purchased 100 acres of prime Honolulu realestate that stretched from the outskirts of Honolulu towards and along the coast to Ala Moana, there they built the “Old Plantation” completed in 1882. this was a stately, Southern-style home on the mauka portion of the property. It featured an artesian well, vegetable and flower gardens, a large pond stocked with fish, and extensive pasturage for horses and cattle. Self-sufficient as a working farm, Old Plantation was surrounded by a vast coconut grove.

After the death of Curtis Ward in the same year (1882) at the age of 53, Victoria continued the family business from the “Old Plantation” home.

Curtis P Ward and Victoria Ward were the parents of seven daughters. While many married, three—Hattie Kulamanu, Lucy Kaika, and Victoria Kathleen— remained on at the Old Plantation house the last of them passing in 1961.  “The Old Plantation House” lasted for 80 years before unfortuneatly succumbing to development.

The owners of the Ala Moana shopping centre purchased the land from the Victoria Ward company in 2002 then spun the development off to the Howard Hughes corporation in 2010. While in 2015 Australian Super purchased a 25% share in the shopping centre for $1.1Billion.
The district is now a vibrant community with more and more service orientated businesses flocking to the area.
At 4.00pm we take a short walk to the Cinema complex, on the way we book an outside table for dinner tonight at Bellini’s Italian restaurant. We have dressed warmly for the expected chill of the theatre’s interior, our tickets for Wonder Woman (compliments of Jim and Kate) are tucked securely in my pocket. Wonder Woman is the latest in DC comics movie adaptation of their famous comic book character and heroine of the same name.

It’s a long movie, taking the viewer through Wonder Woman’s (Diana’s) childhood through to her entry into the world of man during World War One. Diana is played by Israeli model turned actress Gal Gadot.
We emerge from the cinema into the warm twilight, wispy clouds their underbellies tinged with the last of the reflected orange sunlight drift lazily across the sky. We cross the street to take up our outside table at Bellini’s. One of the most precious pleasures of Hawaii is dining outside on warm balmy nights as soft cool breezes drift off the ocean never far away.
We share calamari fritte for appetiser, tender squid deep fried in a light almost tempura batter. For entree (mains at home) we can’t go past the Lobster at $25.00. The Lobster piled high in the half shell and served with chargrilled vegetables would be at least $50-$60 in a restaurant at home.
For dessert we walk over to the newest of the shopping districts arcade style shops dubbed “South Shore”where earlier on today we spotted Lucy’s ice cream lab. First discovered on our last visit in the back streets with hardly a customer, the ice creamery is now front and centre in a new store and pulling in crowds of customers anxious to try one of Lucy’s exotic flavours. We queue, but it’s worth it settling on a single sugar cone of “cinnamon crunch toast” ice cream with “cinnamon crunch toast” topping.

We stop for awhile to devour our ice creams as we know they will not last long outside in the warmth of the Hawaiian night, once finished we make for our beds awaiting us at the Hokua.

We wake to a day that is a little overcast, with splotches of blue here and there but by the time we commence our shopping expedition there is more blue than grey. The air is warm as we climb into Kate’s new iridescent bluey green 230i BMW coupe, the paintwork reminds one of oil on water changing constantly depending on how the light reflects back to your eye. The car looks and smells as if it rolled off the assembly line just yesterday but in fact it’s a year old. First stop is a local designer Anne Namba, her designs are inspired by traditional Japanese influences that are carefully crafted into lightweight modern ladies fashion garments designed for elegant easy day and night wear. The lightweight non wrinkling silks and cotton fabrics are ideal for the local climate and for travellers. The showroom is situated just a few minutes away from Ala Moana in modest surroundingsr, the style, elegance and glamour is all inside. We met Anne on our last visit this time though she is showing her wares at fashion shows on the mainland’s east coast. We are greeted by Mary, Anne’s very knowledgable assistant who explains the fabrics and the stories behind the designs to our eager ladies. Kate and Amanda flit about like butterflies in a field of colour seeking that perfect drop of nectar. Mary hurries back and forth as Amanda gives a yes or no to various selections that are then carefully hung in the dressing room. 
I wander the showrooms polished concrete floors, displays feature natural polished timber highlights as do the dressing room doors. An ancient Japanese iron and leather suit of armour sits in the corner holding a fan emblazoned with the rising sun, intricately woven with yellow orange and green silk it sits above a Buddha head and painted portable rice carrier silently overseeing events. The clothes here are the real stars though and take precedence, the showrooms decor cleverly designed not to distract the buyer. 
The real fun starts as piece by piece Amanda tries on this or that outfit with both sisters bursting into spontaneous giggles if the fit is outrageously wrong. I try to retreat to a quiet corner but my presence is required for a critique on each outfit as it is presented. After some parading and twirling, piece changes here and there decisions are made and it’s Kate’s turn. Kate seems more considered in her approach carefully singling out just a few pieces before deciding which ones to try on. Interestingly they settle on the same basic dress just the mix and match pieces are different reflecting their individual body sizes, tastes and personalities.
We climb back into the car, parcels loaded in the “trunk” the heat of the day forcing the aircon on to full blast. Next stop Ala Moana shopping centre again just a short distance away. Ala Moana shopping centre is the largest outdoor mall in the world some 80,000sq meters of shopping space over three levels. Consistently voted one of the top ten successful malls in all of the US. A new wing completed last year and a freshen up of some of the malls more ageing infrastructure has given it a fresh look. With contemplative pools of Koi fish swimming in crystal clear waters that divide the malls walkways and 340 stores and restaurants there is literally something here for everyone. First we stop of for a quick snack to fortify us for the forthcoming afternoon then onwards to the stores.

The afternoon rapidly turns to evening, the sun gradually sinking, we head for our dinner rendezvous with shopping wary Jim at Nordstrom’s Ruscello full service restaurant. Jim wondrously has secured a table on the expansive balcony that is nestled in among the high rise apartment buildings with a direct line of sight to the swaying palm trees and sparkling ocean of Ala Moana Beach Park. As the sun goes down apartment lights pop on all around us bathing us in twinkling light. Dinner cruise boats hug the coast while yachts in colourful sail head for port.

We settle in to enjoy Mediterranean Hummus with garbanzo beans, kalamata olives, marinated feta, extra virgin olive oil and rosemary bread. Followed by Cilantro Lime Chicken with organic baby greens, romaine lettuce, jack cheese, tomatoes, grilled corn, pumpkin seeds and cilantro lime vinaigrette for her. For me Ginger Crusted Ahi Tuna with organic baby greens, cabbage, blistered green beans, red pepper, seasoned wontons, candied ginger, soy glaze and spicy thai basil vinaigrette. Of course accompanied by a glass of, on this occasion, Washington State Chardonnay.
As the hour approaches 8.00pm we depart for home, exit is through the still open Nordstrom department store waiting to snag that one last sale. Tired after a day on our feet and a successful shopping expedition we are happy to fall into bed to recharge our run down batteries.

We board the Boeing 737-800 but there is a delay due to a little software gremlin in the planes engine systems. The ghost busters are soon on the job, the gremlin banished and we are on our way, but not before some reassurance by the captain that all is well and that this bird will fly us safely to our destination.After a late snack we are tucked in and lights out. One of the best investments we ever made are noise reducing headphones, put these baby’s on and the engines roar is reduced to almost zero. This flight they became invaluable as a very young child in the seat behind us just did not want to settle down for the night. The sweet little angel bawled the whole night long and into the morning. Despite this the headphones performed well and we both enjoyed about six hours of sleep.

The midday Hawaiian sunlight seeps in through the planes window shades as breakfast is prepare for service. Fellow passengers awake, hostesses fuss around taking breakfast orders, the aroma of fresh coffee fills the cabin area. We have made good time across the pacific arriving very close to our original estimated landing time. After breakfast service the window shades are raised, the cabin crew ready us for landing as the sun streams through the cabin we make our descent into Honolulu airport.

We disembark into the warmth of a tropical July day, 28c perfect. Hawaii is a great gateway to the US the relaxed layback atmosphere is palpable, everyone is in holiday mode. We breeze through security control, pickup our bags and head out into the airports slipways to pick up a taxi to take us to Amanda’s sister and brother in law’s (Kate and Jim) apartment. When we arrive they are there to greet us and show us to the guest suite they have reserved for us. We feel very special the suite overlooks Ala Moana beach park, a sail boat drifts across our view with two para-sailors flying high across the blue sky. Palm trees sway in the tropical breeze outside our window alongside other tropical varieties showing enormous yellow to orange blossoms that hang like oversized bunches of grapes from their laden branches.
After refreshing ourselves, Kate takes us off to sort out Tele communications and buy some essentials for our stay. The afternoon disappears quickly and is replaced with a warm tropical night. Perfect for an outside dining experience at Moku Kitchen, a Peter Merriman restaurant newly established in the Ala Moana district.

Peter Merriman is a successful Hawaiian chef with restaurants scattered around the islands, his cuisine is very much based on locavore principles, locally grown seasonal produce farm to table. Small sharing plates a speciality.

Tonight we enjoyed fish taco’s, butternut pumpkin ravioli and green beans with crushed macadamia nuts in a soy ginger and chilli sauce. A glass of Californian Chardonnay helped the meal along nicely.

Tomorrow is a shopping day as Amanda focuses in on an outfit for Troy & Heathers wedding. 

The big dry has finally broken, the last few days bringing welcome rain to our parched patch of the world. The soaking rains have allowed us to concentrate on packing ourselves for our three month trip as well as pack up the house in readiness for our departure today. We awoke to a dreary overcast sky the early morning rain having dissipated before we rose. As we breakfast the sun edges its way through the clouds spearing rays of light into the last of the raindrops that hang precariously from the last of Autumns leaves. The raindrops explode with twinkling colours of the rainbow dazzling our eyes as we contemplate the day ahead. Our flight first to Sydney, leaves at 4.15pm, plenty of time to check, recheck and double check the hold luggage, carry-ons, passports, tickets, itineraries etc. etc. just as well we live in the digital age the paperwork alone would fill a suitcase!
Our ride to the airport duly arrives at 1.00pm we are ready, cases locked hand luggage packed, we flick the switch on the last of the house lights and power down the last of the electronics and are on our way. The somber morning sky has cleared to bright blue and sunshine, making our drive to the airport a pleasant one. The winter suns warmth amplified through the cars glass warms our faces, the very same sun that will in less than 24 hours shine its summer warmth down on us in Honolulu. In just 30 minutes we arrive at the airport bathed in clear sunny weather for our flight to Sydney this afternoon, on time, no delays.

We haven’t flown since last August, retirement allows us the time to drive to nearby destinations, anywhere north of Sydney and west of Adelaide though is a definite flight. We take to the skies heading west out into the Gulf of St Vincent, the sun throwing a beam of light that creates a pool of molten orange in a sea of sparkling green/grey below us. We dip into a turn, then head eastwards to Sydney the sun slowly receding behind us.
A little ahead of time we descend out of the velvety black sky studded with stars into the city of twinkling many coloured lights that is Sydney airport. Midweek, with the business flights over for the day the airport is subdued, we make our way to Gate 15 to wait for an international terminal bound bus. It’s just a short wait for the bus that ferries us across the airport grounds between the domestic and international terminals. The bus has a driver! In this day and age! Surely a monorail would impress, if the management were smart they could have picked one up for a song when the city of Sydney off loaded theirs. That monorail ferried people from Darling Harbour to the central shopping district in style but sadly for some unknown reason met its demise. Even Adelaide is trialling driver-less buses at their airport! Well no technological marvels here. 
Whisked through the multicoloured lighted pathways that link the two terminals we soon arrive at the international terminal, our bags are checked through and so are making their own way (one hopes) to rendezvous with us at our final destination. We disembark, making our way through duty free ogling the stands but moving on to our gate. Passport control is a breeze all electronic with no technological gremlins in sight.

We head for the lounge to await our flight, relaxing with a glass of wine before our flight is called for take off at 10.05pm. Hard to believe that we will awake tomorrow in the Honolulu sunshine to live July the 5th 2017 all over again!

Honolulu here we come!
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