Farmers World Tour: Time Travelling to Reach Hawaii

Flights Taken : 19

Hotel Rooms Stayed in since 1^st Sept 2011 : 38 (+ 15 campsites, 2 overnight trains and one tent on Ganges)

Very sadly we left our final campsite in Paihia and drove to Auckland to return the camper. New Zealand has been such a fantastic 5 weeks. It is an amazingly beautiful country and we had a brilliant time there.

Ruths NZ highlights – Helicopter at Milford Sound, Hahei and Cathedral Cove.

Chris NZ highlights – Lake Tekapo and its incredible blue colour

Scariest Bits (for both) – some of the driving, the windy roads with hairpin bends doing up and down mountains with shear drops on one side into rivers was pretty intense in a large camper van. Chris did very well driving but got very stressed when any other vehicle was “up his arse” (his words!) so we frequently had to pull over to let them passed (didn’t matter we weren’t in a hurry).

We spent the night at an airport hotel at Auckland. The next morning we caught a flight out to Honolulu. Unremarkable apart from crossing the International Date Line. We left NZ at 10.30 on 4^th Feb and arrived in Honolulu on the 3^rd Feb at 2015. When we landed the flight attendant announced it was the 3^rd Feb “again” which we were amused by.

So we have just spent another 4^th Feb exploring Waikiki in Honolulu. Yes it was a beautiful beach but I can only compare it to Benidorm with high rise hotels right on it and incredibly crowded with people sprawling on every available piece of sand that the hotels were not occupying. So some disappointment with Waikiki – not really the beach of dreams we were expecting but the sea was very inviting.

Honolulu itself does not feel at all like the US. There is a massive Japanese influence and the whole place (especially where we are staying) is a massive holiday area. It seems is a very built up and busy city. Definitely quite a strange place for us. Tomorrow we are off to explore the rest of the island and get away from the city.