Hawaii 2013

Flying over the Na Pali Coast and North Shore of Kauai

I had my Hawaii trip all planned out. My partner had booked tickets for May - June 2013 for my 30th birthday. We would hop from Oahu to Big Island to Kauai and go ocean kayaking, hiking, ziplining and get out in the beauty of it all in a low season month with great weather. However, sometimes things just don't go to plan and the biggest bombshell of our lives came to knock out the Hawaii trip. I discovered I was pregnant and the baby was due early June, just when we would be on this wonderful 30th birthday trip! This also knocked out my plans to go see my brother in Europe later in the year and I decided there was no way we could cancel everything and basically not go on another trip - just the two of us - for maybe the rest of our lives. We scrambled about and rescheduled our flights for earlier, and soon enough we were hastily planning for a February - March Hawaii Babymoon trip instead. No more plans for strenuous kayaking, ziplining, hiking or even paddleboarding, this time I actually had to spend some time 'relaxing' on holidays which I am not actually that fond of haha. Give me an overpacked itinerary anytime!

So with everything that we had to consider we ended up with the following plan:

Oahu/Honolulu for 3 nights
Kauai South Shore for 3 nights
Kauai North Shore for 3 nights
Oahu/Honolulu for 3 nights

A nice easy hop from one island to the other - I thought the limited time and stress of going through US customs might not make it a great time to pack in the Big Island for this trip (one day!).

With the fact I now had to be a bit careful and responsible for my wellbeing we also had to rethink activities. I found some cruisy river kayaks we could do and a helicopter flight in Kauai, and we also decided we would spend a lot of time snorkelling. I must admit it was very hard to leave it at that. I wanted to hike the Na Pali Coast, night snorkel with Manta Rays, raft around the Na Pali beaches, paddleboard and so many more exciting things that were on offer in Hawaii! But I did make the right decisions, 6 months pregnant and waddling around Hawaii I was glad I hadn't tried to push the limits, and also that I hadn't prebooked many activities and made my itinerary too tight as no-one can predict a pregnant woman's moods/limits/capabilities!

**Boring pregnancy related travel stuff below**

Prior to the trip I had to spend a lot of time researching a whole host of new things. Instead of researching what to do and where to go I spent most of my time figuring out how to best travel when pregnant. Things become exceedingly harder, no more so than finding a decent travel insurance from Australia that will actually cover you. For some reason Australian insurance providers cut off pregnant women from 26 weeks, and none of them cover anything actually beneficial anyway. After spending too many mind numbingly boring hours reading policy fine print I decided to go with IHI Bupa which is an international insurance provider as they covered me to 30 weeks and actually covered pregnancy related illnesses. I didn't end up having to claim anything or deal with them at all so can't give any feedback on them but it made me feel a lot better knowing I should actually be covered if anything happened.

Another thing I had to consider was the actual 9 hour plane flight. I stocked up on compression stockings, loose tights to wear, bought 6 bottles of water at the airport, had numerous muesli bar options in my handbag and loads of antibacterial hand wash and wet and wipes. I had flown a short flight a few weeks before and caught a head cold from the plane which took me AGES to get over - being pregnant means having no immune system so for a nine hour flight I was quite paranoid at the thought of getting sick and spending the whole time in Hawaii bedbound. So on the actual flight itself I must have looked like quite a nutter; constantly putting antibac on my hands, using wet wipes every time I had to touch anything in the toilets and even wiping down my tray table. I even had japanese flu face masks in my handbag on standby in case I was sitting near anyone who looked suspiciously ill. Add to that all the water I had to make myself drink, constant walking up and down the aisle every hour and being quite uncomfortable with the big belly in the way - it was definitely not the best overseas flight I have ever had. But also not as bad as I was expecting - I didn't get sick at all (hurray!) and I didn't have to resort to pulling out the face mask.

**Pregnancy related stuff over**

On landing at Honolulu International Airport we went through the usual process and headed to pick up our rental car. I was a little disappointed at the lack of Hawaiian music and leis (the things we conjure up in our minds!) but for anyone wanting a better arrival experience you can book shuttles/drivers that meet you at the gate or baggage areas with a lei.

To find our rental car company we had to exit the terminal and then follow the signs onto the middle island of the road. Shuttles come at intervals and you just have to wait at the stop until your rental company shuttle comes by. We were going through Alamo and the shuttle came, transported us to the rental location and then we were off in our pre-booked extremely tiny Fiat. So tiny I think it was the smallest car in all of Hawaii!

Next up - 3 nights in Honolulu.