Aloha and Mahalo

Hawaii, wow, it really is the paradise that you hear about from everyone that comes home with a great tan and a perma-smile. 


Waikiki was incredible. Having our own tiny condo with two amazing friends and a view of the ocean was a dream come true, and a very luxurious way to start off a backpacking trip. We did the whole tourist thing, rented surfboards, went on a booze cruise, shopped at a fruit stand, drove around the island in a rental car, but the highlight of the week was definitely watching our two very good friends get married. What an amazing, perfect day on the beach, and so happy. There was no stress, no huge expense, no tears (well, almost no tears) and their own, beautiful, and eerily similar vows. You could feel the love vibrating through the air. We had sparkling wine on the beach, and a total of 1569 pictures for the day. It was beautiful, a day that was truly all about them, who can ask for anything more on your wedding day.


We spent two nights in a hostel in Waikiki when our friends left, and met some awesome people who love to drink, luckily we had a private room to retreat to. We booked a last minute flight to Kona, and are in the process of hitch-hiking around the island, (sorry Mom and Dad, its so much easier that taking the bus). It is amazing the generosity of the people that live and vacation here, we have had so much given to us, food, ice, rides, a luau, beer, and best of all, hugs. we have picked our own wild fruit, like banana's, guava's, avocados and macadamia nuts, what a gift! Everything here is so fresh and flavourful! We found an island gem, called Ho'okena beach, where the sunset is perfect over the ocean every night, and the dolphins play in the bay every morning. We planned on staying for only a night or two, but after the first night, we were sucked into paradise, we stayed for 5 nights. It was so layed back there, we layed in the hammock, swam with the sea turtles, played with the dolphins, and had a potluck almost every meal. The sand was a mixture of crushed lavarock and crushed coral, which gave it a shimmery grey colour, and the campsites were lined with coconut trees. We left Ho'okena to enjoy the rest of the island, but we left a piece of ourselves there, as well as a message in a bottle, a beer bottle chandelier and hung origami cranes in the tree above for the next people to enjoy our site.

Traveling around Hawaii is amazing so far, and as long as we don't get sucked into the tourist traps, we are saving more money than we thought we would, which is always a nice surprise. When we tell people we meet that we are embarking on a two year journey around the world, everyone is at first surprised, and then super supportive and excited for us. It's an amazing feeling to feel support and love from complete strangers. We were told, from multiple people in fact, that we have so much light in our eyes. What an amazing thing to hear!

 As much fun as we are having, we miss our family and friends a lot. We talk to our parents as often as we can, and try to keep updated on facebook, but it isn't the same as just picking up the cell phone and calling whoever we think of at that moment. It is tough not having our two dogs, Koda and Scooter, with us, we took them everywhere with us when we lived in Canada. We get pictures of Koda every week or so, which we appreciate so much, and we know that they are both so happy and so well taken care of. Even though we are getting them back at the end of this journey, it is still hard to curl up at night without our little footwarmers, or go on a hike without little panting furballs.

All in all, the beginning of our journey is better than we could have imagined, very little hardships and a ton of good luck and good Karma. We re off to explore the east and north sides of this island, before making our way to New Zealand on the 25th of September.

Mahalo for reading this, and for all your love and support. Aloha!