NYE in Hawaii & Our First Couple of Days in Australia!

Well, where to start? Firstly, I apologize for the lack of blog’s lately; it’s been a hectic week and a half! It’s great to hear many of you sending us notes saying that you can’t wait to read our newest blog! Well, the most important and exciting news we can share with you all is that…WE’RE ENGAGED!! J After 7 years of dating, Jordan popped the question in Hawaii on New Year’s Eve day at a beautiful private waterfall that we found. Since I know you all are wondering how it happened, here’s how! While in Maui on our 5-day mini-vacation, we decided to drive the “Road to Hana”. This road trip took us roughly 11 hours and was worth every minute of it! We set out at 5:30 am and after a 25 minute delay because one of the fellow backpackers parked behind us (and therefore we had to knock on some doors to get him to move his car) we were on the road. Our first stop was alongside the road to snap some pictures of some (what looked like professional) surfers riding these incredibly big waves. Were they ever impressive! 

 We continued on and stopped at “Twin Falls” which is a ‘touristy’ stop with a couple of little waterfalls. Little did I know that Jordan was scoping out spots to pop the question with the ring in his shorts pocket!

 After deciding that these waterfalls were neat but we knew we would see better ones, we drove on until we saw a huge waterfall in the distance. Jordan was DETERMINED to get to it and so we climbed over a watershed and into the jungle to get to this waterfall. After a 20 minute hike and both running shoes being completely dunked in the water, we were there. This waterfall was totally stunning and had beautiful pools surrounding it.

 I was sitting in awe looking at the waterfall when I turned around to face Jordan (who was sitting just below me) and there he was holding up the most beautiful ring! It’s actually quite funny because he asked me to marry him and at first I didn’t respond to his question because I just kept saying “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness”! He had to ask me twice before I actually replied with a “YES, OF COURSE!!”.  It was something straight out of a storybook and I’ll tell you, you couldn’t wipe the smile off of both of our faces! It couldn’t have been more perfect! 

We both decided after to swim in the little water-pool at the foot of the waterfall. Well, I would love to tell you that we jumped in, stood underneath it and loved every minute of it but in reality…IT WAS FREEZING!! Determined to say that I swam in a natural pool, I (after about 15 minutes of slowing lowering myself into the water) did a couple of laps and was out in a jiffy! Jordan made it to just about his waist and that was all he could take. I was rather impressed with the effort since I, the water lover, even found it almost unbearable! We decided that the numbing effect should only last song long and hopped out and hiked back to the car-not before completely “muddying” (?) up our shoes! Needless to say, Jordan’s proposal was certainly the highlight of our trip!

As we continued our drive, complete with 600 hair-pin turns and a single lane road on the side of a giant cliff, I actually began to feel nauseous because for the majority of the drive I had my head down looking at my ring! The trip really was the most beautiful drive we’ve ever experienced and we highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Maui. Jordan’s parents are actually headed to Hawaii in March and we can’t wait to share with them our experiences of Maui. The most beautiful part of the drive was actually past the town of Hana. The insurance on rental cars is void if you go past Hana (because of the steep cliffs and rocky roads). Since the weather was beautiful, we decided to carefully drive on and it was worth every minute.

Jordan’s Insert: Just past the town of Hana, Kirsten and I were still loving the drive but were looking for another attraction to pull over and stretch our legs. To our surprise we see a hand painted sign that said “Lava tube next left”. As we mentioned all of the 600+ turns were hairpin so it didn’t allow much warning. As we came around the corner I swerved quickly down the rough road. About a mile down the road we turn up what looks to be someone’s driveway and discover the Lava tube. Here sat a very charismatic owner who instantly talked us into paying $12 each to tour the tubes. Kirsten and I reluctantly paid the man and said to each other “I hope this is worth $24”. We head on down the path which leads us to a winding stair case into a cave. 

Once we enter the cave it is literally pitch dark.  Equipped with flash lights we both head on through this incredible cave system full of stalactites and stalagmites that were unlike any that I have seen before. These ones looked like they were made of chocolate fudge if you can believe it. About a kilometer through the cave we come to a massive bolder lodged in the rock and we crawl underneath it which brings us to the end of the excursion. Unfortunately the man did not own the land any further then this which meant we had to turn back and hit the road again. Needless to say it was worth $24 dollars for us nature buffs (mark you will love this!).

After 7.5 hours in the car, stopping every once and a while to take in the scenery, we found a little farm that sold local fruit, vegetables and coffee. Since we had been up for so long, the coffee was much needed. The13-acre farm was run by 13 people who bunked in tree houses and worked to provide the town with fresh food. It was very cool to see and we instantly thought of Jordan’s Aunt Cathy and Uncle Greg who live in Tweed, Ontario and have a very whimsical garden equipped with a “Zen Den”. You guys would have loved it there!

After a few days on the road visiting Haleakala Crater and driving the “Road to Hana”, we decided to head back to our beach that we found. Driving out to the beach we saw at least 30 whale spouts blowing water up into the air. It was by far the coolest thing to see! The whales were just rolling in the water and every now and then you could see a tail come splashing down or a fin gliding through the water. Keep in mind this was at least a half mile away but it was still so great to see! 

Our 5 days in Hawaii were absolutely amazing despite the fact that my computer got a major virus on our last day there. After dropping it off a tech-shop for the entire day and picking it up at 10pm that night, it was fixed and we were back on our lucky strike. Our flight flew out the next morning and since Hawaiian Airlines allows for 70lb bags travelling to Australia, I jammed as much as I could into my suitcase (so I ONLY had to carry a 35 pound backpack on my back, a 20 pound knapsack on my front and drag my 70lb suitcase behind me) J.  Our first flight was a mini 30 minute flight in which we were upgraded to exit seats for the 2^nd time this trip! To our utter surprise and excitement, the 10.5 hour flight from Honolulu to Sydney we also got to sit in exit rows! 

 

We could stretch our legs out in front of us and still had 2 feet in front of us…it was pure luxury. 

We HIGHLY recommend flying Hawaiian airlines. It was by far the best flight I have ever been on equipped with free wine (bonus!), a delicious meal consisting of chicken curry, broccoli, salad, lime/raspberry cheesecake and guava juice, as well as unlimited snacks (chips and pound cake) and a ham/cheese croissant! The only downfall of the flight (other than the fact the Jordan was becoming quite congested) was the fact that it was FREEZING due to sitting right by the door. After grabbing a couple extra blankets and putting my feet on my back pack (and therefore off the chilly floor) we were warm and cozy and ended up getting a few hours of sleep.

The time change between Hawaii and Canada is five hours (Canada being 5 hours ahead) and so when we arrived in Sydney, we only subtracted two hours from Hawaii time and skipped a whole day. For example, we arrived (Hawaii time) at 9:30pm on Tuesday January 3^rd but in Australia time it was actually 7:30 pm on Wednesday January 4^th- we had lost a whole day! The Hawaii stop-over certainly made the world of a difference in terms of getting used to the time change!

                Since this is a massively long post, I’m going to end here and will continue the next blog starting with arriving in Australia! All in all, our mini-vacation in Maui was absolutely amazing and we couldn’t be happier about getting engaged!! Our next blog will be up soon!

Happy New Year!

 Kirsten & Jordan