Laie Hawaii Temple

My 73rd Temple, the Laie Hawaii Temple

All my life I've dreamed of going to Hawaii, and it took me 51 years to finally do it!  I was especially excited to attend the Laie Hawaii Temple.  In April of 2026 I visited my 73rd temple, the Laie Hawaii Temple.  The temple is located at 55-600 Naniloa Loop in Laie Hawaii.  The temple was first dedicated in 1919, and has been rededicated twice, in 1978 and 2010.  The Laie temple was the fifth operating temple after the exodus to Salt Lake, and was the first built outside of Utah and the first built outside of the United States.  Its google maps location is here:  Laie Hawaii Temple

My favorite things about the Hawaii temple are on the exterior of the temple -- I love the tiered fountain in front of the temple with water descending down several pools.  I also love the large trees behind the temple, by the baptismal entrance.  The temple has an interesting layout -- one like no other temple I have ever visited.  To be able to visit the Celestial Room if you haven't already gone on an endowment session, you have to be escorted by a temple worker.  Since we performed sealings when we were there, a temple worker escorted us and several other people to the Celestial Room.  

It was pouring rain on the day that we visited the temple.  By the time I walked from my car in the parking lot, to the front door of the temple, I was soaked completely through -- even though I had both an umbrella and a rain coat.  That's how hard it was raining!  I felt bad when we went in to do sealings, because I was so wet.  I asked a temple worker if I should just stand up rather than sit in the chairs in the sealing room, and she said, "no worries, we're a wet temple.  We're used to it."  The sealing session was a beautiful experience for me, to be able to hear Hawaiian names as they were sealed to their families, including some from the year 812 that a local Hawaiian lady had brought with her from her own line.  

The exterior of the temple reminds me of the Mesa Arizona temple, because of the carvings at the top.  All of the grounds are extremely beautiful and exquisite.  It also has a very nice visitor's center.  There is a display with Books of Mormon in lots of different languages, and if you set one on a receptor, the screen will play an excerpt in that language.  They also have a beautiful Christus where you can take photos.  

The temple is right next to BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center.  In fact, the day before our visit to the temple, we were visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center and rode the tram over to the temple and visitor's center.  We were able to see the visitor's center that day also.  

We flew into Honolulu, and the drive to Laie is about an hour, depending on traffic.  It is a beautiful drive, even in the rain.  Also, only a few minutes from the temple there is an arch called the Laie Point Wayside Sea Arch.  I love arches, so visiting that arch was a definite must after we attended the temple.  Below the photos of the temple, I have a detailed description of our trip to Hawaii.

There are 2 other temples that I will someday be able to attend in Hawaii.  One is located in Kona on the big island, but it is currently being renovated.  We visited the temple site to see its progress.  It looks like it's going to be a couple more years!  The other is the Maui temple, which will be built right next to a stake center on Maui.  We visited the future temple site.  I would guess that it will be a decade before it is finished.  It takes a really long time to get building permits in Hawaii.  But when the Maui temple is completed, I am sure it will be very beautiful!  Someday I'll go back to Hawaii to visit the Kona and Maui temples.

My mom and I at the temple in 2026

The snails were out in full force in the rain

inside the visitor's center

view of the visitor's center

Our view of the Hawaii temple on the day we visited the Polynesian Cultural Center -- much less rain!

model of the temple that's set up in the visitor's center

Book of Mormon in Hawaiian printed in 1855

Where to stay on Oahu

We stayed in an Airbnb in Honolulu, since that's where we flew into, and where our cruise ship was departing from.  It only takes about an hour to drive from Honolulu to Laie.  The Airbnb we stayed at is located at 1088 Bishop Street in Honolulu.  It is on the 20th floor of the Executive Building and has an attached parking garage of several floors.  It has a dedicated parking space on the 8th floor.  The Airbnb listing is here:  Airbnb in Honolulu  I have more details about it below the photos where I included our trip recap with the variety of other places visited during our trip.

the view from our bedroom on the 20th floor in our Airbnb

The living room

I took these photos on the mornings we left, so I had stripped the beds.  The bed was comfortable.

the kitchen

Pouring rain outside

We used the washer and dryer to take care of some of our wet and muddy clothes

Laundry soap was provided, but not dryer sheets.  There is a 7-11 right next to the Executive Building that you can buy a small package of dryer sheets.

the bathroom

living room

When you open the door to the condo, this is what you see -- the single bed is in the front room.

I would stay at this Airbnb if we go to Honolulu again.  It is a bit complicated to get parked and pick up the key, but I figure that pretty much anywhere we stayed in Honolulu would be complicated.  It was clean, and a pretty good value.

What to do on Oahu

Polynesian Cultural Center

The Polynesian Cultural Center is only about 5 minutes from the Laie Hawaii Temple.  Its google maps location is here:  Polynesian Cultural Center  It is run mostly by students at BYU Hawaii, which is also right by the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center.  Their official website is here:  Polynesian Cultural Center  We booked our tickets a few months in advance of our visit.  We purchased the Gateway Buffet Package, which included silver-level seating at the Ha: Breath of Life show, and the dinner buffet, as well as entrance to the island displays.  It cost $158 per person.  We ended up purchasing the lunch buffet as well.  On the day we flew into Honolulu, we picked up our rental car and drove straight to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  There is free parking on the premises, and plenty of it.  We went to the lunch buffet first, and then caught the end of the 1 o'clock canoe show.  The lunch buffet is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is in the same dining hall as the dinner buffet, with more limited options.  I definitely recommend getting both of the buffets, although there are plenty of other eating options at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  I wish I had seen more of the canoe show because the parts that I did see were very impressive.  It is called Huki: Canoe Pageant.  It runs every day at 1 o'clock and seating opens at 12:15.  We ended up standing in the back because we arrived near the end of the show.

There are several "islands" that you can visit and take part in different activities, such as learning to play the ukulele or learning to hula, or to use weapons, etc.  You could spend a great deal of time at each display, or you could just walk through them and look at everything.  We enjoyed riding on the large canoe from one side of the center to the other, and then back again. When you visit Tonga, you can row yourself in a native-style outrigger canoe.  We didn't try that, but it looked pretty fun.  We had a little bit of rain on our visit in April, but not so much that it ruined our enjoyment of the center.  The islands you can visit are:  Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, and Tahiti.  You can ride on a tram that takes you past BYU Hawaii and for a short stop at the Laie Hawaii Temple and visitor's center.  

The biggest highlight of the visit was the Ha: Breath of Life show that evening.  We had reserved seating in the silver section, which came with our package ticket.  We entered just as the gate opened.  We were under a cover, so I wasn't worried about the rain.  The show begins at 7:30, with seating opening at 7 p.m.  The singers, dancers, and actors in the show are very impressive.  It was my favorite part of the visit.  

entering the parking lot of the Polynesian Cultural Center

the lunch buffet

the waiters left this on our table to save it for us as we filled our plates

the Huki Canoe Pageant

waiting for the canoe ride

people on the canoe ride

If you look closely you can see a gecko

Some of the food from the buffet

the dinner buffet

the tram ride to BYU Hawaii and the Laie Hawaii Temple & visitor's center

view of the temple from the tram

BYU Hawaii

The tram

The dinner buffet

waiting for the Ha: Breath of Life Show to start

no filming or video was allowed during the show.  I took this photo during the standing ovation

Laie Point State Wayside Sea Arch

Only a five minute drive from the Laie Hawaii Temple is the sea arch at Laie Point State Wayside.  The google maps location is here:  Laie Point State Wayside  There is parking for several cars at the viewpoint, and the sea arch can be seen from the parking lot.  The arch is in the tiny Kukuihoolua Island, which is only about 2 acres long.  It is free to visit and only takes a few minutes to get there, and a few minutes to enjoy the views and take photos of the arch.  This is a relatively new arch, it was formed after a tsunami in 1946.  

The parking area, with a clear view of the sea arch

signs in the parking lot

The ground at the view point is very unique

A dead squid was on the ground at the viewpoint

view back at the parking lot from the viewpoint

Kualoa Ranch & Jurassic Park

Only about 45 minutes from the temple is the site where a large portion of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies were made -- Kualoa Ranch.  There are many tours you can take, but we chose the Jurassic Adventure Tour.  Their official website is here:  Kualoa Ranch  Its google maps location is here:  Kualoa Ranch  The Jurassic Adventure Tour costs $150 and takes about 2 1/2 hours.  You ride in an open, covered shuttle to different parts of the park where Jurassic Park or Jurassic World were filmed.  We got out several times for photo ops.  I enjoyed the tour very much.  They also point out where several other movies were made in the Park.  

the free parking lot

We ate at Auntie Pat's cafe

Birds were hanging out everywhere, as you see all over Hawaii

enjoying our lunch

There are specific meeting places for each tour

our meeting place

We had a bit of fun with the wall decorations

getting on our shuttle

Our tour guide took this photo next to this fake stump that was in the spot from one of the films, just before T Rex jumped out

and then T Rex did jump out!

our tour guide gave us these tiny dinosaurs as souvenirs

When we attended the Laie Hawaii Temple, we went on a cruise and visited 4 islands -- Oahu, Maui, the big island, and Kauai.  Here is details about where we went on each island in case you want to plan a similar trip:

Oahu

We arrived at the Honolulu airport in the late morning and picked up our rental car at Budget Rental Car company.  We headed straight for the Polynesian Cultural Center, where we had purchased tickets to the lunch buffet.  The buffet was good, although considerably smaller than the dinner buffet that evening, which was held in the same large eating room and offered a lot more options than the lunch buffet.  

We caught the end of the canoe show, which featured singers and dancers floating in canoes in the park lagoon.  It was very impressive.  Afterwards we explored the different island exhibits, went on a couple of large canoe rides, watched hula dancers, and enjoyed the ambiance of the center.  If you are visiting Oahu, you definitely do not want to miss the Polynesian Cultural Center.

I had bought tickets that included entrance, the dinner buffet, and the Breath of Life show at night.  The dinner buffet was very good.  They keep fans going at full blast to keep the flies off your food, but it also makes your napkin and other light items blow away.  We walked around a while longer and shopped, and then attended the Ha: Breath of Life Show.  It was nothing less than spectacular!  The show was worth the cost of the ticket by itself!  The singers, dancers, actors, were amazing, as were the special effects!  That was our first day in Oahu, and it was only spoiled somewhat by rain.  I was grateful to be under covered areas during the times of heaviest rain so that we didn’t get completely drenched.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Honolulu that is pretty close to the ship cruise terminal where we would be taking off for our Hawaiian cruise a couple days later.  It is located at 1088 Bishop Street and is on the 20th floor of the Executive Building, with an attached parking garage.  A parking space was reserved for our rental car.  The listing is here:  Airbnb in Honolulu  The bedroom with the single bed is in the entry-way, so it is a little bit deceptive to say that there are two bedrooms, because you literally walk past the single bed as you are entering the apartment.  It is a nice apartment, though, with an amazing view.  It was very clean, but we did find a small german cockroach in the kitchen the first morning we were there.  We messaged the host and she apologized, saying that it was probably because of the extraordinary rains they had experienced and were probably causing bugs to come up through the drains.  I am afraid of heights, so I admit that being up that high with so many large windows for an excellent view did take some getting used to.  But I really enjoyed staying there and would stay there again on a return trip to Honolulu.  It was especially nice to have a place to park our rental car for free.  Retrieving the car was complicated, though, because the parking garage uses a separate elevator system from the rest of the building.  So we had to plan an extra 15 minutes on either end of every trip to account for the time it took to get from our car to our condo, and vice versa.  Also, the check-in process would have taken much longer if they hadn’t been working on the parking garage.  Normally you have to stop in front of the building, go to the mail room in the lobby to retrieve the room key and the parking garage key, then go park in the reserved spot on the 8th floor of the parking garage, then ride the elevator back to the lobby, switch elevators and ride up to the 20th floor where the room was.  Since they were working on the parking garage ,we were able to skip the step where you park in front of the building and retrieve the key before parking.  We were able to park and just head down the elevators to the lobby to retrieve the room key, switch elevators, and ride to the 20th floor.  I figure that anywhere we stay in Honolulu would probably be pretty complicated since it’s such a large city with so many people and traffic.

The second day we were there we got up early and headed to the temple, about a one hour drive from Honolulu.  It was raining, and by rain I mean pouring rain.  I got out of the car to take photos of the temple for my blog, and before I had made it from the car to the temple a few meters away, I was drenched all the way through.  I was wearing a rain coat and using an umbrella, and they didn’t make any difference at all.  I was wet clean through.  I put my camera in the car and my husband and mom ventured out into the pouring rain with me to enter the temple.  By the time I got in there I could literally wring out my skirt, it was so wet!  Kind temple workers directed us to the changing rooms.  The temple has an interesting layout, unlike any other temple I have ever visited.  It required directions from temple workers at every turn.  We were doing sealings, so we were directed to the sealing room.

When a worker delivered us to the sealing room I asked her if she’d rather I didn’t sit down, since I was very wet, but she said “no worries, this is a wet temple.  We’re used to it.”  The sealing session was very nice, and I loved hearing the Hawaiian names as they were sealed to their families.  One lady in our session had brought family names from the year 812!   In order to visit the Celestial Room you have to have an escort 

My favorite things about the Hawaii temple are the very large trees behind the temple near the baptismal entrance, and the unique fountain in front of the temple with several tiers of water basins that empty as they cascade down the hill.  I enjoyed the layout of the temple, I am not sure of the purpose behind it, but being different was fun.

There is also a lovely visitor’s center on the temple grounds.  We had visited it the day before during our visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center because they offer a tram ride that takes you to BYU Hawaii and the temple and allows visitors to walk around the grounds for 15-20 minutes.  We visited the visitor center on both days.  There is a Christus in there, as well as a Book of Mormon display that has Books of Mormon in multiple languages and when you lay the books down on a que it plays a message in that specific language.  After our very wet temple trip we changed out of our drenched clothes into dry outfits.  

Next we headed for an arch that is only five minutes from the temple.  The La’ie Point State Wayside park is a five minute drive from the temple.  If you park in the small parking area there, you can see the sea arch in the water, very close to the parking lot.  There isn’t any way to get to it, because it’s surrounded by water and it’s not calm water at all, so swimming to it wouldn’t be safe.  The area around the viewpoint for the arch is very unique - volcanic material with lots of holes and pockets, and we even saw a dead squid in one of the little pockets.  

We drove to the Kualoa Ranch next, where we had reserved the Jurassic Adventure Tour.  About a dozen of us rode in a large, covered truck for 2 ½ hours in the pouring rain for this tour.  It was really fun and definitely worth the money.  Even though there’s a roof on the truck, rain was coming in from the sides, so I was sopping wet. But it’s warm in Hawaii so it wasn’t a problem to be so wet.  We were able to see sites from, not only the Jurassic movies, but also many other movies as well.  There are several other tours you can choose from, but I am glad we chose this particular tour.  

After we completed our very wet tour we headed towards the southeastern-most point of the island, to the Halona Blowhole, and hiked to the Koko Crater Arch.  The trail to the arch begins across the street from the Halona Blowhole.  It was raining, so I was worried about it being too slippery on the volcanic rock.  My shoes gripped pretty well to the rock, though, so I was OK until the trail got incredibly steep.  At this point I sent my husband ahead to scale the slippery rock and enjoy the view from inside and behind the arch.  When he came back down I asked him if I would have been able to make it if it hadn’t been raining, and he said no, it still would have been too scary and steep for my fear of heights to handle.  I was sad not to go completely under the arch, but I did enjoy the view of the arch very much, as well as the surrounding scenery.  It took us over an hour to do the hike, and then we headed to the Halona Blowhole to enjoy watching it until dark.  It was a very good, very wet, and very full day.

The next day we loaded up our suitcases because checkout for the hotel was at 10 a.m.  We headed out about 8 a.m. and drove towards the west coast.  We were attempting to visit Ka’ena Point to see the arch there.  We drove along the western coast of Oahu, until we were stopped by a policeman saying that the road was closed because it had collapsed the day previous with all of the rain.  He said it probably wouldn’t open back up for quite some time.  That was the only way to the arch, so I was quite disappointed.  If I had known ahead of time that the road washed out, maybe we could have gotten up a few hours earlier and drive over the top point of the island and then walked from the other end of Ka’ena Point.  I’m not sure what road conditions were on the northern-most point of the island either, though.  The rain really affected Hawaii, with flooding and damage.  I am grateful that we were able to see as much as we were despite the weather conditions.

We ended up relaxing at the beach instead, and then getting on the cruise ship early.  We had perfect weather, with sunshine and low 70 temps, and no rain.  That was a pleasant surprise.

After our cruise completed, we had purchased an excursion through Vacations to Go (our travel agency) that would take us to Pearl Harbor and then to the airport.  Our luggage was stored under the bus during the day.  This was a perfect tour to end the cruise with!  We didn’t have to worry about our luggage at all and everything was very convenient.  They arranged for our entrance to the USS Arizona memorial and they also took us on a tour of downtown Honolulu and the Punchbowl crater and National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.  She gave us 2 ½ hours at Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor was very touching for me.  We rode the shuttle out to the USS Arizona memorial first.  Next we watched a documentary in the theater about the history of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  We tried to find a cafe to eat lunch, and even asked at the information desk where we could buy lunch.  She said that all there was onsite was the snack store.  As we waited in line for the snack store, a lady told us that someone at the edge of the site sold hotdogs at a hotdog stand.  That sounded a lot better than snacks, so we headed over to get hotdogs.  When we arrived at the stand, the boy running it said he’d just run out of hotdogs.  So we headed back to the snack store.  It was very expensive, and the sandwiches were ok, but we purchased tickets to go in the submarine and immediately saw a cafe inside the museum!  I wish the lady at the information desk had told us about the cafe inside there, because we would have much rather eaten in there!  And we ended up buying tickets to it anyway, so we may as well have bought tickets sooner and enjoyed a nice lunch with a view of the USS Bowfin submarine out the window.  I was very disappointed in that lady at the information desk!

After we completed our tour of the submarine and museum, we headed back to our tour bus and were dropped off at the airport, where we waited several hours because our flight was delayed.  That was our first and last experience with Oahu!  

Maui

Our ship arrived in Maui at 8 a.m. and we picked up our Turo rental at 8:30 off the ship, in the Long’s Drug parking lot.  It was a Sunday, so first we headed to church.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a church building only a 5 minute drive from the cruise ship pier.  We were very warmly welcomed by the members there, and even given advice on what to see and do while in Maui.  

We also visited the site of what will be the new Maui Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Currently it is a huge field that is fenced.  We were told that building permits take a lot of time, so we might not see a completed temple for a decade or more.  When they build it, I will come back to Maui.

Next we started on the Road to Hana.  I had purchased an audio guide for the Road to Hana from Shaka Guide.  I highly recommend this guide.  It cost $20 and was well worth the money.  We would have missed a lot of stops and a lot of information without it.  The guide can be downloaded on your phone, which is great since there isn’t cell service for the majority of the Road to Hana.  It runs with GPS and descriptions play when you meet certain sites along the road.  Again, I very highly recommend this guide!  It made our trip on the road to Hana 100% better!

On our drive down the road to Hana, our first stop was at the Twin Falls, which is also the spot for the Rope Swing Falls, and Cave Falls, although Cave Falls was closed when we visited.  People were in the water and many were jumping off the falls into the water.  James swam in the water near the falls, while my mom and I just put our feet in the water while watching everybody else.  The falls are pretty, although there are some more spectacular falls later on the road.  But these ones are unique because you can swim near the waterfall.  It costs $10 for parking to visit the twin falls, rope swing falls, and cave falls.

Along the drive, we saw several other beautiful waterfalls, including my favorite – the 3 bears waterfalls – a big waterfall, and next to it, a medium waterfall, and next to that, a baby waterfall.There is also a waterfall that is under a bridge, so you would never notice it while driving the road to Hana.  Luckily our Shaka guide told us about it, so we knew to pull over in the pull-out and cross the road to see it.  We stopped at several of the look-outs that the guide recommended.

We tried to go to the Hana Lava Tube, but it was closed temporarily for a geological study.  That’s ok, though, because I was able to go inside a different lava tube at my favorite stop – the Wai’anapanapa State Park.  The lava tube was awesome, but the highlight of the stop at this Black Sand Beach was the sea arch!  I really, really love arches.  The only disappointing thing about this sea arch is that there’s no way to get under it, because the sea is deep and fast under it, and there’s no way to get on top of it, as far as I could tell, because of all the jagged edges leading over to it and the sheer drop-offs surrounding it on the rocks.  But I did get lots and lots of photos of it.

We swam in the water and walked on the black sand.  It is a novelty to have a purely black sand beach, although I must say the texture is not my favorite.  I like soft sand, and this is very rocky and gritty.  Rocks and sand got inside my chacos, making it uncomfortable to climb back up to the car.  But the discomfort is worth it for the experience.  There is also a blow hole at the park, although we didn’t ever see it blow very high.  The tide must not have been high enough.  There are also other small arches in the area.  

We drove about ten more minutes past the park and arrived at Hana.  We drove down to the bay, drove very briefly through the town, and then turned around and drove back on the road to Hana.  There are over 60 curves in the road along Hana Highway.  I didn’t get carsick, but I can see how people could.  There are multiple times when only one car will fit on the road, so when traffic comes in the opposite direction, you have to pull over and let them pass, or they might let you pass.  It took us several hours to drive out and back on the Road to Hana.  A once-in-a-lifetime experience that I highly recommend, but that I don’t feel the need to repeat.  If you’re going to do it, though, definitely don’t miss the sea arch!  And in order to see it, you have to make a reservation at the park at least one day in advance.  You cannot reserve a spot on the day of your trip.  When I went online the night before to reserve our spot, the noon to 3 time was already sold out.  I ended up purchasing entrance & parking in the 3 o’clock spot, which actually ended up being perfect timing.  We arrived at about 2:30 and they let us in, even though our spot was for 3 o’clock.  We had started the drive to Hana at 11 a.m.  The timing was perfect!  It cost about $26 for the reservation.  If I hadn’t purchased the Shaka Guide, I would not have known that I needed a reservation to visit the park and see the arch.  If you don’t buy one ahead of time, you are just out of luck.

We started the Road to Hana at 11 a.m. and finished back at our starting point at 6:30 p.m.  It was a Sunday and it was also raining, so there weren’t many stands open to buy food or other things.  We had gone to the grocery store before we left and bought lots of snacks and drinks so that we had plenty in the car.  We were very glad we had done this!  We also used the public restrooms every chance we got, because not every stop has a restroom.  We changed into our swimsuits in one of the public restrooms, and I saw a large roach walk through my stall, so I wasn’t too thrilled to change back into my clothes after my swim.  

The rain wasn’t too bad throughout the trip, although the clouds settled on the mountain and made visibility pretty low for a lot of the trip - maybe half of it.  The vegetation is absolutely spectacular.  There is not a spot of ground that doesn’t have vegetation on it.  Road signs have vines growing on them.  We saw rainbow eucalyptus trees, which before today I didn’t even know existed!  

It was a great first day in Maui!

On our second day in Maui we had purchased an excursion through Norwegian Cruise line.  It took us to the Haleakala volcano crater.  My husband and I were by far the youngest people on the excursion.  Everyone else was retirement age or older!  Needless to say, the excursion was not physically exerting.  But we enjoyed listening to the history and geology lesson as we rode in a large bus up the winding roads to the top of the volcano.  The volcano has been dormant since at least 1600.  The summit is 10,023 feet above sea level, so even for those of us who live in high elevations like Wyoming, this was pretty high!  We were above the clouds when we reached the top.  The entire volcano, however, is 30,000 feet when you consider what is underwater.  So it is actually taller than Mt. Everest.  The crater is 11.25 miles across and 3.2 miles wide, and 2600 feet deep.  From the crater you can view Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii, off in the distance.

The Big Island

Our cruise ship arrived at the Hilo port on a Tuesday morning in April 2026.  We had arranged to rent a car from the closest car rental place to the port, Hilo Auto Sales.  It was an 8 minute walk from the cruise ship and easy to find.  They were great about communicating with me about their location and the details of the rental.  It was also my least expensive car rental experience of the trip.  He tried to encourage us just to stay nearby, with a long list of attractions in the general area to the port, but I was determined to see Holei Sea Arch!  So we headed straight to Volcanoes National Park.

I bought an annual national parks pass, because I know I’ll end up using it again, and the cost for the annual pass was $80.  We headed straight for the arch, which is located at the end of Chain of Craters road.  There was only one car in the parking area when we arrived, and only a couple cars came while we were there, so it appears that not many people venture to the far end of the national park in an attempt to see the arch.

The viewing point for the arch is now roped off and a new viewing area is 1,000 feet down a paved road.  This was apparently due to safety for visitors (because of the danger of high winds blowing people off the cliff), but probably also because part of the arch fell off recently, and they are afraid the entire arch will collapse soon.  The arch is beautiful and magnificent!  It is well marked and easy to find, especially since it is also on google maps:  Holei Sea Arch  It is 90 feet tall and made of lava rock.  It is estimated to be over 550 years old.  In order to visit the arch you have to pay for entrance to Volcanoes National Park.  It would be easy to climb on top of the arch if it were stable, but it could collapse at any time.  It would be impossible to get underneath it because the seas are rough under it and it is part of a sheer cliff.  It is one of the most amazing arches I have ever seen. If you’re in Volcanoes National Park, this arch is definitely worth the drive to the end of the road!  Also, it’s pretty impressive to watch the coast line get closer as you near the end of the road.

On the drive back up Chain of Craters road, we tried to find another arch that I’d read about online.  He called it Pele’s Eye and said it was 14.6 miles from the end of Chain of Craters road, or .4 miles from a road to Mauna Ulu.  Those directions weren’t exactly accurate based on our odometer, but we did eventually find the little arch that he was talking about.  There was another little arch right next to the road, on the other side of the street in the same area of black lava rock formations.  I don’t know that either of these arches have real names.

We stopped at all of the pull-outs to take photos.  We looked at all the craters.  We walked to Devastation to see the eruption in progress of Kilauea.  We drove all of Crater Rim Road and walked to each of the viewpoints.  I was hoping to see lava erupting from the volcano, but all that we witnessed was steam and fog.  My mom was relieved about that.  We tried to eat at the Volcano House because I’d heard the food is very good, but there was a 60 minute wait just to be seated, and we had too much else we wanted to see!  So we grabbed some snacks at the gift shop instead and headed out of the park.

Next we went to see Rainbow Falls.  Compared to some of the other waterfalls we had seen on the trip, it wasn’t that magnificent – and since we didn’t visit in the morning there weren’t any rainbows while we were there.  Still, it was a beautiful waterfall.  I’d say it’s worth visiting and paying the entrance fee ($27 for 3 of us) if you’re in the area.  The google maps location is here:  Rainbow Falls

Next we went to Kaumana Caves, which is a 2 mile long lava tube.  Actually, it’s much longer than 2 miles, but the hike-able portion is 2 miles long.  There is no charge to visit, but there are no lights inside and the ground is extremely uneven.  We brought headlamps and it was still challenging.  We just went a little ways and turned around, and then we went in the “room” on the other side of the long, steep staircase to get down into the tube.  I highly recommend at least going down there to see it, even if you don’t want to try to walk through it.  It is located here:  Kaumana Cave  The scenery around the area is beautiful.  It is only a short drive away from Rainbow Falls, so you can easily do both within an hour.  

Then we planned to go to Richardson Black Sand beach, because we’d been told it was a fun beach to visit, but we were not impressed.  We had just been to Waianapanapa Black Sand Beach, and it was way better than this one.  Skip this beach!  We returned our rental car and went back to the cruise ship, an 8 minute walk.

During the night our ship sailed from Hilo to Kona on the other side of the big island.  Kona is a tender port - the only tender port on our cruise itinerary - and quite often ships can’t dock there at all because the seas are too rough for the tender boats.  Luckily for us, we were able to ride the tenders to the shore.  We met in the Hollywood Theater to gather with our group and then we all went out together to get on a tender.  We had scheduled the secret waterfalls excursion through the cruise ship.  We rode in a large van with high clearance that could easily drive over the very rough dirt road to the beginning of the hike.  It is on private property, so the only way to visit these waterfalls is through this company.  After a drive of about an hour, our guide parked the van and handed out gear such as hiking sticks, back packs, towels, etc.  I had brought my own towel and backpack so I was all set.  I wore my swimsuit under my clothes so that I would be ready to swim in the waterfall.  We hiked up and down stairs, some of which were slippery, but not too bad.  Everyone on the tour was retirement age or older, except for us.  We reached a waterfall that our guide said was ok for swimming, so we hopped in.  I am only 5’2” so I couldn’t touch the bottom at times.  I tried to stay in areas that I could stand on the very slippery, slimy rocks.  We went underneath the waterfall and we also swam through it and relaxed for a while in the pond.  It was a really neat experience!  I’m so glad I wore my swim suit so that I could get in the water and go underneath the waterfall.  A couple other people in our group got in the water also.  Next we hiked to another waterfall higher up.  Then we met together at picnic tables high on the mountain for a lunch provided by the tour company.  We had a spectacular view up there!  The description of the excursion said that it would be a mile and a half hike, but I seriously doubt it was that much hiking.  Most of it was steep, so it may have felt to some like it was a far distance, but it was probably under a mile.  It was one of my favorite excursions!  I could never have visited these waterfalls if we hadn’t signed up for this one.  This is the website of the company that provides these tours:  Hawaii Forest & Trail

We were delivered back to the cruise ship in plenty of time before the ship departed, so James went on a run to the nearby Walmart while my mom and I did some shopping in the nearby shops.  The ABC store is dangerous for my wallet, believe me!  Then when James rejoined us, we grabbed an uber out to the Kona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The temple is under construction, but I could see the temple on the mountain as our cruise ship drove into port, so I knew it was very close by.  I wanted to see it up close and get some photos.  The uber driver dropped us off at the construction site, and then we took some photos and admired the progress so far on the temple.  A missionary approached us and said that the purpose of her mission is to answer questions and to send photos of the temple’s progress to Church headquarters.  It looks like the temple still has a ways to go before it’s completed.  Someday when it is completed I will visit Hawaii again!  

We grabbed another Uber driver to take us back to the cruise ship port, and then we got in line for a tender back to the ship.  The waters were much more rough than they had been that morning.  The cruise ship was very careful about getting us on and off the tenders safely.  It was an early sailing because we had to make it all the way to Kauai by 9 am the next morning.

Kauai

Kauai is my very favorite of the Hawaiian islands.  It is exactly what I imagined Hawaii would be like.  If I were to choose just one island to visit, Kauai would be the one.  It is beautiful and mysterious and majestic and green and overwhelming and everything that I pictured when I dreamed of visiting Hawaii.

Before you make any plans for a visit to Kauai, my biggest recommendation is that unless you are going on a tour that provides transportation, you need to rent a car on Kauai.  Uber is not reliable on Kauai - there just isn’t enough local population to support the amount of drivers versus the amount of tourists.  There are taxis, but they cost twice as much and take twice as long to arrive.  We learned this lesson the hard way when we took an Uber from our cruise ship out to the southern tip of the island, and then were basically stranded out there because no ubers were in the area.  We finally walked to a nearby hotel and they contacted a taxi for us, but then we waited 30 minutes for the taxi to arrived, and then paid him over $85 to drive us 30 minutes back to the cruise ship.  Rent a car!  It’s the only reasonable way to get around Kauai.

We arrived in Kauai on the cruise ship Pride of America on a Thursday morning and had 2 days and 1 night there.  It was amazing!  We had booked an excursion through the cruise ship called The Director’s Cut that took us to various places on Kauai where movies were made, and showed us clips from the movies as we were driving there.  I loved it!  I love visiting movie spots, so this was exactly the kind of excursion for me!  We were also the youngest people there.  Everyone else was retirement age or older.  We visited water falls, beaches, beautiful views, Hanalei, Kilauea, Princeville, and more. We visited places where South Pacific, Jurrasic Park, the Descendants, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tropic Thunder, Blue Hawaii, Soul Surfer, King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Perfect Getaway, and many more movies were filmed.  We walked around beautiful Hanalei and took photos with Wailua Falls in the background.  We ate lunch in Hanalei and went shopping. We took photos with amazing backdrops.  We drove past the field where the Jurassic Park dinosaurs used to roam.  We drove beside land that Mark Zuckerberg had purchased on Kauai, and other land that Bette Midler had purchased.  We admired the mountains, especially Kalalea Mountain with its very unique “gorilla head.”  There is a hole in the mountain just to the right of the gorilla head, which is the result of a lava tube, but it isn’t visible from down below anymore, because it collapsed sometime in the 1980’s!  We saw a movie clip that showed the hole before it fell sometime in the 1980’s and it was very clear even from a long distance.  I wish we could still see the original hole today!  The location of Hole in the Mountain is here:  Hole in the Mountain  Probably the funniest movie that we watched clips from was the “Dinocroc vs Supergator” from 2010.  It made us chuckle quite a bit.  As our tour guide said, “not all movies are created equal.”

The tour bus dropped us off back at our cruise ship, and since we were staying in Kauai overnight, we had plenty of time to do some more exploring.  I had asked our tour guide about a lava arch that I’d seen online that was at the southern tip of Kauai.  She said the road to the arch had been completely overrun by homeless people and that it would be unsafe to go there.  I was so disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see it!  But as we talked, and I showed her the location on google maps, she realized that the arch she was thinking of was actually on the western edge of the island, not the southern edge.  She told us a little bit more about the area, so we decided to take an uber out to Shipwreck Beach and find the lava arch.  It took 30 minutes to ride from our cruise ship to Shipwreck Beach, and one of the highlights of the trip was driving through the Kauai Tree Tunnel.  There are over 500 eucalyptus trees lining the street and created a tunnel that the highway runs through.  We were able to drive through the tree tunnel on the way to the southern end of the island, and then again on the way back, and the next day we saw the Tree Tunnel from the air on our helicopter tour!  The tree tunnel was one thing I really loved on the island.

Our uber dropped us off at Shipwreck Beach and pointed us in the direction that he thought the lava arch was.  Luckily we didn’t listen to him because it was the opposite direction and we might have hiked for a very long time before we realized it.  I had the lava arch marked on my google maps, and it was only a short walk from the beach on a mostly-paved path!  Its google maps location is here:  Lava Arch  You will not be able to tell where the arch is from the path above.  You need to follow google maps to know when to come off the path and head down towards the arch.  I have also seen this arch labeled as Makahu’ena Arch because it’s on Makahu’ena Point.

Once you find the arch, you can stand on top of it, or take photos from the small cliff edge directly across from it.  On the day we visited, the waves were very high so it wouldn’t have been safe for me to stand directly on top of the arch or I might have been pushed off into the water, but most of the time you could easily stand on it.  It is probably my favorite arch in Hawaii, although that is hard to say because I have found several of them that I love.  There is another small arch on the path between Lava Arch and Shipwreck Beach.  It’s in the white rock and is below the path.  It is small, but a person could probably stand underneath it.  I haven’t come up with a name for this arch yet.  Maybe I’ll call it Doorway Arch.  If someone stood on top of it, they might break it.  But it would be pretty easy to get up there, since the top of it is just about level with the ground. Apparently there’s also a geyser close to Shipwreck Beach, but that will have to wait for our next trip to Kauai when we have a rental car and can drive wherever we want!

We walked on the beach a little bit, and considered walking along the tall cliffs because our tour guide had told us that we might see sea turtles at the bottoms of the cliffs, and that there would be more arches and unique land formations along the cliffs, but we were getting hungry and we needed to figure out our ride back to the cruise ship.  My husband and I both tried Uber several times without any luck.  No rides were available, and we wasted a bunch of time trying to get one.  So we walked to the Hyatt that is right next to Shipwreck Beach and a valet called a taxi for us.  We could have ordered one online, but I couldn’t tell from the listings which one would be reputable, or affordable.  The valet was very kind to order us a taxi even though we weren’t hotel guests.  We also got to peek inside their beautiful hotel, and wow!  I would love to stay there someday!  You walk into the lobby and there is an open, beautiful view of the ocean through a picturesque doorway.  I can only imagine how pricey that hotel is!

After a half hour wait, our taxi arrived and drove us home, giving us lots of information about the island.  We had seen an arch as our cruise ship was driving in, and he told us where it was located.  I was able to find the arch on google maps and mark it.  Its location is here:  Arch near the lighthouse and golf course  We didn’t ever walk over to it, and I’m not sure how you would get down to it, since you’d have to walk through a golf course and possibly a resort.  When I come back to Kauai I’d like to see if I can get to this arch.  We were able to see it both as our cruise ship was coming into port, and when we were leaving.  It looks like a very good sized sea arch.

The next morning we dressed all in black to meet our shuttle from the cruise ship to Island Helicopters for our helicopter Jurassic Falls tour.  It was amazing!  It is expensive, but it is also very much worth the money!  Every penny!  I am someone who is extremely afraid of heights, and I wasn’t the slightest bit nervous at any point throughout the experience.  I was buckled in and felt secure and safe the whole time.  I was next to a window, although not in the front seat.  I would definitely say that the front seats would have been a lot better.  I didn’t have any control over where I sat, though, because they determine it all by the weight of each person on the tour.  There are 6 people in addition to the pilot.  They fill up their tours, so unless you’re going to pay for all 6 seats, you aren’t going to have any control over where you sit.  I was in the seat next to the window behind the pilot.  It wasn’t a terrible seat, but the front seats would have been twice as good!  Also, I was in the very worst seat for seeing Honopu Arch, which was the main thing I wanted to see on the tour.  In fact, Honopu Arch is the whole reason I scheduled the helicopter tour, because the only way to reach this famous arch is either by sea or by air.  When I contacted Captain Andy’s about visiting the arch by sea, he recommended a helicopter ride because that time of year (April) the water conditions might not be ideal for reaching the arch.  Next time I’ll do a sea tour, though, because I’m determined to get a better look at the arch!

The helicopter took us to Jurassic Falls, the waterfall that the helicopter lands in front of at the opening scene of Jurassic Park.  It was amazing!  It’s a 400 foot water fall and absolutely beautiful and completely private.  The people who own the private land that the waterfall is on, are friends with the people who own Island Helicopters.  So they made an agreement about the helicopters being allowed to fly into and land at Jurassic Falls.  You cannot hike to the falls, so the only way to reach them is by helicopter.  Pretty amazing!  The official name of Jurassic Falls is Manawaiopuna Falls.  It is located here:  Jurassic Falls  The helicopter ride was 80 minutes long and went over countless waterfalls, which he would circle around so that we could all view them out our windows, many canyons, over tall mountain peaks and ridges (which was amazing!), up into the clouds, and most importantly, along the Na Pali Coast.  We went right over the Open Ceiling Cave, but he didn’t point it out so I didn’t even see it!  And he did point out Honopu Arch, my main reason for coming, but I was on the wrong side of the helicopter to see it or take good photographs of it, so I was pretty disappointed!  I did get a few shots, but they’re not ideal.  I need to visit it from the water!  The open ceiling cave is here and can only be accessed via boat tour, specifically a zodiac raft:  Open Ceiling Cave  Honopu Arch, one of the most famous arches in Hawaii, and the backdrop in several movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Honeymoon in Vegas, is located here:  Honopu Arch  Despite my disappointments at not seeing the Open Ceiling Cave or a good view of Honopu Arch, I still very highly recommend the helicopter ride.  It was incredible, and a view of Kauai that you cannot get anywhere else!  80% of the island is inaccessible except by helicopter.  It is expensive, but you can do it once in a lifetime.  I 100% recommend!!!

After we landed the helicopter and our shuttle returned us to the ship, we changed into our swimsuits and headed on the free beach shuttle over to Anchor Cove and Kalapaki Beach to enjoy the perfect sandy beach, and swim in the mostly-calm, and almost warm water.  It was my favorite beach experience of the trip.  We shopped at the shops at Anchor Cove and also at Harbor Mall.  Then we arrived back on the ship for an early departure.  As the ship sailed away, I watched Kauai slowly disappear and I was sad.  The Hawaii I always dreamed of is on that island.  I could see the Gorilla head of Kalalea Mountain all the way over at our harbor as we sailed away.  Someday I hope to return to this magical island again!  

Hawaiian Cruise

I have always wanted to visit Hawaii, and I decided that the very best way to be able to see the majority of Hawaii would be a Hawaiian cruise that went to each of the islands.  There is only one company that offers this type of cruise – Norwegian Cruise Lines, on the Pride of America.  It is a pretty pricey cruise compared to many others that you could do, and others that I have done, but I was determined that this was the way I wanted to see Hawaii!  So we booked it.  We chose to cruise in mid-April, which was pretty good weather despite a little bit of rain.

We flew into Honolulu a few days early so that we could see some things on Oahu before our cruise began.  We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, BYU Hawaii, the Laie Hawaii Temple and Visitor’s Center, on hikes to 2 arches and the Halona Blowhole, on a Jurassic Park Adventure tour at Kualoa Ranch, and swimming at a beach near the cruise ship port.

At 11 a.m. we stopped by the cruise ship to drop off our luggage, which they were very happy to take early.  In fact, I think they probably prefer that so that the check-in process is faster when everyone arrives.  Our check-in time wasn’t until 2:30 p.m., but we came about an hour early and they took us early without any complaints.  They are very efficient with the check-in process, which made them seem somewhat grumpy and impatient.  We received a shell lei and our photo was taken as part of the check-in process.  We received our room keys, but weren’t allowed to go to our rooms yet so we went to the buffet and had lunch.  The buffet was pretty good, but I admit that after a couple times of having the same things offered, I got tired of it and wanted something else.  So we only ate at the buffet for a couple lunches and one dinner.  

They let us into our rooms around 4 p.m.  My mom was on the cruise with us, and she wanted a balcony room, but we didn’t want to pay the extra money for a balcony, since we would be with her the whole time and could just sit on her balcony.  She also wanted us to be in a cabin close to her, so the agent we booked the cruise through with Vacations to Go, found us the closest cabin with a window to a balcony room, just a few doors apart.  The problem was, our particular room with a window not only had a life boat out the window, but it also had 2 fold-down bunks on the wall.  This made the room considerably smaller because it pretty much took up the aisle on either side of the bed.  The cabin is pretty small anyway, so consider the space taken up by 2 additional beds attached to the wall and it’s TINY.  We mostly just slept in our room, though, so it was do-able.  The bathroom was pretty much as small as any other cruise I’ve been on.

That night we ate dinner at the buffet, but it was the exact same food as they had at lunch.  On future nights we ate at the Liberty, Skyline Restaurant, or Cadillac Diner, which are all complimentary.  We were told by one of the staff that the Liberty Restaurant is only for those who are dressed up, and that even the Skyline Restaurant doesn’t allow shorts.  So when we went to Liberty on the second night of our cruise, we all dressed up.  We were almost the only people there who were dressed up.  Everyone else was in shorts or whatever they happened to wear that day.  The same was true of the Skyline Restaurant.  Everyone was dressed casually, and the staff didn’t seem to mind at all.  The Skyline and Liberty restaurants have the same menu as each other every night.  They did change slightly each night.  The Cadillac Diner was fun.  We didn’t ever get to eat inside the car, but the food was a fun change from the other restaurants.  If you want a milkshake, you have to pay an additional $4 (plus tax and tip), but the shakes were pretty good.  The food is complimentary at the restaurants so you can order as many different things as you want.  There are also specialty restaurants on the ship, but we didn’t eat at any of them because we wanted to eat for free.

The TV only has ship channels, such as the shopping channel or navigation channel, and a couple of news stations (CNN and Fox News) and a couple of movie channels.  I tried going with just the Free at Sea wifi service, but knew within the first ten minutes of using it that I was going to need the unlimited wifi, so I purchased it right after boarding the ship.

We entered the ship on the 6th floor, and exited on this floor as well, but at all the other ports we exited on the 3rd floor each time.  Our cabin was on the 7th floor.  Not all of the floors go all the way through, so sometimes you have to go up or down stairs to get from one end of the boat to the other.

There are a lot of hot tubs and a swimming pool on deck 11, as well as some games like chess.  We didn’t go to any of the evening shows because we were completely exhausted from our busy days, so we just went to bed.  We tried the Skyline Restaurant for breakfast one day, but I didn’t like it as well as the buffet for breakfast.  I like having a lot of different options and getting to choose how much I want of each item.  So I do recommend the buffet for breakfast, even though it doesn’t change much from day to day.  There are plenty of options on the breakfast buffet.

We tried the gelato shop, which is not complimentary, and it was very good.  Very creamy, like Italian gelato.  

We bought 3 excursions through the ship – one in Maui, one in Kona, and one in Kauai.  We did the Haleakala Crater tour in Maui, the Secret Waterfalls tour in Kona, and the Director’s Cut tour on Kauai.  We liked all of them and would recommend them.  We were by far the youngest people on each of these excursions.  Everyone else was retirement age or older.

Every time we got off the ship, we scanned our ship card.  And whenever we got back on the ship, they checked both our ship card and our ID, twice, and then we went through security, and then they scanned our ship card again.  Their security is very tight.  At each port they offered free striped beach towels.  They took our room number and threatened to charge us $25 per towel if we didn’t return them.  When we returned to the boat, we checked in the used towels and they marked that it had been returned.  At the port in Kauai, there is a free shuttle that drops people off at the beach or at the Harbor Mall or Anchor Mall.  We took advantage of this “free” shuttle (the shuttle driver is quite open about reminding people to tip him, so it wasn’t technically free).  

Most of the people on the cruise were a great deal older than my husband and I.  Most of them were my mom’s age.  But there are no other cruise choices if you want to cruise Hawaii.  It is definitely worth doing once.  It is a great way to see multiple islands.  But I wouldn’t do it again.  Once is enough.  These are the ports it stops at:

Sunday:  Maui

Monday: Maui

Tuesday: Hilo

Wednesday: Kona

Thursday: Kauai

Friday: Kauai

Saturday: Oahu

It begins and ends on Oahu.  You can find information about the cruise at their website:  Norwegian Cruise Line, or the place I always book my cruises is here:  Vacations to Go