From one extreme to another -adventures in hiring cars!

We had only pre-booked a hire car in Maui, but decided to rent one for a day in Honolulu too so that we could go shopping. We won't bore you with that post but it was a success!

Our on-the-spot rental in Honolulu was the cheapest option, but still cost a bit. Still, we managed to get a funky little Fiat 500 to run around in (and mainly to annoy our friends Jo and Tony who like them!).

Our pre-booked option on Maui was a similarly cheap option, however Annalie was given the chance to upgrade for a small fee. As Ian wasn't with her, she decided to surprise him with her choice...

What's S'UP Waikiki?

For this trip, we decided to try our hand at stand-up paddleboarding (S'UP!). After all, it's much easier falling off into warmer water!

We have been very lucky with the weather being stunning and very warm, so we've been glad to get on the water. Despite his surfing background, Ian lost the learning race to Annalie, who was off like a rabbit.

But Annalie managed to get better photos of Ian, capturing the Diamond Head landmark in the background.

Day two was slightly more choppy with both of us spending more time in the water than day one. But it could be something we persevere with. Only with wetsuits rather than shorts and bikini. The Cook Strait isn't quite so forgiving!

Wish you were here!

Debunking myths

Tonight we debunked a myth that Hawaii is expensive.

Annalie did some research on Tripadvisor.com to look up some low cost dining options. Se happened upon a review for the Steak Shack (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60982-d1991489-Reviews-Steak_Shack-Honolulu_Oahu_Hawaii.html). 

We'd headed there on our second night, only to find out we'd missed it by about 20 minutes. But we were determined to try it after reading the great reviews. 

On our third night, we decided to head down in time for the sunset, seeing as it is on the western side. You can pay three times the price for a posh beachfront restaurant at a hotel. Or pay US$7 for fantastic steak, rice and salad with the same view. This...

Help Annalie win!

Annalie has entered a burger she designed into a local competition, and got into the finals! Now it's up to the public to decide. So go ahead and vote for the Get Me to the Greek burger to help her win :)

Click the link below then vote on the left.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/burger-bunfight/9142444/Vote-for-your-favourite-burger

Battling the All Blacks

Our All Blacks training session was an amazing experience and it gave us a real insight into how fit those boys are.

We're both pretty fit now, but the ABs fitness coach, Nick Gill, wanted to show us just how fit professional rugby players have to be. He got us doing a number of the drills that they have to go through, only we did a lot less of them. And were still knackered!

It started with a warm up of passing, then a quick game of touch rugby to get us moving. Then we were into the running drills. We did two, while they would be expected to do about 8 and maintain the same pace. We didn't do too bad, but we're not sure we could have kept going at that pace.

Then is was onto some conditioning drills, with crawls and drags across the grass. We had to try and wrestle rugby balls off them (and them off us) for a minute (phew!). And there was some lineout and kicking practice. More running drills finished us off before we headed back to the gym for a shower before lunch.

The boys were absolute stars and friendly as anything. We even showed them the video we'd done to win the training session. They seemed to be rather amused (wonder why?!). They posed for photo after photo and did autograph after autograph. We'd even bumped in Aaron Smith on the flight up to Auckland and he'd been more than happy to chat to us. There have been a fair few twitter conversations with them since too ;)

A happy day that we will remeber for a very long time.

 

Things Wellingtonians never say

Only when you've been here will you truly understand the irony of this clip - but it's spot on! There's nothing more really to say - other than watch it!

We're taking on the All Blacks tomorrow

Well, three of them anyway!

The boys we'll be tackling include Steven Luatua and Charlie Piatau, both of whom can be seen in this video

The third is Aaron Smith, who's a hairdresser by trade would you believe!


Photos will obviously follow!