Hawaii – a love story
I just got back from a work trip to Hawaii; eight days, two islands, four journalists and a lot of fancy hotel dinners. I am utterly knackered despite the fact that I’ve been in a South Pacific paradise. Believe it or not, hosting press famils (familiarisation trips) is actually pretty stressful because you’re The Responsible One. You’re there to facilitate, organise, pay for things and solve problems. You’re also the person in the hot seat if things don’t run smoothly.
Luckily, I had a really good group of people. Unluckily, a few things did go wrong despite lots of paranoid double checking. Nonetheless, we saw Kauai almost in it’s entirety and had a blast in Waikiki. We stayed at The Moana Surfrider, the 111 year old Grand Dame of Waikiki beach, wolfed down enough fish with names like Mahi Mahi, Ahi and Opakapaka to feed a hungry whale and tried to absorb as much aloha spirit – and Mai Tai mix – as is humanly possible on limited sleep.
I am going to be writing lots of posts about this trip over the coming weeks so stay tuned, would-be hulaphiles.
For now though, I’m off to bed…
Welcome back lovely! Speak to you when you recover from exhaustion xx
Hope the trip went well. I can sympathise about the exhaustion, I think I’m still recovering from my trip and I’ve been back almost 3 weeks.
Looking forward to hearing more about the Aloha State
Oh my lordy – The Moana Surfrider! Jealous much. That is gorgeous, almost as lovely as lush Kuaui.
Can’t wait to read more Em xx
Kudos to you Em, for posting so quickly after our trip – as one of your four journos, I can definitely vouch for the exhaustion factor. And sympathise with your role lots. Must be a tightrope-walk trying to keep both the writers and the hosts happy. But you did it with such grace it seems easy. Now to get onto sorting all pics and transforming my scribbled notes into readable prose. Missing the aloha spirit already, and the warm Pacific air…
Does that photo have a filter? If not I am very very jealous! Can’t wait to read your posts.
Oh yep – that had a filter but it was pretty stunning even without it!