Circle Pacific Trip

Hong Kong Harbor

Circling The Pacific Ocean In Five Weeks!

A year after we completed our second round the world (RTW) trip, we decided to explore more countries and islands that “touch” the Pacific Ocean. We were so excited to learn about the Circle Pacific Pass! Like the RTW pass, the first departure city and the last arrival city must be the same.

Week #1: New Zealand —> Honolulu

Since hubby had never been to Hawaii, we chose Honolulu as our first destination! We left New Zealand on Saturday but arrived on Friday (previous day on the calendar) at Honolulu. It was like traveling back in time 😊. Once we got our rental car, our first stop was Costco because hubby had to have the hot dog in Costco.

On the next morning around 7 AM., a sudden big jolt from the ground woke me up. There were two earthquakes that struck off the northwest coast of Big Island (a magnitude of 6.7 earthquake beneath Kīholo Bay about 13 miles (20 kilometers) away from Kona) and a magnitude of 6.0 earthquake offshore of Māhukona. I jumped up from the bed and tried to wake up hubby, but he continued to sleep (since he never felt an earthquake before, he thought it was my imagination). He finally woke up because the power went out; his electronics were making sounds and stopped charging (which finally motivated the gadget boy to wake up).

Since there was no power on the island, all restaurants were closed. We were so unprepared for this unexpected event and were starving. Luckily, we found a beach front 5-star hotel that served Sunday brunch buffet (yes!) because they had a huge generator. We chowed down big time because we didn’t know when we could eat again.

Since there were no signs of road damages or rock slides, we decided to drive around the island. When we were on the road, the radio was suggesting everyone to stay at home if they didn’t have to go anywhere in a non-compulsory way. There were hardly anyone on the road. So we assumed it was safe to continue driving. We tried to snorkel at Hanauma Bay, but it was closed due to the earthquake. We found a shave ice stand selling outside someone’s house. It was actually not bad at all. I always loved the coconut flavor. When we got to the North Shore, we stopped at an old grocery store owned by an Asian family. There were old pictures hanging on their wall. They told us their family had been living in Oahu for almost a hundred years. We learned a nice piece of the local history. Next to the store, we saw a shrimp truck with a generator running. Believe it or not, our ears and noses opened wide when we heard the sound of the generator and the heavy smell of the diesel because that meant there was food! This sensation was annoying in the past, but due to our survival instinct, our point of view altered quickly. We had the nice hot stir fried shrimps on rice; it was so good! Rice is one of the Hawaiians staples. It was nice to just drive with no agenda and discover happy surprises along the way. The power finally came back around 5 pm. Restaurants started to open again. We were so grateful of how well our day went regardless of the earthquakes.

We flew to Kona (Big Island) a day after the earthquakes. We thought the earthquake would had affected the people in Kona more. But when we checked into the hotel, we were so surprised that the hotel host treated the earthquakes as if nothing happened and carried on with life. We were very impressed on how calm the Hawaiians were. We found the best place for snorkeling was a tide pool just outside of the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort hotel.

On the next day, we visited the Kīlauea Volcanoes National Park. On the way there, we thought the weather was really bad that we needed to turn around but we chanced it and kept going. It turned out that the heavy rain was caused by the massive flowing lava rolling into the ocean and then created a large amount of the steam cloud which blew back over the island. It was a total pleasant surprise to us.

We had luau at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel by a beautiful beach. It was interesting to see how the Hawaiians cooked the food in a big pit with woods and hot stones covered with seaweeds. One must try the pineapple in Hawaii because it tastes so delicious and juicy, way fresher than anywhere else.

We purchased a package with Atlantis Submarine Expedition and a bonus luau at a different hotel. It was a very exhilarating experience to be in a submarine going down 104 feet (31 meters). We highly recommend the submarine. The boat that took us out to the submarine was choppy. For someone who is easily prone to sea sickness (like me), I would recommend taking high doses of ginger pills at least one hour before the boat ride. Unlike dramamine, ginger pills don’t cause any drowsiness so you still can enjoy your trip experience. Later I learned from a friend that putting one ear plug (yes just one ear) in one ear helps too. It is the out of balance of the inner fluid inside our ears that caused the motion sickness. Once the submarine started to submerge, the ride was very smooth; actually it was smoother than flying. No one got seasick inside the submarine (that was my biggest fear). We were eye to eye with the fish in their natural habitat. They were very curious and checking us out because to them, we were the ones inside an “aquarium” ☺

Week #2: Los Angeles & Phoenix

In Los Angeles, it was very nice to meet up with our friends. We visited the Sony Studio (used to be the famous MGM Studio) at Culver City because a friend of mine was working there.  

Mexican food in Phoenix was excellent. We went to our favorite restaurant called Margaritas (the restaurant is no longer there) in Tempe, AZ. We also enjoyed our favorite pizza place Nello’s. Their thick crust with Alaskan King (though imitation crab meat) with white sauce was excellent!

Week #3: Tokyo

We continued our journey to Tokyo. From Narita Airport, we took the Keisei Limited Express train to Ueno Station (71 minutes long), then transferred to Hiroo Station(30 minutes) and then walked to the hotel for another 10 minutes with all the luggages. When we entered at the hotel lobby, there was a very formal event going on at this 5 Star hotel (that we got a great discount due to my talent in finding great hotels!). Everyone stopped and stared at us who dressed inappropriately with t-shirt, shorts and sandals looking like two beach bums 😳. We pretended we didn’t notice them and headed straight to checkin.

We left our hotel very early the next morning to catch a train to Hakone from Shinjuku Station. Unlike Kyoto, there were many people in Tokyo. Handling more than two million passengers each day, Shinjuku is Japan’s busiest railway station. Our purpose to Hakone was to meet up with a good friend from Los Angeles who happened to be in Japan at the same time. We traveled together hoping to see Mt. Fuji for the first time. Unfortunately, it was overcast when we got to the base of Mt Fuji. We could not see the top of the mountain. That night, we stayed in a town near Yokohama. We visited Yokohama the next day and went to Chinatown. It was not impressive.

Back in Tokyo, we explored Sunshine City. There is a very nice aquarium on top of Sunshine City (we highly recommend) where we saw a giant sunfish. We visited the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.   We ate at a sushi restaurant outside the fish market which was not good. at all (we thought a restaurant near the fish market must be good since the source of the fresh seafood was right there. Not so). Another impressive sight we visited was the Great Buddha of Kamakura. We did the Shibuya Crossing which is the world's busiest pedestrian crossing just so that we can say we did it. I think it was overrated. We went to the Imperial Palace afterward which was very nice.

Of course, we ate more mochi ice cream and went to the 100 yen store. We also tried the food that we ordered from a machine before stepping into the restaurant. A new experience! We shopped at the electronic stores. Some of the electronic appliances were only suited for use in Japan due to the voltage difference. There were a few selections for overseas use. They offered duty free shopping to foreign tourists on purchases of over 10,000 Yen (passport required).

We had the best reflexology in Tokyo at Queensway Reflexology! The massage therapists were so present and hit every trigger point so precisely. Good releases of muscle pains from all the walking! We went back for the second time just before catching the train back to the Narita Airport to fly to Hong Kong.

Week #4: Hong Kong

We stayed at the New Territory where it was a short ride to the train station but a long train ride to Kowloon.

The shrimp wontons near Time Square was so amazing. We ate at Jumbo Floating Restaurant where hubby couldn’t afford it when he was a kid.

We went to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. The bus ride there was super long. There were new apartments just built on Lantau Island. When we arrived, there were a lot of real estate agents hustling the tourists to purchase apartments. One of the agents kept following and harassing us all the way to the mall till we finally ran away from him. On the way back from visiting the Big Buddha, the bus had to stop in the middle of the road for a long while just to watch this one water buffalo on the middle of the road to clear.

There were a lot of people at the night market. The was a separate fish (as pets) market where they were selling very exotic fish. It was nice since we love aquariums. We visited Sha Tin.  It used to be a village with farms when hubby was a kid, but it is now a well established city that he couldn’t recognize at all. One thing we have learned about visiting Hong Kong with years apart is it is constantly rebuilding. It even moved the entire train station. We took the bus up to Mt. Victoria and a great hike down to Aberdeen. We also went to Sai Kung to see the floating fish markets. That concluded our Hong Kong trip.

Week #5: Singapore (layover)—> Brisbane (layover) —> Cairns (Great Barrier Reef)

Of all the airlines we have flew with, we really like Singapore Airline. They had good in flight food, comfortable seats, and courteous air hostesses. One of the smoothest landings was on our Singapore Air flight. The sensation of the touch down was like a feather kissing the runway. Their stopover package was not to be missed! We had a seven hours layover. They escorted us from the terminal to their tour bus and drove us to town. We took the MTR to Bugis Junction, our food haven. We went straight to our crab cake stall at Bugis Junction of course! We also had chili crab as well plus coconut dessert. We had reflexology plus shiatsu. It was so good! Then they took us back to the airport. All complimentary for this great hospitality! We showered and changed into fresh clothings at Singapore Airport (very clean and nice shower facility) before boarding our flight to Brisbane.

When we arrived at Brisbane international terminal, to get to the domestic terminal to fly to Cairns. We found out that they are 2 kilometers apart, and we had to take the Airtrain which costed $4 AUD per person. Since we didn’t have any Australian dollars just arriving from Singapore, we had to take money from the ATM because it only accepted cash. It was very inconvenient. The people in Brisbane reminded me of the big city people in Los Angeles.

We flew from Brisbane to Cairns to join a Great Barrier Reef tour. The 2+ hours boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef was very bumpy and long. The Reef was not very good. We were disappointed that big fish everyone liked called Wally (the original one) already died. We later learned that Port Arthur was a better departure point for the Great Barrier Reef. Hubby tried gator meat (he said it tasted like chicken) in Pier Market Place. I had my first barramundi.

Completing Circle Pacific Trip! Brisbane —> New Zealand

The 3.5 hours back to New Zealand from Brisbane was uneventful. We loved this trip because we had more time to explore without needing to fly around the world. There are still so many countries and islands that touch the Pacific Ocean that we have yet to visit such as Korea, Malaysia, Cook Islands, Guam, etc. Live to see the world another day!