Well, estranged no more.
Hopefully.
During this slight (forgive the understatedness - newest addition to the Oxford dictionary in two thousand and never) hiatus from the world of blogging, I realised that I really don't do much with my time off anymore, and reading through my old posts brought about a certain nostalgia. Basically, I miss reading about past Michelle's adventures and unless I've put effort into cementing memories, they basically fade into nothingness. Basically, my memory has declined significantly over the last 12-18 months and it's pretty scary to think just how bad I am at remembering things - especially important things. Basically, I don't think I really need any excuses.
Basically, I'm getting old.
I miss writing. I miss putting my brain through a little mental torture trying to write something cohesive that was a somewhat accurate description of my life events.
So, to precede the actual purpose of this post (which is slightly suggested by the title), I will briefly -hopefully in 200 words or less- summarise Michelle's last two years of living:
- My last post was in January 2014, so the beginning of 3rd year
- My memory of that entire year has been a complete blur
- What even happened?!
- I re-met a wonderful person who is still highly involved in my life
- I went to Sydney for the 2014 Global Health Conference with some of my Griffith friends and had one of the best weeks in my enti
- I studied in between doing nothing, and miraculously passed the year
- I turned 21 and celebrated it in Cairns with my wonderful man
- Went on a cruise to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji at the end of the year with my family
- Got hella tanned/10
- Returned to Townsville for another year of medicine (first clinical year!)
- Was a bit gruelling at the time but in retrospect, it was actually a great year
- Continued to grow a makeup addiction
- Went on rural to Atherton with 3 friends who actually got me through the year
- Massive s/o to those 3 because I wouldn't be here without them
- Did I mention a growing makeup addiction?
- Because that's probably been the bulk of the interesting part of my year
End of 2015/2016:
- Went overseas with my family + bae
- Mentally went through a really hard time for about 2 months
- Then I went to Fiji for the last half of my O&G rotation (3 weeks)
- And then took a trip to Hawaii with my parents
... And here I am.
This post is dedicated to the last dot point of the entire screed (not too sure if it came out at less than 200 words but I did attempt to summarise it as much as possible).
Let's just set the scene of this holiday.
We took an overnight flight (biggest mistake ever - please don't do it if you can help it) to Honolulu from Brisbane and the temperature was probably set for 27 degrees.
First mistake. I can't sleep in temperatures any warmer than 24, ever, and I wake up in a sweat.
There were babies everywhere that wouldn't stop CRYING so that in itself was a huge farewell to any potential that I'd be able to get at least a few winks of sleep in.
I guess I managed to catch up on HTGAWM so that was possibly the only positive to a long, overnight flight during which I did not sleep.
We arrived in Honolulu at approximately 6am local time and rushed to the cruise terminal, only to discover that they only opened at 11am. I guess I did get a bit of sleep in, but it was potentially the worst quality sleep - who knew using my suitcase as a pillow would be uncomfortable? Not even a tinge of suspicion.
Seriously.
Anyway, fast forward to actually getting onto the ship, in summary, the food and entertainment were great and I managed to make friends with a lot of the staff (but as my memory is as good as it was when I was 3, I can't remember any of them).
Just a bit of trivia: there are 8 major islands in Hawaii - Oahu (what tourists would commonly refer to as "Hawaii" - it's where Honolulu is located), Maui, Hawaii (a tad confusing so locals call it "the big island"), Kauai, Molokai, Niihau, Lanai and Kahoolawe. We went to the first 4 and spent a full week cruising around those islands. My favourite island was Kauai (I'm always SO TEMPTED to type kawaii) because it's the greenest and most untouched island that we visited. It's so beautiful.
And with no further ado, let us present the visuals.
On Maui:
We went on a tour called "Road to Hana" whilst we were in Maui. It was absolutely spectacular, though the drive is definitely not for the faint-hearted. According to the guide, there were over 600 sharp turns during the drive. Not unbelievable, but I did suspect a tinge of exaggeration.
The Big Island (Hawaii):
No brownie points for guessing why it's called the big island. It's absolutely huge. We went to Rainbow Falls (and I tried my best to capture the different colours, though it was pretty overcast when we went) first, but the highlight of the trip was definitely going to see the volcano national park and the Halemaumau crater.
Just. Spectacular.
We also managed to capture Mauna Kea as it started clearing up during the day, though photos are a little underwhelming because it was so big!!
Kauai:
My favourite island. We were there for 2 days - on the first day we did a tour and went to the Wailua river, the Sprouting Horn blowhole and my personal favourite, Waimea Canyon (which has been nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) - it was so beautiful, lush and green. Unfortunately it was overcast as well, but we flew over it the next day (dad and I took a helicopter tour which was SO AWESOME).
The next day we returned to Oahu (where Honolulu is) and basically we spent a whole day doing a tour and the rest of the time I spent doing a few things:
And just to finish off, here's a photo of the little haul I racked up during my whole stay. V happy with everything so far, but I haven't had a chance to use everything yet, as I couldn't pack it all on my way back up here. :-)
I hope you've all had a wonderful Friday. It feels good to be back. xo
First mistake. I can't sleep in temperatures any warmer than 24, ever, and I wake up in a sweat.
There were babies everywhere that wouldn't stop CRYING so that in itself was a huge farewell to any potential that I'd be able to get at least a few winks of sleep in.
I guess I managed to catch up on HTGAWM so that was possibly the only positive to a long, overnight flight during which I did not sleep.
We arrived in Honolulu at approximately 6am local time and rushed to the cruise terminal, only to discover that they only opened at 11am. I guess I did get a bit of sleep in, but it was potentially the worst quality sleep - who knew using my suitcase as a pillow would be uncomfortable? Not even a tinge of suspicion.
Seriously.
Anyway, fast forward to actually getting onto the ship, in summary, the food and entertainment were great and I managed to make friends with a lot of the staff (but as my memory is as good as it was when I was 3, I can't remember any of them).
Just a bit of trivia: there are 8 major islands in Hawaii - Oahu (what tourists would commonly refer to as "Hawaii" - it's where Honolulu is located), Maui, Hawaii (a tad confusing so locals call it "the big island"), Kauai, Molokai, Niihau, Lanai and Kahoolawe. We went to the first 4 and spent a full week cruising around those islands. My favourite island was Kauai (I'm always SO TEMPTED to type kawaii) because it's the greenest and most untouched island that we visited. It's so beautiful.
And with no further ado, let us present the visuals.
On Maui:
We went on a tour called "Road to Hana" whilst we were in Maui. It was absolutely spectacular, though the drive is definitely not for the faint-hearted. According to the guide, there were over 600 sharp turns during the drive. Not unbelievable, but I did suspect a tinge of exaggeration.
The Big Island (Hawaii):
No brownie points for guessing why it's called the big island. It's absolutely huge. We went to Rainbow Falls (and I tried my best to capture the different colours, though it was pretty overcast when we went) first, but the highlight of the trip was definitely going to see the volcano national park and the Halemaumau crater.
Just. Spectacular.
We also managed to capture Mauna Kea as it started clearing up during the day, though photos are a little underwhelming because it was so big!!
Kauai:
My favourite island. We were there for 2 days - on the first day we did a tour and went to the Wailua river, the Sprouting Horn blowhole and my personal favourite, Waimea Canyon (which has been nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) - it was so beautiful, lush and green. Unfortunately it was overcast as well, but we flew over it the next day (dad and I took a helicopter tour which was SO AWESOME).
The next day we returned to Oahu (where Honolulu is) and basically we spent a whole day doing a tour and the rest of the time I spent doing a few things:
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Watching Fairy Tail
- SHOPPING
- Shopping
- More shopping
- Sephora
- Sephora
- Makeup shopping
- Yes.
 |
| Poke - a must-have in Hawaii: spicy raw tuna. Seriously. |
 |
| An absolutely beautiful Waikiki sunset. |
 |
| The BEST Japanese food I've ever had - at Yoshitsune, located inside the Park Royal hotel |
 |
| Seriously. Ordered the chirashi set and I've literally never been so full in my life. |
 |
| The chawanmushi and miso were seriously to-DIE-for. |
 |
| An eye-opening morning at Pearl Harbour. |
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| Also, this pineapple soft serve. Seriously. |
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| An unfortunately cloud-covered but still beautiful view overlooking Honolulu - at Pali lookout. |
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| At Halona blowhole, when the waves were unfortunately as flat as a tack. |
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| I SERIOUSLY CAN'T GET OVER HOW CUTE THIS BABY PINEAPPLE IS |
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| Lilikoi (passionfruit) and strawberry shaved ice, with ice cream and mochi. Seriously. |
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| One day's Sephora haul, in which I instantly became a Sephora VIB. Whoops. |
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| THE BEST JAPANESE BBQ EVER. But terrifying (look at that fire). And we got s'mores for dessert. Enough said. |
And just to finish off, here's a photo of the little haul I racked up during my whole stay. V happy with everything so far, but I haven't had a chance to use everything yet, as I couldn't pack it all on my way back up here. :-)
I hope you've all had a wonderful Friday. It feels good to be back. xo
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