A rather stressful day! Awoke early as usual, our flight wasn’t until 1.18pm, however were up early and ready to go so decided we might as well head to the airport when we were ready especially given we weren’t sure how long it would take to drop off the car, check in etc
A random Dinosaur sculpture on the drive down to the airport.
Car took all of 2 mins to drop off, shuttle to airport took less, queues at check in about 20 mins, it was hot, hot, hot. The airport was all open air (other than a roof in various areas) so no air con!
When we finally got to check in with our 3 bags, one was over weight by 8lbs (about 3.5kgs) and one was very light so we were told to take stuff out of the heavy bag and put it in the light one. Nothing like opening your suitcase in the middle of the check in area with all your intimates on top quickly trying to scramble to take stuff out because there are 20 people and 90 suitcases behind you all waiting to check in!
First attempt we had only taken out 5lbs so had to take some more stuff. Finally got it sorted, got checked in and were on our way to security. Only problem was Q had pinged his back again so was a bit slow with moving. Me being the martyr I am insisted I take his backpack and he could take my carry on as it was much lighter. His backpack weighed all of the 11kg you were allowed, bl00dy heavy it is fair to say.
Once through security still no air conditioning, still open plan, and getting hotter by the minute. Decided to head to the restaurant surly that would be air conditioned, no it wasn’t. *sigh* Still it was lunch time now so we may as well eat. Q had the most delectable (NOT) looking cheese nachos. All they were was a bunch of nachos on a plate with that bright orange cheese squirted on top. Yes literally squirted, from a big pump bottle thing. Ugh. I played it safe with the grilled cheese sandwich, $7 thank you for two pieces of dry bread, bright yellow cheese slice in the middle, which was so plastic it didn’t even melt and took 20 minutes to prepare. Still it was food.
Flight was uneventful. Got ourselves and our luggage onto the shuttle and to the rental car location. Had a compact car ordered just like the big island. In the big island we had a Hyundai Elantra, on Ohau we were given a Kia Soul which looked like a box, was pretty small and even though the rental car company advertised it as being able to fit 3 pieces of luggage in the trunk and 5 passengers we could only fit one case, and the trunk was not a trunk but just a space in the back of the car so no security.
By now we were hot, tired and had enough, we thought about swapping out the car but the line for car pick up had grown to about 20 people and with each rental taking about 10-20 minutes there was no way. So we headed to our new home in Kailua to regroup and for me to ring the rental car company to see what the cost would be to upgrade.
After unpacking and cooling down a little we decided to head back to the airport and swap our vehicle. With no real boot this one was going to be a problem for us, as the thefts from cars over here are chronic and being able to shut things in a proper trunk where people couldn’t see them was going to be important to us.
Luckily no queue at the rental car company so it should have been quick right? Wrong! Explain the situation, then get taken to the other counter, explain the situation again, (oh because as well as being given this tiny car we had also been charged $80 for services and insurance we had said we didn’t want!), explain the situation a 2nd and a 3rd time to the same lady. If only she would have shut up and actually listened to our problem! Get told we have to return the car for them to reverse the extra charges so we need to go over there and return it. Do that, and tell the man exactly what they had told us, he tells us he cant do that go back and see the manager.
Go back to the lady and say he cant do XYZ all he can do is ABC. Oh ABC is all I need you to do. Argh, temperatures boiling at this stage. Then she tells us she doesn’t have any mid size cars in stock all they have is large and that will be an extra $38 a day. Forget it. Then she says I have this car, we ask to see it so we can check out the trunk. She offers it to us for only $10 more a day. It is a luxury car, the trunk is the size of a rugby field let along the length of the car, no fun to drive, going to guzzle gas and wont fit in the allotted parking spot at the house. No thanks.
Oh, I have nothing for you then, only another Kia. Really? Somehow from the walk out to see the luxury car and the walk back into the office another compact car mysteriously appears. This time a Chevrolet Aveo, a car with a trunk. Okay it is a few years old, a bit battered and bruised but it doesn’t look like a cube and it has a trunk and it isn’t costing us extra. We’ll take it thanks.
Phew…back home, navigating the freeway’s which even with the GPS can be a nightmare when you are driving under other freeways, because the stupid GPS thinks you are on the freeway above so starts giving you directions to go north instead of south.
*sigh* all in all a stressful day. McDonalds for dinner, ugh, but couldn’t find anything else, are tired now and have to be up at 4am.
Oh, the trials & tribulations of being on holiday! Seriously, I was worn out reading your blog so can easily imagine how stressful & tiring in the heat it must have all been. If you were drinkers, you could have downed a few bottles of wine/beer to recover!! Hope the next days go smoothly.
No drinks Wendy just lots of chocolates