The longest day of our trip began with waking up at 4:55 for a 7am flight from Rotorua. We arrived in Auckland about 30 minutes later and, in keeping with our earlier experiences in Auckland, ran into the honeymooners, Sarah and Martin, at the airport.

We then flew on to Honolulu and, like a pair of star-crossed lovers, Dean and Julie were ripped apart by a foul-up at the airport, which gave us seats in the middle section. Julie's claustrophobia meant she swapped seats to sit on her own at a window seat 12 rows back.

En route, we crossed the international date line, meaning we landed about 14 hours BEFORE we took off.

We're staying at the Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel - solid and unspectacular, but a step up from some of our recent hostels. There we woke up to another Saturday morning, a-la Groundhog Day and immediately headed down to Waikiki beach.

We arrived just in time to board a sailboat and saw a few giant turtles,
plus heard reports of a whale spout seen nearby.

We had lunch on the beachfront and then booked our places at Germaine's Luau this evening.

Dean absolutely loved the experience - finally his dreams of reliving Saved By The Bell - Hawaiian Style were coming true. Julie, predictably, found the buffet more palatable and ate until she felt sick. We both sneakily bought large ceramic drinking vessels in the gift shop and used these to get our 3 super-sized inclusive cocktails.

The bus that transported us to and from the Luau was also fun as we were entertained by our escort, Cousin K.