DAY 1 MON 4 AUG
HOME TO HAWAII (D)

Meet your tour leader Graham Ross at the departure gate at Sydney Airport for your flight to Honolulu. On arrival visit Forster Botanic Garden in the heart of Honolulu. This living museum features a wonderful collection of tropical plants. Check in to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, known as The Pink Palace, our luxurious hotel for the next four nights. Welcome Dinner included tonight.

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu

DAY 2 TUE 4 AUG
MANOA HERITAGE CENTRE (B)

Step back in time this morning to explore this Native Hawaiian garden with endemic and indigenous plants. Continue to Lili’uokalani Botanic Garden, once the property of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawai‘i. Last stop is Koto Crater Botanic Garden with its dryland collection of the Honolulu Botanic Gardens.

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu

DAY 3 WED 6 AUG

QUEEN EMMA’S PALACE (B)

 Step back into the 19th century this morning with a visit to Queen Emma’s Summer Palace, which is now managed by the Daughters of Hawaii. Membership of the Daughters is open to any woman who is directly descended from a person who lived in Hawaii prior to 1880, with no restrictions to race. A guided visit through the charming Hawaiian-Victorian palace, and the garden. The afternoon is free.

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu

DAY 4 THU 7 AUG
PEARL HARBOUR NATIONAL MEMORIAL (B)

USS Arizona Memorial is a place of sombre beauty and quiet reflection, the final resting place of 900 sailors and Marines. Visit two world-class museums. Watch a film about the attack. Take a US Navy vessel to the memorial built over the USS Arizona. Free afternoon.

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu

DAY 5 FRI 8 AUG
HONOLULU TO KUAUI (B)
We take a morning flight to Kauai, where Allerton Gardens will be our first stop. This was Queen Emma’s garden estate. She named it ‘Lawai Kai’ which means ‘Garden by the Sea’, and carefully introduced exotic species into the natural landscape, including bougainvillea and Morton Bay fig. Between 1938 and 1989 Robert and John Allerton introduced more plants from around the world, along with garden features, such as water channels, cascades, pools and waterfalls, latticed pavilions and European

sculpture. It’s eclectic in design and dazzling in botanical diversity. On Kauai’s South Shore we’ll see the Spouting Horn blowhole. Check in to our hotel, the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, on the beach at Poipu.

Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, Poipu

DAY 6 SAT 9 AUG
HANALEI AND LIMAHULI GARDEN (B)

Hanalei is our destination today, on Kauai’s scenic north shore. Explore the town and the famous pier on Hanalei Bay, with view of the taro farms from the lookout. Limahuli Garden and Preserve is nearby, set in a lush tropical valley and surrounded by towering peaks. The American Horticultural Society selected Limahuli as the best natural botanical garden in the USA. See lava rock terraces built by Limahuli’s early inhabitants. Learn more about taro, and about the native plants of Hawaii including the ‘canoe plants’ brought to the islands by voyaging Polynesians, and the flowers and fruits introduced during Hawaii’s plantation era.

Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, Poipu

DAY 7 SUN 10 AUG
WAIMEA CANYON STATE PARK (B/D)

You’ll recognise scenes from Jurassic Park when we visit Waimea Canyon on the western side of Kauai this morning. This is the largest canyon in the Pacific and it’s a dramatic sight. Lines in the canyon walls depict the volcanic eruptions and lava flows that have occurred over the centuries. The elevation makes the air 10-15 degrees cooler than in the valley and by afternoon much of the mountain is shrouded in cloud. The afternoon is free to relax and have a swim. Farewell Dinner in the resort restaurant!

Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, Poipu

DAY 8 MON 11 AUG
KUAUI TO HONULULU TO SYDNEY

Say aloha to Kauai – after breakfast we fly back to Honolulu and on to Sydney.

DAY 9 TUE 12 AUG

HOME
Arrive home.