Our Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride
Life lessons, laughs and travel recommendations from our Honolulu holiday.
Aloha, chicks! After three years of no international travel, Sal & Al share a blow-by-blow of the laughs and life lessons they picked up on their recent vacay to Honolulu, Hawaii.
The gals drop HEAPS of recs for your next trip to Hawaii, plus a bunch of juicy tips for travelling post-pandemic in 2022.
LISTEN TO EP #212
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Sally McMullen
Hey chicks, I'm Sal.
Alex Hourigan
And I'm Al.
Sally McMullen
And welcome to Two Broke Chicks, the show that dishes life lessons for the gals, from the gals. And today's episode is going to be so bloody fun.
Alex Hourigan
I'm so excited!
Sally McMullen
I feel like we're reliving it all over again. If you have listened to the podcast, or you follow us on Instagram, or you've just been in, like, our general vicinity over the last few months, you would know that Alex and I recently took a wonderful trip to Hawaii. And it was literally the best week of our lives. So in today's episode, we're gonna give you a rundown of everything that we did, all of the fun experiences, you'll be getting loads of hot recs plus,
Alex Hourigan
Juicy goss.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, juicy goss, hilarious stories of just us tearing up the town.
Alex Hourigan
And the love of my life.
Sally McMullen
Yes! We won't give too much away.
Alex Hourigan
Stay tuned for that.
Sally McMullen
We won't give too much away. And also a bunch of life lessons, you know, just about travelling post-Covid, blah, blah, blah. Boring stuff. But before we get into our Hawaiian roller coaster ride. Pop some auto tune on that.
Alex Hourigan
Nah, I was pitch perfect.
Sally McMullen
Yeah. Not me. What is your life lesson of the week, Al?
Alex Hourigan
I had like a couple that I could have gone through this week, but I think I'm a little bit tired of, like, my self deprecating life lesson.
Sally McMullen
Oh my God. That's okay.
Alex Hourigan
I kind of just, I think we're gonna take a break from, like, the stupid thing I did that week and actually give, like, a smart life lesson this week. But basically, it's kind of a life lesson and a little bit of a recommendation. And it is this app or, like, desktop browser thing you can get on your computer or your phone called Asana. It is like the ultimate to do list. And you can prioritise what you have to do on a high, medium or low priority and break it down by different teams. Like if you, for work or different kind of life aspects, so you can have a board for your work to do lists, you can have a board for your home to do list, you can have a board for your passion projects to do lists. Like, you can break it down that way and then break it down further and assign it to different people if you need to do that. And it just makes my life so much easier. I started using it a couple months ago, and like, you use it as well, because I was like, "We gotta get on this!", like this is the vibe, and you're like, "Okay". I did research and when you write a to do list, it actually makes you more productive, it increases your motivation, and it improves your memory. Which I really found that one to be true because you know how you do a workday and you finish and you're like, "I feel like I was working the whole day but I have no idea what I was working on"?
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
And you kind of feel like you didn't really complete anything, you feel a bit shit about yourself? I can tell you everything that I did yesterday, because I'm amazing.
Sally McMullen
I'm like, alright, go on.
Alex Hourigan
I'm like, how much time do we have? One life lesson is write your to do list, because it really helps with your productivity, your motivation and your memory. And two, my recommendation to that life lesson is the Asana app, it's completely free.
Sally McMullen
I love it. I completely back that recommendation. And the best part is that when you complete a task and you tick complete, a little, like, cartoon unicorn pops up with some confetti.
Alex Hourigan
I like the seal, have you seen the seal that comes up?
Sally McMullen
Oh, what!
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, there's like a little seal. What's yours?
Sally McMullen
Mine is,
Alex Hourigan
Oh no.
Sally McMullen
That apparently, your Airpods can make it through the wash and survive. So I got Airpod pros for Christmas and I've been using them, like, nonstop ever since I have, like a serious attachment to them.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
If I can't fall asleep, I'll often listen to either, like, some orchestral music, or a podcast, or like an audio book.
Alex Hourigan
It's the Harry Potter audiobook. She's lying.
Sally McMullen
Ding ding! Everytime, pretty much. Either that or like The Office Ladies Podcast. But anyway, so I often will listen to it to fall asleep and then either I wake up and take it out and put it, like, on my bedside and middle of the night or it just, like, falls out and it's somewhere in my bed. I usually can always find it but on the weekend, I could not. And rather than being like, I was like, "Oh, it'll be somewhere, it'll be somewhere". And then I did a load of washing and I was like, "Where is it?", and I was cleaning the house top to bottom and couldn't find it anywhere. And then when I was taking the washing out, I saw a hair tie had, like, got caught in, like, the lining of the washing machine and I grabbed it and I was like, "What the f*ck is that?".
Alex Hourigan
No!
Sally McMullen
And it was my left Airpod and I was so heartbroken and just annoyed at myself. Because that's not really part of my character arc usually. It's not something I would usually do. So I was just like, "What the hell? How did I let this happen?". And then it's not that easy to replace a single Airpod. You can't just buy one, you have to go through the Apple store. I was trying to do it online, it was like sending me in a loop, you know, and just wasn't working. I was so frustrated. And at first it was just emitting, like, a loud beeping noise and I was like, "It's over". Like, I tried to dry it out. I was like, nah it's gone.
Alex Hourigan
In the arms of the angel.
Sally McMullen
Exactly, I like, sent it out on, like, a burning Viking ship out into sea. It was like, "Goodbye!". But anyway, I just dried it off as best as I could and then I put it back in the case. Because you know how often with like Apple things, if you just reset them or charge them.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, did you try turning it off and turning it on again?
Sally McMullen
Well, I just, like, left it in the charger for like, a few days. And then got it out last night and put it in and it literally is, like, as good as new.
Alex Hourigan
F*cking gorgeous.
Sally McMullen
So there you go. I do not recommend putting it through the wash. But if it does.
Alex Hourigan
Nah, babes! If they need a little wash.
Sally McMullen
Exactly. That's probably what I was trying to do, clean freak. But anyway, that's my life lesson. It was an emotional journey.
Alex Hourigan
So basically, if the Airpods get wet, don't freak out.
Sally McMullen
Exactly, there is hope. Don't throw them out straight away. Now that we've got the life lessons out of the way, let's get into our Hawaii trip.
Basically, what we've done is we've broken down our experience by, you know, like the flights, the experiences, and we'll just run through some of our highlights. And then yeah, there will also be some gems of wisdom in there and some hot recommendations. Plus, we also asked you chicks if you had any questions about, you know, a holiday to Hawaii. And we've got a couple of answers to those as well.
Alex Hourigan
Yes, some good old recommendations. So, starting off,
Sally McMullen
With the flight.
Alex Hourigan
The flight. I f*cking hate flying.
Sally McMullen
Mhmm, Al isn't the best flyer.
Alex Hourigan
I hate it, it is the worst. It just does not come naturally to me. Because it's my claustrophobia. It's not actually the plane or flying, it's the fact that, I'll be having the best time and then my brain just goes, "If you wanted to get out of here, you couldn't. Do you realise that?". And I'm like, "Wait, what? No, don't say that". And it's like, no, like, literally, like, what happens if the plane flooded? Like you can't get out. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm like, this is a coffin, I'm basically in a large coffin. And that's what happens, that's what claustrophobia is. And I'm like, I'm getting buried alive in this plane. And I'm like, "Oh my god, Oh my god". And then that's where the freakout happens. Anyway, I just like broke out into a sweat.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, I know! I'm like, way to start off on a high, Al.
Alex Hourigan
But I'm getting better. I'd had a few drinks, well, we had a few drinks before getting on the plane. So I was feeling a little bit more cool, calm, collected, before we got on the plane and so that was good. But the one thing that was kind of crap is because international travel, which is good, has only just come back, the airport was dead.
Sally McMullen
The other thing about flying post Covid Is that you have to fill out a lot of forms beforehand. And also the forms that you have to fill out really vary depending on where you're going and where you're flying out of. So which site in Australia you're flying out of. So just make sure you do your research beforehand. And if you try and reach out to your airline, it's very likely they'll just defer you to, you know, go to your like government website and find it but the information isn't super easy to find. So this isn't something that you organise the night before your trip. Like, I had all of our things printed out and ready to go maybe a week before. And then I did end up having to print an additional form that I found out the day before. So just like be prepared and do your research because it is stressful!
Alex Hourigan
Sal was so stressed.
Sally McMullen
Literally.
Alex Hourigan
She was not coping. I was, like, planning the experiences. So like, that's how we divvied it up. I was like you'll just handle the forms that we need to get on the plane and I'll make sure that the holiday's vibes on vibes. And the poor bub was like buying a Kmart printer the night before the flight because she was like, "So the form on the Jetstar website was four pages, but the form on the government website was seven pages, so I printed both". and I'm like, "It's okay, we're gonna get on the plane".
Sally McMullen
And then we hand the form and they basically throw it over their shoulder into a pile of like. I was like nobody's looking at this. It was actually wild.
Alex Hourigan
Life lesson in there is everything will be okay, don't stress. As long as you have your Covid test to leave, everything will work out okay. But the best part of this flight was without a doubt our friend bailed, bitch. But we were then like, okay, because we got these fights for $400 return to Hawaii, vibes. She ended up not being able to get the time off work, which is super lame. But then we were like, "Well, why don't we just both transfer her $200 each and we have the whole row?". And let me tell you that is the best $200 I have ever spent.
Sally McMullen
Oh yeah.
Alex Hourigan
In my life. Because if we had to sit in those tiny economy seat's for nine and a half hours, I think I would have gone insane.
And also with your mask on the whole time, like that just adds another layer of claustrophobia to the experience. So I definitely back it, especially if you're buying sale seats.
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
Because to get a $600 round trip to Hawaii would still be an absolute steal. So if, you know, I was like, "Are we in business class? So much room for activities."
Alex Hourigan
Then I got my cardboard soup. And I was like, "Nah, nah, nah. I'm in economy, babes. Okay. I remember now."
Sally McMullen
Brought you back down.
Alex Hourigan
I remember who I am. But yeah, it was so good. Because we could, like, lie down, we could cuddle. I kind of hated that we had to pay for the movie on the thing. So also, like, factor that into your flight costs when you're booking a flight. Because sure, it's $400 but there's also food and entertainment in that price point.
Sally McMullen
Just download the season of Bridgerton before you leave, like we did.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
That got us through the flight home
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god, that was a bit. I needed some private time on that plane when I was watching. I was like, "Nobody look at me!".
Sally McMullen
I know. The windows, like, start fogging up on the plane.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god! Okay, well, that was the fly. That's the boring part.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
Getting into,
Sally McMullen
The fun stuff!
Alex Hourigan
The fun stuff. Oh, my God. I think this was the best holiday I've ever had in my entire life.
Sally McMullen
It was so good.
Alex Hourigan
And without a doubt it is to do with the tours, but also the people that we met on the tours. 'Cause, and we're gonna have a full rundown of everyone, because they've all messaged us being like, "When's our episode coming out? When's that happening?".
Sally McMullen
Literally, they're the stars of the show.
Alex Hourigan
The first tour that we did and the first experience was the Dolphins And You tour. And I could have sobbed. Like, I could have sobbed it was the most beautiful experience of my life. Basically, there's two tours that you can do, there's a 7am and 11am. We obviously want to do the 11am, but we couldn't get on it, so we did the 7am. And I'm so glad we did because basically you go out on this two tier boat, and you get taken out on the water and you watch the sun rise over the- I'm gonna cry. The sun rise over like the Hawaiian mountains. And I just remember sitting there and Sal was sitting next to me, the opening song to Lilo and Stitch came on the sound system. And I was just sitting there with my eyes closed being like, "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry". Because it was so beautiful, it was offensive.
Sally McMullen
It was, like, a highlight of my life.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
Like, I will never forget that moment. It was so magical.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, the crew that work on the boat are a vibe but they make sure you get the best experience. So we were driving around for a while but they were like, "We're gonna get you guys some whales", like, "there's no way", because it was the end of whale season. But they're like, "Nah, we're gonna find them for you". We saw whales, we saw a baby whales.
Sally McMullen
So beautiful.
Alex Hourigan
I know! And then we saw dolphins. Like, they were close enough to- this pod has, like, 40 dolphins in it.
Sally McMullen
Oh my God, and they were so close to the boat. Like it was incredible. You could see all of the reflections of the water, like, all over their bodies as they were like spinning around and playing. It was so magical. A few people have asked on some of our posts and stuff about it if you can swim with the dolphins, and you can't because of new regulations in Hawaii. So this is, like, the closest that you'll get. And I honestly thought it was a really magical experience because you don't feel like you're violating their space. Like, you're still watching them, you're still so close to them, but they're just like, free and doing their thing. And you can just really like soak in all the beauty. It was amazing.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, what was the other animal we saw on the boat, Sal? No, no, no, not that one! I was talking about turtles!
Sally McMullen
The other highlight of this tour is that you get to go snorkelling. Of course my mind went to the gutter immediately. But you get to go snorkelling, so they drop you off at a little spot and then you get, like, a wet suit and your mask, you know, they show you how to do it. So if you haven't snorkelled before, don't worry, it's very suitable for beginners.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my God, when we were on the boat, and they were, like, giving everyone the pep talk to get in the water, I thought I was about to drown. The way that they were speaking it was like, "Now guys, this isn't a pool. This is an ocean. Oceans have currents. Currents take you away. If you're not a strong swimmer, let us know. There are waves. There are wildlife". And I was like, "Oh, my God". I was like, "What is about to happen?". I remember turning to Sal, because like, you know, like, we're good swimers. Like, we live in Australia, but I wouldn't say I'm about to go win the gold medal at the bloody Beijing Olympics.
Sally McMullen
We're no Ian Thorpe, yeah.
Alex Hourigan
Um, and then I was like," Sal, am I about to die?". And she was like, "I don't know". And it was, and then we got in the water and it was fine.
Yeah, it was so calm and beautiful and very relaxing as soon as you jump in and realise nothing's going to happen.
It's obviously, like, a disclaimer.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, like a liability thing. Oh, my God. It was such a great experience. So you just get to snorkel around for what? Like half an hour, 40 minutes or something.
Alex Hourigan
And then they have a giant, giant inflatable slide.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, it's like 20 feet or something.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah. It's the biggest inflatable slide In Hawaii, and it goes off, like, the top of the boat and into the ocean.
Sally McMullen
It was so much fun.
Alex Hourigan
Best time. But the other highlight,
Sally McMullen
Was the crew!
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god, I think he was. So before we're getting on the boat, as a joke, I turned to Sal and, like, quote The Office being like, "Where are all the hot people? I was told there would be hot people". And as soon as I say this, this Adonis of a human being walks up the pier and says, "We're ready for them on the boat", and I froze. Sal and I both got so nervous, we didn't speak for about half an hour. This man was, I shouldn't say man 'cause he was young.
Sally McMullen
He was 21.
Alex Hourigan
He was the most beautiful human being I think I've ever seen. He was like, a mix between Matthew McConaughey and Heath Ledger.
And a Ken doll.
And a Ken doll. And it was stupid.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, he was gorg. And also so lovely too.
Alex Hourigan
I have the biggest crush on him. Zach, if you're listening, I love you.
Sally McMullen
This is a declaration of love.
Alex Hourigan
Anytime you want to come to Australia, baby boy, mummy's got you.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, actually, he called Al Mummy at one point and I think she passed out into the water.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god! He looked at me and he was making a joke and he's like, "Mummy?", and I was like, someone check my check my pulse because I'm not okay.
Sally McMullen
Literally.
Alex Hourigan
But on top of that, we also have to give another shout out to Jeremy.
Sally McMullen
Yes.
Alex Hourigan
Who was the most cooked human being I think we've ever made friends with.
Sally McMullen
He was truly the third broke chick. I know, we make this joke all the time. But he was actually on our level and just the most hilarious and insane person.
Alex Hourigan
You know those people that are just so quick to laugh? Like, you can literally be like, "That chair's brown". And they'll be like, "HAHAHA". They'll be like, "That's the funniest thing you've ever said". And I'm like, "I've got more than that". I'm like, "You stay right here". He was like, kind of new to the crew and at one point down, I was just like, looking out into the ocean being like, "Wow, magical". And then Sal turns around and this guy's just standing there.
Sally McMullen
So close.
Alex Hourigan
And he just goes, "Hey". And Sal's like, "Ah!". And then they were just laughing, he's like, "Oh, sorry. I came over to say hi to you guys. And then you guys were looking over there. And I didn't want to interrupt. So I thought I'd just stand here. And then it got a bit weird, but I didn't know how to move away. So I've just been standing here". And we were like, "What?".
Sally McMullen
And then that was the start of a beautiful friendship. The best part is that apparently he didn't approach us for the first half an hour of the trip, because he thought that Alex and I were indeed a couple.
Alex Hourigan
Which we are.
Sally McMullen
We were like, "Nah, that's spot on, baby".
Alex Hourigan
You're like, "You're not the first one, and you won't be the last".
Sally McMullen
Yeah, exactly. But it was so much fun. The entire crew were incredible. They gave us so much, like, amazing history about the islands and, you know, some of the, like, lore and stuff and, you know, the stories and whatnot. It was so good. And they also did a hula dance for us at the end.
Alex Hourigan
And then Jeremy got really shy when he was doing it. But Zach could move. Those hips don't lie.
Sally McMullen
And another amazing thing, because we like became so chummy with everybody on the boat, they were telling us about this incredible booze cruise that they also run. So the Oceans And You DJ crew.
Alex Hourigan
DJ crew!
Sally McMullen
And they invited us to go on that on the weekend.
Alex Hourigan
And that was so much fun as well. We saw whales on that one as well. And basically it's like a two hour sunset boat ride where you go out from Waikiki, so you don't even need to get like picked up from your hotel.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, super Central.
Alex Hourigan
zyeah. And they take you out on the water and you just have beveraginos. You get one free drink as part of, like, your booking and then you can, like, buy drinks throughout the night. And like the people on the boat were just, like, amazing. I think there was like, Ludacris' doppelganger on there at one point. And he was like, "Go, you Australian girls!", and I was like, "Yeah!".
Sally McMullen
There was so many like, "Go, Aussies!".
Alex Hourigan
Yeah! Like, they would keep playing AC/DC being like, "This is for the Aussies", and we were like, "YES!".
Sally McMullen
We were like, "Our national anthem!"
Alex Hourigan
Frankie's in Hawaii? Because that's a vibe.
Sally McMullen
It was so good. Such a beautiful way to see the sunset and see the skyline but also, like, Diamond Head in Waikiki at sunset. It was actually incredible and they have a live DJ, two dancefloors, plenty of bevvies, like Al said, it was so much fun. We've been on so many booze cruises in our life. And that was 100% the best one.
Alex Hourigan
Without a doubt.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, I would recommend it straightaway. Should we talk about our Jurassic Park zipline affair?
Alex Hourigan
Oh my gosh. Yes. So it was also another incredibly beautiful experience to, like, see all these movie locations, because it's at the Kualoa Ranch. And a bunch of movies have been filmed there as well as Jurassic Park, like Jumanji, 50 First Dates.
Sally McMullen
King Kong.
Alex Hourigan
Basically, there were seven zip lines at the Kualoa Ranch and there's four, like, tour guides with you, and they were all so fun. I think my favourite thing about all these tours, especially in Hawaii is everyone is there for a vacation. So everyone's so friendly, everyone's so nice.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
And I think the highlight of that part for me was when everyone, because you go down in two ziplines together, and at the start, they have to radio down to the other crew who's coming down the zipline. So they asked everyone to decide on a rapper name. And I became very stressed because, obviously Sal and I have been doing the damn thing, this whole tour so far.
Sally McMullen
We've been performing.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, like, get the jokes out there. And I was like, "Oh, God, it's gotta be funny, it's gotta be funny!".
Sally McMullen
The pressure was on.
Alex Hourigan
I know. And I was stressed and then it came down to the last moment. He's like, "So what's your, what's your rapper name?". And he turns to Sal and I just go, "Two girls, one zip". And the entire crew just pass out. They were like, "No", and I was like, "Yes".
Sally McMullen
And when they radioed in, they were like, "Alright, bringing in 'Two Girls, One Zip'". And you just heard on the other end, them I'm just like, "Ohh". It was so good.
Alex Hourigan
Those who get it, get it. And that is, and we're not going to explain it further.
Sally McMullen
Exactly.
Alex Hourigan
There was one final experience that I will let Sal talk through. And fair warning, she's probably gonna cry.
Sally McMullen
Probably. Okay, so obviously Hawaii is known for its surfing and, like, the iconic Waikiki super long waves, beautiful. I'm gonna start crying. It's fine. For anybody who may not know, when I was a little kid and teenager, I used to really be into surfing but, you know, haven't done it in probably 10 years or so I felt like I well, and truly, like, was off the wagon. Didn't know what I was doing. And both of my parents before I was leaving kept being like, "You're gonna go surfing, right?", like, "You have to go surfing", like, "This would be a dream come true". Like, my dad who taught me it was like, "These waves are, like, some of the best in the world". Like, "You'll have the best time", and I was like, "No, no", like, I was just too embarrassed. Because I was like, I'll go out there, I won't know what I'm doing. Like, you know, and we had so much booked in as well. And then one night, Al and I were out at a bar.
Alex Hourigan
Shock.
Sally McMullen
And my dad. Shock to no one. And so I had a little bit of liquid courage, but my dad just kept messaging me being like, "You have to do it". Like, and I'd be like, "Yeah, I'll look into it". And then like, an hour later, he would just go, "Do it". And I was like "God!", like he just wouldn't let it go. So we got home after, like, a fabulous night at 2:30am and I just, like, googled it: surf lessons, Waikiki and just, like, booked it and passed out. Anyway, I woke up the next morning and remembered and was like, "Oh my god", and was so nervous about it. But we went, I booked through Stoke Drift, which is a surf lesson school in Waikiki. You can either do, like, a one on one with the surf instructors, or you can book with, like, a group of you and your friends and, you know, have like a bit of a an experience with the pals. I accidentally booked wrong and so did two other people. I'm sure that, like, the 10,000 vodka lime sodas didn't help the situation. I ended up being in a group with two other people who had never surfed before, but they were so friendly, such a vibe, it was such a good group of people. And we had two instructors. One was our pal, Cody, who we are now like BFFs with for life. And then also Dan Dan, another highlight of the trip. And it was so much fun. So basically, you get to rent a board, they give you a wetsuit, and then they show you on the beach, like, you know, the whole damn thing, how to do it all and then they pretty much take you out into the ocean straightaway. You know, it's a little bit scary, but it was so much fun. It was easily the absolute highlight of my trip. The water was so beautiful. The waves were amazing, perfect for beginners, I saw two turtles during the experience and they were, like, the massive ones. They came up right next to my board and, like, poked their head out. I was like, I cannot believe this, like, this just feels like a dream. And for, like, the first few waves, you know, I was kind of like standing off and then like, wouldn't stand up for very long would fall into the water, which is full of coral, by the way. So that was a little bit scary.
Alex Hourigan
I liked when they were taking you out, they're like, "Oh, by the way, don't step on the urchins. They're poisonous". And I was like, "Have fun!".
Sally McMullen
Literally, AI was just like, in a deck chair with a book being like, "Bye, don't die now!". But anyway, and so once we actually got into the swing of things, I've ended up getting like so many amazing waves. And because the waves are so long there, you would catch one and it would turn into like three and you'd ride it into the shore. The guys Cody and Dan Dan were so, like, patient. Really helpful, like, they'd really give you lots of feedback catered to what you were doing to help you do better. Every single person in the group stood up and were riding waves by the end of it like, it was amazing. I would absolutely recommend this. And yeah, just once you are standing up on those waves and then you take in the view of Diamond Head and just Waikiki and the ocean. So beautiful, like I'm gonna start crying,
Alex Hourigan
Stop.
Sally McMullen
But it was, like, the highlight of my trip and something I will just never forget. So definitely check out Stoke Drift. So much fun, we made friends for life. We ended up going out with these guys.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah! They were like, "Do you guys want to go to a house party on Friday?". We're like, "Okay". Then we met Cody's baby brother, Baby Cody.
Sally McMullen
Noah.
Alex Hourigan
Baby Cody, his name's Noah, but we called him Baby Cody. And then we're at this, like, bar that was, like, a wework station. And then there was, like, this fully, super famous, like Hawaiian singer that just rocked up to the bar and then did, like, a concert. Which was, yeah.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, it was called WorkPlay, I think.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
And that's a really good spot for drinks, but also live music. If you're going to Honolulu I'd definitely recommend, it was so much fun.
Alex Hourigan
Without a doubt, I loved it. So like, the life lesson there as well is, like, invest in good quality experiences, because there wasn't one experience that we didn't absolutely love. And, like, they were a little bit on the pricey side, but like, in my opinion, completely worth the penny. And the tour guides and crew that worked on all of them were incredible. Like we hung out with basically every person we met on all them afterwards. They gave really good recommendations for places to go out and eat. And I miss all of them. Mainly, there's one especially, but all of them.
Sally McMullen
I digress.
Alex Hourigan
So the main question we got on the gram was for food and drink recommendations. And let me tell you, we are well equipped in that area to divulge some spots. For restaurants, we absolutely loved Duke's, which is kind of the main place to eat. If you can book, I definitely recommend otherwise, you'll be waiting, maybe like 20 minutes for a table, which still isn't too long. But if you can book a reservation in advance, I would do that.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
And then another one that I absolutely adored, which I know you like this one as well, was Arancino, which is this beautiful Italian restaurant on the water. And Sal and I were just feeling a bit naughty. So we were telling everyone it was our honeymoon. And they gave us free dessert!
Sally McMullen
Yeah, so that's a little hack, as well. Put in the note ,for the reservation, that it's a honeymoon. We also got a question about vegan and vegetarian friendly places and there are actually heaps in Hawaii, I didn't really have that issue. Because like, acai bowls and poke bowll are, like, everywhere, there's lots of veggie options there. But you can also use an app called Happy Cow when you're travelling and you just put in the location of where you are and it will pull up a full list of vegan and veggie options. So that's also really good, but I didn't have any problems really finding vegetarian foods. I was laughing. We also got a bunch of questions about good places to go out on the town.
Alex Hourigan
But we don't drink.
Sally McMullen
No.
Alex Hourigan
No. We drank!
Sally McMullen
But we mentioned WorkPlay, another one is Arnold's Beach Bar, that's like a really cool kind of like Tiki bar vibe if you're wanting something a little bit more chill. If you want to, like, hit the d-floor, go to ShoreFyre.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my God, yes!
Sally McMullen
We had such a good night there and I cannot remember the name but there's also a sports bar across the road, or across the way sorry, that Al and I went to. That was so much fun, we did karaoke there. We were the closer of the night.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god, so Sal was like, "We've got to do karaoke. We've got to do karaoke". And I was like, "Oh, God". I was like, "Sal, we're too"
Sally McMullen
Too far gone.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, and she was like, "Nah, we're doing it". So then she wrote us down, obviously we did Cher. And then their bar was, lik,e closing and we were, like, okay, like it's fine, it wasn't meant to be, this always happens, Sal was crying. Anyway, they're just like, "And the final act of the night, Sal and Al!". I'm like, didn't even hear it. Sal runs up and like literally hauls me back and she was like, "We're the finisher!", like we're at a festival.
Sally McMullen
Yeah.
Alex Hourigan
And we're the main act.
Sally McMullen
Literally, this is our Coachella.
Alex Hourigan
Like everyone that, like, did the karaoke was like standing there and sang and they were all beautiful. But we like, they were like, gave us a mic, and we're like, "We need two", and literally worked this entire bar. It was iconic. We had all these, like, 40 year old dads with their phones out, like, filming it was so good. And then because they knew that we were Australian and I don't know why, I didn't know this was the thing in America, that when we finished the song we had, like, six rounds of Corona beers bought for us and put in front of us for doing a good job, but we don't even drink it.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, we don't drink beer but I guess that's like an Australian trope that we love a Corona.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah. So good.
Sally McMullen
So good. So definitely check that out. We have a few other recs we'll pop them in the show notes and whatnot so y'all can check them out plus all of the other experiences that we did. But oh my god, it was just honestly the best experience. I know that travelling internationally in 2022 can be a bit scary. I feel like we were the first out of, like, our friends who booked an international trip. And just do it, gals. Like, I think that the post travel depression hits harder after three years of not travelling, but we honestly had the best holiday of our entire lives. We've been so sad ever since we came back. We've made memories and friends for life, just book it and go to Honolulu
Alex Hourigan
Without a doubt. Just book it. Just do it.
Sally McMullen
Let's get into our product recommendations of le week. Do you want to kick us off, Al?
Alex Hourigan
Sure. I have two because I'm a greedy little girl. My first one is my Mr. Winston hoodie. These things are harder to get than gold. Because they sell in, like, small capsule drops, they sell out in literally minutes, like three minutes. I've kind of had my eye on one for a little bit but I wasn't really too bothered to be like setting the alarm blah, blah, blah. And then I was just on Instagram at the right time. I bought this jumper and it is the comfiest jumper. I've gotten so many compliments on it, like it's not even funny. And it is so comfy and so cosy. I absolutely love it. If you can get your hands on one seriously do because as well. investment piece. I paid $125 for this jumper, right? Which for the quality it is, is not expensive. However, this was the last time they were dropping this particular style in the orange and blue. So you can't buy this one anymore, right? I looked it up on another site that was selling it, as like a repurchase, like it was brand new. It's now worth $350.
Sally McMullen
Oh my god.
Alex Hourigan
Rich!
Sally McMullen
One of a kind!
Alex Hourigan
I know. And like, I'm not going to sell it because I love it. But it's just nice to have.
Sally McMullen
Yeah, exactly. You'll see those pop up on eBay and Depop in no time.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah, and then my super quick second one is a book that I recently read from Helen Chik called 'Sex, Swipes & Other Stories'. And this book is so fucking funny, it's so good. It's a nonfiction book and basically, it is like the spicy love child of a dating memoir and handbook. And whether or not you're in a relationship, or you're dating, it is a really good read, especially if you're kind of only, just entering a nonfiction reading era. And it goes on about all of her kind of like dating app stories and also, like, just how to navigate the modern dating world in a really fun, easy read. It's just great. You can sit down with a glass, or a bottle of wine, have a good giggle and just maybe feel a little bit better about some below average dating experiences that you've had. So shout out to Helen, she gifted us her book and thank you so much.
Sally McMullen
We should get her on the show, seems like it absolutely voibe.
Alex Hourigan
Voibe!
Sally McMullen
Alright, so my recommendation is a little bit less exciting, but very practical.
Alex Hourigan
Okay.
Sally McMullen
And it is a portable power bank that I got from Amazon.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah!
Sally McMullen
So basically, it's like this monster power bank that you can plug, like, four different devices into at a time.
Alex Hourigan
Gorgeous.
Sally McMullen
You can charge your iPhone 12 times using this powerbank without charging it again. It also has, like, one of those fast charging outputs. So you can charge your iPhone to like 70% in 30 minutes.
Alex Hourigan
Oh my god!
Sally McMullen
It's incredible. It's so good. It costs 100 bucks, but the amount of times I've used it has definitely outweighed the cost. And it's just so good if you're, like, camping, or if you're going to a festival or something.
Alex Hourigan
Going on a holiday, to Hawaii.
Sally McMullen
Or if you live in an apartment where, like, the outlets are in inconvenient spots, and you want to just, like, charge your phone on the couch. Like it is so good. I'll chuck a link in the show notes so you can check it out. But I will 100% be buying a smaller one for our trip to the States because they just come in handy. So, chuck the link in the show notes for y'all.
Alex Hourigan
Gorgeous.
Sally McMullen
But that is another wrap Two Broke Chicks in the can and I think this is the saddest I've ever been to finish an episode because we just had the best time. Shout out to all of the amazing people that we met on the trip. As we mentioned, and we'll make sure to pop all of the restaurant, bar, experience recommendations in our show notes. We'll also put where we stayed as well if you want to check that out. Plus, some other experiences that we didn't have time to mention because there were so many.
Alex Hourigan
So many.
Sally McMullen
So make sure to check those out. If you want a transcript of the episode, head to finder.com.au/twobrokechicks and make sure to follow us on TikTok and Instagram where we'll be posting a whole lot of content from our trip. All of the BTS, all of the fun vibes.
Alex Hourigan
Yeah.
Sally McMullen
And join our Facebook group, Broke Chicks Club, as well because we'll make sure to pop a bunch of helpful resources and hilarious BTS and this time I actually do have a video of us doing karaoke so maybe I'll pop that in there too.
Alex Hourigan
Oh god, no. No.
Sally McMullen
As always, thank you to our executive producer, Pariya Taherzadeh for guiding us through this episode and Bamby Media for editing it. And thank you to you for having us in your ear holes, we just love to be here.
Alex Hourigan
Love it.
Sally McMullen
Aloha. Bye chicks.
Alex Hourigan
Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
LINKS & RECEIPTS
PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS
Check out Sex, Swipes & Other Stories by Helen Chik
CHUCK US A FOLLOW
Follow Two Broke Chicks on Instagram
Follow Two Broke Chicks on TikTok
Join our Broke Chicks Club Facebook Group
CREDITS
Hosts: Sally McMullen and Alex Hourigan
Executive Producer: Pariya Taherzadeh
Editor: Bamby Media
This podcast is powered by Finder and part of the Nova Podcast Network.
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