Our Wheelchair Travels: Hawaii

The last time we went to Hawaii was in 1986 for our 10th wedding anniversary.  Twenty-one years later we were going back with our daughter to celebrate her finishing college and getting her Doctorate in Audiology.  Can you think of a better reason to make a pleasure trip?  I'll spare you the typical Hawaii travelog.  You know why people go to Hawaii and what they want to see.  And it is everything you've heard... and more.  But let's talk logistics.

I've pretty much given up flying with my wife's power wheelchair.  The trips have not gone well.  First we flew on Aeromexico to Mexico City and on arrival they could not find the seat that went with my wife's Amigo scooter.  I told them I saw it go up the conveyor belt into the belly of the plane.  To my surprise they told me I was welcome to look for myself.  They took me out to the tarmac of Mexico City's huge international airport and allowed me to climb the conveyor belt into the cargo hold of a 737.  This was before 9/11 so security was-- to say the least-- lax.  I found the chair jammed in a corner of the hold.  In their defense it was dark in there and the chair was black, too.  But still, a little inventory control wouldn't have hurt.

Later we took a larger Jazzy wheelchair on our first trip to New York City.  When it arrived, I couldn't get the controller cable to plug into the base.  I explained that it had worked just fine all the way up to the jetway in Austin where the airline people disassembled the chair and removed the battery for travel.  To my shock an airline security official in New York accused me of damaging it myself to get some money from the airline.  The best they could offer was to ship the chair home.  We spent the rest of the trip in NYC in a borrowed folding wheelchair.  BTW-- The problem with the Jazzy turned out to be bent connector pins.  Someone apparently had tried to reassemble the chair and used brute force to try to get the cable to plug into the connector.

So as I said-- We now fly with a folding wheelchair.  And we rented a nice wide comfy one for our trip to Hawaii.  It also saved us having to rent a van to move around.  We rented a small SUV.  But it turned out the car was too high and that made transferring between the car and chair too steep.  So I went back to the rental office and traded the SUV for a Cadillac sedan.  If some had told me 20 years earlier that someday we would be tooling around Hawaii in a brand new Cadillac, I would have told them they were crazy.  But the Caddy was the right height for a nice level transfer between car and chair.  And the Caddy's front doors are super wide which makes it easy to swing my wife's legs in and out.

Once you have your ground transportation taken care of, getting around Hawaii is a snap.  If you have a wheelchair placard for your car at home, bring it along.  Hawaii allows you to use out-of-state placards on your rental to park in handicapped spaces.  We brought the front license plate from my wife's van and placed it on the dashboard.  I hated labeling us so blatantly as tourists but you do what you gotta do.

Of course I had researched our accomodations.  First stop was a Holiday Inn in the hotel district of Waikiki.  I remembered the drive from last time.  All I needed to do was get from the airport to Ala Moana Blvd., the main drag in Waikiki.  But we drove past the hotel address and missed it a couple of times before I thought to turn on the GPS.  It turned out the hotel was tucked behind another building and only their driveway faced the main street.  I've become a HUGE fan of GPS since then.  Don't forget to bring yours.  The detailed maps they have for the Lower 48 are just as accurate in Hawaii.

The beaches in Hawaii are beautiful to look at but the sand is not wheelchair friendly.  Look for paved walkways near the water.  There are plenty of those in Waikiki.  There are also numerous restaurants with an ocean view.  And if you have a car, you'll find countless beautiful public parks as you drive along the coast of Oahu.

Our travels also took us to the Big Island.  You gotta love the airport on the Kona Coast.  It's open air design tells you you're in Hawaii.  The design also means no jetways.  They use old school rolling staircases to get passengers in and out of the planes.  And in our case they raised a cargo lift to the airplane door.  My wife transfered to her wheelchair on the lift platform, then they brought us down and we were on our way.  The Big Island has a lot more open space than Oahu.  We went to see the active volcanos and got as far as paved roads would allow.  There are foot paths, but then you're talking rugged terrain over old lava flows.  Too rough for us.  We also went up Mauna Kea, but only as far as the visitor center.  You are free to drive up to the top of the mountain.  But the signs warn you that you are violating your rental car agreement if you do.  My daughter made the trip to the top with a family member and brought back spectacular sunset pictures.  We may try to go to the top next time.  I hope it's not another 20 years... and it may not be.  When I told my grandson about the wonderful trip we had, he made us promise to take him someday.

Also read Our Wheelchair Travels: Mustang Island and Port Aransas.