Aloha Make-A-Wish
Dear Make-A-Wish
I’ve tried many times in the last couple of weeks to find the words to express our gratitude for the wonderful holiday that we were lucky enough to enjoy in April. I’m still trying! From the moment that John rang to let us know that Nicholas’ Wish had been granted the anticipation began building and Hawaii was everything we hoped it would be.
We hit the ground running, shopping was very high on the priority list and after checking into the Hilton Hawaiian Village it was straight to the Alo Moana Shopping Centre. The factory outlet complex was on the schedule for the next day and again we walked back into the hotel carrying multiple shopping bags. The hotel was beautiful, when we opened the door to our room we were gobsmacked by the view straight out over Waikiki Beach and even though we didn’t have a lot of down time to relax around the pool we did find a bit of time for some fun on the water slides.
The surfing lesson was a huge success. The boys from Hawaiian Fire were wonderful and we all had a great time. They even gave Matt a different board so that he could do some surfing not being the novice that the rest of us are. Ashleigh got the hang of it first and rode some good waves and Hannah had a great time being a passenger in her one-on-one lesson with Sean.
We spent a day exploring the North Shore and the famous Pipeline Beach and some of the beach even made its way home with us – another souvenir.
Paradise Cove was a beautiful night. The energy of the dancers was phenomenal. Hannah and Matt made their way onto the stage to learn the hula and then Hannah was picked out of the audience for another segment of the show.
By far the highlight of our wonderful holiday was touring Pearl Harbour. What a fantastic way to end the week. We got there early and were met by Laurie Moore with tickets for the shuttle and the news that we were to be escorted by a Pearl Harbour survivor, Mr Al Rodrigues. It was a huge honour to meet this man. He met us with beautifully perfumed leis for Nick and myself and gardenia flowers for the girls and had so many stories to tell, we were mesmerised. We were lucky enough to be on the shuttle over to the memorial with not only this gentleman but another survivor as well and he also told us his story. Stepping foot onto the memorial these two men were greeted by a spontaneous round of applause and after taking some photos Al gave us a very personal history lesson of what he had seen that morning in December 1941. We reluctantly left Al and continued our tour of “The Mighty Mo” and the Bowfin Submarine as well as the aviation museum. It was a very long and emotional day for all of us but most definitely the highlight of the week.
We cannot thank Make-A-Wish enough for granting this Wish for Nicholas and including the rest of the family as well.
Yours sincerely,
Leanne, Matt, Nicholas, Ashleigh and Hannah
If you would like to help Make-A-Wish grant more Wishes to children like Nicholas, please click here.