Our trip to Hawaii was the culmination of many years planning. Hawaii had always seemed like somewhere we would probably never get to, considering its distance from the UK, so finally making it there was quite a big deal. We visited three islands as part of the holiday, flying into Maui, proceeding to Oahu, then planning to end with six nights on Big Island, split between Kona and Hilo. Kona was also our first ever AirBNB experience so it was quite a few firsts we were experiencing.
We had a great first two days on Big Island, but had started to notice by the end of the second that Little Person didn’t seem like herself. She was developing a rash and by the morning of day 3, had a fever and was extremely lethargic. We quickly contacted our emergency medical insurance number in the UK and were directed to the closest suitable hospital to Kona. Once there we discovered that she had developed chickenpox and she would not be able to board a plane until all of her eruptions had scabbed over. We also had to continuously explain that unlike in the USA, children in the UK were not vaccinated against chickenpox since most of the staff had never actually seen it.
After conversations with our insurance we discovered that only one parent would be supported to stay with her whilst she recovered and the other parent would have to return to the UK unless we were willing to pay for new flights ourselves. After some discussion we decided to both stay, which was the start of chickenpox watch, Hawaii edition. We had to cancel our booking in Hilo since the owners of our second AirBNB were not comfortable with Little Person staying there. Luckily the owners of our first AirBNB were incredibly accommodating and allowed us to stay right up to the point where they had another family staying, which ended up being an additional week.
Since we had no idea how long it would take for Little Person to be safe to fly we had to continually extend our car hire by one day, to allow us to get around. Luckily due to the considerably less crowded nature of Big Island we were able to use our additional week to explore in a safe manner, ensuring to keep Little Person away from other people. After the initial couple of days of illness she was feeling much better but was obviously still contagious. We settled into a rhythm of waking up, checking the state of her eruptions, deciding whether to return to the hospital in conjunction with our insurance claims handler, then planning the rest of the day. I also had to call into work meetings before bed and when I awoke to account for the massive time difference back to the UK.
Eventually, ten days after she was first diagnosed we were given the all clear to travel home and were able to reorganise flights to leave that evening. Thus our little adventure was finally over.
We were lucky in many ways that this happened on Big Island. The amount of space available meant that Little Person didn’t have to be confined to a small room for ten days which would have probably driven all three of us crazy. Due to the many different open air attractions, we were still able to get out and about, ensuring we didn’t pose a risk to others. I would never choose to do it all again, but I must admit it could have been worse.
