Hanalei and Reservations

Yesterday I met with the Leisure Sales Manager, Courtney, to help her give a site tour to a travel agent. Unfortunately the travel agent flaked, but fortunately for me that meant Courtney and I could go to the beach instead!

She and I hopped into her truck and headed to the Hanalei Bay beach, which is supposedly the nicest beach on the north shore. The cute town of Hanalei is very close to the beach and consists of a soccer field, school, church, and a couple of shops and restaurants. Hanalei is also the location of the largest producer of taro in the world! Well, at least that’s what Courtney told me :) Every year, Hanalei throws a poi (kind of like a taro pudding) festival too. Hope I’ll be around for that one! We drove past Stephen Stills house and allegedly Michael Crighton has four houses in Hanalei too. The beach was beautiful and seemed to be a local hang out. Along with a shave ice and taco truck, the beach had a lawn for camping and BBQs. The surf was fairly mild so it was perfect for swimming and a lot of families brought their kids. Hanalei River was also close to the beach, so besides the swimmers there were a few paddle boats. We were there for about 45 minutes until it started to pour so Courtney and I ran back to her truck. Then 4 minutes later it stopped and was back to sunshine. That’s Kauai for you :)

Today I started working in the reservations department, which basically consists of a bunch of phone operators inside an office. I worked with the reservations manager and learned about the hotel reservation information system called Galaxy. We basically sat and punched in room reservation orders so that hotel’s system could have the rooms set aside for the guests upon their arrival. Everything that the reservation department enters into the system is all the information that the front desk has which makes it a very detail oriented job.

Today I also had to drive to Lihue to get a TB test so I would be eligible to work in Café Hanalei. I was able to borrow the HR director’s car and had a good time driving and listening to the Hawaiian reggae stations. My favorite songs right now are Fiji “Jowenna” and Ekolu “She’s Music to Me.” Great de-stress music!