Planning Your Trip to Oahu - Honolulu, Waikiki and Oahu - page 371

The embassy of New Zealand is at 37 Observatory Circle NW, Washington, DC 20008 ( & 202/
328-4800; www.nzembassy.com ). New Zealand consulates are in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City,
San Francisco, and Seattle.
The United Kingdom is embassy is at 3100 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008 ( &
202/588-6500; www.britainusa.com ) . Other British consulates are in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Emergencies Dial & 911 for police, fire, or ambulance. The Poison Control Center is & 800/
222-1222.
Family Travel Hawaii is paradise for children: beaches to run on, water to splash in, and unusual
sights to see. To locate accommodations, restaurants, and attractions that are particularly child-
friendly, refer to the Kids icon throughout this guide. Be sure to check out the “Especially for Kids”
box. And look for Frommer's Hawaii with Kids.
The larger hotels and resorts offer supervised programs for children and can refer you to qualified
babysitters. By state law, hotels can accept only children ages 5 to 12 in supervised activities pro-
grams, but they often accommodate younger kids by simply hiring babysitters to watch over them.
You can also contact People Attentive to Children (PATCH), which can refer you to babysitters
who have taken a training course on child care. On Oahu, call & 808/839-1988 or visit
www.patchhawaii.org .
Baby's Away ( & 800/496-6386 or 808/497-2009; www.babysaway.com ) rents cribs, strollers,
highchairs, playpens, infant seats, and the like on Oahu. The staff will deliver whatever you need to
wherever you're staying and pick it up when you're done.
Recommended family-travel websites include Family Travel Forum ( www.familytravelforum.com ),
a comprehensive site that offers customized trip planning; Family Travel Network
( www.familytravelnetwork.com ), an online magazine providing travel tips; and
TravelWithYourKids.com ( www.travelwithyourkids.com ) , a comprehensive site written by parents
for parents offering sound advice for long-distance and international travel with children. For a list
of more family-friendly travel resources, turn to the experts at www.frommers.com .
Gasoline (Petrol) At press time, the cost of gasoline in Hawaii was abnormally high. Taxes are
already included in the printed price. One U.S. gallon equals 3.8 liters or .85 imperial gallons. Fill-
up locations are known as gas stations or service stations. As we went to press, “regular” gas was
averaging $4.15 a gallon and premium gas was $4.95.
Health Like any tropical climate, Hawaii is home to lots of bugs. Most of them won't harm you.
However, watch out for mosquitoes, centipedes, and scorpions, which do sting and may cause
anything from mild annoyance to severe swelling and pain.
Mosquitoes are not native to Hawaii but arrived as larvae stowed away in water barrels on the
ship Wellington in 1826, when it anchored in Lahaina. There's not a whole lot you can do about
them, except to apply commercial repellent, which you can pick up at any drugstore.
Centipedes, those segmented bugs with a jillion legs, come in two varieties: 6- to 8-inch-long
brown ones and 2- to 3-inch-long blue guys. Both can really pack a wallop with their sting. Centi-
pedes are generally found in damp, wet places, such as under wood piles or compost heaps;
wearing closed-toe shoes can help prevent stings. If you're stung, apply ice at once to prevent