Thanks! The google earth view is a great idea.
Regarding fares, it seems that RT are cheaper than 2 one-ways. But I did suspect full flights around presidents holiday, and I fear you're confirming that concept. I definitely have low risk tolerance for a holiday we do less than once-a-year, so I'll probably pay current fares sooner than to hope for a cheaper fare later. Ditto on the booking - who knows when someone will book what my wife wanted :-)

Alas Honua Kai closed their kids club after our previous stay so now my wife may want to go elsewhere. So that's new trip research for her... And no idea if she'll select something other than Honua Kai.

So new question - how fast do F seats in ha / ua sell out? We are sfo based and there's limited inventory of seats for the nonstop OGG flight. I dislike connections and prefer nonstop even when it costs more than connecting. But I can't book until my wife does her travel research...