Two TikTok users went on a dream trip to Hawaii, but had to spend $1,000 on last-minute detour to Los Angeles after being turned away at the border.
Sarah Blackwood and her friend had planned a trip from their home in Raleigh, North Carolina to Honolulu, Hawaii, which totals in about 12 hours of flights, but failed, by their own accounts, to prepare properly. Specifically, they took the wrong type of Covid test. Oops.
"We get here. We’re getting through like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so excited. It’s beautiful,’" Blackwood explained in a TikTok posted two days ago, which has racked up 1.4 million views. "[But] our COVID tests are not from the right place. They didn’t accept our COVID tests."
After an influx of visitors, and in anticipation of more, Hawaii has stuck to extremely strict guidelines to protect its own citizens on the isolated islands. According to the state’s website, “The state of Hawaii will ONLY accept Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) from a certified Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) lab test results from trusted testing and travel partners.”
The website then gives the complete list of tests, which are widely available, including Walgreens, a national chain.
The result for Blackwood and her friend was a last minute trip to Los Angeles, where they took the proper test and immediately flew back to Honolulu. The other option, they explained, would have been to quarantine for ten days - financially and schedule-wise, this was out of the question.
Additionally, the traveling duo acknowledged that the entire incident was their fault, telling views “We know we f***ed up” in a subsequent video, in which they asked commenters to be nicer to them.
They also noted that they are both vaccinated, but knew already that this did not exempt them from any rules, since Hawaii only accepts vaccinations done in the state.
Eventually, however, the two settled on the beach, where they downed shots of something and enjoyed the view - sharing the whole experience on TikTok, of course.
