Hawaii Days 1 & 2

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Leaving Omaha’s five inches of snow kicked this trip off in the perfect way; increasing the anticipation of Hawaii, and more importantly the weather, ten fold. This trip is kind of a big deal for me as I am traveling with my girlfriend of six months Kim. She is active and has an adventurous side so I am excited to see how this week plays out. Kim and I left the house at four thirty in the morning, threw our bags into the cab and took off for the airport. Au revoir snow.

The plane ride was fine, the distance was nothing compared to the flights to Thailand. The only irritating thing was that the plane was full of blue hairs who were wide awake and chatting like it was social hour throughout the leg to Phoenix as well as the flight into Honolulu.

Upon arriving in Honolulu Kim had set up a lea greeting, which I thought was pretty unnecessary and a little bit too touristy, but the gestures was nice and the flowers were pretty. Walking out and feeling the sun and warm winds, and seeing all of the lush green vegetation energized me and suddenly I was over any jet lag I may have had. After renting the car, free upgrade to a Jeep which I thought was absolutely legitimate, we drove the southern coast past Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay, beautiful and incredible. This place is an absolute paradise outside of Honolulu and has reduced my vocabulary to “wow”, “amazing”, and “beautiful.” The condo I booked is in a small farming community called Waimanalo, “Nalo” to the locals. The condo is situated on the East side of the island right on the ocean, we can hear the waves crashing against the shore all night, on the southern side is a state park. The beach is long and beautiful with smaller islands that are taunting me, begging me to swim out to them.

Once we dropped our bags off in the room we walked up the street to a local roadside restaurant where we got a plate lunch, incredible pork… incredible. After a bite to eat we walked through the park to the beach and watched the sky turn pink and orange as sun set on the other side of the island. With the waves crashing on the shore the scene was relaxing and much needed after the trip.

My buddy Dustin is an officer in the US Marine Corp and currently stationed on Oahu. His being here is a big reason why I decided to come out at this time. One of my bucket list items is to travel to all 50 states, January in Nebraska + Dustin in Hawaii + needing to cross Hawaii off the list = Brent in Hawaii in January. Adds up right? Anyhow, Dustin drove over from Pearl Harbor, and the three of us walked up to Bobby’s, a small local market, to buy a few provisions and headed back to the condo to relax for a bit. After a few hours chatting, Dustin headed home and we headed to bed as we were tired from the travel and hoping to catch the sun rising in the morning.

Kim and I walked the beach as the sun rose in morning, taking pictures and enjoying the waves. Dustin had told us about the wave advisories on the North Shore, so that is where we decided to head that day. The drive around took us about two hours, which included a few stops. The waves and shoreline to our right and the mountains to our left, it was tough to keep driving as we wanted to stop, walk around and take photos of our surroundings.

The waves just kept getting bigger as we drove around the coast, by the time we made it to Ehukai beach, which houses the famous Banzai Pipeline, or Pipeline, or “Pipe”, which is an amazing surf reef break, the waves were 20-30 feet high. There were about 30 or 40 surfers and body boarders out in the water ready to catch a wave in. I set up the tripod and took some photos of the daring group. After about an hour we took off down the coast a little farther as Kim wanted to go to Turtle Beach, she really wants to swim with some sea turtles. With the surf as high as it was the beach was closed, but we could still make out the sea turtles staying just off the beach in the water, surfacing frequently to get a breath of air.

We made our way back around the island, stopping at a local grower’s stand, picked up a cold coconut to drink, a pineapple, a papaya, and some apple-bananas. The next stop was Kahuna Fumi’s big red shrimp truck for some spicy garlic shrimp and butter garlic shrimp. They were so fresh. These shrimp are farmed every morning and come deveined and still in the shell, at $12 a plate I would argue that they were worth it. After cleaning up in the sink we made our way back to Waimanalo to hustle and get ready to pick up Dustin and head to Germaine’s Luau.

Germaine’s tag line is “Too Good to Miss.” They might be right, from the reviews that I read this is the one to see on Oahu, although most have been pegged as cheesy and touristy. I thought it was fun, educational, and had great Mai Tia’s. The luau takes place at Barber’s Point beach park, (named after Captain Henry Barber, a 70 some odd foot lighthouse stands here to warn ships of land, in October of 1796 Captain Barber ran ashore at this spot of Oahu), the place is beautiful. Waves crashing in while the sun set, the three of us enjoyed it while sipping on one of too many Mai Tai’s. I wanted to attend a luau and learn from the experience while enjoying the joy and warmth of the local people. Say what you will, it was a lot of fun, maybe it was the Mai Tai’s. The audience accompanied the “royals” to the Imu Ceremony, where the Kaulua pig is ceremoniously pulled from the ground from where it had been placed that morning. Conch shells, fire and one of the tribesman taking the pig skull and holding it up for viewing made this pretty entertaining. As we ate, the Polynesian islands were represented through dance and costume. They really did a great job of incorporating the audience and Kim and I even ended up on stage at one point. The highlight of the evening was a Samoan fire knife dance, a fierce traditional dance that involves the twirling of a war knife, the nifo oti, the dance was traditionally a pre-war ritual in Samoa used to psyche up warriors. The best way I can describe it is a fire eating, flaming baton twirling routine, that incorporates stomp.

We were feeling pretty good on the way home so Dustin and I decided to do a little freestyling, that we at least, found entertaining. After dropping Dustin off at the base we made our way back to our side of the island and called it a night. I would say our first full day in Hawaii was a good one.

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Comments

[Eric]

well done
nice blog... nice pics... first advice i give anyone if they want to visit Hawaii is stay outta Honolulu except for fine dining... you are wise to get a condo in 'nalo, that is a perfect relaxing spot... if you & Kim want tip on where to see/swim with turtles without dozens of other tourists around shoot me an email, i'm not gonna post it for the world to see :) Aloha, Eric