Big Max and T-Rex 50

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Stepping off the airplane in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu I was immediately greeted by a warm and pleasant breeze, a smile spread across my face and there was a little extra spring in my step. Its good to be alive.

I jumped on the shuttle bus straight into Waikiki, found my hostel, put on my boardies and headed straight for the beach where I promptly got sunburned on the area of my back where I couldn't reach and consequently couldn't put sunscreen on😊 I met a few people in the hostel and we headed out that night to sample the Hawaiian nightlife. The next morning I woke up with a hang over, this was a pattern that would repeat itself over the next couple of days!

Waikiki itself is pretty touristy, all the big hotels are located in a 5km long area of land right on the sea and there are loads of expensive surf shops. It was a very vibrant area though with loads of street performers during the early hours of the night and lots of people around. In fact the day I arrived there was a large parade down the main strip celebrating Asian cultures in Hawaii, there were Chinese dragons and lots of dancing and music and drumming, pretty cool.

So after a few days of just sitting on the beach, chilling and drinking at night I finally decided that I needed to see some of the island so I signed up for a little snorkeling tour.

Hanauma Bay
Luckily the tour was not tour-like at all, we (Me and a girl from the hostel, whose name I have appallingly forgotten. Vads I think) got driven to the bay, given snorkels and told when the bus was leaving. My kind of tour, no annoying tour guides and lemming like herding from place to place. Hanauma Bay is both a Nature Preserve and a Marine Life Conservation District meaning we had to pay $5 to get in and watch possibly the worst nature preservation video ever made, pure cheese, pure tack. It pretty much was telling us not to step on the coral and not feed the fish, but a simple sign would not suffice. Oh no, the best way to convey this message (in their opinion) was through a song to the tune of "Under da Sea" from The Little Mermaid. It was horrific.

Once you have survived the video though it is a short walk down to the bay itself which was a little overcrowded for my liking. I was trying to show Vads how to snorkel but she wasn't a natural and later admitted that she didn't really like the ocean too much! It was great to go snorkeling again and I swam out quite a way to the ocean side of the coral, on the way out I saw an eel just sitting in it's little hole and staring at me with its teeth bared, kind of scary. I found an area that the fish loved, there were numerous schools of fish just floating on the current, lots of different species and lots of different shapes, sizes and colours. It was all really beautiful and I spent ages out there just floating around and diving down to the bottom. It was incredibly relaxing. Soon though we had to go and catch the bus and as we were walking up the road we looked down and saw a sea turtle splashing around in the water. A good day.

Scooter Day
I had decided to rent a scooter the previous day at Hanuama so that I would be able to ride further along the coastline and see some of the other sights on the island. So the next morning I rented a scooter from the little place next to the hostel and then bumped into this aussie girl called Steff who wanted to come as well so she rented a scooter, now it was a party for two. If only we had one more we could have had a scooter gang😊 My scooter was called T-Rex 50 and Steff's was Big Max

Our first stop of the day was the little supermarket down the road to get some food and get used to the scooters before we took them on the big roads, due to the one way road system it took us about 10mins to get there for what is about a 5min walk. But soon we had food and we were off on the open road. It was a glorious feeling with the wind streaming through my hair and whipping along the main road east. I will admit that 50cc's of raw power wasn't quite enough, the slightest hill and you soon slowed to a paltry 30km/h or something like that, the worst were long inclines where we couldn't get our speed up. I found that the best solution was to have the throttle full open the whole time😊 They only got up to about 70km/h anyway. Soon though we got to Hanauma Bay so that Steff could have a look and take a few photos and then once again we were off.

We stopped at a little viewpoint just down the road to have a look at the coastline when there was a little incident. Steff had put the scooter keys in the underseat storage area; I proceeded to then close the seat to take a photo of the two bikes, immediate problem, no keys, no bike. After a few choice words and asking everyone around if they had a screwdriver to try and unscrew the seat we came up with a better plan. I just grabbed the side of the seat and pulled up as hard as I could and Steff managed to squeeze her hand in and grab the keys, crisis averted and we didn't even damage the seat.

So after that I was glad just to get going again and hit the road. We winded our way through a twisty section of road with the ocean on one side and steep cliffs on the other, really beautiful and completely thrilling on our little scooters. We soon stopped for lunch at a little beach and then decided to make our way to Waimea Bay, a famous surf spot in the winter. We went for a nice little swim where a river flowed into the ocean to refresh and then decided to make the turn for home as it was getting a little late in the day. We immediately then got lost in this huge one way loop through this residential area, where I got a cool little video of me riding. Eventually after getting directions we were on our way back to Waikiki. The only stop on the way back was at a blowhole formed by a lava tube, the waves weren't ideal but there was still quite a bit of spray coming out of it. A quick fuel stop and then home.

120km on $3 of fuel. Not bad for a days work and all with out a helmet. Dangerous I know but the place didn't have any!

Next time the island of Maui

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Photos

Aloha
Welcome to Hawaii

Beer
On one of the nights out, I think the 2nd

Sealife
Some of the fish species in the bay

The Effects of Wind
The wind turned my rather long hair into a stylish 'fro

Tree Roots
A tree in peril at Waimea Bay

Comments

[Justin]

That is a pathetic photo of you "SKULLING" beer - pussy
Dan, your "fro" is no where NEAR as awesome as mine was when i was in Europe. Even random Finnish girls loved me for it - its obviously not the same for you. Stop trying to be as cool as me, i am humbled but simultaneously frustrated by your pathetic attempt. You look more like The Fonz... Heeeyyy!!! By the way, is it just me or does Steff look pretty hot with her alternative/dreads style? Oh yea! ;)

[Hutcho]

You are stoooopid Justin
I am so much cooler than you its not funny!