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Published: January 13th 2007
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Waves and spray
Waves crashing off the rocks with spray flying up at Waimea Beach. I travel to Hawaii a lot with work. As it's one of Harmony's main routes I am there pretty much every week. Shame, eh. Most layovers go the same way - arrive, chill, shop, eat, drink, walk about a bit. However, sometimes we get adventurous and do something different. It depends who you are working with and what the weather is doing.
It's winter in Hawaii and there has been a lot of rain and showers and also some pretty big wind storms. Last week, we flew into Honolulu on Wednesday and it was cloudy and damp. So we thought that it would be a great idea to rent a car the next day and get out of Waikiki for a change. Waikiki is the main tourist beach area and very Americanised. You can find an ABC store pretty much on every corner. We knew that it would be cloudy again the next day so a good time to evacuate. The next morning our First Officer Jim took leave and went out to search for some wheels. At 10am Vanessa, Betty and I met in our hotel lobby and waited for our chariot to arrive. We even found Stephanie wandering,
Mr millipede
A red millipede. a little unsure whether to spend the day with us and we managed to persuade her to come. Jim arrived with a lovely six seater Jeep and off we went - hurrah for road trips.
From Waikiki we headed out towards the airport and Pearl Harbour, which are further East along the South shore. Just past the airport we turned and started to head North up through the middle of Oahu. We made a pit stop at the Dole Plantation - trying to be tourists. The Dole Plantation is named after Jim Dole who was affectionately known as the Pineapple King - he was a pioneer in the industry. Glad the pineapple came around as it meant that we could eat pineapple dole whip ice-cream which was pretty yummy. However, the shop was crowded and after we used the bathrooms and ate ice-cream it was time to move on - not sure about this tourist thing!!!
We continued our drive North and hit the North Shore at a small town called Hale'iwa. We stopped and wandered along the main street to look for a place for a spot of lunch. We decided on Mexican and enjoyed some food
Flower
Centre of a hibiscus flower. and the girls enjoyed the fact that we had a designated driver and had a drink - cheers!!! After lunch we wandered back along the road and looked in a few shops. Hale'iwa has plantation style buildings and a lovely church and also has a famous shave ice shop. Even though it was cloudy, there was still many enjoying their coloured ice delight.
After Hale'iwa we headed along the coast and stopped at Waimea Bay beach park. A very pretty beach. The sun managed to squeeze a few rays through the clouds so we took the opportunity to rest our full bellies and sit on the beach. The waves were crashing in and hitting of the shore - fun to watch. Betty and Jim decided to have a quick dip and seemed to enjoy getting battered about by the ocean. Stephanie, Vanessa and I just enjoyed watching them on dry land. Not that it stayed dry for long, big clouds kept rolling in over the hills surrounding the bay and we kept getting chilled in the showers. After the third attempt at drying out in between drips, we decided enough was enough. As we were returning to the car
Mailbox
In the small beach town of Hale'iwa on the North Shore. the sky really opened up and it poured so the perfect time to hit the road again.
Along the coast we went and stopped further along at Sunset beach. It's not quite so protected here and the coastline is long. The waves were really rolling in and no surfers were in sight. After a quick walk in the wind we set off again. We stopped further along the coast where we found some stalls serving prawn dishes. We all got a prawn each thanks to Jim and munched away. Yum.
From here we drove down the East Coast until the town of Kaneohe. We stopped here for a quick bathroom break and decided to try a Ramen place for dinner. By the time we came out it was dark so we drove back to Honolulu. Our adventure away from Waikiki was over but it was a really fun day out. Lots of singing in the car, joking about and laughing and just great to do something different. The North Shore is a lot more rugged and was certainly exposed to the elements that day. Huge waves and lots of wind.
Another excursion that we do whilst in
Morning view
Getting up early for a hike up Diamond Head doesn't seem so bad when this view awaits you at the top. Honolulu is the hike up to Diamond Head. Diamond Head is a volcanic crater which is a well known sight from Waikiki. You drive or walk into the crater itself and then walk up it's side to the top for a brilliant view out over Waikiki and the rest of the island of Oahu. We walk from the hotel and it takes longer to walk up to the park than it actually takes to do the hike to the top of the crater. We give ourselves 3 hours, an hour there - half an hour up and then a bit of a rest - then an hour back to the hotel. We usually go early as it's not so much fun in the heat of the day. We pretend that we are being good and getting some exercise but I think we cancel that out by having a margarita with dinner - oopsi.
So that's my wee story of Hawaii layovers. I'm off to Maui this weekend. It'll be a quiet one, I have a book with me. Haven't managed to read a book since we came back from our year away - so hopefully my brain power can
Groovy snail
Walking from Waikiki up to Diamond Head. last long enough. I have to watch my pennies since we have 4 weeks until we leave for Scotland - woo hoo.
Have a good weekend and cheerio for now.
Love Mike and Charlotte xxx
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non-member comment
Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing.