USA - Hawaii - Oahu Northshore

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Aloha!

Tuesday 2^nd October – Maui to Honolulu to the Northshore, Oahu

We landed back from Maui at 9.30am and after collecting our bags got the courtesy bus to the Budget rental pick up. I’d really wanted to hire a car and drive around Oahu so was looking for it. We got upgraded to a nice SUV and as much as I’d loved our ‘piece of s*i*’ on Maui this Dodge was a much nicer drive. And the air con worked! Jonny navigated us out of the airport and then we went wrong, the signposting in Hawaii is really terrible. We ended up coming off at a junction that without realising it took us into a military base… we were in the queue to enter (we could see them stopping to check ID and search vehicles ahead) and were thinking of great! We couldn’t turn around so had no choice but to sit there. As soon as we reached the first military personnel guy I confessed and he was so nice… he smiled and said we could do a U-Turn and when I was like ‘where?!!’ he said don’t worry, drive on and that guy will help you. So he shouted ‘SHE WANTS TO MAKE A U-Turn’ and as I drove onto the next guy he shouted ‘U-TURN’ to the next guy… and the next until I’d made my U-Turn, after driving through just poured tarmac J We ended up on the right road and headed north, the landscape was impressive, big tall jagged mountains covered in greenery. We stopped at Kualoa Park (opposite the Kualoa Range where you can do Lost and movie set tours) which I thought was a bit scrappy. We drove on up the west coast which was lovely, beautiful clear blue water and narrow white sandy beaches. We were both hungry so stopped off for a very tasty Dominos then continuing on stopping at the odd beach where it looked like something was going on (because of the numbers of cars… usually it was to watch the surfers). We arrived at the hostel (the Main House of Plantation Village in Waimea, we had to stay in a hostel, the hotels were seriously expensive and Jonny thought he’d be ok for a couple of nights with a shared bathroom if we had our own room) early afternoon and I really needed to sleep, I was tired after last night and was feeling quite ropey. It was ok… not the nicest hostel (overpriced I think) I’d been in but I slept well… for too long! I got up and had a shower and Jonny wanted to try out Breakers, a sports bar so we drove off there and I studied whilst he watched the sports and the karaoke. There was no change of me getting up and having a go because I’d practically lost my voice! We got chatting to two girls back at the hostel; they were nice and had done a lot of travel so it was good to get ideas and tips from them. One was very grateful I had a hairdryer with me. I had a read in bed but slept terribly, really fitfully, there was nothing heavier than a sheet on the bed which I hate. I was too hot and thought I’d left Singha in Maui because I couldn’t find him during the night (he was on the floor!).

Wednesday 3^rd October – Northshore, Oahu

We had a bit of a lie in today, Jonny is getting used to it! He’d got us some bagels so we had them for breakfast then headed to Waimea Valley Park just up the road. It’s a nice park, where you walk through pretty botanical gardens with some ancient examples of Hawaiian life (like the Ku’ula Shrine to the fisherman – strategically placed rocks and examples of old grass houses) and trickles of river flowing through pebbles (some of the water seemed a bit ropey and stagnant). The climax was Waimea Falls at the end of the park, a pleasant waterfall flowing into a big freshwater pool. There were some scenes from Lost filmed in the waterfall and I was itching for a swim so I headed in (although did think twice on seeing the signs about some water borne disease… thought it must be ok though, they had lifeguards) after checking in with the lifeguard. There were not many people swimming so I was worried at first (turned out on listening to them that not many of them could swim) and headed out to the falls. The water was freezing but I made it through the deep water (thank you again Mum and Dad for the swimming lesson) and sat in the waterfall whilst Jonny took some pictures. I’d have liked to get further back into it but was worried about my poorly ear. The lifeguard on his surfboard tried to talk to me but it was pointless as I couldn’t hear him let alone reply as I had hardly any voice. I swam around for a bit then got out and dry. We walked back through the park after I picked up a ‘Shave Ice’ which we’d seen advertised everywhere but didn’t know what they were… it’s basically ice covered with flavoured juice… it was ok.

We got back to the car and headed off in search of more lost filming location (found a fantastic website www.govisithawaii.com/2010/02/23/oahus-top-3-scenes-where-lost-is-filmed/). We stopped once at a beach with loads of people staring into the surf and I thought TURTLES…so we got out and I was right… there were Green Sea Turtles crashing around in the surf… some of them were quite big (Jon and I were talking about what they ate later… prompted us to Google)! We drove onto Mokule-ia Beach where the original Lost plane crash scene was filmed and Camp Erdman which is the site of the ‘Others Camp’. We could have gone in to have a look around but decided to do a drive past photo and stop every now and again to take pictures of the beach and the mountains behind which was where ‘the monster’ lived. We also happened to pass an industrial building which I’d read was Mr Eko’s home in Nigeria…

We were hungry and Macdonalds was easy so we headed to the drive through… Jonny has asked me to note in here that it wasn’t such a great idea when the driver (i.e. me) has no voice! But we managed to order something and munched on it before heading in search of another Lost location… the main beach camp. It’s quite hard to find but we had good directions and we easily found Papailoa aka Police beach. We walked along the rocks because the sand was ridiculously hard to walk along (we can’t remember the rocks in Lost though?) and found the location. I knew from the website that until a few years ago the buildings were still there with tape around them but they’d all been removed… the only reason we knew it was the right place was from the internet photos and the discarded yellow tape. The beach isn’t private but the trees etc are so we couldn’t walk around too much. I noticed on return that our new hire care had 566 in the number plate… just like the MFY one!

Back at the hostel I had a quick shower then headed to the Plantation Village to use the internet… needed it for my study. Jonny wanted to go o Jameson’s to watch the sunset so I rushed back but not quite in time to get him to watch the sunset so we stopped just outside Haleiwa and watched the most stunningly colourful sunset, the sky and sea lit up bright red! Once we found Jameson’s I was glad we’d stopped earlier as the view wouldn’t have been so good, but we did have a nice dinner… I had two cheap starters (salmon pate which I’d been craving since Jonny told me they had it and mushrooms stuffed with crab) and Jonny had a delicious tuna steak. We headed back to watch TV and for me to study and chatted a bit to a couple who were staying in the Main House with us. It was interesting talking to him as he was from Maui and knew all about the famous surfing stop ‘Jaws’ where waves can get up to 60ft (in January/February)! I was so tired I headed to bed early and slept better.

Thursday 4^th October – Northshore, Oahu to Waikiki

We were up early to pack, although I had to finish my boring book before we left because I couldn’t bear to carry it around with me any longer. We headed back towards Honolulu and our first stop was the Dole Pineapple Plantation because we wanted to go on the Pineapple Express! We had a bit of a wait so got a Pineapple Turnover for breakfast then headed for the little train…we declined having our picture taken with a pineapple… The train ride was informative. Dole (an international brand) originally started as a fruit stand but as the Hawaiian deep red soil was excellent for pineapple growing the company flourished (apparently pineapples originated in Paraguay, ended up in Hawaii after a shipwreck in the 17^th century) at altitudes of less than 3000ft. They grow all year round and are planted and harvested by hand (the workers have to wear protective clothing due to the sharp leaves); a skilled planter can plant 10000 a day! It takes 20 months for the first crop to be ready for harvesting and then a further 15 months for the second crop. After the second crop the plant is dug up and re-planted. The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality across the world; James D Dole opened his operation in 1899 and at times has produced 50%!o(MISSING)f the world’s pineapples and 90%!o(MISSING)f the world’s canned pineapples! He died in 1958 and the company is now the Dole Food Co. I was pleased to see coffee plants (that I’ve not seen before) and sugar car but overall we were a bit disappointed with the train ride. I wanted to see fields of fields of pineapples and Jonny wanted to see an actual pineapple in a plant… we got neither (I told Jonny I could give him a photo I have of a pineapple in the plant). The only really good things about the train was the nice music from the local band, the choo choo of the train (added to the atmosphere) and the pineapple on a stick we got at the end (but as Jonny said…where was the cheese????!).

The World’s Largest Maze is at the plantation but we gave that a miss to continue on our journey. We headed on the Freeway to the East Coast (random moment when a woman went past is in the back of a pick-up – even though there was space in the front – AND she was on her mobile phone!) because I wanted to visit the Valley of the Temples… only to find when we got there that it was actually on the West Coast! We kept on driving because there was a famous surf beach further up the coast but it was flat as a pancake. The East coast is more commercial than the West and North coasts and not as picturesque. We had time to spare so drove over to the West coast to the Valley of the Temples… a memorial park which is absolutely beautiful, such a peaceful and tranquil place to remember loved ones. We went to the Byodo-in-Temple which was built in 1968 to commemorate the 1^st Japanese immigrants to Hawaii and is a scale replica of a temperature at Uji in Japan (it was also used as Sun’s father’s house in Lost). The temple was nice… I enjoyed having a look around. It’s built without nails and there is a big Buddha inside, thought to be the biggest cast since ancient times. It smelled of Thailand inside, nice memories. We left the temple and headed back to Waikiki…

Next up…back to Waikiki.

Xx

NOTE: I use these updates to capture my memories and share what I'm doing on my travels with friends, family and anyone who’s interested enough to read. The views are my own and I try my best to ensure any information I share is fair and accurate but I do sometimes get things wrong. I welcome any feedback so I can make improvements and corrections for future readers. Thank you.

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