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Published: November 10th 2005
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Wednesday
I left for Hawaii for a week..
The trip there was crazy!! I caught a bus to Seattle and then had a look around the city, then caught a flight to San Francisco and a flight to Honolulu... I took friggin forever!!!
I was not all that impressed with Seattle.. maybe because I was there all by myself lugging around heaps of luggage. I felt a little nervous as there were heaps of scary people (I would not like to be walking around by myself at night thats for sure!). There was also a huge anti George Bush rally on so millions of people in the streets..
Anyway when i finally arrived in Honolulu it was so hot... YAY!! I bused to Waikiki to meet Katrina at the hostel we were staying at. By this time it was pretty late so I went to bed without really seeing much.
Thursday
Today Kat and I went back into Honolulu and went to City Hall to get our camping permit. We decided to camp in Hawaii as we heard that if you get a permit you can camp at sites all around the island for free.
We hadborrowed someones tent so that we could do this. So we got our permit.
After this we went and did the Monoa waterfall walk.. Hawaii really is amazing with all its contrasting scenery. There are the beautiful beaches but then in the middle of Oahu these huge mountains rise up (and they are very verticle) where you find rainforest and waterfalls.. Amazing!!
After the walk we went down to Ala Moana Bay (down by Waikiki) and had a swim. We then walked along the shore line along Ala Moana and Waikiki beaches. Some of the hotels on Waikiki are huge and very grand. They have huge swimming pools with bars that gp right down onto the beach.
We also stopped and watched a hula show while the sun went down..
Friday
We got up really early and did the hike up the famous volcanic crater Diamond head. We got amazing views of Waikiki and the surrounding areas from up there.
Next we packed up all our stuff and went to Haunama bay, a protected marine life conservation area. We spent the rest of the day on the beach and snorkelling. The highlight of
Manoa Falls
It was really muddy on the way there so we decided we would put mud streaks on our cheeks to remember it!! the day was seeing a huge turtle swimming in the bay and feeding off the reef.
Kat and I then had to make our way to our first camp site, Bellows beachpark. the bus didnt go to Bellows and so we decided to hitchhike (don't have a heart attack mum, we wouldnt get in wit anyone who looked scary!). Hitchhiking turned out really well and we did it for the rest of the trip. People were really friendly and we never had to wait longer then 5 minutes for a lift.
So we got to the beachpark and it was really amazing. It is located on the windward side of the island (the east coast). I know exactly why it is called the windward side!!! The wind was pretty strong. The beach was beautiful though. The bay is surrounded by trees (which is where you camp) and was really remote.
Saturday
So we woke up in our tent.. was not the most comfortable of sleeps as all I had was a sleeping bag. But hey its free!!
We made our way to the town of Kailua and Kailua beach. We stayed only for a short
while as it was really windy.. Instead we headed back south to Sandy beach. We ended up spending most of the day at a small bay near Sandy bay. It had pretty good surf and was really cute.. unsure what it was called.
We then looked at several of the beaches on the way up to the North shore (we were heading up that way the next day but were unsure where we were going to camp as most of the North Shore beach parks had already been filled and we couldn't get a permit).
We stayed back at Bellows bay the night.
Sunday
I made Katrina get up bright and early and head up to the North Shore. We had been told that there was a camping ground at a beach up by the North Shore town of Haleiwa (which is located in the middle of the North Shore). So we made our way there. We found the site and put up our tent (even though we had no permit).
We then hired some push bikes and spent the day at two of the North Shore beaches - Sunset beach and Ehukai Beach, home
of the Banzai Pipeline.
I loved the beaches at the North Shore. They were beautiful. I would go straight to the North Shore if I was ever to return to Oahu. They had white sand and clear blue green waters... AMAZING!!!
We went into the toen of Haleiwa for dinner.. it is so cute. It had a marketplace and heaps of surf shops. All the locals were really friendly and it was a very relaxed atmosphere. I was amazed by the lack of hotels on the North Shore. I only saw one resort at Turtle bay (which is on the east of the North shore). I guess that is why the North shore is so unspoilt.
Monday
We spent Monday at another North shore beach - Waimea Bay. Again a bautiful beach. It has this huge rock which you can jump off into the clear blue sea. While swimming I saw another huge turtle. they are not fazed by humans at all and just swim on by... so neat!!!
We then went back to our campsite and packed up our tent. My flight was departing at 8am from honolulu. We were unsure whether we would
be able to get a ride in time for me to get to my flight in the morning so we decided to head back to the airport that night. We caught a bus to the Airport and then spent the night there... possibly the worst sleep of my life.. I do not recommend sleeping at the airport.. but then again it was a free nights accomodation!!!
And then I left for Vancouver.. and I didnt want to go back one little bit!!!
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