Hawaii Day 3

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Today was the day we were supposed to move into a 1 king-sized bedroom. We were told to bring our entire luggage down to the lobby where they would show us to our new room. Well, we went downstairs and found out that the room wasn’t going to be ready until 3pm. One of the clerks then showed us where to store our luggage while we went out.



We then headed out to the Dole Plantation. There was surprisingly less traffic on Sunday than the day before, so it made a relaxing drive. Halfway there, the scenery started to change; we were in the inland of Oahu now. It was beautiful, the mountains were awesome, and it was almost like the mountains back in Vancouver, but the mountains were lighter green because of the tropical vegetation. The trees were also very different. They were wide leave trees instead on pine needles, and they were lighter green than the ones back in Vancouver. It really felt like I was in the countryside; it was the Hawaii that I was waiting for.



We arrived at the Dole Plantation. I was really excited to see the nice country-like building in the centre of the property. It had a very country style feel to it, for example, yellow walls and a nice big porch. Our first activity on the list was to eat something to give us energy for our activities. We of course had fresh squeezed pineapple juice with our food. Fresh pineapple sure did taste differently; it was not overly sweet and also not overly sour either. It was almost like the perfect blend of sourness and sweetness that doesn’t overpower your sense of taste. As for our food, we had a luau style pork burger with pineapple and a chili dog with pineapple. The luau style porker burger really tasted interesting because it had a smoky taste and the pineapple gave it a hint of pineapple. The chili dog really didn’t taste any differently that others I have tasted; the only difference was there was pineapple, which felt forced upon the hotdog.



We then headed to our first activity in the plantation, the “Garden Tour”. I first thought that there was going to be a tour guide that will give us a tour of the garden and the different kind of plants that were there but nope! It was just an audio handset that you press a number to play the right track. The number of the track to play was provided in the information board from every station you visited. The only thing interesting there were some harvesting machinery. They were set out in a big field that used to be used to plant pineapples, but now it was empty and the machinery looked abandoned. We then went to the Dole Maze. They claim to have the biggest maze in the world, and they have Guinness’ backing to prove it. There was a goal to this maze, you have to find all 8 stations spread out around the maze. Each station had a stencil, and you put your card in to trace the stencil. That was how you would know you visited the station.



We decided not to go back to the hotel at this point. We were going to explore the north side of the island, but before that, I wanted to take the soft rooftop down on the Jeep. Driving with the roof down, exploring the north side of the island, the countryside, was awesome. While driving a sign caught my eye. The sign said “Historic town of Hale***”, sorry I don’t really remember. When we got there I saw the authentic side of Hawaii. There was a nice hometown look of restaurants, shaved ice, surf shops, and small businesses. We are planned to visit this town on Tuesday, and maybe if we were lucky we could go snorkeling there.



We then got back to Waikiki where our hotel was, and finally got try the restaurant that Golda wanted to try, “The Blue Water Shrimp and Seafood”. We ate in our hotel and I must say, it was better than I was expected it to be. The seafood was full of flavor. The shrimp was big and meaty, not just big like the prawn tempura they sell in all you can eat restaurants. I don’t know how to describe it; it was good because the taste was different, but also very tasty.



Later on that night, we headed out to the bar for a few drinks. On our way back to our hotel, we saw 2 street performances that were very interesting. First there was an eccentric dancing group that really got the crowd energized around them. They also got some of the people in the crowd involved by encouraging them to dance. The second performance was a duo of talented kids, one on a keyboard. If I had to guess they were probably around 8-12 years old. They were playing “Sweet Child O’ mine”, and nailed the guitar (or keyboard solo in this case) solo spot on.

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Photos

Dole Plantation
The main building of the Dole plantation

Pineapple Growing
Little pineapples sprouting.

Sacred Stones
One of the many sacred stones that is in the site.

Birthing Stone
If you are born on this stone, you are guaranteed high status in life.

Sacred site
This is located at the sacred site where all the islands main chiefs are born.

Parrot Con
We got conned into donating money to take pictures with the parrots. Never again!

International Market Place
It's a market place in Waikiki. Took the picture at night