We’re now a week into our travels and have experienced the first of four Hawaiian islands – O’ahu. From beautiful rainforest cliffs to picture perfect white beaches to old surfing dudes with beards to massive waves and heavenly fruit smoothies, the island has had us grinning from day one.
We arrived on Saturday night after a pretty horrendous thirty straight hours of travelling on no sleep. Air Canada managed to be just about the worst transatlantic airline ever by providing next to no entertainments and not giving us enough food. However, we arrived at Honolulu and got to Waikiki with no hassles - the driver on the airport shuttle bus was so chilled it made us want to pass out just by listening to him!
Luckily the sleep deprivation worked in our favour by giving us a good night’s sleep and we miraculously escaped the 10 hour jet lag. Waikiki is a tourist paradise. For a tropical island there certainly is a LOT of high rise accommodation, shops, bars and traffic. However, seeing the famous mountain skyline and surfing that day in 28 degree aqua coloured waters certainly made up for the initial shock of the concrete jungle.
We headed for the North Shore the next day, the stuff of legend. We cut through the middle of the island, with pineapple plantations and shrimp pools on either side of the road, before topping a hill and getting our first glimpse of the infamous waves. Driving down the coast, past Hale’iwa, we saw perfect corduroy lines of surf everywhere. Suddenly we dropped down a little hill and we were there…on Waimea Bay. We bodysurfed in the infamous shorebreak – seriously heavy waves that pound you onto the beach! Great fun being picked up by the 4ft glassy wall and then flying towards the beach, sometimes losing control and ending up on your head covered in sand. We then drove along the North Shore and stopped at Pipeline and Sunset Beach to watch the surfing pros do their thing in the 6 foot-plus surf before heading onwards to the campsite on the north east coast.
We set up camp that night in a little clearing on a beachside site and ate roast chicken whilst watching the incredible sunset and then the bright stars once dark had fallen. The beach was a sweeping, almost deserted curved bay with palm trees and little ghost crabs that scurried into their holes when they felt footsteps on the sand. We watched the sun rise over the Pacific with pretty colours as the sun lit up the clouds over the O’ahu mountains – magical stuff.
That day we drove around the north and east coasts of the island, which are much less touristy and extremely picturesque. We took in towering fluted green cliffs covered with rainforests, little offshore islands amid turquoise blue lagoons and white sandy beaches during the morning and early afternoon. Treated ourselves to fresh smoothies with mangoes, pineapple, apple, blueberries and frozen yoghurt - yummy!!! We made it round to Diamond Head by mid afternoon and walked the 700m, wheezing American-filled, climb to the summit. At the top we could see right across to the high rise world of Waikiki again – it seemed a different world to what we’d experienced that day! We had to make it back to the campsite for 7pm so we took a shortcut back via the Pali highway, again stopping to see breathtaking views across the mountains from a lookout spot which hosted the last battle of the Hawaiian tribes in the late 18th Century – lots of warriors driven over the cliff edges in similar fashion to Thermopylae...
Our final day on O’ahu started with us packing up camp (and being caught by a big rain storm whilst doing so!) and then driving back to the North Shore. We stopped to watch the Reef Pro surfing competition at Hale’iwa for a while, before Gaz rented a board and headed out to Papai’loa to surf the 5 foot waves wrapping around the point. After a shave ice each (a Hawai’ian specialty), we headed back towards Honolulu. We had a bit of time before the flight so we drove to Hanamau Bay to snorkel. However, we ended up in a bit of a rush due to being forced to sit through a pointless, cheesily soundtracked, induction video about ‘how to look at fish’ or something. Consequently we ended up with 20 mins snorkelling and then did a mad dash back to the airport through lanes of busy traffic. A few wrong turns, a very efficient car rental return service, and an extremely understanding Aloha Airlines check in clerk (we were 15 mins late for our check in deadline) later, we were set to fly out to Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii.
We arrived on Saturday night after a pretty horrendous thirty straight hours of travelling on no sleep. Air Canada managed to be just about the worst transatlantic airline ever by providing next to no entertainments and not giving us enough food. However, we arrived at Honolulu and got to Waikiki with no hassles - the driver on the airport shuttle bus was so chilled it made us want to pass out just by listening to him!
Luckily the sleep deprivation worked in our favour by giving us a good night’s sleep and we miraculously escaped the 10 hour jet lag. Waikiki is a tourist paradise. For a tropical island there certainly is a LOT of high rise accommodation, shops, bars and traffic. However, seeing the famous mountain skyline and surfing that day in 28 degree aqua coloured waters certainly made up for the initial shock of the concrete jungle.
We headed for the North Shore the next day, the stuff of legend. We cut through the middle of the island, with pineapple plantations and shrimp pools on either side of the road, before topping a hill and getting our first glimpse of the infamous waves. Driving down the coast, past Hale’iwa, we saw perfect corduroy lines of surf everywhere. Suddenly we dropped down a little hill and we were there…on Waimea Bay. We bodysurfed in the infamous shorebreak – seriously heavy waves that pound you onto the beach! Great fun being picked up by the 4ft glassy wall and then flying towards the beach, sometimes losing control and ending up on your head covered in sand. We then drove along the North Shore and stopped at Pipeline and Sunset Beach to watch the surfing pros do their thing in the 6 foot-plus surf before heading onwards to the campsite on the north east coast.
We set up camp that night in a little clearing on a beachside site and ate roast chicken whilst watching the incredible sunset and then the bright stars once dark had fallen. The beach was a sweeping, almost deserted curved bay with palm trees and little ghost crabs that scurried into their holes when they felt footsteps on the sand. We watched the sun rise over the Pacific with pretty colours as the sun lit up the clouds over the O’ahu mountains – magical stuff.
That day we drove around the north and east coasts of the island, which are much less touristy and extremely picturesque. We took in towering fluted green cliffs covered with rainforests, little offshore islands amid turquoise blue lagoons and white sandy beaches during the morning and early afternoon. Treated ourselves to fresh smoothies with mangoes, pineapple, apple, blueberries and frozen yoghurt - yummy!!! We made it round to Diamond Head by mid afternoon and walked the 700m, wheezing American-filled, climb to the summit. At the top we could see right across to the high rise world of Waikiki again – it seemed a different world to what we’d experienced that day! We had to make it back to the campsite for 7pm so we took a shortcut back via the Pali highway, again stopping to see breathtaking views across the mountains from a lookout spot which hosted the last battle of the Hawaiian tribes in the late 18th Century – lots of warriors driven over the cliff edges in similar fashion to Thermopylae...
Our final day on O’ahu started with us packing up camp (and being caught by a big rain storm whilst doing so!) and then driving back to the North Shore. We stopped to watch the Reef Pro surfing competition at Hale’iwa for a while, before Gaz rented a board and headed out to Papai’loa to surf the 5 foot waves wrapping around the point. After a shave ice each (a Hawai’ian specialty), we headed back towards Honolulu. We had a bit of time before the flight so we drove to Hanamau Bay to snorkel. However, we ended up in a bit of a rush due to being forced to sit through a pointless, cheesily soundtracked, induction video about ‘how to look at fish’ or something. Consequently we ended up with 20 mins snorkelling and then did a mad dash back to the airport through lanes of busy traffic. A few wrong turns, a very efficient car rental return service, and an extremely understanding Aloha Airlines check in clerk (we were 15 mins late for our check in deadline) later, we were set to fly out to Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. There our adventures continue…
1 comment:
What a start to your trip!
While reading your post, memories of my 2001 trip to Hawaii flooding back: I'm at least a little jealous!
Big Island is even more impressive with volcanoes spurting everywhere, beaches with green sand and endless miles of stunning coast.
I'll look forward to your next instalment.
Hugs
J
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