A Weekend on the Windward Coast

We spent the majority of our weekend enjoying the windward coast of Oahu. It's so nice driving up the Kalanianaole and Kamehameha highways and seeing the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.

Saturday we made a stop at Sandy Beach, which is just north of the Halona Blowhole. The beach was big and sandy (surprise!), but the current and waves were a big strong. There were several surfers and bodyboarders in the water, but that was about it.

Sandy Beach

After Sandy Beach, we headed up to Kailua Beach. We've been here a few times and it's gorgeous, but we'd never actually laid out and enjoyed the beach or gone swimming. Kailua is famous for having a couple islands off the coast and we saw that there were actually people out on one of them. It didn't seem that far so we thought we would try to just swim out there. We got about halfway before we realized that all those people got out there by kayaking. We ended up just turning around and swimming back. And it was exhausting. We thought about renting a kayak but it was $50 for 4 hours and that was just way too expensive for us. We just decided to relax on the beach and I ended up taking a nap. It was so nice!

Driving up the H3
View of Kaneohe from H3

Sunday was our last day exploring Oahu. We drove back up to the Windward side via the H3, which I still hadn't been on. There are some sweet tunnels and no exits until you get to the end. It was pretty cool. We went to Chinaman's Hat which is an island off of Kualoa Park. It's actually lava rock and got it's name because it looks like a Chinese peasant's hat. We read that you could basically walk there during low tide, and if you're in good condition you could climb to the top. We got there and it was low tide so we grabbed our swim shoes (the entire ocean floor is lined with sharp reef!) and snorkels and headed out. We walked about halfway and swam in the deeper parts, but we made it out just fine. I guess it's about 1/3 of a mile from the shore. We got there and began looking around for a good place to start climbing. It was pretty steep, so we headed around towards the ocean side. There's a small beach there that we read about with some cool caves. We found the beach and as soon as Jon said "It's so secluded here!" we found a naked guy trying to break open a coconut. I don't know if this guy lives there or was just hanging out for the day or what, but he looked like a cave man. Long, dread-locked hair and just laying out in the sun for all the world to see. It was hilariously strange, and ruined our opportunity to check out the beach. I wonder if he actually lives there though, there are only 3 coconut producing palm trees and I don't know what else he could eat. Fish maybe? I should have asked him. But he was naked and that would have been awkward.

We continued looking for a good spot to start climbing, but dang that thing is steep. We got about half-way up before we ran out of good trail and I was terrified I was going to slip and die. It was so scary. We were climbing through thorny plants and slippery rocks and I was grabbing onto branches and overgrown grass for dear life. I'm sad we didn't make it to the top, but I'm happy that I'm still alive. I'm sorry to say I don't have any pictures from the island, but I couldn't exactly take my camera with me. I also didn't come back with a coconut because I couldn't find any.

Getting back to the mainland (I guess that's what I should refer to Oahu as when I'm on an even smaller island?) was a lot more difficult. Tide had come in and raised the water level about 2-3 feet so we could no longer touch the bottom and the waves were getting bigger. I'd swim so hard and barely get anywhere. Then I'd get salt water up my nose or I'd swallow it and start choking. I had the snorkel and mask but I still managed to cough like a drowning maniac. It was scary and felt like it took forever for us to get back to dry land. It took us about 2 hours to get to the island, walk around, and get back. I don't know how long the swims took us, but it felt like we were gone for a lot longer than that. It was definitely a cool experience, and I'm really glad we made the trek out there. There weren't many people there so it's not something the average tourist does. Sadly, as we got back to the beach we saw people had made it to the top somehow.

View of Chinaman's Hat from Kualoa Park. Yes, we swam all the way out there and attempted to climb to the top of that.

After a nice picnic lunch at the park we drove down the to Valley of the Temples. This is a memorial at the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains where several Buddhist, Christian, and Shinto residents of Hawaii are buried (thanks Wikipedia). We also went to this temple that cost $3 to get into. Here is the description from Wikipedia: The park features the replica of a 12th. century Japanese Buddhist temple built in the late 1960s. Its name is Byodo-In Temple which translates to the Phoenix temple, because of the two majestic metal phoenixes along the top ends of the main temple. It is a recreation of the Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan. Inside the main part of the temple there is a 9-12 ft Buddha sitting on a gold leaf lotus. That part is wrong because the Buddha is actually more than 18 feet. It was so beautiful and ornate and awesome, man it was cool. We also saw several wild peacocks just hanging out and a black swan. And the gift shop had really cool stuff. I got a little gold Buddha that is supposed to chase away evil spirits.

Byodo-In Temple
Giant Buddha!
Look at that ceiling!
I was jealous of all the paper cranes.
Peacock! This was the only male peacock we saw. We saw several female and some babies too!
Black swan, which is apparently usually only found in Australia.
Jon and me in front of the temple.
The two phoenix birds on top of the temple.
Small waterfall
Memorial that I thought was pretty.
Awesome view or what?

I'm sad to say that my stay here in Hawaii is coming to an end. Jon's work is sending him back to Dayton for the month of May for training, and I'm not about to stay here by myself with no job. So, I'm headed back to Indy to start my job with National City. I'm excited to be going home because I miss my family and friends, but I'm just not done with Hawaii yet. I love swimming in the ocean and going to the beach and snorkeling. I love seeing mountains everyday and exploring new cool things. Hawaii is spectacular and I'm so lucky that I got to take 2 long months to explore just about everything the island of Oahu has to offer. Hopefully, some day I can take just as much time to explore the other islands as well, because the beauty of this tropical paradise is amazing. However, I will be back home again in Indiana on Friday.

North Shore Again

Man, I love going to the North Shore. It makes me so happy.

So anyway, after our terrible experience at Hanauma Bay, Jon and I started researching other places to snorkel on Oahu and we found Shark's Cove. Many argue that it is actually much better snorkeling than Hanauma Bay because it is free and a lot loss crowded, and therefore there are more fishies swimming around. We had actually already been to Shark's Cove without realizing it. It was the area which I thought was Waimea Bay and where we climbed around on lots of rocks (not to be confused with my favorite place in the world, Lana'i Lookout). We came prepared with our swim shoes and our sunscreen so our backs wouldn't get burnt.

At Shark's Cove there's not much of a beach and you have to climb down some rocks to get down there. It's very rocky, so you just kind of put your stuff down on a rock and start wading in. We thought since it was getting towards to end of April that it would be calm enough to go snorkeling, and there were already several people out in the water. In the winter it is impossible to go snorkeling here because of 40-50 ft. waves. Well, I didn't do so great. Just trying to get out into the deeper water was impossible because it was windy and there was a pretty strong current. At one point when I was under water I saw a GIANT school of fish right under the surface so I started freaking out because I was going to have to swim right through them to get anywhere. Then the waves started picking up, I couldn't touch the bottom so I kept going under without my goggles on, and eventually I started getting slammed up against the big rocks. I got a cut on my ankle and several scrapes on my legs. I was so panicky, but I knew I just had to put my goggles and snorkel on and swim out of there. I eventually made it out of the water, and Jon was proud of me that I got out of panic mode long enough to get myself out of the water without getting too badly injured. I felt really bad because I really wanted to get out into the deeper water so we could see bigger fish and hopefully some sea turtles. It was just going to be impossible for me.

So after I escaped in my life we figured we'd better go over to where the actual cove is where the water was much calmer because it was protected by large rocks. We still managed to see a lot of cool fish, much more than we saw at Hanauma Bay. The water here went from knee deep to like 15-20 ft deep really quick, and there was an area where the tide came in where lots of fish hung out. It was fun to swim around the underwater rock caves and see all the fish. At one point we were completely surrounded by trumpet fish and some other kind of fish I don't know. We just kind of hung out in the same spot for about 10 minutes because we were surrounded. It was so crazy, but so awesome.

We also climbed up on the big rocks that separated the ocean from the cove because we saw a waterfall trickling down and wanted to know where it was coming from. There were little tide pools trapped up there which was really neat to see. We also felt like we were kind of standing at the edge of the world. Then I was terrified to climb back down. Rocks are not smooth. I found that out when I slipped and landed on my butt. It hurt :-(

Jon ended up getting really sun burnt too :-(

So this is part of Shark's Cove. This is the more open part where we wanted to end up snorkeling but I couldn't make it out that far.
If you look in the middle of this picture you can see where we entered the water to go out to the open area. There are some pretty big rocks there and those are the ones I got smashed up against.
Towards the top of this picture you can see the big rocks that block the ocean and create the coves. Where the big pools of water are is where we went snorkeling and saw tons of awesome fish.

I highly, highly recommend snorkeling whenever possible. It is such an awesome experience.



After snorkeling we wanted to stop in the North Shore town of Hale'iwa for a Shaved Ice from the famous Motsumoto's Grocery Store. This is like a world famous place to get Shaved Ice and there's always a long line. You kind of need the long line though to decide what flavors you want! It's super cheap too. We each got a large shaved ice with 3 flavors and ice cream for only $2.50 each! I got cotton candy, strawberry, and green apple. Jon got raspberry, coconut, and pineapple. I liked Jon's better than my own.

The famous Matsumoto's! Waiting in line.
Yummy Shaved Ice!!
The line was much longer after we already got ours. There was a school group from Cleveland, OH. Jon just can't escape Ohioans.

Manoa Falls

Thursday, Jon got out of work early so we knew we had to do something fun and adventurous to make it worth it. We still haven't seen a Hawaiian waterfall, so we did some Googling and found Manoa Falls, which is just about a 10 minute drive from our apartment.

It is near the University of Hawaii campus, and it's obviously a hike into the mountains. We were surprised to find that it cost 5 bucks to park, but it's Hawaii and tourism is their thing so whatever. It's a 1 1/2 mile hike through bamboo forests, rainforests, and the base of the Ko'oaus Mountains, and at the end is an amazing 150 ft waterfall. We were super smart and wore our water shoes since most of the trail was muddy and watery. I kept commenting every 5 minutes that I was happy I wasn't ruining my good tennis shoes. Unfortunately, we weren't smart because we didn't have any bug spray and I'm paying for that now with tons of mosquito bites.

Hiking the trail was so much fun. We saw so many cool nature-y things. The hike was so worth it because the waterfall was unbelievable. It was kind of crazy though because we found out from the people that were also there that they were from Sandusky, OH too. Jon was just like, "I can never escape Ohio!" The guy was dumb though because he crossed the barriers and actually GOT IN the pool at the base of the waterfall. Like how freaking dumb? He actually could have gotten cited for doing that. But anyway, we got some awesome pictures!

Stream at the beginning of the trail.
Bamboo forest
Tree tunnel
The waterfall!
Me and the waterfall. See the guy behind me getting in?
Pretty!

He wanted me to take this picture for some reason.
Here are the porta-potties for the trail. Lost spruced them up a little which I thought was funny.
See the cardinals?
Oh yeah, Jon got his Hawaii license plates.

Well we finally made it to Hanauma Bay, since all we'd been hearing from everyone was how that was where we needed to go to snorkel. Jon got in for free with our cable bill proving our residency. Apparently, a pay stub confirming I live with him was not good enough for them. They must be really scared of scammers or something, because they were not very nice about it. It's easier to get a state ID here than it is to get into Hanauma Bay with the Kama'aina discount. So anyway, they were mean to us and pretty much ruined my whole experience. But anyway....

They give you a ticket for a time that you have to go into a theater and watch a 10 minute video on preserving the bay. Then you have to walk down this really steep hill. Or you can pay to take a tram! HB loves money, greedy greedy people. We also checked out their concession stand, and I almost had a heart attack. A kid's meal with PB&J was $20, and a family "meal deal" for 4 was $80. Definitely take your own food!!!

We were there early (around 9:30) so the beach wasn't that crowded yet, but it was starting to get that way. We found a good spot to put our stuff and headed out into the water. There were tons of rocks we had to wade through to get out to where we could snorkel. It was like walking on gravel in knee deep water and it sucked big time. Note to self, buy swim shoes. There's a lot of coral and reef which just looks like big rocks in the water, and you're not supposed to touch it because it's living and that's where the fish live and eat. It's kind of hard not to sometimes when the waves push you up against it or you get stuck in a spot. There were several times we had to float over the reef very carefully so we wouldn't scrape our bellies or arms. We saw several big and colorful fish, but no sea turtles :-( I guess the Bay is dying since there are so many tourists that go there and don't care about damaging the reef. I wasn't scared at all to be swimming with the fish. They seem to be used to all the people swimming around. I really wish I would have had an underwater camera, because it was just such a cool experience to be seeing how everything exists underwater. I had never even used goggles in the ocean before, so now it's given me a whole different perspective. It was like swimming through underwater caves and mazes and it was amazing.

It was hot out and our backs got burnt! Now we look funny because we have lines going down the sides of our arms. Note to self, wear lots and lots of sunscreen on my back when snorkeling.

Here is a view of Hanauma Bay from the hill:
Hanauma Bay. Look at all the little snorkelers and the reef.

So that was how we spent our Easter. It was a perfect sunny day, but I wish I could have spent it with my family. I miss them and can't wait to see them.

Aloha!

Leeward Side

Aloha!

Today we had to tackle the last bit of coastline we hadn't made it to yet--the Leeward Coast. For those who don't know what that means (I didn't before I moved here lol), it's the southwestern cost after Pearl Harbor and all that. It's supposed to be the drier, more arid side of the island. It was overcast and cloudy here in Honolulu, and by the time we got to the western most tip it was definitely a lot sunnier and a lot hotter!

Our first stop was at Ko'Olina Resort where there are lagoons great for snorkeling. It was a secluded hotel/vacation ownership type place and it was really nice. The snorkeling was cool, a little cloudy until we got farther out. We saw some pretty awesome fish, like a black one with little white polka dots. And we also saw the Hawaii state fish--the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a. I don't know how Jon knew that was the fish, but all I could think of was the song of the same name from High School Musical 2. I hightailed it out of the ocean though as soon as I saw tons of crabs scurrying around on the nearby rocks. Um, no thanks.

Then we headed up the coast towards Ka'Ena Point which is the western most tip of Oahu. We passed several beaches along the way, and a lot of this area seemed to be a lot more run down. There were tents set up everywhere along the beach and areas where people were clearly living in tents, but they had cars and stuff. It was a little scary. We stopped at Ka'Ena State Park to check out the beach because it was super sunny. The waves were huge here! Well not like 20-30 foot waves like the North Shore can see in the winter, but they were probably like 6 foot waves. Definitely too dangerous for swimming. The plan was too keep driving around the point to end up on the North Shore by Dillingham Airfied since we hadn't been by there yet. Unfortunately, we ran into this: Apparently, they haven't gotten around to paving this road yet so we had to turn around and go back. So driving around the island is impossible! I guess you have to hike around it (3.5 miles one way!) and beware of criminals! Well, I don't think there are criminals on the trail, but they'll break into your car.

On the way back we finally, finally, finally went to Target! We went to the one in Kapolei as opposed to the one in Honolulu. It was in an area by the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park, and was very mid-westernized. It was very open and you could tell the area was just starting to be built up. And there were no parking garages. The only thing that made me sad was there was no One Spot at the Target. They had an Aloha Spot where they just had touristy Hawaii stuff. But it wasn't a dollar :-(

Tomorrow we might finally hit up Hanauma Bay. We've been unsuccessful going 3 times now. Yesterday, we actually made it to the ticket booth but they wouldn't accept pay stubs with our Hawaii address as a proof of residency. You save the 5 bucks to get in if you live here. We'll try again tomorrow. Maybe we'll even hit up an Easter morning Sunrise Service on the beach...well probably not. That's too early when there's no promise of yummy breakfast.

Happy Easter!

Dole Plantation, North Shore, and Snorkeling!

This weekend our plans got switched around a lot, but we still had an awesome time. We really wanted to go to Hanauma Bay because it's apparently the place to go snorkeling. We got up early and made it out there around 10am. It opens at 6am, but that's too early to go swimming, right? The sun's not even out yet. So anyway, we get to the light before Hanauma Bay and a cop had blocked off traffic and was stopping each car. Of course right before he gets to us he tells us to turn, and then we get back in the lane to turn right and wait again. And as soon as he gets to us again he gets in his car and leaves. It was just really weird and kinda mean because I was really curious. I think there may have been an accident on the 2 lane road and traffic was all backed up. So we decided to head on up to the North Shore since we were already out and it was early.

It took us about 45 minutes or so to get to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. I had been so excited to go since I heard about it. There's a giant maze (the World's Largest!) that's 2.46 miles of pathways. We were issued cards and we had to go through the maze and find the 8 hidden stations and then trace the stencil from that station on the card. They were things like a palm tree, sea urchin (which I found 4 times), fish, warrior, sun, etc. They also have the top 5 times on a board and if you beat those you get a prize. The fastest time was 5 minutes. What the!?! How could anyone possibly do it in 5 minutes? It took us an hour and a half! We couldn't find the stupid Pineapple station! We cheated a little because we found a map. It didn't have the stations labeled, just where they were, so we had to try to figure out which ones we'd already been to. It was exhausting, and I was beyond cranky at the end.

So we decided to reward ourselves with some pineapple ice cream! It was yummy! The Dole Plantation also has a train--the Pineapple Express (lol), a garden tour, and a giant gift shop, along with tons and tons of baby pineapples. Did you know it takes 22 months for a pineapple to grow? For real. That's forever!

Dole Plantation
Finally found the pineapple and finished the maze! Only took us an hour and a half.
When there are cut-outs for your face you have to take a picture. It's just necessary.

Baby pineapple growing out of the ground.
This plantation was directly next door to the Dole Plantation. I'm not sure what they do, but they had no visitors, except us!

After the Dole Plantation we continued up to the North Shore. We ended up in Waialua, which is a small town on the North Shore. It was so...Hawaii! It was really cool but seemed really far away from things. I couldn't believe that we were even on the same island anymore. We also stopped at Waimea Bay and walked around the rocks. We continued to the very top point of Oahu and stopped by the Turtle Bay Resort. It was so fancy. I would definitely recommend staying there for a few nights on a honeymoon or something. After Turtle Bay we continued down the Windward side of the island and stopped at Laie Point. Jon liked that because he got to drive his car on the rocks and sand. Our leisurely drive around the island took us about 7 hours, but we covered a lot of ground and it was awesome!

Waimea Bay. Site of lots of snorkeling.
Those rocks were slippery and scary but it was fun!
The world famous Bonzai Pipeline! This is where many surfing competitions take place. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any outrageous surfing, but it was still really cool.
Surfers at Pipeline. It's April so the waves are relatively tame, although they were the biggest I have seen so far.
Turtle Bay!Laei Point--we decided to stop here due to a suggestion from my pledge brother from Hawaii.
The GPS showed us at the tip of the Point. And I thought it was cool.

Sunday we drove out to Hickam with the intention of going snorkeling. Unfortunately the water was really shallow and we would have had to walk out about a mile before the water was deep enough to swim in. So we headed to Ala Moana Beach, which I kind of avoid because there are visible fish right at the shore. But the point of snorkeling is to see fish so I just had to suck it up. It was so so so much fun. We saw a giant school of fish swimming and I started shrieking under water which Jon found hilarious. It freaked me out, but we saw some really cool fish. One that I found looked like an old man fish with really big fins that spread out like a fan. And Jon found a fish that was camouflaged as a rock. So snorkeling in the ocean is fun and I highly recommend it. I just think next time I'm going to wear water shoes...