East Shores of Oahu

Sunday, April 03, 2011
Waikiki, Hawaii, United States
Picked up a hired car on Saturday, a very blue Ford Focus. The drive back to Waikiki was easy enough and the traffic was hardly London standard.

In the evening we out with a few chums to celebrate Hamish's 50th birthday – bit of a surprise for him as it is not until the end of May ! We went to a Japanese buffet restaurant where the range of food was simply amazing . Lots of different sorts of sushi, Hawaiian Poke (marinated sashimi), several varieties of local fish, tepanyaki, beef sukiyaki, many vegetable dishes, chicken kara-age, tempura, crab (which was VERY popular but we didn’t have any as it was a bit messy to eat), lobster tails, oden, soba, udon, shaved ice, cakes, jelly, donuts, etc.... A very jolly evening was had by all – librarians really are fun – honestly, they are.....

Sunday morning, we drove with our friends Antony and Virginie to Diamond Head with the intention of hiking to the top. Alas, by 10:00 the car park was full and we were turned away. So we headed on along the coast road to look at some of the beaches and surfers. First stop Hanauma Bay, a perfect semicircle formed when the sea broke through the wall of a volcanic crater. Very popular with snorkelers because the water is so clear. Just along the coast was the Halona Blowhole where the crashing waves spurt through a hole in the rocks in a huge plume of water . Very impressive and exciting wondering if the idiots trying to get close to the blowhole would slip on the jagged rocks and come a cropper ! Sadly none did but they definitely qualify for a Darwin Award.

Rounding Makapu’u Head we turned both along the Windward Coast. Stopped for lunch at Waimanalo Bay – 4 miles of palm-fringed beach. Looked like your perfect idea of a Pacific Paradise but turn and look behind you and there were forbidding, serrated, volcanic mountains, their tops lost in the ominous grey clouds. Had lunch sitting by the beach wishing we had our bathers – we were planning a mountain hike so didn’t bring them :+(

The Road Goes Ever On to the beach town of Kailua and finally Kane’ohe Bay. We stopped at the Heeia State Park – a rather grandiose name for a community centre in a small piece of wooded land on a promontory but the views were stunning. Midst the trees lurked nasty biting insects and soon Alan and Virginie were scratching little red bumps on their legs. Antony & I were fine – seems to be a law of nature that in each couple one is irresistible to insects, the other escapes unbitten.

After fortifying smoothies in a branch of Jamba Juice (thanks for the tip, Rob) we headed back to Honolulu on route 63, the Likelike Highway which goes through a tunnel under aforementioned forbidding mountains and were back in Waikiki in half an hour. Heavens knows how long the journey used to take in the old days.

Comments

Koen
2011-04-04

Hallo mannen,
Wat heerlijk om zo met jullie mee te reizen. In gedachten zijn we weer terug op Tonga. Ook zo'n tropisch paradijs! Ik geniet van elk verslag en elke foto. Alleen krijg ik er wel honger van! ;-)
Veel groeten van Koen en Wim.

Etsuko
2011-04-04

Esta vez es más estilo de Alan con las fotos de comida.

Mavis Pilbeam
2011-04-04

A great journey! My favourite photo was the hula bear.

Lynda
2011-04-05

不错, 好看又好吃。

Sara
2011-04-05

Look at that sea! (noo - not jealous at all me - not a bit......sob!)

2025-02-07

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