Tuesday, the plan was to check out Makaha beach, which was steps away from our AirBnB. Unfortunately, it rained most of the morning and we were getting tired out waiting for it to clear. We decided to hike Ka'ena Point which was a 5 mile coastal trail. The trail ended at Ka'ena Point a nature preserve that had albatross nesting and monk seals asleep on the beach. It was a beauty walk and to see the wildlife in their natural habitat was a real treat. It rained on and off most of the time and our boots got so caked with mud they looked like moon shoes.
That night we went to Kuhumana Farm, which was very similar to the hippie commune on Maui. The food at Kuhumana Farm was delicious. I had Tandori chicken and it was one of the best meals of the whole trip. Waianae is probably a bigger town than Hana on Maui where the hippie commune was. Waianae is considered one of the last small town gems on Oahu. It seemed very run down. Close enough to Honolulu where most people would probably commute for work, lots of homeless. Tents set-up along the beach that you could tell were peoples' permanent residence. I know Maui has a lot of permit regulations in place for camping to prevent homeless from living on the beach full-time. In Kauai it's even more strict. I didn't do any camping in Oahu but I know that the state campgrounds are much fewer and far between, I think only two on the whole island.
After arriving to Waianae it didn't take long to realize that we couldn't drive all the way around the island to the North Shore. We were unaware of this and probably should have done some research but not really something that you would think to research. The North Shore was definitely where we wanted to be and the GPS basically routed us all the back to Honolulu and then North to get there, a little over an hour drive. Not ideal but we were going to make the best of it. Wednesday we decided to check out the North Shore. We woke up early and headed to Haleiwa for our new favorite thing, acai bowls. We figured despite the fact they probably aren't that great for you we are still on vacation and it is a better choice than white chocolate macademia pancakes with coconut syrup, although I need to get those at least one more time...😂. The waves were insanely huge that day and no one was surfing the pipeline due to the conditions but there were a bunch of surfers at Waimea Bay. We spent all day going along the North Shore stopping off at various beaches to watch the waves and the surfers. We ended the day by going to one of the infamous North Shore shrimp trucks, Giovanni's. Of course neither of us wanted to order from that truck so we picked something from one of the surrounding trucks instead.
Back at the AirBnB we met two girls that were staying in one of the other units. They were nurses from New Jersey here for a wedding in Kapolei, go figure. They said most of the wedding guests were staying at the Disney Resort in Kapolei but rooms there were like $400 a night. The house we stayed in was broken into 4 separate units. Two back units, studios with a mini-fridge, we stayed in one of these units, a front unit where they were staying, and an upstairs unit. They said it had a full kitchen and two bedrooms. The other studio unit had guests in and out the whole time we were there but we didn't meet any of them and the upstairs unit there seemed to be a full-time resident. This one house was pulling in a lot of money renting all these separate units...$$$$.
Thursday was finally the perfect beach day, not a cloud in the sky. We spent the day relaxing at Makaha Beach and had dinner at one of the only other restaurants in town, Coquitos. Coquitos was a Latin restaurant. I ordered a plantain tamale dish and my mom ordered pork chops, which we both really enjoyed.
Friday being our last full day we thought about what we didn't do that we really wanted to. We decided to head back to Hawaii Kai and do KoKo Head. Although it was not a long hike it was steep with a lot of stairs and we wanted to take on the challenge. Again it was a very highly trafficked trail with both tourists and locals who use this trail as their regular workout regimen. The amount of stairs and the steepness was definitely a challenge but overall the hike was short so the struggle was over pretty quickly. My mom and I can both agree can we enjoy longer hikes better, with less crowds. Her favorite being the coastal trail we did to Ka'ena Point and mine was Kuliouou Ridge which still had a lot of stairs and was steep but was 6 miles instead of 2. After some acai bowls we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. The center is run by the Hawaii branch of Brigham Young University. They had students from all over the world working there and the center represented all of the Polynesian islands; Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, New Zealand, and Hawaii. You went around to the different islands and watched performances and listened to them speak about their various differences and similarities amongst the islands. It was pretty interesting and there was so much more you could have done there that we choice not to do, go to a luau, we missed presentations from two islands, the canoe show; we could have spent all day there.
After spending the morning whale watching from the AirBnB, where Mom finally got to see some whales jumping around, it was time to head to the airport. I dropped off Mom and was back and forth a bunch of times as to whether or not I should stay. The Volcom Pipe Pro was scheduled to start the next day at the pipeline and because the waves were so big earlier in the week and we didn't get to see anyone riding the pipe I figured it would be an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity. Also, in Kauai you have to obtain all camping permits in advance and the office is closed on the weekends. This meant I would have to stay at hostel in Kauai until Monday when I could get the permits. When I called around to the hostels it turned out that no space was available it made the decision pretty easy, I would stay in Oahu until Monday. I even looked into booking a flight back to Jersey and being done with the trip. Not that I don't want to keep going but I have been spoiled having my mom with me and staying at Air BnBs. Believe it or not it is hard to stay in vacation mode for this long. I am ready to get back to work and get life started in San Diego.
My extended stay in Oahu turned out to be a bit of an upset. By the time I dropped off Mom at the airport and got back to the North Shore most of the day was over. On Sunday, there were poor surf conditions and the competition was off for the day and my flight was early Monday, although the competition was canceled Monday as well. I spent some extra time in the town of Haleiwa and did some shopping. There was a lot of rain Saturday night and Sunday was pretty cloudy and chilly. I really liked Haleiwa and think if there was one thing I would have changed it would have been that we got an Air BnB in Haleiwa rather than Waianae, because it was so far from everything.
I arrived in Kauai around 11:30am. I picked up my rental car, which was the most expensive of all the islands so far, and by far the smallest; a Chevy Spark, my luggage didn't even fit in the trunk. I decided to go to the grocery store because the camping permit office was at lunch until 1pm. It took me over an hour to get everything sorted out with the permits. This entire trip I make decisions at the last minute; I like it I'll stay, or I think I want to go here next. To have to plan out everyday in advance where you want to camp, I am feeling very apprehensive about it. I could get to the campground and hate it. The good news is the permits are $3 a piece so if I don't like the place it's only $3, not the end of the world. The weather here is kind of a bummer. Cloudy and chilly with really high winds. I didn't get much of tan so far but it's going to fade being on this island for sure!
AROOOOOO!!!! 🏄🏻♀️🌺🌈🌊💨🍍🤙🌦
Instagram: lone_she_wolf
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/cteijelo/playlist/1uNEjK1mra1y0s3gAkTEZ4
No comments:
Post a Comment