Oahu pics here (fb): Oahu 2014
6 April: Honolulu Arrival!
I touch down a bit early at Honolulu airport and weirdly it is the morning of the same night I left Tokyo, gotta love the date line. I feel great about the heat that hits us as we walk from the airplane to the terminal shuttle bus that takes us to customs, immigrations etc. There are buses that go down to Waikiki but I opt for a taxi since I am not going to a hotel but to a private house. The house is one of a very small number in the area between Waikiki beach and the the canal separating Waikiki from the greater Honolulu. I found it on AirBnB, just as for Tokyo, and after a couple of laps around the block we find the house and the keys are where they are supposed to be. A good start to the Oahu landing!
After half an hour my host comes home and I finally get to meet Chris. He is a born and bred Oahu surf dude that runs his business from his house and looks confused when we meet, turns out he’s only seen my AirBnB profile pic which was a rather bearded fellow in comparison.. I feel immediately welcome by the laugh that follows and we sit down for a chat about the house, Chris’s business (run from home) and Oahu in general.
I take a first walk down the three blocks or so to the beach to find coffee and stretch my legs. It’s a nice and balmy days and I take a walk up and down the main strip. It’s very much like a shinier version of Bondi, similar stores, restaurants and shops with sunscreen and tacky memorabilia. I like this place! The beach is a bit grainier than ‘home’ and the hotels fancier, but I get a good feeling about my week in it’s vicinity.
When I get back to the house Chris’ housemate/tenant Amy is home, I get to meet the entire family. Amy is a tall, bubbly, energetic, smiling San Diego-born tour booker. I am told that I will be joining them for a bbq that evening. My first dinner in Honolulu is a great fun and I feel blessed about the luck and coincidence that must have brought me to these people. Long night of chatting over cake from Tom’s ends with Amy demanding I use her car for transportation while she’s at work. These two made the rest of my weeklong stay an awesome action packed indulgence in Oahu. I’d probably have achieved a third without them. This was a fun day.
7 April: Local Sites
Time to get busy! The pre-bbq shopping tour enable home-cooked breakfast for the first time in a week. I slip straight back into beachside habits and make an omelette. Today is about close-by sites and I take Amy’s car first to Diamond Head. It is the volcano crater just east of Honolulu next to Waikiki. The climb took about 20 minutes and hot in the sunshine. The views are amazing, and I get a first overview of Honolulu and it’s beautiful backdrop.
The next stop is Manoa Falls, they are (as alluded) water falls on the mountain side behind Honolulu. After about 30 minute walk through a rainy, lush, beautiful forest I reach the little falls. Totally worth the trek up and I’m pretty sure it was slightly better with rain than without..
At night Amy takes me to a bar where she and some of her friends are to see a gig by a guy called Mike Love. Mike turns out to be an awesome local reggae artist (think mix of your favorite reggae artist, Reggie Watts and the Dude from Big Lebowski). Great fun and a first taste of the local beer, turns out Hawaii has some rather good brewing going on! This was a fun day.
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8 April: Kualoa Ranch
Yesterday Amy ‘made some calls’. Today she is going on a bribe tour to one of the many vendors trying to get her and her likes to push their attractions or offerings to their clients. She’s also bringing a guest that is on a significant discount. We take her 4×4 the scenic route via south east Oahu on our way to the East side and the Kualoa Ranch. Here we’re booked in to a full day of touristy view-gazing, touring, horseback riding and quad-bikes. The scenery around this beautiful valley is truly stunning. They’ve also shot a looong list of movies here, think Godzilla coming out of the water, the stampede in Jurassic Park, lots of rom-coms, war movies set in Asia etc. Cool place. Get home exhausted but there is room for drinks later that night. This was a fun day.
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9 April: Luau
A chilled day, starting with a long walk around Waikiki, a few hours spent on the beach reading my book. Amy has ‘made some calls’ again and all three of us are going to Luau at five. We take Chris’ car an drive over to the Sea Life Park to the east of Honolulu for ‘Chief’s Luau‘. We are greeted by the owner who has put us on some VIP track so in we go through the park and are shown a nice table. Long story short the food is great, the entertainment is great, the Chief is cracking everyone up for near five hours with some suggestive sense of humour that is close to cringeworthy and Amy (I will never forgive you for this) manages to get them to drag me up on stage to learn Hula. I promptly make sure she’s dragged into this too. I am proud to say I did not hold back as I was shaking my bum vigorously on stage in Oahu, with an audience of a few hundred. Thanks Chief for that butt slap by the way. I will take it as a compliment..? Good fun and a lot of Maitais later we drive back to town and head out on town, close two bars and get home at four. This was a fun day.
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10 April: Hanauma Bay Snorkeling
Chris and Amy have the day off and we head over to Hanauma Bay to snorkel the reef there. Hanauma is a beautiful bay created by the natural flooding of a very old crater. The reef is nice and we swam with two sea turtles and lots of fish guided by Chris’ friend Allan who we happened to run into as he arrived with his little group of Japanese tourists. Such a nice spot which they are really trying hard to preserve. Off to burgers at Teddy’s Burgers and back to the house. Amy and I pick up her friend and drive up to the Buddhist Temple on a hillside behind Honolulu. A full blown temple with monks residence and all, not expected, but very nice. Head down to the beautiful sunset and drinks on the waterfront. This was a fun day.
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11 April: Roadtrippin’
Birthday time! Beautiful, heart-warming messages have been coming in since yesterday. It is a bit funny to be on the last timezone! I take Amy’s car for a ride around the island to see the west and north shores. I do not find Turtle Beach as I was supposed to, but the drive was really nice and there are so many pretty spots around Oahu to stop.
Home made fish dinner with Kladdkaka for birthday dinner and a lovely night with Amy and Chris. This was a fun day.
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12 April: Kava and Thanks
Another rather chilled out day. I am packing for tomorrow’s flight and enjoying Waikiki a bit. In the afternoon we head to a cafe where Chris meets up with a few friends on a regular basis for Kava. Chris’ friend Allan is making the Kava and we are poured some serious amounts during our stay. Nice earthy flavour!
At night I take Chris and Amy out for dinner, I don’t have a better way to thank them for a truly fabulous and amazing week in Oahu. This too was a fun day!
There are so many nice things you guys did for me that won’t fit in this text, but I am very glad and thankful for getting to know you two and all the time I got to spend with you. I hope I can return the hospitality sometime in the future!
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13 April: End of leisurely transit: Time to hit South America
A morning of packing and saying goodbye. It’s raining so I drive Amy to work and before lunch Chris takes me to the airport. I am sad to leave this lovely place, I could have spent some more time here and there are still things I haven’t seen. As with Tokyo, I will have to come back.