Wow, Oahu (especially North shore) is the Hawaii I actually expected: roads directly on the beach side, palm trees, waves, and beautiful beaches! Due to the high burn rate in Kona I am now staying at a hostel. It got pretty bad reviews online about it cleanliness, but it is cheap, right on the North shore beach (Pipeline within walking distance) and looks like it would also have the nice surfer atmosphere. When arriving there I was met by a completely disinterested staff member, he accepted my money, gave me a key and told me that it would be number six, 200m down the street.
I drive up to the 'garden village', park the car and find cottage 6. Ok, it looks kinda worn (broken planks, rust, dust, etc. but it is not as bad as some of the stuff online would make you think. One of the 'cottages' has been turned into a lobby, so I head there to say hello. There's a few people there, and some surfers coming back in, reporting on their days adventures. I discuss where people have been and what their plans are. There's a nice group of Alaskan friends who are celibrating their spring break and share my college background: engineering.
They've been snorkeling and hiking on a nice site, but when I check where it is, it is right on the other side of the island: I'm not falling for that again :-). What I also learn from them is that on Oahu, there is actually no need to have your own car: there is a perfectly working bus system that gets you almost anywhere. Well, since I have the car now I decide to make a roadtrip with it tomorrow, so see what the beaches are like, and to go up North to another spot that should be great for snorkeling.
Since I haven't visited a proper beach yet I stop to enjoy the first one. Making selfies is difficult in the bright sun so the smile does not represent how I was feeling inside :-). The waves were quite nice as well, and there was even someone surfing them.
This same thing happened at a few other beaches: I was thoroughly enjoying driving around the island, stopping when there was a nice beach, sit or swim for a little bit and move on to the next great site. My GPS unit apparently didn't correctly mark the snorkeling beach, which I noticed when I was about 15 miles past it. Change of plan: go to the 'Chinaman's Hat' landmark and then turn back to snorkel on the way back. Along the way were a number of perfect postcard beaches, you can view them on picasa, link later on. Chinaman's hat wasn't that impressive, so I entertained myself by making jumping selfies... I'll have to work on that as the jumping style resembles that of a Chimpansee ;-). Chinaman's hat is the island in the background by the way.
The scenery around the site was totally impressive. Apparently a few scenes of Jurassic park have been shot around these cliffs and I can totally imagine why: they look so impressive rising up out of nothing like that. There were also a lot of para gliders enjoying themselves near these cliffs.
On the way back I did some snorkeling, but it was actually not that impressive: very little coral, few fish, and a current which was on the brink of being dangerous. Back at the hostel I cooked myself a nice meal (for the first time in ages) and had a nice evening with the other hostel guests. We started talking and drinking in the 'lobby' and later on moved to a nice beach fire. The party ended when the local police dropped in to tell us that 'All fires are illegal' and that we should put it out or be fined and arrested. Always the same guys that spoil a party...
So, off to bed at a reasonable time for a party night: 23:00. Actually not such a bad thing! I had been looking to do a hike on Oahu as well, but with little time it had, this didnt really seem feasible in the end: I had to some surfing first! I did first ride to the point which I would have liked to hike, because it was quite near to the surfshop where I was told to go by the locals the evening before. Today the waves were a lot higher (of course the locals also knew this already), so this made for a pretty impressive coastline.
I drive up to the 'garden village', park the car and find cottage 6. Ok, it looks kinda worn (broken planks, rust, dust, etc. but it is not as bad as some of the stuff online would make you think. One of the 'cottages' has been turned into a lobby, so I head there to say hello. There's a few people there, and some surfers coming back in, reporting on their days adventures. I discuss where people have been and what their plans are. There's a nice group of Alaskan friends who are celibrating their spring break and share my college background: engineering.
They've been snorkeling and hiking on a nice site, but when I check where it is, it is right on the other side of the island: I'm not falling for that again :-). What I also learn from them is that on Oahu, there is actually no need to have your own car: there is a perfectly working bus system that gets you almost anywhere. Well, since I have the car now I decide to make a roadtrip with it tomorrow, so see what the beaches are like, and to go up North to another spot that should be great for snorkeling.
Since I haven't visited a proper beach yet I stop to enjoy the first one. Making selfies is difficult in the bright sun so the smile does not represent how I was feeling inside :-). The waves were quite nice as well, and there was even someone surfing them.
This same thing happened at a few other beaches: I was thoroughly enjoying driving around the island, stopping when there was a nice beach, sit or swim for a little bit and move on to the next great site. My GPS unit apparently didn't correctly mark the snorkeling beach, which I noticed when I was about 15 miles past it. Change of plan: go to the 'Chinaman's Hat' landmark and then turn back to snorkel on the way back. Along the way were a number of perfect postcard beaches, you can view them on picasa, link later on. Chinaman's hat wasn't that impressive, so I entertained myself by making jumping selfies... I'll have to work on that as the jumping style resembles that of a Chimpansee ;-). Chinaman's hat is the island in the background by the way.
The scenery around the site was totally impressive. Apparently a few scenes of Jurassic park have been shot around these cliffs and I can totally imagine why: they look so impressive rising up out of nothing like that. There were also a lot of para gliders enjoying themselves near these cliffs.
On the way back I did some snorkeling, but it was actually not that impressive: very little coral, few fish, and a current which was on the brink of being dangerous. Back at the hostel I cooked myself a nice meal (for the first time in ages) and had a nice evening with the other hostel guests. We started talking and drinking in the 'lobby' and later on moved to a nice beach fire. The party ended when the local police dropped in to tell us that 'All fires are illegal' and that we should put it out or be fined and arrested. Always the same guys that spoil a party...
So, off to bed at a reasonable time for a party night: 23:00. Actually not such a bad thing! I had been looking to do a hike on Oahu as well, but with little time it had, this didnt really seem feasible in the end: I had to some surfing first! I did first ride to the point which I would have liked to hike, because it was quite near to the surfshop where I was told to go by the locals the evening before. Today the waves were a lot higher (of course the locals also knew this already), so this made for a pretty impressive coastline.
Near the rental shop I first went to the local beach, to check the conditions. It was a nice calm bay with lots of surfschools in the water, so I knew I should be fine. The rental price at the place the locals told me to go where great: $ 18,- for a board for a day and a free shaved ice. The guy even lend me a set of straps to put the board on the car as the beach was 5 mins away.
Surfing went ok, I took some waves and could keep on standing a lot of the time. However, the fun quickly ended when I jumped off at the end of a ride and the rocks were a little closer than expected: no problem there, but when getting up I stepped in a sea urchin... lots of pain and about 20 needles sticking from my foot (with barbs, so the wouldn't get out in one piece) ended the surfing.
On the beach I asked around a little for some vinegar, but nobody had any. One of the surf school guys told me that the needles would come out after two days or so, but that he would usually sit down immediately with a nail clipper and some pincers to open the skin and get them out... not a nice thing to look forward too. However, there's no poison or anything, so I had just a little pain to deal with... which is an emotion, so you can shut it off :-). I went snorkeling to get my mind off it, and because I had seen a lot of green turtles in the bay. There was one actually right in the beach break where people waded into the water (the only piece of sand in between the rocks). This immediately made for some nice snorkeling. Later on I was just kind of floating around on the currents, when I noticed a turtle kind of doing the same, but on the bottom, and about 2m away from me. I gently followed him around a bit (keeping him at the edge of visibility of about 2m due to the heavy surf). This creatures was immense: I guess he must have been at least 80cm across. When he came up for air he actually swum up towards and stuck his head out of the water for a quick breather about 30cm's away: so cool! Sadly no pictures this time though :-(.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful: I brought back the surfboard, enjoyed the shaved ice and got back to the hostel. The guys there gave me the tip to put some hydrogen peroxide on my feet (mmm). I first tried the first tip with the nail clippers and pincers, but this did not work at all (the guy had told me that a lot of patience was needed, but this was too much!). At the local superstore they had hydrogen peroxide, but since I had never used the stuff, and also because I would have to carry my backpack around again tomorrow I decided to try it in two days (with a little luck the needles would be gone already). Instead of working my foot more I decided to see the world famous 'Pipeline' waves: a good way to end the day: enjoy a sunset while looking at pro surfers riding large waves.
Back at the hostel I tried to the local Thai food cart, Oahu is dotted with little food carts selling all kinds of nice and cheap food, and this one was no exception: I had a very good meal, although waiting for it for 25mins probably made it the more tastier was well. The evening ended really, really early, as my flight would leave at 07:20 in the morning, from the other side of the island. My alarm clock was set to 04:00 and I parked the car in such a way that I could just drive off with my drowsy head (Wouter had taught me in Lake Garda that accidents happen at 05:00 in the morning, while trying to get out of your parking spot). The flight would take me to LA, so more about mainland US in the next post.
A (large) selection of Oahu pictures can be found here:
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