ALOHA from the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, USA!
This has been a very busy, but fun, part of my trip. My friend, Carol, met me on Dec. 31st on Oahu, and we flew directly to Kauai for a week. In case you’ve never been to the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai is probably the greenest, wettest, and quietest island in the Hawaiian chain of main islands. I love to go there to relax and just have a slower pace than my lifestyle normally affords. I think this is about my fifth time on that island, but it was Carol’s first, so I was excited to “show her around”, and that’s what I did.
I was thinking how nice it was to be back on US soil where things were more “normal.” I thought too soon… We found a couple of cockroaches in the condo when we first got there, but were too tired to worry about it. Carol killed them (my hero!). Sunday, we woke up to no electricity. At least, we still had water (which is more than I could say in some of the places I’ve lived when the electricity went out). We went out early Sunday evening and returned after dark. When we turned on the kitchen lights, cockroaches scattered everywhere. We opened the fridge and found 3 cockroaches inside! (This was beginning to sound too much like Kenya!) After killing at least ten, we’d had it! We called the front desk. They were very apologetic and accommodating and let us check out two other condos to decide where else we could live for the next week. They said sometimes, when the people come to spray for insects, the people in the condos don’t want them to spray while they are there, so that one might have gotten missed. They did say this sounded worse than they normally had, though. Luckily, we didn’t see a single one after that in our new condo. Well, that’s not entirely true…
We also discovered cockroaches in our car. In fact, while we were sitting in the car one day eating a plate lunch before going to the beach, I felt something on my arm. I thought it was a fly – NOOOOO – it was a COCKROACH crawling on my arm! I screamed and flipped my arm and the cockroach out the window. We also found them in the trunk, glove box, and floor. Our neighbor came out that night and sprayed inside the whole car for us. The next morning, Carol went out to open the windows to air out the car and discovered about 8 dead ones and one limping along. That made our skin crawl!!! Enterprise, the car rental company, was nice enough to reimburse us with $50 for the problem.
Church at the Hanelei Branch was excellent. There actually weren’t too many locals – apparently, they were off vacationing somewhere else. I’d only had a couple hours of sleep coming from So. Korea, so a two hour nap followed. It helped a lot.
The NaPali Coast can only be seen by air, boat, or hiking – I’ve now done all three. There isn’t a road that goes all the way around the island, but the scenery is magnificent. We hiked about 4 miles round trip along the Kalalau Trail to see it. I’ve loved it every time I’ve done that hike. It takes about 4 hours because it’s fairly steep, rocky, and has very slippery mud in spots – but it’s well worth it! We even saw a couple of whales way off the shoreline. (Yes, Diane, they really WERE whales – private joke.)
We took a helicopter ride around the island one day and had excellent visibility in the Waialeale Crater, which rarely happens, so we were able to go right down inside. They said that only happens about four times a year because it is the rainiest spot on earth, so we felt pretty lucky about that. We got to see the dry side of the island where Waimea Canyon (the “Little Grand Canyon”) is, the NaPali Coast, Princeville (where we stayed), Hanalei, lots and lots of waterfalls, then back down the east and south sides of the island. I’ve had a couple of helicopter rides before on other islands, but this was Carol’s first one. She handled it quite well. There are many movies that have been filmed here – Jurassic Park, South Pacific, 6 Nights 7 Days, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more. Very fun!
Hanelei Bay
We drove down to Poipu one day and shopped and beached. We also went to the Kilauea Lighthouse, and a few other beaches, and of course more shopping. One day, we kayaked up the Wailua River, hiked through the rainforest to Secret Falls and ate lunch, then hiked and paddled back to the mouth of the river. That’s always a fun thing to do. Took about 5 ½ hours.
One evening, we went to a dinner theatre and saw “South Pacific” at the Kauai Beach Resort Hotel. They were all local actors, so not anything too professional, but it was still fun to watch that particular play right on the island where the movie was partly filmed. The dinner was pretty good, too.
After a week on Kauai, we left for Oahu last Saturday. We stayed in Waikiki for two nights. We mostly ate and shopped there, but we also drove up to the Punchbowl National Cemetary and the Pali Lookout. We went to the beach and saw a hula show on the beach.
Since I lived on the North Shore of Oahu in Laie when I was 21, and I’ve been here more times than I can count now, I’ve seen just about everything there is to see and do here. Carol’s been here twice before, also, so we didn’t feel we had to kill ourselves off to see all the tourist things.
Today, we drove over to the North Shore. We’ve both had certain foods we’ve wanted to get at certain places. For me, it was a teri beef burger in Hauula and fried wonton in Laie. We managed to get both today. Those were two of my favorite things to eat when I lived here. I still don’t think I’ve ever had better fried wonton anywhere in the world.
Tomorrow, we have a busy day scheduled. We’re getting up early to go to the Laie, Hawaii LDS Temple, then go to the beach for an hour or two, shower and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center(PCC) for a day-long adventure in the Polynesian villages, a canoe ride, a buffet, and of course the evening show which is always outstanding.
I lived only a few blocks from PCC and dated a few guys that worked there. Also, several of my roommates worked in the villages. In those days, you could just walk in and wander through the villages. I spent many of my days over there when I wasn’t doing part-time secretarial work or body surfing at Pounder’s Beach. That was four months of bliss!
I’m starting to get my “sea legs” back in driving a car again on the “right” side of the road. Diane and I had joked that when we got home we were going to hit every fast food chain in town – even though I rarely do that normally. However, since I’ve been in Hawaii, I think I’ve gotten over that idea in a hurry. It feels like all we’ve done is eat – some really good, and some just okay – but food is so readily available and is actually edible here. I think I’m already starting to gain back several of the pounds I’ve lost over the past four and a half months.
I’ve only got until Thursday night here, then it’s off to Oakland, California. My trip is rapidly coming to a close. I’ve got a blog entry forming in my head that I want to write probably after I get home. I hope you’ll stick with me just a little longer.
I’m LOVING this PERFECT weather with not a drop of rain, in spite of rainy forecasts several of the days. I’ve decided my skin likes more humid climates, within reason. It’s probably a good thing I’ve got California to go to before I get home to help me acclimatize to what sounds like is finally winter in Salt Lake City. Apparently, they’ve had very little snow this whole winter and temperatures have been up as high as 60 degrees F. That’s extremely rare. I’ve heard it snowed on Saturday, I think, and the temps are now 38-23 degrees. That’s at least closer to normal.
Well, wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having a good day – I am.
Kadi
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