Hawaii 2019 - North Coast

We're back again with probably our last series for the year with our trip to Hawaii in October, split up into two parts. I had two weeks off inbetween switching jobs, so it was the prefect opportunity to escape Vancouver rain for a bit and explore a sunnier place.

We've both never been to Hawaii and the flight was surprisingly cheap after using some of the Airmiles we collected, so off we went. Our trip was 8 days long and we planned to explore Oahu (in case you don't know: the island where the capital Honolulu is located). We rented a car to drive to the North Shore (what most people would recommend when going to Oahu) and then would make our way East and South around the island before arriving back in the capital for our flight back. Hope we can give you some nice impressions from our trip and find some useful recommendations.

North Coast

After arriving in Honolulu at night we went straight to our accomodation in the north since the hotels closer to Honolulu are fairly expensive. We would stay for the next 2 nights at Unkle Blake's, a simple but fun accomodation we found through AirBnB. Many different people hanging around who are happy to chat and give tips, which made it a bit easier for us the first few days.

Unkle Blake
At Unkle Blake's

Not only could we get some advice on where to find the best beaches, they also had some snorkling gear that we could borrow for free for the day. This was excellent since we didn't bring any and would have to rent otherwise. Our first major activity was to go snorkling at Shark’s Cove. The place is great since it's mostly covered by rocks from the waves, which allows for some easy swimming.

snorkling
Shark’s Cove, one of our favourite snorkling spots

It was the first time for us snorkling in an environment like this and we were both taken away by how beautiful it was. All kinds of fish in many different colors were swimming around us, so close we could almost touch them. We ended up liking it so much that we went again the next day. We also got some bodyboards from the place, but it wasn't as much fun since the waves weren't big enough at the beach we were at.

One beach that left us with special memories was the Kawailoa Beach. It's a bit hidden away and not that busy and we were able to see a few turtles swimming right next to us, which was very lucky.

Kawailoa Beach
Kawailoa Beach
turtle
A turtle we spottet at Kawailoa Beach

Then later at night we could enjoy the beatiful sunset.

sunset1
sunset2

Our host "Uncle" Blake (he's a bit younger than your typical uncle) at the AirBnB encouraged JJ to also paint something in his place, so after a bit more pushing she was convinced to as well. With some of my support we managed to paint a red turtle on one of the washroom doors (inspired by the movie with the same name: highly recommend watchin it if you haven't already).

red turtle

Moving East

We continued exploring the north and stopped at a few places the next days:

macademia
Small macademia nut farm. You can buy them in all kinds of flavours. Here JJ is trying to open the shell of one. Not that easy!
coconut
Fresh coconut next to the road
Waimea Valley
Entrance to Waimea Valley
Matsumoto Shave Ice
Matsumoto Shave Ice, a classic
poke
Getting Poke from Foodland for lunch at the supermarket and enjoying it at the water.
Pillbox
On top of the Pillbox hike
Pillbox Alex
Tatatada
Turtle Bay Resort
Stop at Turtle Bay Resort

Camping

Once our time at the AirBnB was up we rented two surfboards and continued North-East to our campsite at Malaekahana Beach. Beautifully located at the beach we ended up being right next to the water. Apparently our neighbours saw a dead cat on their site the day before, so they ended up moving and we were pretty much by ourselves. We would stay here for another two nights to surf and relax.

pineapple
Purchasing snacks for our camping
campsite
Our campsite
campsite water
Ocean view
surfboard
Surfboard is ready

Not only was the beach beautiful to look at, it also had some decent waves. We were still struggeling since we were both beginner, but it was a lot of fun. JJ go hit by a Man-o-War sadly, which hurt immensly. Not much you can do there besides wearing long clothes.

hammock
Beach n chill
camp fire
Camp fire at night with some BBQ corn and pulld pork on garlic bread. Yummy!

One thing that surprised us on the second night was a small hurricane coming in at night. We could hardly sleep since we were worried our tent would blow away. Apparently other phones go warnings but not mine (I assume because it's from China). Anyway, we survived it, but the next morning we were happy to move on, as beautiful as it was.

Stay tuned for part 2!


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