Day 2
Today we visited Pearl Harbour. On the drive over (which lasted two hours because of the multiple hotel pick ups and traffic!) our guide, Oli, kept us entertained with some local site seeing tips, facts about Hawaiian language and information about what happened on the day of the Peal Harbour attacks. We only had two hours at the museum which was a little disappointing. We visited the USS Arizona Memorial, visitor centre and the free museum but we didn’t get to go over to the USS Missouri, the Bowfin Submarine or the other pay-for museums on the site. If we’d have realised how much there was to see I think we would have gone there independently rather than through a tour. Not that the tour wasn’t good, Oli was very entertaining and it actually helped us to navigate around Waikiki.
After the tour we had a late lunch back at the hotel and then went for a short beach walk. Around 5:30pm, jet lag got the better of us (and the heat) so we popped back to the room for a nap which turned into a 12 hour sleep! We even missed the fireworks!
Day 3
We woke up at 6am (as you’d expect after all that sleep) and went for a much longer beach walk, all along the Waikiki strip and through downtown to the hire car place, stopping for breakfast on route. When we got to the hire centre we realised that we’d forgotten our passports! Agggh, we took an Uber back to the hotel and back again. By the time we finally queued, completed paperwork and got the car, it was nearly midday.
So, we shot off on our North Shore adventure to see the most famous surf breaks in the world (the big three: Waima Bay, Banzai Pipeline and Sunset beach). Driving in the states seems to me like madness (Phil loved it). There are 6 lanes and cars can move at whatever speed they like in any lane so people undertake you, overtake you, it’s mental. I don’t think I’d have the confidence to drive in a US city. Once you get out of Honolulu it’s back to “normal” driving though.
We passed Haleiwa and admired the famous North Shore signage but we didn't stop. We were getting hungry and were hoping to have some food at the beach and a swim. Unfortunately, there were no food places anywhere to be seen (not even a food truck!). I managed to grab my photos of Waima Bay whilst Phil circled the car park. We had better luck parking at Pipeline but still no food. At Sunset beach I had a lovely 10 minute swim but the food truck there was closed so we headed on to Turtle Bay Resort for lunch at Lei Lei’s cafe, sitting in full view of the Opana Radar site.
Feeling full, and pleased to have coincidently found the Opana Radar site, we headed along the scenic route back to Honolulu, passing pretty beach parks and awesome mountains covered in lush greenery.
It was a logistical nightmare to return the hire car out of hours. And we discovered that we’d been ripped off by the hire car agent who put a charge on my card for an “extra hour” even though he knew we would be returning the car on the same day! Grrrr.
We enjoyed the sunset walking back along Waikiki beach and had a beer at the pool bar before another early night.
- Hippie x -
