adventures of a day already lived

One of the best things about backpacking is that you are instant friends with everyone. I rocked up to the first hostel advertised at Honolulu airport having forgotten that crossing the international dateline would give me an extra day (duh!). Within 10 minutes I was asked if I wanted to fill the last spot on a road trip up to the west and north coast of Oahu (also called "Main Island" amongst the four islands in Hawaii). Having no plans whatsoever for a day I didn't plan to have (I liken it to that great feeling of when you unexpectedly find money you left in your pocket), I immediately said yes and we were off!

I had heard that Honolulu was another big city - the touristy beach of Waikiki, hotel villages (eg 5 Hilton hotels with their own shopping complexes..!) and supermalls etc, and so was keen to check out the less populated coastal areas of the island. Knowing next to nothing about the island means that every new thing was a discovery!

First up we dropped by Oahu's famous 'Dole' pineapple plantation and picked up some pineapple sundays

before rock-hopping along a beach known to be full of green sea turtles. They were huge and looked like the rocks that surrounded them (which meant that if you weren't careful you could easily step on one!). The one in the first photo was right on the shore and there were coastal volunteers who made sure that nobody was within 5m of a turtle. If you rock-hopped around the corner, there were 10+ turtles just feeding on the seagrass and  warming up on the rocks. I believe there are 5 in the last photo - hard to spot!  

We moved on to Waimea Bay, which is well loved for the 5m+ rock that you can jump off and for the humpback whales that pass through on their way back to Alaska! We saw one breach (blow air out through its blowhole) in the not so far distance (tiny black thing in the photo). They come down to the warmer waters here to breed and have their babies (between Nov-late April), and return to the nutrient rich cold waters of the north once their calves have enough blubber on them to survive there. The mothers apparently don't feed the whole time they are near the equator, and can lose up to a third of their body weight feeding their calves fat-rich milk. 

On a rock cliff just overlooking Waimea beach was this old guy singing on a uke - it was so funny how much he epitomised the stoned, laidback, chilling, "this is Hawaii" stereotype. I asked if I could jam with him and he turned out to be a nutty professor oncologist named Bob who had slept upon the said rock last night. He told me he had his 'grandmother's eye', and it was as if she had predicted that we would meet. He had inherited much money from his grandfather, was going to give it to away to charity and needed me to help him with it. My Aura, Life force and Spirit were apparently very bright, even with his eyes closed he could experience it. He was looking for a 'Bobette' and didn't care how old I was, his meat suit was 'a-calling'. IT WAS HILARIOUS! He had apparently written a book about surrealism, and had worked in Sydney's RPA for a time. I had to leave, and so he entrusted me with his beloved ukulele, Sarah, and told me he had to see me again. Sarah was the most beat-up ukulele anyone had ever seen - he had added turtles to it and because he took it surfing often, the wet wood had expanded in many different places so he had glued it back together with foam glue. The best thing about Sarah was that he said she always finds her way back to him. I didn't take it with me when I flew to Big Island (the island of Hawaii) the next day, so I believe it should find its way back to him!

We stopped by a food truck for some excellent value thai food and dropped into an native art collector's gallery. This was a paddle to scoop out the first serving of brain when a monkey was killed. 

An obligatory photo with perfumed roadside frangipanis. While visiting a few of the beaches, it was so clear how entrenched surfing was here. So cool to see sun-leathered surfer mums driving their surfer kids to the beach on a Friday afternoon, it's a whole other lifestyle. 

We ended the night watching evening fireworks off Waikiki Beach and chatting away.
Sharing one short day of adventure and leaving it at that is a pretty sweet memory.

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