This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.
Today was all about doing a roadtrip around big parts of the island of Oahu since this was our last day here. And I have to admit that the car made a big part about it better. For $11 extra we got a convertible Chrysler!! It was so awesome! The guy who helped us got us a discount so we pretty much got the GPS for free, and the upgrade was $20 normally. Maybe it’s good to be blonde and blue eyed.
#1 Our first stop was Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. It is Oahu’s most popular shave ice place. Shave ice is just ice in snow form with flavored juice poured over it. Really good actually and it looked cool. Mine with mango, pineapple and watermelon flavors looked like a rainbow.
#2 Our second stop was Turtle Bay. I got fooled by the name of the place. I thought that was a beach where turtles always lay in the sand, but no. It was a big resort and a cute little bay. It wasn’t as nice with the bunch of grey clouds completely covering the sky and I was disappointed when I only saw some tourist lying on sunbeds.
#3 Third stop was Mokoli’I, also called the Chinaman’s Hat because it looks like an old Chinese worker’s hat. The park, Kauloa Regional Park was so beautiful. The beach was almost empty and the mountains were right behind it and if it weren’t for the clouds it would have been even more perfect. We tried taking a few funny pictures with the hat and then Caroline drove us to our next stop. And while she was driving it started raining. Quite a lot too. So we had to pull the roof back in the car. Too bad. But good too, because my hair got so messy after driving 70mph on the highway.
#4 The fourth stop was supposed to be for the rest of the day but the bad weather caught up to us and we had only 20 minutes before the cold wind and rain came. The stop was at Hawaii’s most beautiful beach, Lanikai. It was indeed beautiful. Not exactly as the pictures on google, but we might have been at another spot on the beach than the photographers on google. The sand there was the finest sand I’ve ever seen. It was like a powder. I wish Waikiki Beach could have been that amazing! We took a few pictures and started towards our last stop on our little roadtrip.
#5 Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. Our last stop for the day. From up there you’re supposed to see the northeast coast of Oahu and we did. At least part of it. Because of the bad weather there were a lot of fog. But we could see the ocean, not all the way to Chinaman’s Hat, but we could see Valley of Temples and the city (don’t know which one) down there. I read online that it was supposed to be super windy up there, like you literally could be blown away. But it wasn’t particularly windy at all. It was chilly because of the drizzle of rain. The story about that place goes like this. To try if a person was a liar, they threw them down the side of the mountain and if the wind carried them upward to save them, that meant that they were honest. Otherwise they were liars and deserved to die.
It was an Alaskan older couple who told us the story after they so kindly helped us change one of the tired on our car. This is the really stupid part of the day. When we started driving we heard a noise. We went out of the car as soon as we got the chance to take a look at the tires but couldn’t see anything at all. So we continued to drive for like 6h. Still a noise and a tire pressure warning sign lighted. I know that’s common among rental cars so I thought it was no biggie. But it was. When we were parked at Pali Lookout to wait for the rain to ease a couple of Japanese women came up to us and told us that one of our back tires were completely flat. We got help from the super nice Alaskan couple and we got the tire change within 15 minutes. We saw that there was a big nail stuck in the tire. Now the noise made sense. But it wasn’t particularly nice of the rental place to give us a car with a ticking flat-tire-bomb. So when we returned the car we asked for some money back, and we got $36 back without any questions.
At 3:30pm we drove back to Waikiki to return the car. An hour later when we were in the hostel the lobby was full of policemen. I have no idea what happened and I didn’t want to stay and find out. I was hungry so we went to Burger King to bring it to the beach and eat it while waiting for the sunset and Vasoula (she is the German girl living in my neighborhood in San Diego). She found out this morning her hostfamily’s secret destination. It could have been Costa Rica, Mexico or Hawaii. So after the last sunset on Oahu we met up and talked on the beach for a couple of hours. So weird, but nice, seeing her here on Hawaii!
Back to the hostel, took a quick shower, packed everything and went through all the pictures from today so I could upload them to my blog. Now I’m done and so tired! I will fall asleep as soon as my head hit the very flat pillow.
Tomorrow a new island waits! Maui!! I really look forward to it :). I’m guessing it will be completely different from Oahu.
Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. They had so many flavors I didn’t even read them all, I just took three of my absolute favorite tropical flavors, and it turned out like a rainbow.
Big waves on the North Shore!
Turtle Bay.
Chinaman’s Hat.
Kualoa Regional Park.
Beautiful scenery while driving (Caroline was the photographer).
Waimea Bay Beach Park. Way out in the water on the huge waves some surfers did what they do best.
Lanikai Beach.
Powder sand.
Nu’uanu Pali Lookout. On my right side is Valley of Temples and on my left side is a city (don’t know which one) and farther to the left is Chinaman’s Hat supposed to be.
Sunset on Waikiki Beach.
A small reunon with Vasoula in front of Duke Kahanamoku! 🙂
Bemm 