Hilton Lagoon

On Thursday we hired a car again. We were really keen to get out of Waikiki and see some more of Oahu. The car was a rather grotty new model Camry, apparently there are very few rental cars available on the island this time of year and I think we got the last one.

We hit the road and first stop was Waikele factory outlet shopping centre. We arrived at about 9am, parked the car, and went for a walk. It was pretty empty and easy to get around but after about half an hour the place was packed with cars, buses and people going everywhere. This place was a lot better place to go shopping than Waikiki, we picked up 4 pairs of Levis jeans and a t-shirt for $150! There were lots of other shops there - Polo, Coach, Saks, to name a few. After spending some cash there we hit the road and headed to the north shore of Oahu.

The north shore is where the big waves come in and this time of year is when they are at their biggest. The trip 'to the other side of the island' sounds like it could take a while but it took about 20 mins from Honolulu. It is very green and lush countryside with a few cows around and the huge Dole Plantation where they grow lots and lots of pineapples. There were some wide freeways in Honolulu but out of town it was just a 2 lane road and an easy drive. The road around the island is called Kamehameha Highway after King Kamehameha who was the first tribal King to unite the islands.

First stop was Waimea Bay and the waves really were huge! It is hard to tell in the photos but some of those waves were easily 3 times the height of the bloke on the surf board so that would be at least 5 meters (or 16 feet) and I think that is a conservative guess as some of the sets coming through were a lot bigger. The waves were forming the perfect tubes you see in the photos. There were lots of people on surf boards out past the breakers but only a few actually seemed to be catching waves. As with every beach in Hawaii there was a mix of sand and rocks so you really didn't want to fall off.

We then moved along to Sunset Beach and Bansai Pipeline. This beach is very long and there were loads of people standing on the sand watching the few brave souls out riding the waves. There were a mix of surf board and body board riders and they were all having a go.

We continued along to Kawela and had lunch - burgers again but probably the best burgers to date, really sensational. We then continued our leisurely drive down the east coast stopping to take the occasional photo and look at some of the sensational scenery. Our hire car included a GPS that had a tour guide thing built in so as we were coming up to as place of interest it would launch into an explanation of what it was and the local legend behind it. One point of interest was a small island off the coast called Chinaman's Hat because it looks like a Chinaman's Hat, it also pointed out the island where they filmed Gilligan's Island.

We hit the biggest town on the east side of the island which was Kane Ohe and via a convenient tunnel was back in Honolulu is about 15 minutes.

We picked up Margaret and made another trip to Waikele to buy up a few more items before returning the car and calling it a night.

In all I am pretty used to driving here now, there were no moments of terror like there was on the Big Island.Read more