We were up at 6:30am this morning to go and pick up our hire car. The rental depot was just around the corner so we were there when the office opened with a line of other people, all doing the same thing we were.
With the car safely picked up, and Ben behind the wheel we were off onto the streets of Waikiki, driving through downtown and out towards the southeast coast of Oahu.
Our first stop was at Diamond Head, overlooking the Kuilei Cliff Beach Park, it was a beautiful spot for Ben to have a play with his new toy!
Let us introduce you to our new car for the day…a red mustang convertible, which Ben had nicknamed Magnum PI, sadly he forgot to wear his ‘Aloha shirt’ for the day!
With the top down we set off along the stunning coastal road, with the wind rushing through our hair and the sun beating down on our faces.
Next stop was at Lana’i Lookout, with great views west towards Diamond Head and Wakiki, and east to the start of the mountain ranges.
We were in the heart of Obama country now, this was his backyard when growing up in Hawaii…and not a bad place to start life we have to say!
We followed the tour buses (full of Japanese tourists on day trips from Waikiki) into the Halona Cove and Blowhole car park. The cove was made famous in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity…apparently it is where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr had a steamy love scene.
The blowhole was impressive; we watched as the ocean waves crashed in, and then imagined the water surging through the underground tunnel, before spouting up through a hole in the ledge.
We then pulled in to Sandy Beach Park for a photo session with the car, well come on, how often do we get to drive a convertible!
The next leg of our journey took us up the east coast, better known as the windward coast. We stopped briefly in Kailua, and then joined the Kane’ohe Bay Drive which wound around the pretty picture perfect coast, giving us a chance to do a quick video!
Driving up the Windward coast we then stopped at Kualoa Regional Park, a beautiful place with towering mountains on one side and palm trees and a white sand beach on the other. In the background you can make out Mokoli’i Island in the distance, a place often referred to as Chinaman’s Hat; following the immigration of Chinese men to work in the sugar plantations, who wore the famous conical hat.
Across the road from the beach park was Kualoa Ranch, Oahu’s largest ranch. In 1850 King Kamehameha III leased the land to a missionary Dr Judd from New England. He had come to Hawaii to help with the medical problems that had come to the shores with the whalers, traders and missionaries arrival. He went on to become one of the King’s advisors and renounced his US citizenship.
His first venture with the land was sugar cane, when this business ended he then went into cattle. The ranch is still in the Judd family to this day, and although still used as a cattle ranch the main source of income is from the movie industry.
We hopped on a tour of the property to see some of the recognisable settings for the famous movies set here.
Above right is the tree where the fleeing kids hid from the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and below is the hill top where the dinosaurs appeared from.
We then visited Hurley’s golf course from the TV series Lost.
And, Ben stepped in Godzilla’s foot prints.
We also saw the sets for; Pearl Harbour, 50 First Dates, Mighty Joe Young, Hawaii 5 O (which has started filming again) to name a few, and there was also 3 movies being filmed as we passed through the valley. Sadly, Johnny Depp had just finished filming the next Pirates of the Caribbean here, so we had just missed him! They were filming out in the bay near Chinaman’s Hat (below picture).
After the tour we hopped back in the car and took the coastal road north, arriving on the famous North Shore. Different to the rest of the island due to its refusal for any big developments, and towering 15ft waves this was the coast we had been looking forward to.
Sadly, when we arrived at Sunset Beach, with the first major surf break along the coast the waves looked flat, and not the mammoth 15 footers we had been promised.
Lunch was at Ted’s Bakery, world famous in Hawaii, where we shared a beef sandwich and slice of their famous chocolate haapia (coconut) pie.
We then went in search of the world famous Banzai Pipeline, which is known as the biggest, heaviest and most perfect barrel wave in the world. Sadly, the only barrel wave we saw was painted on the side of the ice cream van (picture above)!
Last stop on the North Shore was at the small town of Hale’iwa, where we walked around soaking up the laid back atmosphere and admiring the washed out old surfer dudes.
On the way back to Honolulu we stopped at the Dole plantation. James Dole planted the first pineapple here in 1901, on 12 acres of land. Today that land mass has increased to 8000 acres, and pineapples are Hawaii’s biggest crop.
The last miles into Honolulu were long, as the rush hour traffic crawled and it took over 1 hour to do 10 miles on the freeway. We got the car back just in time though, and headed back to the hostel to chill out.
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