Busing around Oahu

We put our TheBus traveller passes to good use over the past couple of days. Took the bus from the hostel to the main bus terminal at the Ala Moana mall near Waikiki, picked up some food, and took TheBus north through the mountains! Nice valley road and a tunnel at the end opening up to great views of the Windward north-east coast. Beautiful green mountains.

We expected a longer trip, but the bus ride from Honolulu to Kualoa Regional Park was only about an hour and 15 minutes! So it gave us the whole afternoon to relax in tree-shade, across from Mokolii Island (Chinamans Hat). Went into the ocean once but it was too warm to be refreshing. We read up on Kauai and did crosswords and enjoyed the scenery. There were a few other annoying visitors to the park that made it more unpleasant at times, but overall, was an enjoyable day.

Ate the dinner that we brought and waited until shortly after sunset to set up our tent (being a weekend, we were unable to get a camping permit from the office in Honolulu...) The sunset was quite beautiful as it set behind the mountains and lit up the clouds above them.

Early to bed, early to rise. Good thing because not even a minute after I rolled up my sleeping bag, the park security walked up and told us to leave. He wasn't all that friendly about it, but we were okay with packing up immediately. Still got some nice photos of the sunrise beside Chinamans Hat.

Took TheBus a little further to a beach park where we ate breakfast, and then carried on to Laie Point for a great view of the whole Windward Coast. Jason had his first "injury" on the point. After he had taken panoramic pictures of the entire coast, he began to walk back. Then he heard a loud rumbling noise, as if an airplane was flying over. He looked up and saw Nicole's face of surprise, and he realized he was about to get drenched. A combo of waves bounced up the shore and sprayed up and the wind carried the water right over his head, drenching his back! In his surprise, he slipped on the now wetter coral rocks and cut his leg in four spots... Saving the camera as he braced himself with his right hand. Jason only wishes he could have had it caught on camera. We were there for at least 15 minutes longer, and it never splashed up that high again. Just our luck.

Anyway, no serious harm done. We carried on around the coast and stopped at Waimea and Sharks Cove. Waimea is one of the championship surfing beaches. But the waves are only huge in the wintertime, so it was hard to imagine. Had a skewer lunch at a Beach Grill and swam briefly in Sharks Cove (the water was much more refreshing and nice here), then carried on all the way back to Honolulu again. A nice circuit around the island.

Discovered that we actually get a wireless signal from our hostel room (makes sense since we are right beside the University of Hawaii campus). Good thing too because we found out that our SuperFerry ride had been cancelled! Apparently the service is still new and they were having some issues with the coast guard regulations. But it turned out for the better as they gave us a credit towards flights instead and the one-way flights end up being only $19 each!! Not bad! But it would have been much cooler to have taken the ferry... Oh well. Also, because of the flights available at the discounted rate, we will have to spend one extra day in Kauai, which works out fine. We fly to Lihue, Kauai tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait!

Oahu Circuit Pics