Hale'iwa and Hanauma Bay

Last weekend we finally had chance to play and spend the weekend just hanging out. I love these three day weekends! On Saturday we took the round the island bus. It’s a four hour trip and costs $2 if you stay on. We took the bus clockwise and headed for the North Shore (where all the big surfing competitions happen in the winter). I took around 2 hours and we passed over the plateau on the middle of the island and by the Dole Plantation – the largest pineapple plantation in the world.

We got off the bus in Hale’iwa. Most of the North Shore is unswimable in the winter because of high waves, underwater currents and sharks (really), but we had heard you could swim at the Hale’iwa Beach Park all the time. When we got their there were strong current signs out. Nick went out a little ways but I stayed close (very!!) to shore! It was very rocky or coral-y, but a lovely place. There were huge green lawns fronting the beach park with lots of shade trees. There were a bunch of parties happening and a band playing. It seems to be pretty normal here for whole families to come down to the beach for the day at the weekend. They bring awnings, chairs, tents for the kids to sleep in, food, grills, coolers: everything you can think of for a day at the beach, and then they just hang out on the grass lawns that pretty much front every beach park here. It’s a great way to spend the day. In Honolulu the beach parks even have grills so you can bring coals and don’t have to tote a BBQ grill out. What a great idea!!!!
















Hale’iwa was pretty special for another reason though - we were amazed to see Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles as we were just walking along the shore! Eagle eye Nick spotted then first and I don’t think either of us could believe it! It was worth spending the afternoon there for that alone! I got some great photos of one turtle in the water and another basking on the sand. Nick took his snorkel gear and was able to swim up within a foot of them in the water. Pretty amazing, we will def go back and see if we can see them again.

After Hale’iwa we took the bus clockwise again ad came down the east coast. Unfortunately our timing wasn’t too good and it was dark before we were half way down the coast – it seems to get dark so early after the beautiful summer days – it gets light around 6 am and dark around 6pm. Dark falls fast, but I guess that’s a consequence of being nearer the equator – it doesn’t change all year round.

And by the way, if your ever in Hale’iwa, the burgers are great at Bob’s!!

Sunday we hung out around Waikiki and hit the beach here. We live a half a block away – it literally takes two minutes to go from the apartment to sitting on the beach, so I take advantage whenever I can!!! Monday we decided to go to Hamauma Bay. We had heard it was very touristy and that the snorkeling wasn’t great, but decided to try it anyway. The guide book says that the water stays fairly shallow so I thought I would be able to get out a little ways and see something. And we had a blast! The bay itself is lovely – almost a perfect circle – produced form an old volcano cone. Before we hit the bay we headed up to Koko Point to get some photos and see the view from the top. Glad we went first – it was quite the climb! Here is the view for the top back towards Diamond Head and Waikiki.

The bay is very shallow – so much so that at some points the coral is barely 10 inches down. But there are also sandy spots were the coral disappears. I was even brave enough to swim a little out of my depth there! The snorkeling was great. We saw a ton of fish and sea cucumbers and urchins. We actually couldn’t believe the variety of fish that we saw – the coral wasn’t in great shape and there were a ton of people around but they were just hanging out and going about their business. Definitely worth the $5 entrance fee…and if we have Hawaiian ID next time we go it will be free! I would highly recommend it - Mom you would have loved it!