So my second day in Hawaii found us asking ourselves what should we do? Initially we thought of hiring two person scooters to go around the island. However, it turns out two person scooters require a motorcycle licence. So we decided to pool our money and hire a 6 seater car to see the island.
Like yesterday, Oahu (the island we were on, with Honolulu and Waikiki) had beautiful beaches.
Our first stop was at a scenic lookout point.
The waves were incredible, crashing against the rocks. It was however very windy so we stayed well away from the edge of the rocks (can’t say the same for some Asian tourists!).
We then jumped back into the car to continue along the outside of the island.
This time we stopped at a blowhole. The picture below is not impressive but that’s because I was a bit too trigger happy and didn’t get a particularly impressive spurt. Nonetheless, this is one of my favourite pictures.
From there we drove to the Koro Botanical Gardens. This is set within a crater of a volcano.
I took this picture because I really liked how Josh was embracing the whole Hawaii 5-0 in his newly bought Hawaiian shirt.
The botanical gardens were really beautiful.
Unfortunately, SOME of us decided to take the walk using only thongs which meant that all the thorns littered on the pathway stabbed people at various points. Here, Thorsten had a particularly big one which did not impress him.
Despite shoddy footwear, we continued walking through the botanical gardens. It was interesting because they had dedicated areas to places like Africa and Madagascar. Strap in for an onslaught of flora!
Evidently when the volcano exploded, it threw great big rocks all over the place and then the botanical gardens were developed around them. Here’s me in front of some.
After this, we jumped back into the car and started searching for lunch. We stopped here.
Josh and I ordered garlic prawns (in America, prawns are called shrimp, weird!), garlic mahi-mahi and two fish tacos. I didn’t take a picture because frankly the food did not look appetising. Their version of garlic food was to take coarse diced garlic that had been soaked in oil and place several spoonfuls on the fish and prawns. It was covered with a layer of garlic that was half an inch thick. Super garlic breath. The fish tacos were nice because they were topped with a papaya and mango salsa.
After lunch, we decided to drive to the side of the island where they hold all the surfing competitions, the Pipeline.
The waves didn’t look all that impressive however none of us were willing to go swimming here (having heard all the stories). By this time we were pooped and we needed to give the car back. So we headed home.
But not before we stopped for some shaved ice.
This reminded me of an Asian dessert called ice kacang. Josh and Lindy had shaved ices. I however had a traditional Hawaiian paddle pop. The flavour? Strawberry and goat’s cheese. It actually tasted really nice and wasn’t sweet at all. Also, it was icier than I expected.
That’s the end of my second day in Hawaii. Mahalo!
Talk soon,
Sim
