Oahu Circle Tour

On Saturday I went on a guided bus tour of the island. Our tour guide was amazing. He was able to entertain and impart cultural and historical information the whole day. The tour company was Roberts and if you are coming to Hawaii, do go on some of their tours.

I had a 7:50am pickup and after other pickups we headed east towards Diamond Head.

We drove past the entrance to the crater hike, so now I know where it is and will be taking the city bus there tomorrow morning to hike the crater.

Continuing along this road we stopped at Hanauma Bay. This is a big snorkeling place which I'll be heading to this week as well.

Part of the 3 day touring card I bought includes a snorkeling trip here, but I can do it cheaper on my own so will be heading there at least one day this week maybe more. It was absolutely gorgeous and I don't want to go for just the couple hours the tour schedules.

As the coaches are only allowed to park for 15 minutes at Hanauma Bay, we were off again. A few minutes down the road we stopped again at the Halona Blowhole. Now that waves weren't very active today, so the blowhole didn't produce anything, but right next to it was the beach where the famous love scene on the beach with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr from the movie "From Here to Eternity," was filmed.

It is a beautiful beach.

From here it was further along the coast and more beautiful natural beaches. I say natural beaches because Waikiki isn't a natural beach. It is a lava and coral shore front. They truck in the sand to create the beach.

Our next stop was Nu'uanu Pali lookout. This was a famous battle site at which King Kamehmeha I forces his enemy over the cliff ensuring his rule over the island of Oahu. In more recent times the bones of over 800 men were found at the base of this cliff. It is a sheer cliff on this windward side of the island and a nearly 1000 foot drop. From this look out which is famous for being windy, (not the day I was there) you can look over agricultural fields to the east. It wave over these fields that Japanese bombers flew below radar in their approach to Pearl Harbour. From here it was a short flight up over the mountains and down into Pearl Harbour only a few miles on the other side of the mountains.

After stopping for lunch we visited a Macadamia Nut farm. They had lots of delicious samples and free Kona coffee as well. I passed on the coffee but did freely partake of my favourite nuts.

After visiting the nut farm we headed towards the north shore. Along the way our guide pointed out these two mountains where the northern most radar posts were installed during te war. It was here that the Japanese squadrons were first seen on radar and when the radar operator radioed to his commander at Pearl Harbour, he was told it was most likely the US bombers they were expecting from California. "Don't worry about it" was what he was told. Opps! The fact that these planes were coming from the North and California was to the East didn't really factor into any decision made that morning.

After rounding the northern point we were now on the northshore - Surfing country. We stopped at Sunset Beach, famous for watching the sunset and also a major surfing competition.

There are at least three famous surfing beaches where international competitions are held along this drive, but we only stopped at Sunset Beach due to parking issues.

Our last stop before returning to Waikiki was the Dole plantation. The last pineapple plantation on the islands. Sugarcane has been fazed out due to labour costs, and pineapple plantations are headed in the same direction unfortunately.

There was lots to do, see and sample here. There was a maze, and a train that took you on a tour of the plantation, but we didn't have time to do either of those. Instead we wandered around and looked at what was in the general area.

Pineapple variety garden.

Local variety - baby.

A Columbian variety - Apaporis

I was amazed to learn that one pineapple plant only produces two pineapples in its life cycle. They then burn, turn under the old plants and then have to replant. No wonder it is labour intensive.

It was a lovely day, and I met some very nice people on the tour. I was in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9pm. I had an early pickup (6:45am) for my Pearl Harbour tour. That will be the next post.

Aloha, I'm off to the beach.