Sun, sea, surfing and food… Hawaii, USA

Flying to Hawaii, USA, isn’t the quickest of trips. It took 11 hrs to Los Angeles, before a three hour wait ahead of a six hour internal flight over to Oahu International Airport.

If I was to do it again, I’d go via Vancouver or Seattle because I imagine those routes would be less busy. Mine was rammed.

Anyway, we stayed in Waikiki which is the main tourist part of Honolulu at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Cab fare from airport were about $35.

At the village there are loads of bars and eateries. Some play live bands / music etc, some have traditional Hawaiian dancers. There’s quite a few Japanese and Korean restaurants and the place is covered in ponds full of exotic freshwater fish (mainly Cichlids and Koi carp)

There’s also loads of shops selling pearls and pearl necklaces (and no, not the rude kind!)

You can do a lucky dip and pay $14 to pick your own oyster from a bucket and you’re guaranteed to get a pearl in it. The shop try to bung it on a ring or clasp and hence make money that way.

My wife Erin got a huge pearl but the f***ers drilled it before she had a chance to say stop. They tried to put it in a necklace and sell it to her for $150. All she wanted was a pearl on its own.

Food in Waikiki is good and cheap, with the exception of the pizza restaurant which was too expensive. We didn’t have one bad meal. Even the sandwiches/wraps were good and fresh and big. Seafood and especially shrimp (big prawns) were plentiful. There was also king crabs, lobsters and oysters available for good prices too. I liked the Buffalo wings restaurant. I was lucky as it was 80cent wing day when I went to order.
Drink is cheap especially beer. A crate of 15 bottles is about $13 / $16. A great bood beer I found was Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s cheap and I know red necks drink it all over USA. You can’t get it back here in the UK. Fiftenn bottles was $13. There’s also Blue moon, Coors, Bud etc.

The beach is a short walk from the hotel. Sand is soft and the water is warm and crystal clear.Saw a few small fish darting about too. Did a lot of swimming in the pools.

Just Outside Waikiki Hotel Village and about a mile and half walk was a big shopping mall. The place had everything. From Chanel and Gucci to Lego store and Walgreens. Alana Moana was the name of the mall and buses run all the time and it’s only $2 a ride.

Opposite the shopping Mall were parks that then led onto the sea. A lot of these parks had tents on them. These were like the jects of Waikiki. Saw a few meth heads and cracked out people.

Saw a few people fishing for their suppers on the local rivers. There were some big fish in them.

After Five nights in Waikiki, we left to stay in a house in the North Shore. This is where the true surfers go and where the waves are better.

Here’s where we stayed (click here)

This place was off the hook. Judging by the other house prices, this house was worth around $6million

The sea was about 20 / 30 yards from the house. Fishing was a let down here, but snorkelling was great.( If only I had a spear gun) Rock pooling was great there too. We netted loads of little fish and crabs and sea creatures.

North Shore is also home to Turtle Beach. Turtle Beach speaks for itself. Big turtles often rock up at lunch time, not sure why , but they come in close to the shore. You can’t touch or feed them by law but it’s a great sight to see.

Whilst we were there, a film with Zac Effron and Anna Kendrick was being made, we bumped into one of the producers and had a chat with her.

We went to Pearl Harbour for a day trip. Was a big let-down. There wasn’t much to it. The history is interesting, but I was expecting to see more. There’s a boat ride to the memorial and that’s built on one of the sunken ships and that’s about it.

I tried surfing. Was meant to have a 2 hr lesson, but could only manage an hour or so. I had a personal lesson for about $120 with Jetty Betty. They teach you how to get up on a board whilst on land, and it’s easy. When in the water, it’s completely different.

I was taken out quite far into sea where the waves were. This was out of my comfort zone for swimming. It was deep out there. Paddling out there was also hard work.

Once the big wave comes behind there’s an adrenalin rush and trying to get up and trying to balance is really hard. I managed to stand for about three seconds on my third attempt. The process is repeated again and again etc. 4 /5 times was enough for me. The board came off the strap at one point and I was frantically trying to swim for it. There’s nothing worse than trying to swim against waves. I came to the conclusion, surfing isn’t for me, but was a good experience.

Back in North Shore food trucks were one of my favourite things from the entire trip.

There were loads of them selling all kinds of good foods and drinks. Ted’s bakery was probably the best and most popular. They do a dish called Loco Moco. Have one these and I guarantee you won’t finish it. It consists of rice, burger patties, eggs and gravy. Sounds weird but it’s good.

Feral chickens run amok everywhere in North shore, there’s also loads of roosters. They all look healthy and clean too. Found out on our last day that you can eat the chickens but not the roosters. The roosters were mainly bred for cock fighting.

I missed out on a lot of other stuff like the Dole pineapple plantation, other beaches like shark cove, the waterfalls but I guess I only had a limited amount of time.
But definitely want to go back there.

For a lads holiday for a younger generation, there were a lot of stripper bars. I couldn’t go obviously as was with the wife, but there you go.

Hawaii really was sun, sea and surf…plus stuff to eat. I loved the place but that was a flight home-and-a-half. Time to start saving for that private jet!

Aloha!