Oahu:

What can I say about Hawaii? It was genuinely two of the best weeks of my life, and I felt completely at home in the Seaside Hawaiian Hostel, at 419 Seaside Avenue. Words can’t describe the beauty of the place, and I was so thrilled to be able to pack my 2 weeks with amazing activities and some great people.

I arrived just after midday on Thursday 29th September, and the first thing on my agenda was to get a lift from the airport to the hostel. I knew there was a bus option, but the thought of 1.5 hours on a bus after my 30 hour travel made me want to be sick. I booked onto the ‘Speedi Shuttle’ and set off at a pace towards Waikiki. 45 minutes later, I was dropped off at the side of the hostel and stumbled slowly through the gate. As first appearances go, it didn’t look great. There was building works all down the road, the paint was peeling on almost every wall and the place didn’t look busy. I checked my bags, introduced myself to two german lads who were in my room, and had a mosey down to the beach.

As soon as I found the beach I was amazed. Beautiful clear water, surrounded by perfect sand with mountains in the background. The beach was lined with palm trees and surf  board stands, with hundreds of surfers sitting out in the water around 200m out. I was incredibly tired, so after a swim and short sun-bathe I retired to the hostel and had an early night. I regret not trying to meet people on the first day, but I feel I needed the rest.

The next morning I got up early and took a walk to the zoo. It was a pretty standard zoo, and again I now look back and wish I had spoken to some of the people in the hostel and asked if they wanted to come. I was still quite shy, and preferred to go out by myself at this point. I had rented out snorkel gear from the hostel, so after the zoo I walked down the beach and found a great snorkel spot just off the shore at Waikiki beach. I was able to get some great footage, considering it was such a densely populated area filled with tourists. Around the rocky edges of an enclosed beach, I found a group of exotic fish, and left my GoPro on the bed of the rocks, and swam away.

This way I was able to not scare the fish, and got some great footage. I snorkelled all afternoon and got back to the hostel quite late. That was when I met an Aussie called Kiara and a British lad called Tim. We ended up chatting, and going out for drinks that night. I was happy I had finally met some more people, and ended up having a really good night. As well as Kiara and Tim, we went out with a french guy who had been travelling for years, a couple of Aussie girls and the two german guys. I also messaged my friend Krausey, who I worked with over the summer at ISTC, who also happened to be in Hawaii on the same island on a family holiday. Krausey and her brother met us in a bar, and we had some drinks together. We ended up going to another club, and I ended up fairly drunk. It was a fun first night out in Hawaii, and I didn’t realise at the time but it sparked so many great opportunities for me in the coming weeks.

I woke with a mild hangover, and managed to shuffle into the courtyard of the hostel. I had originally booked to stay 2 nights in the hostel, but after meeting all the people the previous night, I extended my stay by another 5 days. In the courtyard, I bumped into Kiara and met a Canadian girl called Emily. She was funny, and I ended up spending a lot of time with her and Kiera in the coming week. That morning, Kiara, Tim, Emily and I decide to do a hike up the mountain at the end of the beach, called Diamond Head. It was a popular trail, and seemed like an easy start to my Hawaii hikes. We caught a bus to the bottom of the trail, and set off slowly. My hangover was giving me grief, but the view at the top was worth it.

You could see a complete panorama of the east side of the island, and we enjoyed a beer whilst sitting on the top of a bunker looking out over the ocean. It turned out Tim was right, after downing most of my beer I did feel better. 

After a small photoshoot, we decided to walk down and go to the beach.

We ended up staying in the sea and doing some snorkelling + GoPro videoing until it was nearly dark. Just before 18:30pm a few of us snuck into an expensive hotel pool at the end of the beach, and watched the amazing sunset from an infinity pool. After, we relaxed in the hot tub pools and ended up staying there for hours. 

After our swim, we decided to go back to the hostel for some drinks and to try and meet some more people. By this time we had formed a small group, and we had another great night out. Hostel drinks turned into a night out at the Irish Bar Kelly O’Neils. It had good priced drinks and live music. Another great night out occured, and I was gutted it had to end.

Sunday 2nd was a relaxation day. We were all hungover, so it turned into a beach day. I ate some nice food and went snorkelling at the same rocks I had been to a few days earlier. We had decided on some mild drinks that night, as Emily had her flight early the next day, and we were all hungover. A mild night turned into another heavy night at Kelly O’Neils and another great night.

When I woke the next morning I was in the mood to go and explore the island. I walked into the hostel for breakfast, and was shocked to see Emily stood there making food. She had stayed up too late, missed her flight and was having food before going to the airport to ask for another flight. I took an Uber to the airport with Emily, and she managed to grab another flight on the Thursday. That afternoon, Emily, Kiara and I went to the beach to swim and relax. 

We decided that the next morning a group of us were going to attempt the infamous ‘stairway to heaven’ hike up the Haiku Steps. Kiera, Emily and I had been joined by another Aussie girl called Kailyn who had some tips for the hike. The trail is closed, and blocked off by barbed wire fences, warning signs and a security guard. It is pretty dangerous, with sheer drops either side of a very thin ladder that had not been maintained at all in the last 10 years. Despite this it is a popular trail with travellers and tourists, and it seemed worth the risk. 

We ended up being massively under prepared. We had no food or water, no bug spray and arrived too late to see the sunrise. We got lost on the way up, and when we saw the security car we got scared and climbed down. If the police catch you on the stairs, they fine you. Not wanting to be fined, we admitted defeat, climbed down, and spent the next 2 hours trying to get back to the hostel. After finally getting back to the hostel, we spoke to some of the people who work there and they said you are okay to walk past the security guard. They never stop you or call the police, they just monitor how many people are on the mountain. Feeling like idiots we promised ourselves we would do the hike again at the next possible time, which happened to be the following Thursday.

After the hike fail, I decided to have my first taste of surfing in Hawaii. I rented a board from the hostel, and went down to the beach by myself to give it a go. With very little experience, I didn’t expect I would be able to even stand up, but luckily I surprised even myself. I caught around 8/9 waves, and was able to stand up on around 6/7. I rode a couple all the way in, and found I was making good progress, considering it was only my second time on a surf board. The only issue was that the waves on Waikiki beach we very intermittent, and some times you would be sitting on your board for ages just waiting for a good sized wave to have a crack at. 

Despite this I was reasonably happy after my first day surfing, and returned back to the hostel in a great mood. That night I had my first rugby session with the Hawaii Harlequins, and remember being so nervous. They were the Hawaii State champions, so I was expecting big things. The walk to Kapiolani Park took around 40 minutes, but it was so worth it. The Quins were an eclectic mix of Polynesian Islanders,

USA mainlanders and foreigners from around the world. We played touch for 45 minutes straight, and only finished when it got too dark to see the ball. A few of the guys had good banter, and it was a good laugh. I scored a few tries, threw some good passes and felt like I was getting back into my rhythm. 4 months without playing a rugby game was telling its tole, and I dropped a few balls, but it felt so good to stretch the legs again and play.

I returned back to the hostel happy, and chilled with Emily and met some of the new people who had checked into the hostel. A cool girl from Netherlands called Janice had moved in, as well as another British guy called Liam. Liam would become a good friend, and he stayed in the hostel from that day until after I left. A quiet night followed (most nights included a few beers but this time we didn’t end up in Kelly O’Neils so that counts as a quiet one) and I managed to get a good night’s sleep.

The next day a larger group of people from the hostel decided to visit Hanauma Bay for some snorkelling. The place is famed for its coral, and it was beautiful. The coral itself was dying badly, and it wasn’t the colourful wilderness I was expecting, but despite this I  was able to see some huge fish and even a salt water eel. I partnered up with Janice, and we got some great footage on our GoPro’s of the fish and reef. By this point our group had grown to include two Aussie friends called Andy and Ben, a solo Aussie traveller called Ian, Janice, Kiara, Liam, Emily, Kailyn and I.

After a great day snorkelling and chilling in the bay, we all crammed into a 6 seater taxi and returned to the hostel. I remember a game of ‘would you rather’ in the cab, which made me laugh a lot. It’s unbelievable the amount of games and banter that travels around the world. The guys were from literally the other side of the world from me yet they had heard of the game, and even heard of some of the scenarios I was putting forward. Definitely a day for the GoPro footage, I returned to the hostel to upload the videos onto my Mac-Book to see what I had managed to capture.

The next morning we woke up at 02:30am to attempt the Haiku steps again. This time we took water, bug spray, a head torch and a slightly larger group; it consisted of Kiara, Kailyn, Andy, Liam, Janice and I. A few of the other guys were supposed to come, but couldn’t wake up in time and Emily had actually made her flight this time, so had just missed out by a day. We arrived at the bottom of the steps for around 03:15am, and made our way around the barbed wire fence and up the road. It was pitch black, and luckily we didn’t bump into any one else or wake up any of the residents of the area (we had been warned that if they woke up they would call the police).

Our group reached the bottom of the muddy slopes without much trouble, and made our way up to the hole in the fence where the security car was parked. After squeezing through the gap, we walked across the dark road and found the bottom of the steps. It’s hard to describe the feeling of walking up the haiku steps, as it was dark and we couldn’t fully see how dangerous it was. The steps themselves are only as wide as a person, and the gradient fluctuated between being a normal staircase, and being a ladder straight up into the darkness. Despite this we powered on, with Liam in the lead with his head torch. Around 45 minutes in, we saw some lights coming down the staircase. They belonged to two older women, who had attempted the walk and failed so given up. 

We had to literally climb over the edge of the staircase to let them past us, putting ourselves at risk. We carried on, and as we neared the top the visibility began to improve. After walking up the steps for nearly 2 hours, we finally reached the small building at the top. The view from the top was insane, and even though the sunrise was covered by cloud, we were able to see the island come alive in the morning from one of the highest points on the island. There was another couple who made it to the top who had a drone and were recording the hike. 

After watching the sunrise behind the clouds, we started the decent. It was only on the walk down that we realised just how dangerous the trail was. 100 foot + drops flanked the thin ladder, with steps crumbling away and a part where a rock fall had literally bent the railings to the side. We were able to get some amazing pictures and videos, but I started to see why it had been made illegal. The climb down flew by, and before we knew it we were laying on the road waiting for an Uber back to the hostel. At the time we had no idea how lucky we were to not get caught or seen by anyone else, as I found out later in my stay there are people out there who want you to get caught and fined.

After a short nap, I set off for my second night of rugby training. I had a good overall session, and was happy with my game.

An overall brilliant day on Oahu.

Week 2 to come…