Week 2a:

Friday 7th September Kiara, Janice, Andy and Ben had booked to go to the North Shore, and I was considering going with them. We all checked out the hostel in the morning, and I had already lost my room when I decided not to go. I didn’t have the $160 to spend on a sky dive as I was still trying to save money for New Zealand, so I decided to stay in Honolulu and surf with Liam for the next few days. The only issue was that there was a group of us who had no room for the following night, and I had no room for the night after also as I didn’t want to pay for the room.

The next morning I got up early, checked out of room 2 and went to the beach with Liam. I rented a surf board, and tried to recapture my form from a few days before, unfortunately to no avail. The surf was flat and poor, and I wasn’t able to get up for an extended period of time. I resigned myself to tanning up on the beach, and ate some nice food from the Mexican Place in town. That night we grabbed some beers and had a walk down to the beach when the hostel kicked us out at 11pm. They had quiet time after 11pm, so we either had to go out or go to bed. We sat by the beach for a while, but decided to go back to the hostel and share beds. I knew I was going to be left out, as the girls all joined together and the guys couldn’t fit in the beds. I ended up sleeping on a bunch of cushions on Liam’s floor. It was a definite low point for me but it at least meant I had a roof over my head.

Naturally I woke up early at 07:30am, and got out

of the room as soon as I could. One of the good things about the hostel was the social area. Even if you didn’t stay at the hostel you could sit around, eat and chill with your friends. I sat around the social area until breakfast, then went surfing. It was a weird feeling having no room to stay in, but I just used Liam’s room for storage and to get changed in. Luckily for me Krasey was checking in later that day, so I had another person to make plans and travel the island with for the rest of the week. I had worked with Krausey at ISTC over the summer, and so it was easy to travel with her over the coming weeks.

The morning of the 10th I woke up early, checked back into the hostel in my new room, and started putting some plans together to see as much of the Island as possible over the next week. That morning we rented a surf board between me and Liam to save money, and we went to the beach with Krausey and Ian. I had another try at surfing, and again it just wouldn’t stick. The waves were low and I wasn’t feeling it.

I managed to get up on a few but it wasn’t great. A group of us decided to walk up the Diamond Head trail for sunset, which ended up being a great idea. I had already done the trail and loved it the first time, so why not experience it with new people.

As some of the other guys had moved onto the North Shore,

our group consisted of Krausey, Liam, Ian, a Norwegian girl called Ida and an America pilot called Vince. It was now so easy to talk to people in the hostel, and I could feel my confidence coming back. I was able to invite people to what we were doing every day, and I felt really comfortable in Oahu.

Vince had rented out a convertible sports car for his stay, so we all crammed in for the journey to the bottom of the trail. We had Krausey and myself in the passenger seat and 3 people in the back across 2 seats. The trail was closed for sunset, but we made it up just before and sat around on the same bunker I had a week earlier. It was amazing to be back in the same spot with different people, and this time we ventured further and ran up a closed pathway to stand on top of a different shelter. It was cordoned off and closed, but we got some amazing pictures and the views were worth it. Another great day on Oahu.

I was really enjoying myself with the new group of friends, and we decided to rent a car for the following day to see more of the Island. We finished the day enjoying the Oahu sunset on the edge of the beach, sat in front of some million pound houses on the waterfront. 

That night there was a large group having drinks, and I met another new Aussie girl called Tarn. This was when I also met 3 Aussie lads who were on their way out to do another season in Canada, called Tim, Adam and Kieron. I ended up chilling a lot with these guys over my last week, spending far too much time and money in the local burrito shop. It was them going to do another season in Canada working on the snow machines, that really sparked my interest to do the same sort of thing the following year.

Monday 12th was one of the busiest and best days I had on Oahu. We got up early, had the free breakfast at the hostel, grabbed our rental car, and drove down the South and West coasts of the Island. There was Krausey, Liam, Tarn and me in one car, and Vince, Ian and Ida in the other.

The first stop was the Waimano falls in the middle of the jungle. We drove up to the entrance of the falls, grabbed our equipment and started walking. The trail was like something out of Jurassic Park, with massive trees and amazing wildlife on both sides. It was extremely muddy and slippy, and took us a while to get down to the falls. There were ropes to help along the way, and a clear trail through the middle of the jungle to follow.

After an hour or so, we reached the bottom of the hike and found a little gem in the middle of the trees. The Waimano falls are a series of 3 rock pools, with a rope swing and high rocks either side. You could climb the rocks and jump off from a height of 15 odd feet, or rope swing into the pool. We actually ran into Kiara, Janice, Kailyn, Andy and Ben at the falls, and got some great videos on my GoPro of all of us jumping into the pools and enjoying the little slice of heaven. Not wanting to eat into our sunlight, we stayed for a short while then set off at a pace back up the trail.

Quicker than expected we reached the top, and headed off towards the infamous Electric Beach on the South West coast. We ended up going to the wrong beach, and snorkelled in an area much less interesting than what it should have been. At the actual Electric beach

there is a broken water pipe under the surface, that pushes out hot air into the ocean. This attracts an array of wildlife including seals and turtles. We went looking for the pipeline, but ended up too far down the beach. That being said we still snorkelled around 100m out from the shore, and did find some interesting coral and wildlife. It wasn’t a wasted swim, I was just gutted we couldn’t find the actual water pipeline.

After a good hour in the water, we jumped back in the car and carried on West. We reached the Kaena point, which is the West most point of the Island. It had some great rock pools filled with crabs, and we were able to get some insane pictures. We stayed here for a while before heading back to the hostel just before sunset.

Whilst driving home along the coastline, Ida spotted something amazing in the ocean and we pulled over to watch. There was a huge pod of spinner dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water along the horizon at sunset. We stood and watched them swim at a distance, and even managed to see one jump fully out of the water and perform a 360 degree spin. The spinner dolphins were performing at sunset. I feel really lucky to have seen some dolphins while being on Oahu, as we were told if you don’t spend a lot of money on a boat tour out into the water to snorkel with them, you are highly unlikely to ever see them in the wild here.

After a few casual drinks we realised Liam didn’t have a bed to sleep in for that night. He had checked out to visit North Shore, but decided to stay, much like I had a few days earlier so I let him share my bed. It seemed like the best thing to do after he let me sleep on his floor, and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. It was an insane day, and we accomplished a lot.

The following day Krausey and Ian were leaving, and what was left of our group had planned to travel the rest of the Island in Vince’s convertible. We were going to drive from the hostel along the South coast, up the East coast to Turtle Bay, visit Shark Cove then drive back to Waikiki in time for some evening drinks – a great plan but a long journey.

Continues in a week…