We went to the North Shore today because we felt like garlic shrimp, which were really great by the way (I just got a very bad breath now haha), and on our way back we arrived at Waimea Beach where I wanted to make a few short videos.

While we were still in the car, I noticed some water splashing up from the ocean. I looked again and notified Michelle also and there it was again. I knew almost instantly that it had to be whales, it is still (not for long, though) the whale season and I decided to grab the camera since we were able to zoom in quite a bit with that.

The result? You can find it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qky98HxQjA

It is, unfortunately, a short video. This is because we only saw them for a short while. The image might be shaking also and this is because it all happened quite far away from us, which made me zoom into it all so it would be come clear…Anyways, I really thought it was interesting and fun to see this. It is pretty special in my opinion

Yesterday we went to the North Shore because they predicted that there would be big waves (25-30 feet on the highest point) and there was also a surf championship going on at the North Shore.

Once we arrived at the North Shore, it indeed seemed like there were pretty high waves in the ocean. The waves break down mostly before the coast and this is mostly because there is a coralreef around the island. It doesn’t take away the fact that there are still some nice waves crashing against shore but most of the waves break before the shore. Not everywhere though, but you will see that in a bit

Ok, first some pictures of the coast at Haleiwa:

The first picture doesn’t show the true nature of the waves which are actually nicely sized. It is also pretty hard to capture the right size with a normal digital camera, it is almost impossible to do it without telelenses like pro’s use. If you look closely to the second photo, you will be able to see a surfer standing on a board, the waves might look a bit bigger there. I think the waves were about 9 feet here.

After watching for a while we drove on to Waimea Bay. You can usually see a lot of people swimming and jumping into the water from a rock over there but not today, the water was a ‘little’ bit to wild for it. First I will show you a photo of that rock where people usually jump from so you have some sort of a reference point:

When you look closely at that photo, then you can see some people on that rock (it would be the best to click on it to give it a bigger size and even then they will be small stripes). It is just to show how big the rock is, I think he is about 30 feet above waterlevel.

So ok, then here the pictures of yesterday:

It might look like we were pretty close to the water, but this isn’t exactly true. I think we were about 30 feet away from the waterline (and still we got wet feet from the water that rolled up on the coast). We couldn’t get much closer either, ok, we could if we wanted but there were signs everywhere saying it would be dangerous and such and we also heard a lot of warnings over the speakers, especially for people with little children. Ok, here some more photo’s:

Like said, the waves break mostly before the coast but as you could see on the pictures above, it isn’t always like that, they come pretty close in Waimea. Walking to the waterline over the beachsand was also a nice experience, the beach is a bit tilted at the end so you cannot see the waterline and sometimes it looks like the waves are really close and break up just in front of your eyes.

The other side of the bay was a bit less spectacular if you ask me. There were also some surfers in the water. I think it looked less spectaculair because the waves broke down a bit before the coast and not as close at the other ones.

After this we drove on and we noticed that it was a bit busier at the ‘Pipeline’ with the visitors. There were a few surfers active (which are there probably daily but oh well) because of the nice waves:

The pictures were all taken with as much zoom as possible but unfortunately we were unable to bring the surfers more close to the camera. It is not that weird either that there were some people who had camera’s and lenses of about 2 feet long, you really need those haha.

We went to Sunset Beach after this where we saw a bit of a surfchampionship. Unfortunately we did not take any photo’s here since it was really too far from shore, it was already hard to see with normal eyes and you should actually just bring binoculars (I forgot mine) to see what is really going on. Because of this, there was not much fun for us and we didn’t stay too long.

And since it was around 1.45 PM, we decided to head back south because we had to pick up Stain in town since she had a surgery the day before. I will in a new post about her, for now I will show you the pictures that Michelle took during our trip back to town:

We went on another fieldtrip last wednesday, this time we went towards the North Shore to grab some breakfast (haha, travelling towards the other end of the island just for some breakfast hehe). We were craving for some delicious garlic shrimp from Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. They are not quite cheap (I mean, 12 bucks for 12 shrimp is not exactly what you call cheap, right?) but they are oh so delicious and really worth going there once in a while.

On our way there we made some pictures, of course. Unfortunately some pictures are a bit blurry but that is because they were mostly made by Michelle while I was driving. I will try to make some sort of a photo report

Of course we first have the trip towards the North Shore itself which went mostly on dry out land as you can see on the picture below. You are basically driving through previous sugarcane and pineapple fields, there is still some being harvested although it is not much:

While we were going towards the North Shore we also came, completely unexpected, in some sort of traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. We were really wondering what happened until we saw some signs in the distance saying that there was some road construction going on. Right, we had to wait for about 30 minutes, if not longer, in the middle of the island and basically in the middle of nothing since everything was so far away.

After this all we found the North Shore, even though it would still be a long drive haha. The road that you can see on the following pictures is mostly a straight line, with the exception of some small corners, which goes from a few hundred meters height towards sealevel.

Once down on sealevel, you arrive in Haleiwa, a surfersvillage which is also featured in a lot of surf movies. If you have been in the south a lot and arrive in this village (or somewhere else on the North Shore), you will notice a different mentality with the people but also a different kind of buildings. A building in the style of the next picture is something that you see a lot on the north coast of Oahu:

And while being in Haleiwa, you really have to go Matsumoto’s grocery store where they sell shave ice. Unfortunately both Michelle and I thought that the shave ice wasn’t all that good as it used to be last year and we basically think the shop in Pearl City, where we go on a frequent base for our shave ice needs, is much better but oh well, Matsumoto cannot miss in a trip to the North Shore. Michelle found a Gecko while we were eating shave ice, I tried to make a picture of it but it became a bit blurry (me and my shaky hands):

Geckos are something that you can see frequently out here, we also got one at home which comes out at night sometimes. I think to search for food and because it gets a bit more cool at night. We just let it be there since it is harmless, not scary and all he does is basically eat insects that we dont want here

When I was still in the Netherlands I also told my sister and daughter about people having horses on Oahu. They did not know this but to prove it, here is a (blurry) picture of the horses that we saw in a distance::

Right, like said, we went towards Kahuku where you can find Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. On our way there we come close to the sea at some points as you can see on the next pictures. The second picture is, by the way, a picture of Waimea Beach, one of the more known beaches of the North Shore.

Unfortunately we did not see any spectacular waves as the ones that you can see sometimes at the North Shore of Oahu, it was clouded that day, pretty windy too on the North Shore but fortunately there was not any rain that day. We also passed by a spot where they were having some surfing championships (we think at the Pipeline but we’re unsure). Because we drove a bit slow on that point we could see a bit of it but unfortunately we were so stupid to not make any pictures… oh well, that will come since we want to go to some different championships in a couple of weeks

We ate at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck after this and with my stupid head I also forgot to make some pictures of this place but, if you want, you can find some pictures on this website. They weren’t taken by us but that’s ok. The food was, as expected, really great, really worth well driving there even though it is a bit expensive.

After the food we went ‘around the corner’ of the island, it is not really a corner, of course, but since we went from the North Shore to the Windward side of Oahu (or instead of driving on the northern coast, we went to drive on the eastcoast) and, honestly, as soon as we drove ‘around the corner’ (there is a corner which might let you see it like that), I got a slap in my face. All the sudden it was humid and stuffy. The humidity is a lot higher on the eastcoast of Oahu and you can really notice it from one moment to another, quite a weird feeling if you ask me. It also rains a lot more on this side so, as you can see on the next picture (which was practically taken on that ‘corner’), there was a lot more green to see.

We drove now from the north towards the south along the coastline and again we saw some horses (again my apologies for the blurry picture haha):

We even saw a cow later at the coast (I did not know they had cows here) which was being photographed. Maybe they arranged it like this, I don’t know, it is the first time I see a cow here anyways. A bit weird sighting to see that animal next to the ocean haha. We also made a picture of it but all you see on it is a spot… maybe next time I should stop a bit more along the way so Michelle can take some better pictures haha.

We did make some other pictures of this side of the coast also:

The first picture is just a picture, taken while driving towards the south.

The second picture is of Kualoa Ranch, a place where you can do lots of activities (yes, even horse riding in the mountains). We want to go here some day, many movies are also recorded near this place in the valley, such as Godzilla (the foothprints are still there) and many other wellknown movies.

The third picture is just a picture to show how the mountains can be totally inside the clouds sometimes. It was really clouded sometimes during that day, you can see it really well on this picture.

After that we went to a mall in Kaneohe to buy something (which they didn’t have haha) and we also went to a petstore there, where they had some naked Guinea pigs :S Those creatures are really something, they look just like pigs (maybe thats why they’re named Guinea pigs lol):

And then it was time to go towards home over the H3. We could have gone more south, towards Diamond Head, Koko Head and many other sightseeing spots but we wanted to keep that for later. Like said, it was really clouded sometimes and it is kind of funny to show it with the next picture where the sun goes through some part of the cloudes and where it looks a bit like the sky opened up to bring an angel to earth, or to take a spirit back up to heaven, a bit like you can see in movies also hehe:

And then we go on to the last picture since we are at the end of our journey:

On this picture you can see the entrance of the tunnel on the H3. On the top you can see, again, the clouds in which the mountains are hidden. The mountains are about 700-800 meters high at this point and since we were at some 250-300 meters height, you can see there is quite some mountain missing.

After this we went through the tunnel and back towards home (after being in traffic for a while since it was rushhour hehe).