Haleiwa, HI

Plonked on a little peninsular like rock, dusted in sand, the waves of the North Shore beaches of Oahu crashing in front of me, a double shandy in the left hand, a 10 pound bag of lichees in the right, the hassle and bustle of Waikiki is miles behind me. It’s 4pm and at the end of this blog, it’ll be sunset on our final night of our Hawaiian holiday.

These last 14 days have been split between Waikiki, family time on the Big island and back to Oahu for some tranquility on the North Shore. Daily, I find myself saying “this has been a highlight”. As normal, we have squeezed a lot in to a short period of time. We’ve done the whole convertible mustang thing before so the ‘only’ other rent a car, option for seeing Oahu, was a convertible Smart Car. I’ve fallen in love! Not only are they hilarious to look at, fun, totally awesome, and practical to park but they spark up so many conversations with random people. For example, at the traffic lights leaving Waikiki, we were trying to determine how many times our car could fit into the extra long limo next to us. At that moment, the driver wound down the window to talk about fuel efficiency. Dave and I have spent many of hours over the last three days parking in as small, odd shaped parks. You do have to be prepared for pulling up next to an American truck (aka, gigantic ute) while listening to Shaggy on the radio with the roof down and base up though. (Before I move on, Dave has just joined me with the rest of the 12 pack of beers and a few Sprites – we are sorted).

I couldn’t honestly say I had experienced Hawaiian culture by just visiting Waikiki. As soon as we went a few streets back from the Waikiki strip or changed islands, that’s when Hawaii came to life.Out of Waikiki we drove, up past the beautiful million dollar water front homes of Diamond Head and onto the most stunning road, Dave or I have ever taken. The road hugs the ocean, so close that if the kids casted their fishing line back, the hook would get us in the car. We were in awe the whole way up North.

Unlike Waikiki, North Shore is free of hotels, bars, apartments, restaurants and night life. Don’t get me wrong I loved Waikiki, it served it’s purpose as a beautiful tourist destination (for the 72,000 visitors a day) but I believe it lacks Hawaiian authenticity and equality between rich and poor. Taking public buses last week really showed me a different side to the glitter strip. Homeless people line the back street canal in home made tents with rubbish littering around. At that point I was I was itching to see more, learn more and experience more of the 130 Hawaiian Islands. Of course in a limited time, we chose only two other spots to discover, Hilo Hawaii and North Shore Oahu. Hawaii and its culture started poking it’s head out when I started feeling like the culture was closer to that of the Maori culture back home, rather than that of Waikiki and its American culture.

At this point (in tiny font and spoken really quickly) I’m going to admit something. I didn’t realise Hawaii was apart of Polynesian. In my defence, in the 50 countries we have visited, I had never been to the islands (Dave there are $150 flight to Fiji at the moment – subtle hint chucked in). It’s been a few mumble years since school finished and I had long forgotten about Polynesia and that there are more countries out there that resemble New Zealand. Twelve years ago Dave’s sister Cherie used to study at BYU uni and work at the Polynesian Cultural Centre (PCC) as a dancer. I was hesitant (or ignorant) at first to go to PCC because I was concerned this Polynesian-themed theme park was similar to that of DisneyLand or at the very least not authentic. Within six simulated tropical villages, performers demonstrate various arts and crafts from throughout Polynesian. Villages from Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Aotearoa, Hawaii and Fiji all had the boa ts, huts, songs, traditional dress from that country.

For those that are / were like, me that didn’t know about the islands in the pacific, here’s a two minute geography lesson. It’s starts like this. There’s this ocean called the Pacific and it’s the biggest in the world, so big that if you got all the land mass in the world and chucked it in the Pacific there’d still be space for another Asia. Next part of this lesson is to chuck in a whole lot of islands and divide them in three sections: Melanesia, Micronesia and the group of the moment, Polynesia. Polynesia looks like a triangle, from Hawaii at the top, to NZ at bottom left then to Rapa Nui bottom right. Of the 2,400 Polynesian islands, 80% are populated and all have similar cultures. The Hawaiian local language, food and dances are more like our Maori family than any of the 32 North American States we have been to, even though California is the closest land to Hawaii. At 2,390 miles from anywhere, Hawaii is the most isolated population centre in the world. This b rings me to the end of your cultural tour. Please come again.

A sceptic at heart, the first stop of the PCC village tour was to Aotearoa, the only place I could validate the centre’s authenticity – sort of anyway. As I took my shoes off, and entered the marae and listened to the music sung by bloodline Maori descendants, the music not only bought gooses bumps to my skin but made me stand tall as a proud Kiwi. The singers each pointed out their ancestors within the Iwis (tribal carvings) on the wall. Within Aotearoa’s village, was a number of other huts where poi dances or flax garments could me made. As stubborn Julia thought we only needed to come for a quarter of the day, we only got to see two other villages. The Hawaiian village where we learnt that the hula dance dates back thousands of years and tells the history of Hawaii through the dance. Hawaii is derived from hawaiki, meaning “place of god” or “homeland”. In 1879 a Portuguese sugar boat had sailors strumming a small guitar, with the Haw aiians thinking the sailor’s fingers looked like jumping fleas. Nowadays, we know that instrument as the ukulele (uka flea, lei lei jump or Ooka laylay). We learnt this from a born and bred Hawaiian with a bloodline dating back 2,000 years. At the Tahitian wedding we learnt it was them who had the grass skirts and ‘hula shaking hips’, not the Hawaiians. Doesn’t that just show you what common misconceptions and travelling teaches you. After a feast set for a king in PCC’s dining hall, we headed over to the amphitheatre to watch the Polynesian performance. I’ve seen a number of shows in my life but this one far out performed even Broadway. The Haka, of course, was my favourite.

I thought I would leave the best bit to last, and the reason I was sold on going there. PCC is a not for profit organisation, it’s owned by the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (Morman), as is the university next door. (BYU). Seventy percent of the PCC staff, approximately 1,300 employees, are students at BYU Hawaii. Although it is largely a commercial venture, PCC profits fund various scholarship programs at BYU–Hawaii. Students may work up to 20 hours per week during school terms and 40 hours during breaks. The centre was opened in 1963 as a way to provide employment and scholarships for students at BYU-Hawaii and to preserve the cultures of Polynesia. In other words, the $100 entrance fee funds students from all around Polynesia to get an education without leaving with a student loan. What a brilliant idea.

Interesting Fact: Honolulu is the largest city in the world. According to Hawaii’s State Constitution, any island not named as belonging to a country belongs to Honolulu. Therefore all other, uninhabited islands belong to Honolulu. The drive up the East Coast took us past the beautiful beaches that you would have heard of from Fifty First Dates or the sharp mountain peaks you would have seen in Jurassic Park. What you wouldn’t have expected was that the famous North Shore, where the winter Pipeline Surf Comp at Sunset Beach is held, is not all built up. Apart from one resort, Turtle Bay down the eastern end, there are no hotels or resorts, surplus restaurants or shops. To the contrary, food trucks, shacks and houses replace anything that resembles Waikiki. Talking to the locals here, as soon as it becomes built up, they’re moving on. It was actually quite difficult to find accommodation. Airbnb of course was available as it’s in someone’s house but we felt like we wanted to rent a whole house, beachside without the price tag. We struck gold, a one bedroom surfer shack with lounge and kitchen AND across the road from Shark Bay, 5mins from Sunset or Waimea. Sure, it’s very old, been cleaned by surfers, no aircon with doors that hardly open but it’s cheap and the location is on the money. Out the window is the ocean. Apart from the accommodation options, the food options are also very different to Waikiki. North Shore has food trucks scattered everywhere as an alternative. In particular, Kahuku’s food trucks offer plenty of options, in particular, shrimp. I’m not a huge prawn (scampi) fan but Giovanni’s Aloha Shrimp van had a queue a mile long for a reason. $13 gots us a dozen huge, succulent juicy prawns, dosed in garlic and lemon butter for lunch. We tried another shrimp truck another day but Giovanni’s was worth the wait. Always go with the recommendation, similar to the shaved ice. Hawaii is known for shaved ice, particularly ‘Hawaiian Style’ with ice cream at the bottom, the ice with favoured syrup then condensed milk as a topping. Hard to believe there is good and bad shaved ice! Haleiwa Town, a few KMs down the road has the one or two restaurants open past 6pm which we dined in a few times for a Mexican dinner and Hawaiian breakfast. My favourite meal was the fo od truck with the fish tacos. Interesting Fact: The hang loose or Shaka hand gesture is derived from a leader who lost his three middle fingers on his right hand. Whenever he waved, it looked like shaka.

Somehow, in two and a half days, we managed to fit in all of the above and a visit to the following places:

– Firstly, the Dole Plantation where 1/3 of the world’s pineapples grow. We opted out of the 20 minute train ride around the dirt (no pineapples at present) and ate the Dole pineapple ice-cream with pinnacle juice and pineapple topping instead. AMAZING!

– Secondly, Turtle Bay for a snorkel and the best burger ever (thanks Cherie for the recommendation). I wouldn’t be visiting there for the turtles however, nice calm bay with a lot of tourists in deck chairs. You’re more likely to see a seal these days, not turtles.

– Thirdly, and a must do in Oahu, the Waimea waterfall. We were so lucky with this one. We got to the entrance 20 mins before it opened, first in line and then hiked the 20mins walk through beautiful botanical gardens (5000 species of plants) to the waterfall. Around 1,000 people a day make their way to this 13.5m drop waterfall into a 10m deep pool. Dave and I enjoyed 20mins of this magnificent beauty, solely by ourselves. As soon as the first set of tourists arrived we were out.

– Fourthly, the stunning beaches of the North Shore. Dave loves his snorkelling so we hopped around from beach to beach. My favourite was Shark Bay. A beach that offered this huge rock pool for kids but then adults jumped off the rock into super deep water, 15m, clarity to the bottom. Dave’s favourite was Three Point Bay with the hundreds of angel fish.

– Fifthly, was the last beach Dave wanted to take me. A local’s spot down by La’ie. It’s a beach he visited 10years ago when visiting Cherie. It was obvious no one saw the hidden public beach access sign. Dave and I had our last swim in an ocean all to our self, a walk down the beach with only our foot steps left in the sand.

And that brings me to this final sunset, here, now, as I watch the sun fall into the Pacific for the final time. With Dave next to me, we reflect back on the wonderful holiday in this beautiful place and the Aloha we have been given from the beautiful Hawaiian people, our family and from our new friends. Mahalo