We had 23 hours to spend in Oahu, Hawaii. Always up to seize the day, we set off for a road trip around the island as soon as we landed at the airport.
First stop: Nico’s Pier 38 Restaurant, about a 10 minute drive from the airport. Nico’s has a restaurant on the pier as well as a market with take away food items.
Hawaiian Poke heaven!Tuna, tuna, tuna
Hawaiian Plate Lunch: Kalua pork, White rice, Pork Lau Lau, and a green coconut sauce.
The Hawaiian Plate Lunch is a quintessential Hawaiian meal, comfort food for the locals.
Pork Lau Lau is cubed pork belly and taro greens wrapped in Luau (Ti) leaves, then steamed.
Kalua Pork is traditionally baked underground lined with hot stones, but can also be served slow cooked above ground. It’s smoked and shredded, delicious.
A delicious poke mix
We started the hour-long trek to the North Shore via Highway 2 at about 2:00pm, where the traffic wasn’t too bad. Oahu is notorious for horrendous traffic, so I’ll pass on my traffic experiences to you as well.
First sight of the Northern shore, Oahu
Waimea BayThe Beach was closed on Feb 17We came to cliff jump off this famous rock, but the waves were rough and the beach section was closed off.
Since we couldn’t jump off cliffs, we settled for a beer on the beach. Maui Brew!
After some holoholo time, we packed back up the car and headed east along the coast.
Holoholo means “to go out and have fun, have adventures“.
Car Rental tip: All the big car rental companies are quite expensive out of HNL airport. The best deal I found was via Turo, the airbnb of car rentals. Mike runs most of the cars out of the airport and I had a good experience with them.
Our next stop was the famous Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck in Kahuku.Giovanni’s was the first shrimp truck on the North ShoreGiovanni’s half order of Shrimp scampi, $7 USD, cash only.The truck is smothered in guests’ signatures.Eating the shrimp under the pavilion by the truck, we couldn’t help but notice this sign and wonder what Li Hing Mui was.Sweet chilled pineapple slices with Li Hing MuiI expected the Li Hing Mui to be a spicy salt, but it was sweet! It’s a sweet/salty dried plum powder commonly sprinkled on pineapple, apples and even popcorn!We continued our road trip east around the coast, then south along Highway 83. This portion of the ride was gorgeous in every direction. The traffic however, was pretty rough at about 5:00pm.China Man’s Hat, known as Mokolii Island on Oahu’s east coast/windward side.
Our next stop was in Kailua, to hike Lanikai Pillboxes. The parking is in a residential neighborhood and is quite confusing! If it weren’t for my local friend, Nicole, we would have never figured out where to park. There is no designated parking lot and be mindful of the street signs. Make sure your wheels are completely off the main road (there’s no marked lane for parking).
The trailhead is on a small dead-end street in the neighborhood across from a large parking lot (where you cannot park).
The only sign that denotes the trailThe trail starts off with a short incline on a dirt path, tree roots in some sections clearing off steps.There was barely any other people hiking when we were there at 5:30pm on a Monday. The dirt was dry so it wasn’t slippery.First glimpse of Lanikai Beach from the hikeMokolua Islands looking so dreamy at sunsetThe trail to the first Pillbox looks like a scene out of Tolkien.
Hawaiian sunset on fire!Honolulu Beerworks is a brewery/ pub downtown Waikiki. Such a fun vibe here with friendly staff and an ourdoor patio area to the side.BEVY is a cocktail bar just a few blocks away from Honolulu Beerworks, where I ordered my obligatory Mai Tai (when in Hawaii, right?). Really fantastic mixology here.7-11 is one of my favorite stops in Asia/Pacific islands. Here in Waikiki, I grabbed a few different Spam Musubi’s and snacks for the road. It might have been late night, which made them more delicious than ever.
I don’t know what these chips are, but they were delicious.Good morning from Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head
More ahi tuna poke for lunchMy other local friend, Dheb, raved about the seasonal dessert from… McDonald’s! that was currently available. Taro Pie, it was just like the Apple pie version but purple and tastier :)
Aloha, Hawaii… We don’t want to leave you!
My third time to Hawaii was brief, but action packed and delicious.
Mahalo for letting me “talk story” with you.
Mahalo means “thank you”.
Talk story means “chit chat”.
All photos taken by Melllypoo via Canon 6D & iPhone 6.
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Wow ! As they sing: “Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii…”