Hawaii Day 5

February 24, 2022

Thursday was spent on the north shore but before we headed out we made a stop at the Dole Plantation. A friend of Lisa’s asked her to pick up some gummy pineapple rings for her and since the Dole Plantation is right next to the Schofield Barracks where we’re staying we decided to pick them up there.

I know it would be interesting to tour the plantation but in my mind there are so many more interesting things to see and do so we decided to pass it up. We were quite surprised however to learn how much there is to see and do right in their front yard. They have experimental gardens with many variations of pineapple plus they are growing cocoa and other plants as well. It was quite interesting and we checked it all out including the famous Dole Whip which is basically pineapple sherbet. I wanted to buy some Macadamia nuts as well but Lisa assured me they would be much cheaper at Walmart and probably the same brand.

We drove through Haleiwa just to check the place out and to our surprise; on our way out of town we passed a sign identifying The North Shore Macadamia nut farm. We pulled into this beautiful farm yard and we had no sooner stopped but a chicken jumped up on the hood of our car. Those crazy wild chickens are everywhere. I told the guy at the store that he should add fried chicken to his menu. We loaded up on Macadamia nuts and carried on.

Our next stop was Turtle Beach which is officially called Laniakia Beach. We refer to it fondly as Sarah’s beach because we have a picture of her puting her fins on when we were on that beach 18 years ago.

There were many turtles back then but this is the only turtle we saw this time. Her name is Hiwahiwa which means “Precious One”. She is over 50  years old and has made three trips to the French Frigate Shoals to nest. The first was in 2002 and then again in 2010 and 2017. In 2010 they could tell she was getting ready to leave so they were able to put a tracker on her. During that trip she made a record breaking 570 foot dive.

Our next stop was the Pu’u O Mahuka Heiau temple site. In the days of the chiefs, a chieftan contained everything needed to sustain life. The chieftan was wedge shaped with a section of the beach where people would fish and then reach up into the moutains where other groups of people would farm taro. They traded with each other to get everything they needed. The whole island was divided into these pie shaped chieftans. Today the original   chieftains are marked out by these signs that identify the orginal borders dividing the territories.  

Many of these territories built themselves temples like these ones. Originally they had sacred buildings inside these walls where the normal guy wasn’t allowed to go.

Our next stop was the food trucks by Sharks Cove. We got the obligatory shrimp which was good but I didn’t think it was as crazy good as everyone says it is. As we were eating, Lisa saw Carston Kooyman go walking by. What a coincidence. We had a good visit, took a picture and then headed across the street to go snorkeling. 

The cove is sheltered by all these nasty volcanic rocks so the water was calm and Lisa really got into the snorkeling. We saw some amazing fish and stayed there for hours. We were reluctant to leave but finally decided that if we wanted our pie we would have to move on.  

As we were leaving Lisa didn’t want to interupt two girls who were blocking the path and tried to go around them. Big mistake, she slipped on those nasty rocks and cut up her hand pretty good and is now sporting a 6” bruise on her left butt cheek. I think what bugs her more than anything else is the blood stain she now has on her watch band.   

After bandaging her up we then headed down the road to Teds Bakery famous for their pie. We tried three different flavors. I think mine was a mango cream or something like that but they were all very delicous.

Our final stop of the day was Sunset Beach where, you guessed it, we watched the sun set. It was quite spectacular.