North Shore

I was babysitting a car for a friend (a 6sp manual transmission BMW - thanks PJ) so I decided I would take a day trip up to the North Shore. After making several wrong turns on two out of the three highways on Oahu, I finally made it to Haleiwa. I stopped briefly to look up directions to Waimea on my phone. It turns out it's super easy, you just keep following the only road heading north. When I finally made it to Waimea, I made several loops around the parking lot, realized there was no way that the other five cars and I were getting a spot so I jumped across the road. As I drove up the driveway, I noticed signs like "botanical gardens" and "waterfall". With my curiosity piqued, I decided to make my way past the lower lots to see what was at the top of the drive. I had accidentally stumbled into Waimea Valley - a collection of tropical gardens, the Kamananui Stream and Waimea Falls. I threw my credit card at the admissions lady and went in. 

This place is wildly beautiful with tons of native flora and other small gardens featuring plants from other tropical locations. Paths ranging from paved asphalt to small dirt trails meander all over the gardens making it easy to get off the beaten track and do some tame exploring. This super lush and remote feel has also made it an ideal place for filming. I found out that a lot of commercials, shows and movies are filmed here - my favorite title being Joe vs. The Volcano (no idea what that is but it sounds like gold, I hope Joe won). At the top of the trail you find the main attraction, Waimea Falls. After a brief safety talk from lifeguards, and very specific instructions to not climb on anything, I was handed a lifejacket. I grabbed the GoPro, ran around all the unbalanced tourists trying to make it across the rocks and jumped in the water. Shrivel me timbers. I forgot mountain water was cold. I quickly swam over to the falls, let the water bash my face some and then floated around on my back. Super beautiful spot even with loads of other people hanging around.

So, after my two and a half hour detour, I finally made it down to the beach. What a freaking beach. The most notable feature happens to be a rock. A twenty something foot high rock that jets out into the water. Super fun to jump off of and incredibly good for getting embarrassing slo-mo faces. I jumped off, screamed a little louder than I meant to and hid underwater for a while. There's no point in hiding underwater in Hawaii because it's crystal clear. After coming up for air, I scooted next to the rock and looked for the next cool feature about the cliff, an underwater tunnel. While I was scoping out the rock for this tunnel, I happened to notice that part of the cliff was moving. A big old turtle was just nibbling away on the side of this cliff. Not sure if it was Mr. Turtle or Crush but I swam up to him and we chilled for a minute. He didn't even seem to notice me or care that humans were throwing themselves into the water nearby. Once the initial turtle stoke subsided I realized he was chilling right above the tunnel. It's a very manageable distance with plenty of room to swim but still a little nerve wracking having nothing but rock above you and one breath of air. I went through a couple times for good measure and then found another tunnel further out on the rock. The second one is much narrower but still plenty fun if you're even remotely competent in the water. I swam around and jumped off the rock a couple more times until I thought I may have jeopardized future Benjamin generations. I swam weakly back towards the shore when I noticed a funny rock bouncing around. Turns out, it was my turtle friend from earlier getting his munch on. I hung out with him for a few more minutes and stuck my GoPro in his face a couple more times.

Next stop was the most celebrated wave in all surfdom. Pipeline. True to form, I got lost again (yes, with only one road, I got lost) and ended up at Turtle Bay. Once I got turned around, I headed back down the coast and made it to Pipe. I decided I was too cold to get wet and I had just discovered that there was a short hike to some pill boxes on the hill (for a Floridian it's a mountain) behind the beach. After a short, steep and somewhat sketchy hike (I wore my slippers again, when will I learn?) I made it to the first pillbox. Bright graffiti adorns the interior of the pillbox and the views of the North Shore are flawless. I'd love to see some big swell pushing through from up there. The second box, a bit further down the trail, offers a better view north toward Sunset. When I got back down, I hopped into the water to cool down. Pretty fun to swim around such a famous area, maybe one day I'll get to see some epic surf there.