Hawaii: Dole Plantation, Turtle Beach and Lanikai Beach

Ahhhh...mornings. Today was a rental car day. Thanks to the lovely ladies at the concierge desk, the rental car was a mere $40 and the pick up was within walking distance. The next challenge was to navigate the Hawaiin maps. You would think that being a small island, it wouldn't be that bad. However, the roads and the numbering of said roads is a bit interesting. Map says 80. Road says 99. But from the large Dole sign in the foreground, you know you are heading the right way.

The first stop of the day was the Dole Plantation. The girls were very pysched to go through the maze, except...it was closed due to weather. For the record, it was overcast and cloudy. We were puzzled but decided to make the best of it and took the pineapple express train for the narrated tour and wandered through the gardens before being swallowed whole by the gift shop. Definately a shop for all things pineapple. It would have been interesting to learn a bit more about their coffee, macademia nuts and banana productions as well. But that is the museum goer in me. All in all, it was a short stop.

Pineapple

Dole plantation

Next up was a drive into Haiweka to find the shrimp truck. We didn't find that but did find the ultimate Ukelele player in his shop. He was able to pound out the tunes and referred us to view his Utube videos. Quite a character and definately worth finding if you are in the area.

Uke shop

The drive continued around to Lanakea Beach aka Turtle Beach. This for me was the highlight of the day. I got wet trying to catch that one snap of the turtles swimming along the shore. Instead, I got a lot of ocean shots and several surfer shots. I don't give up that easily though, so eventually I got one. Then, I wandered down the beach only to discover two volunteers tracking the progress of Ya bu turtle climbing up on the shore. Red rope was slung to keep the tourists away, but it was great to see them up close and personal if you like. As they are wild, you are dependant on the volunteers knowing which animal that you are looking at as they have tracking systems in place for all the wild turtles that they know of. Apparently, Kelly Ripa had been there last week? I wonder what the connection was for the volunteer ;). While my eldest was fascinated, my youngest was definately NOT! So, after watching her dickey dance around the rocks, I reluctantly followed the family back to the rental car.

What comes next? Coastal road with views of wind farms, shrimp farms, cows, horses, and loads of slow moving tourists. So much for minimum speeds, I would have been thrilled if they had managed that. However, we finally made it to Lanakai Beach with its soft sand, beautiful vistas, low flying planes and believe it or not...lost brides. Ok, there was only one, but she was quite a sight to see as she trapsed up and down the beach with no groom in sight.

Rule of thumb. Don't get lost on your wedding day. And if you do? At least get lost with your groom. And so goodnight from Oahu, tomorrow we are on to Kona...and more coffee!!!

Lanikai on Dwellable