Oahu, Hawai'i

Our time in Hawai'i saw us spend four days on Oahu and the following four days on the island of Kauai, where you'll remember we visited Manawaiopuna Falls - more commonly known as Jurassic Falls. This absurdly-majestic natural construction was used in the original Jurassic Park movie when our characters land on Isla Nublar by helicopter, but I won't talk about that experience just yet. Instead, like I did with Kualoa Ranch, I’m going to give it a post of its own. Why? Because Jurassic Park. 
In fact, the entire island of Kauai deserves its own post, for the very same reason. The whole island itself is quite literally Isla Nublar, so if that’s not enough to get you excited, then change your taste in movies immediately and come back when you’re feeling better. For now, let’s just focus on Oahu. 

We stayed in Waikiki, Honolulu, which is actually pretty damn gorgeous. As for the weather, it might surprise you – as it did me – to learn that it wasn’t hot in the slightest. Sure, you'd burn in minutes without sunscreen, but there was zero humidity and a cooling breeze the whole time. The same can be said for Kauai too, actually, but let me not digress again. 

Naturally, we spent a fair bit of time at the beach, a real surfer’s paradise and where the waters were so incredibly clear and blue, that those of Fiji offer zero contest. Just a five-minute stroll from the beach, we enjoyed our first visit to the infamous Cheesecake Factory (if I was a food blogger, I’d be telling you more about how the cheesecake was pretty standard and I'd instead implore you to try Uncle Tetsu’s Japanese Cheesecake, also located in Waikiki). Here we also enjoyed some of the NBA play-offs and where, for the first time ever, I saw Sian drunk. And let me tell you - it was hilarious.

Waikiki - much prettier and much cheaper than Miami

So tempted to shout "shark!" and have the gorgeous water to myself

Just a little further inland (by about a minute, nothing too taxing) there’s a quirky little alleyway where you’ll find a very American diner, a miniature fresh food market and a few little souvenir shops with more unique gifts than the usual overpriced tack you’ll find in most. I named this alleyway - quite ingeniously if I must say so myself - “Hawai'iagon Alley”. If you don’t already get that, go and change your taste in movies and come back when you’re feeling better. 

Our final day saw us book an excursion through one of those vulture-esque street vendors, something we’re normally against, but being eager to see more of the island we decided to make an exception. While there’s still some regret here because the day trip was somewhat mis-sold, for the most part it was still awesome and we did some things we wouldn’t have otherwise done. It was also a sort of last-minute mini-binge of the island, much better of course than wandering aimlessly around Waikiki for our last day. 

So we jumped on a small bus and headed up along North Shore with a small group. Unfortunately, though, like a true jackass, our tour guide encouraged everyone to jump off rocks and bridges, turning the entire bus into some sort of fraternity that should exist only on-screen. If you like that kind of thing, then good for you, but this wasn't exactly in the brochure. Luckily, Sian and I hastily jumped off the bus at the Kauhale National Park in Waimea Valley, where at the end of an easy trail we swam at the bottom of the gorgeous Waimea Falls - but which was scarily ten-metres deep!

Before moving on, though, I must  mention that the new Jumanji movie recently wrapped up here, having previously been shooting at Kualoa Ranch. Below are a couple of other (miniature) movie locations, including the lightning tree from The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire. 

Sian taking a plunge

Stay away. This tree catches fire, apparently.

Jumanji 2

Afterwards, we jumped back on the bus and went paddle-boarding with the rest of the group. It was enjoyable for the most part, but it would have been a lot better had we have not been exposed to the sun for so long. We made our way down a river toward a small beach where we bobbed aimlessly while the tour guide and the rest of the frat pack did backflips off their boards and surfed ‘waves’ (I’ve made bigger ones in the bath while climbing out). 

We then visited a beach where we saw some turtles inside the surf. It was quite incredible and it can’t go without mentioning just how impressively massive these creatures are. But this was followed by a short-lived snorkel which the tour guide promised would bring us plenty of interactions with the animals. However, we saw none and within minutes he quickly called us out of the water so that we could see some further down the beach. But nothing waited except more disappointment. And in hindsight we realised this was his way of cutting the snorkelling short, having admittedly hated it earlier in the day and thinking of ways to eat into it with other activities.

As we headed back towards Waikiki, we visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation, where we enjoyed some gorgeous ice cream (guess the flavour, go on), and saw weird "rainbow gum trees" in the car park.

Oahu was awesome, but it pales in comparison to our time on Kauai. The next two posts will focus on what is dubbed the "Garden Isle", the first of which will be on our incredible Jurassic Falls experience. Then I’ll tell you all about our continued Jurassic Park-themed adventures when we hit the theme parks in Hollywood. 

Much less fun than it looks

Raphael was on holiday from New York

A "rainbow gum tree". Still looks fake

The tree Drew Barrymore crashes into in the film 50 First Dates

The real Pandora, from the movie Avatar