Hawaii: a trip to paradise

(Update: Ich arbeite an den Übersetzungen!!!!! Versprochen die kommen bald!! Bis dahin: Ich habe den Google Translator mal ausprobiert. Es ist nicht ganz gut, aber es funktioniert ;) )

Aloha!

I can't believe it's already been a week since I came back from paradise! After 2 long flights without food (why the fuck don't they give you food on an 6 hour flight??) Philipp and me finally arrived in Honolulu. The airport is not even a building, parts of it are outside! I found this really cool. The first evening started of nicely with good food, a cocktail and, of course, the reunion with Dani, Rica and Rasmus. It's been just a week without them in Banff but there definitely was something missing!

First evening in Waikiki

That's what vacation should look like!!

The next day we organized a tent and an air matress to start into our first Oahu adventure: wild camping on a beach. We drove up to the North Shore and on our way, we had the most amazing food from one of the numerous food trucks. All I can say is: I <3 fresh shrimps!!! I think I could never get sick of it. And everything for reasonable prices! As the evening got closer, we stopped on a pretty beach and found a nice camping spot hidden behind a few trees. We enjoyed the last hour of light on the beach and the sunset before building up our tents and getting a nice campfire started (of course, this is as forbidden as camping there in the first place). 

Shrimp truck food

Enjoying the last bits of sun

The first beautiful sunset. Just... amazing.

Of course, people who know me know that this is something I rarely do and, actually, it felt nice to do something that usually is out of my comfort zone. I did not sleep to well as I constantly had the feeling there were people walking around and stuff (which they probably did as it was a public spot) but anyway. I am quite proud of myself I must say. And I had to wake up Philipp only once ;))) Thanks again for being so patient! Finally, I really am getting more relaxed about some things. I think this really contributes to leading a bit of a more relaxed lifestyle and not take everything so serious.

In the morning, this random guy with his Ukulele turned up and I think, he played and sang for the ocean, which really says something about Hawaiian lifestyle. Hang loose!

The next morning we set off for a little roadtripping, leaving behind our tents and air matresses. We went to beautiful Sunset Beach and spent some time snorkling, swimming and just lying on the beach, and, in my case, reading. Later on, we went to Pipeline Beach to watch the big big waves and the surfers. And there were really big waves! Very cool. Unfortunately, you were not allowed to go into the ocean at this point because of the big wave as well as there were a lot of rocks immediately on the shoreline, but this didn't keep us from jumping in anyway and having fun in the waves. I really really enjoyed this day!

Watching the big waves! I am wearing my Hawaiin lei. People in Hawaii hand out lei to say 'welcome'. I got mine from Rica! Thanks again!

Pipeline Beach

Watching the surfers and just enjoying

<3 Hawaii

Whatever we do - it looks like fun and it was fun ;)

Jumping over the waves!

Returning to our campsite we found that all our tents and air matresses were gone. Our guess is that someone just really didn't want us to camp there, as the stuff was partially destroyed and partially hanging on the trees around. This meant we had to go on a little trip to the middle of the island and get new camping gear. Luckily, we still had the rental car. Let's say it's a story to tell our grandchildren. It was a bad idea to leave the stuff in the first place but as we already had a few discussions about this I am going to not go further into detail. Again, we had a nice campfire and woke up to rain. Yeah, you just can't influence the weather, but as this was the day we had to go return the car and move to our legal campsite etc, it was all good. Our new official campsite was located on the east coast.

View of the Chinaman's hat from our tents!

The next day I set off back up to the North Shore (bless the Hawaiian bus system...) to Haleiwa to have a surfing lesson as this was my must-do in Hawaii. Arriving there, I found out really quickly that the waves at the North Shore are just too big for an absolute beginner (apparently Waikiki is just THE place to go to) and, furthermore, the prices up there were utopic. So I spent the day on the beach, shopping and enjoying good food, ice cream, smoothies and generally just having a good time. And it didn't even matter that I was alone, I still had the most amazing conversations with some locals. On my way back, I got off the bus at the Shark's cove and watched another SPECTACULAR sunset. I will never, ever get sick of such beautiful moments.

Town of Haleiwa

Lifeguard cabin :)

Worth a picture ;) Surfer boys watching the waves

I just randomly came across this beautiful place. I spent 15 min just to take in the beauty.

Shark's cove

Watching the waves. I am always amazed by the strength they have.

This was just the most picturesque sunset to be ever seen. In real life, it was even more impressive then in these pictures.

I did not edit these pictures!!!!!

And there it goes - it just drops into the ocean.

 With no plan on the next day, I spent some time at the campsite on the beach and set off for the next town to charge my kindle, my phone and use the internet for a bit. I did a bit of shopping, had nice Korean food for dinner and went back to spent the last evening with all those guys. Philipp and me had to return to Honolulu as we had to leave at 5.30 am the next day to fly back to Calgary.

The next morning we had the big goodbye, as everybody else set of to go skydiving on the North Shore and I went to Honolulu to finally get my surfing lesson. I returned our tent succesfully at Walmart, checked in at the Hostel and found a nice, not too expensive surfing lesson. And I must say I did quite alright for never really having tried. I stood my first few waves and collapsed happily and completely exhausted onto a sun lounger after this long day of hustling around and organizing stuff and having the fun of my life. After this, I went souvenir shopping to have something to bring back to my friends in Canada. Also, I got a few postcards (sorry I will send them as soon as possible... They are still in my drawer).

Just a nice spot

Usually, I don't really get excited by trees, but isn't this just a really really cool tree???

Just another casual Hawaii sunset. This time in Waikiki. I said my last good bye to these sunsets for a while.

Bye bye, Oahu!!

Later on Philipp came back from sky diving with the happiest look on his face and we set off for an awesome last night in Honolulu. We had a fantastic fancy dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe with nice rock'n'roll live music overlooking the busy town, a few cocktails and in the end, I forced Philipp to go get a piece of cheesecake at The Cheesecake factory to share. We got Oreo Cheesecake and we died in sugar shock as well as in bliss. Although we shared the piece (btw, we ate the cake on the beach!!!!!), we couldn't even finish it. 

THE cake ;D

So, this was a very succesful vacation full of adventures and just beautiful moments.

Mahalo for this experience! I will be back.