Day Three, 4/14

Since Dad had to work in the morning, John and I were on our own. We decided to head up to the North Shore. We had a book called “Oahu Revealed” which helped us navigate almost as well as the TomTom GPS did! On the maps in the book, filming sites for my fave show “Lost” were indicated and John agreed to search them out with me.

Our first stop was Kawela Bay. But there was no public access road to that beach, and we had to enter down the road at Waiale’e Beach park. It was a looooong walk in the sand and we made it to the tip of Kawela Bay long enough for a picture. If we’d kept walking, we would have discovered a huge banyan tree forest where “Lost” scenes are filmed. Kind of wish we’d kept going, but we were worn out after our first stop!!

Second was Papa’iloa Beach. Once again, difficult to find since there isn’t much of a public entrance. And once again we stopped at the end for a photo of the beach and didn’t go on. I did notice an area with red plastic fencing and blue tarps and didn’t think much of it until later.

Remember—all beaches in Hawaii are public. Every stretch of beach is public, though the land backing up to it may be private. Just because it’s public doesn’t make it easy to find!

Then we drove far, far down the Northwest shore, practically to the tip to find a little place called YMCA Camp Erdman. Also a “Lost” filming site, I was excited to see very recognizable feature from “Lost”. Snapped some pictures, then headed home.

That afternoon my dad really wanted to take us to see the Dragon’s Nostrils, a series of 2 or more blowholes going at one time when the ocean was right. All week long the waves were pretty high, so it really was great for those specific sites. John had tweaked his knee the day before hiking to the Spitting Cave overlook, so he opted to stay behind while Dad, DeAnna and I headed to the Dragon’s Nostrils.

Also known as Makapu’u Point, I had no idea what I was in for. We parked at the bottom of a mountain and took a steep paved road to the top. Or halfway to the top anyway. There we searched for whales (didn’t find any) and then climbed down the rocky side of the mountain to the Dragon’s Nostrils. Holy cow, it was a long way down and my legs were SO sore from hiking and snorkeling the day before. It took much longer than it should have for me to make it down.

Once there, the blowholes were very active. It was cool, because you could get much closer than you could at Halona. But the waves were extremely choppy and high, so I was pretty nervous. After one gigantic wave that came right at us, I screamed and ran back and said “that’s it! I’m done” and started heading back up. I wasn’t taking any chances messing with the ocean.

That night we stayed in for dinner after a soak in the complex pool and hot tub. You can see a pattern…no energy for blogging!