As I mentioned, our recent trip was to have an epic vacation to celebrate Jason’s 50th Birthday. We dubbed the holiday our Hawaii 5-0 trip. As we both grew up watching the cop show in the 1980s. When planning our trip, we had concerns about travelling all that way, and it had been a long time since we had flown. So, we decided to stay on Oahu rather than island hop around the State.
We stayed at the ‘Alohilani Resort in Waikiki Beach, located across the road from the famous beach. Within walking distance of all the shops and restaurants. We also hired a car for a few days to explore more of Oahu. When we had the car, we drove along the coast road. First to Pearl Harbour and then checked out the North Shore beaches and hiking trails.
Having spent the last three years mainly in London, it was nice to be near the sea and mountains. We joked our recent trips outside of London were all to Norfolk, the flattest place in the UK! Every day I was more in awe of the scenery. Our hotel room had a view of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head. Once we headed out of the city, I fell in love with the beaches, mountains, and rainbows! The terrain and cloud coverage means they are a rainbow nearly every day!
Moana Falls Trail
We have never really hiked before, but having heard about the Moana Falls Trail, we decided to give it a go. We read the trail was an easy hike, and as complete novices, we found this was true. The day we hiked the trail, it rained. So we did struggle a little with the wet stones.
North Shore
As I said, Jason and I grew up watching Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum PI in the 1980s. So had always loved the idea of visiting Hawaii. (I should say we don’t watch the re-boots; our opinion of Hawaii was very 80s based). The TV programme that reignited our obsession with Hawaii was Lost! Although not set there, it was all filmed-on Oahu. So we always dreamed of seeing the beautiful scenery in person. I managed to find some old blogs listing some of the filming locations from Lost. So, when we drove along the coast road. We stopped at Hurley’s golf course, the Lost beach and the Other’s village.
It is safe to say we fell in love with the island of Oahu. We would love to return to Hawaii and explore more islands in the future. Honolulu is a great central base. Waikiki Beach has a walled area making it ideal for swimming, or you can opt to surf beyond the wall. The area has a good selection of restaurants and bars, all within walking distance. However, the island is small enough to drive around within a few hours to check out the scenery.
