Australia/Hawaii 2002, part 12: Oahu (day 2)

The music I listened to in the car in 2002 was on CDs. Now I would have hooked my iPhone up to Bluetooth, or at worst plugged the phone into the AUX jack and listened to mp3s. But it still would have been the Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett. Today's pictures are here.

Wednesday, October 2: Oahu
Chasing a rainbow on the Kamehameha Highway

I had decided that today was going to be my day to explore the island outside of Waikiki – get a rental car and just drive, stopping where I want and seeing what there is to see. All within reason, of course, as I had to drop my rental car off by 7 pm, so that left me roughly 12 hours if I picked it up when the place opened. I actually picked it up at 8, and then drove down the H1 Highway to Pearl City to see the USS Arizona Memorial. Tunes for the trip are courtesy of the Beach Boys Greatest Hits and the 4-disc Jimmy Buffett set, "Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads".



I’m not quite sure why there are three interstate highways on the island of Oahu (H1, H2, and H3). I was always under the impression that “interstate” means “between states”. But anyway… the island of Oahu has roughly four sides: the North Shore (best for surfing), the Windward Shore (on the east side of the island), the southern shore (the most populated side), and the Leeward Shore (on the west). There’s a big mountain range that runs the length of the windward side of the island, and much of the leeward side is military, mountains, or forest. The H1 Highway runs east-west along the southern side from Diamondhead to Barber’s Point, and the H2 picks up about halfway in between at Pearl City and goes north to Wahaiwa in the middle of the island. The H3 picks up east of Pearl Harbor and goes northeast to Kaneohe, about 2/3 of the way down the windward side. For whatever reason, the leeward side (west) is not very accessible and if you go up the coast there, you can’t go east when you hit the north shore, it’s difficult to even get from there towards the middle of the island without backtracking. So I was pretty much forced to head north through the center, then I could follow the coast all the way around to the east back to Waikiki. Complicating things was the way islanders referred to directions sometimes – “makai” for towards the sea, “mauka” is inland or towards the mountains, “Ewa” for towards the Ewa Plantation in the southeast, and “Diamondhead” for towards the volcano.

By the time I got to the Arizona Memorial, it was 8:45 and I got a ticket for the 10 a.m. viewing. A wait of only 1:15 was pretty good, later in the day it could get up to 2 or 3 hours. I spent the time looking at the gift shop and reading the stuff in the museum. The museum held everything from artifacts recovered from the ship during the salvage operations to an unexploded (but safed) Japanese torpedo to a History Channel mini-documentary about why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. What interested me was the large number of Japanese tourists who were also here – the tour and gift shop offered everything in both English and Japanese, so they must be a big presence – and what they might be thinking while visiting. The last time Japan was a strong nation? What their leaders had done and how they brought shame to the country? Anger at what they as a nation had done, or regret?

When my tour group was called, we first watched a short movie (narrated by Stockard Channing) and then boarded a launch towards Ford Island, where Battleship Row sat on December 7, 1941. The Arizona was one of several battleships sunk, but the only one that was too badly damaged to be raised, repaired, and put back in service, so it was allowed to sit on the floor of Pearl Harbor. But to make it less of a hazard, they removed the superstructure (mostly the stuff that sticks up above the deck). In the 1950’s they built the memorial sitting above it, straddling the middle so that you could see forward and aft. At the far end of the memorial is a list of all the men from the Arizona who were killed aboard the ship, most of whom were trapped inside and are still aboard. A few survivors have since died and had their ashes buried in the ship, and their names are recorded to the side. As with previous visits to National Cemeteries in the US such as Arlington and overseas in France, this was a real, tangible link and reminder that too many soldiers died in the service of their country. Especially poignant was the first anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks just a couple weeks before, being remembered at the site of the previous sneak attack on US soil. The ride to and from the memorial – you’re only allotted 15 minutes in the site – passes near markers noting where the other battleships sat on that December 7, and nearby is the battleship USS Missouri. Surviving Pearl Harbor, the Missouri eventually was the site of the Japanese surrender, decommissioned, refurbished and saw action in the Gulf War, then decommissioned again. For time constraints, I passed on touring this historic ship primarily because I’ve seen the Battleship Texas here in Houston, another decommissioned WWII ship (that plus it cost about $15), and similarly the USS Bowfin, a WWII-era submarine. From onboard the memorial, only a few parts of the boat rise above the water – a couple of holes where giant gun turrets once sat, a vent, and a smokestack. The rest of the ship like beneath just a few feet of water, and periodically leaks oil. It’s amazing that after 60 years the ship is still leaking. (Contrary to popular opinion, the Arizona has been retired and is not considered part of the active US fleet.)

Leaving the Arizona, I headed off to Aloha Stadium, home of (among other things) the NFL Pro Bowl each February. On Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, though, it’s home to a huge flea market in the parking lot. Since I was there on a Wednesday, I figured I’d check it out. I wound up getting three Hawaiian shirts for $10 each. One is dark blue with cars and surfboards, and the other two have parrots and palm trees, one on a red background and the other in black. Where else should you get an “aloha shirt” besides Hawaii?

Driving along, around mile 20 in my journey I went north on the 99 and H2 towards Wahaiwa in the center. Right smack in the middle of the island is Wahaiwa, home of the Schofield Barracks (as seen in “From Here to Eternity”) and the Dole Plantation. I stopped at Dole for lunch (a Polish sausage with a pineapple topping – surprisingly good!) and to check things out. They were just on the verge of turning that area into a mini-Disneyworld, with a theme park, a park train, and lots of gardens. These pineapples, by the way, apparently grow from the top of bushes, not hanging from a tree as I had thought. I bought a small dish of fresh (really fresh, right from the plantation!) pineapple to snack on. I passed on going through the giant hedge maze that’s cut into the shape of a pineapple with the Dole label.

Around mile 36, we came out of a pass and there was the ocean, right where it’s supposed to be. The town of Haleiwa is right at the intersection of 99, which runs from Pearl Harbor north, and 83, the King Kamehameha Highway where I’d spend most of the rest of the day. A couple miles down, at the corner of Pohaku Loa Way and Kamehameha Hwy, I stopped at a beach where other people were, just to go walk in the water. Turns out I stopped at a beach where a couple of giant Green Turtles were sunning themselves. They didn’t have much to say so I went on.

On the advice of the Frommer's guidebook, I backtracked a mile or so and went west on 83 until I saw the world-famous Matsumoto Shave Ice, "the coolest place on the North Shore". They have the hugest snow cones – and messy, of course, as they start to melt. I got the Hawaiian Special on mine: pineapple, banana, and coconut flavors. As I stood outside in the breeze eating (and licking the syrup off my hand), I noticed a rainbow off to the northeast. It was not your typical rainbow arc, it filled the sky at the horizon. As I got back into my car, I found myself headed right towards it, and figured I'd be chasing the rainbow all afternoon.

I found the source of the rainbow around mile 45, out at Waimea Bay. Maybe it was something about how the mountains and valleys meet the sea, but it was raining here and nowhere else. The guidebook notes that it's pronounced "why-MAY-ah", not "why-ah-MEE-ah" like in the Beach Boys song "Surfin' USA". It's got some of the best surfing in the world, at least when in season (winter). Now, it's fairly calm and it would be great to just hang out, if I had more time. On my next trip out here, I'm sure… Over the next few miles I passed some of the other famous surfing beaches like Sharks Cove, Banzai Pipeline, and Sunset Beach.

By mile 52 I hit Turtle Bay, which is around the northernmost tip of the island. A sign was out front with the PGA logo, there's a tournament there every year. Life's tough when your job is playing golf in Hawaii. But Turtle Bay also marks the divide between the Leeward and Windward sides of the island; now I'm going to be heading southeast down the east side of the island, and that's where the winds blow from. The North Shore is calm, breezy, and warm, the Windward side has much rougher waves, forceful winds, and it's noticeably chillier. Even the trees look different over here, they've been bent by the winds. And since it's on the east side of the island, it's darker, as the sun is already on the other side of the mountains that divide the island. The town of Makohoa at mile 56 is the first place on the Windward side, and it's home to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I had already decided that I didn't need more culture after the luau last night and after my time in Australia (plus it was around 5 pm by now), so I added the PCC to my list of things to do next time I'm on the island.

After passing through Hau'ula (mile 60), the guidebook pointed out that in Kualoa (mile 69) there stand the ruins of an old sugar mill, part of the legacy of colonial Hawaii. I'm not sure why the chimneys (the only parts left standing, apart from wall fragments) weren't torn down, this looks like some pretty prime real estate. I left the coast temporarily around mile 75 to go inland on the Kahekili Highway; staying on the Kamehameha Highway on the coast would have taken me too far out of the way, and now I had to be thinking about my deadline – the car rental place closes at 8, and with another 40 miles to go to get back to Waikiki, I had about 2 hours.

I finally hit sunset, sort of, in Kaneohe, around mile 83. From my vantage point, I could see the sun shining through a pass in the mountains to the west. No green flash, obviously. That meant I had one more chance to see the sunset and maybe take a picture of it. I found myself back on the coast again, but since it was dusk there wasn't a whole lot to see. One of the maps I had said that somewhere on the southeastern tip of the island is the estate where they filmed the location shots for "Magnum, P. I." in the 80s. Sadly, I couldn't find it and couldn't spend more time looking for it (plus it was getting dark), so that went on the list too.

At last I was back on the southern part of the island, heading west (or "ewa") towards Diamondhead and Waikiki. I stopped to stretch my legs around mile 95, somewhere in the vicinity of Makapuu Point (home of a lighthouse) and Hanuama Bay (home of snorkeling). I could see the lights in the not-too-distance, then I realized I was looking at the back side of Diamondhead. It has a totally different shape from the other side. And so around mile 115 I was back in Waikiki, and turned in my rental car with about 10 minutes to spare. No problem. The shuttle brought me back to the hotel where I dumped my stuff off and went for dinner.

I didn't feel like walking around looking for a place to eat, so I popped into Smorgy's, a buffet place, where I had a relatively inexpensive but uneventful dinner. Then I had to go back to the room and pack – I've got a lot planned for Thursday and I need everything ready to go. Around 11:30 pm, I went for a walk on the beach, down past the statue of Duke Kahanamoku (the godfather of Hawaiian surfing), and to the water's edge. At night with the breeze blowing, it's delightful. I looked over to the west towards Diamondhead but of course it's not visible. There was just enough light in the sky to block out starlight, so I couldn't even see the mountain by the stars it blotted out. Even a time-exposure picture of the beach looking at Diamondhead couldn't bring it out. At some point in my travels I picked up several empty plastic 35mm film cannisters to gather some beach sand to take back home, so I filled two with sand from Waikiki Beach. Others now held sand from Bondi Beach in Sydney and the Australian Outback's Red Centre. Back to my room by about 12:30, I relaxed out on the balcony listening to the surf and watching the people on the street below. I think I may have even spotted a hooker or two selling her wares on the corner…