On the last weekend of August I had the chance to go on a whole day tour of Haleiwa and the
beautiful Waimea Valley. The first stop was at the Dole Pineapple Plantation were I looked
around the gift shop and also tried out a glass of fresh pineapple juice. The town of Haleiwa
was the next stop along the way and it was there that I tried out the much talked about "shave
ice" at the Matsumoto Store where I found many Japanese tourists. There really is nothing
great about "shave ice" and I even find our "halo-halo" back home tasting so much better.
The town of Haleiwa is just close to the shore and it was at the beach where I had my close-up
picture taken ... this is the picture where I had a flower on my right ear (shown in the
main page).
Waimea is a 1,800-acre valley that is sacred to the Hawaiians. It was here that the Hawaiian religion once flourished. The valley is now one of the most popular visitor attractions on the North Shore. It is at Waimea Valley that you will find remnants of "heiaus" (Pre-Christian Hawaiian Temple) and a fishing shrine, archaeological sites, and a series of age-old stone platforms. There is also a botanical garden where you can see nearly 6,000 species of tropical flora from different parts of the world, including more than 400 species of rare and endangered Hawaiian and South Pacific plants.
Just beside Waimea Valley is the Waimea Bay Beach Park. It is a crescent-shaped beach which is one of the most popular beach parks on the North Shore where the waves during month of December crest at over 20 feet. There is a large, rocky outcropping on the southeast side of the bay, known as the "Rock," from where thrill-seekers can frequently be seen diving or jumping into the ocean. The different pictures shown below are some of the things I saw in this very enjoyable trip to Oahu's north shore area.
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