It's Scott from Saskatoon

I received a message from Scott (TravBuddy id - ScottIsHot) informing me he would be in Honolulu and would like to get together.  Sure, I'm always happy to meet a new TravBuddy.  I thought it would be nice to take him for a drive around the southeast part of the island.  It has some great ocean views and isn't very far from where he was staying in Waikiki.

Wednesday morning rolled around and I picked up Scott at his Waikiki hostel.  Aloha Scott.  Hello Keith.  Blah blah blah.  Let's go check out the sights!!  As I drove through Waikiki, I gave him a brief overview of the area.  Scott had just arrived the previous day and wasn't very familiar with the area.   There's the zoo, there's the aquarium, there's a good place for snorkeling, there's Diamond Head crater, there's the rich section of town, etc…  During my tour guide commentary, I found out Scott is also a fan of tropical fish.  I told him about my saltwater tanks, my volunteer work at the Waikiki aquarium and good places to snorkel on Oahu.  Scott is quite knowledgeable about many different species of fish.  To anyone else, it may have been a boring conversation.  Not to us!!!  Then I discovered another common interest - photography.  We both have the same DSLR camera and professional series wide angle zoom lens.  However, Scott has a fantastic super wide zoom lens that I've been thinking about buying.  Drool, drool.   We had some photo geek discussions about photography.  He's a wealth of camera knowledge!!


Back to the tour guide duties.  There's a place for parasailing, there's the mountain ridge where I live, there's Hanauma Bay, here's our first stop - the Molokai Lookout.  The Molokai Lookout is a scenic point where you can see the island of Molokai on a clear day.  Today was a little hazy, so all we could make out was a vague grey blob on the horizon.  If it's a clear day and you're there around noontime, you can get some very nice views of Molokai.  If you're really lucky you may even see Mt. Haleakala on the island of Maui.  The nice thing about the Molokai Lookout isn't really the view of Molokai.  It's the beautiful sea cliffs.   We hopped over the guard rail and walked down the volcanic rock.  At times the crashing waves sprayed me with water.  Careful!!!!   Being photography buffs, we took our share of photos.  Okay, next stop is the Halona Blowhole.  Within 2 minutes we were at the Halona Blowhole lookout.


The Halona Blowhole is a hole in the lava rocks that emits a spray of water when the big waves hit the face of the rock.  To be honest, it's nothing too spectacular.  But this allows me to tell you a bit of recent history about the Halona Blowhole.  If you look at my photos of the Halona Blowhole Lookout, you'll see this big protective railing.  This was put up a few years ago as the result of tourist stupidity.  A teenage dumb-ass walked out to the blowhole to show off to his friends.   He leaned over the hole when it shot up a big spray of water.  He fell into the hole and got sucked under the rock.  Death by drowning.  His dumb-ass mother sued the State of Hawaii because there weren't enough warning signs at the blowhole.  Absurd!!!


Just down the road from the Halona Blowhole was our next stop, Sandy Beach.  This beach is known for being the place to boogie board or body surf.  It's great because the surf breaks heavily at the shoreline.  It's easy to get slammed into the shore here.  Injuries are common.  Every year someone breaks their neck or their back at Sandy Beach.  Respect the power of the ocean!  After Sandy Beach we went to the Makapuu Lookout.  Makapuu is pronounced mah-kah-poo-oo.   There is a paved trail you can take up to the top of Makapuu.  No, we didn't.  But this is a great place to look for humpback whales during the migration season, usually December-March.  We were getting hungry and decided to get some lunch.


We drove through the town of Waimanalo and into the town of Kailua.  I knew of a restaurant nearby where we could sit outside and have some burgers.  We had a couple of excellent cheeseburgers and I gave Scott some information about what to see in Oahu and at his next destination of Maui.   We didn't linger too long after we filled our bellies.  It was off to the Pali Lookout.


According to legend, the Pali Lookout is where King Kamehameha defeated his enemies and became chief of all the Hawaiian Islands.   There are nice views of the towns of Kailua and Kaneohe from the Pali Lookout.  There are trails you can hike, but be careful.  Every few months someone is rescued by helicopter or is forced to spend the night on the mountain.  It can get incredibly windy and rainy there too.  Don't say I didn't warn you!!!


The Pali Highway cuts through the mountain and leads into downtown Honolulu.  Scott was asking about the Royal Palace.  Yes, Hawaii has a palace, the Iolani Palace.  It's the only palace in the United States.  There is a very good tour you can take of the inside.  No, we didn't.  If you want to take the guided tour, reservations are recommended.  We took photos of the palace outside and photos of the King Kamehameha statue that was across the street.   Back into the car and off to our next destination - Rainbow Scuba.  Scott had seen an advertisement for the shop and wanted to check it out.  He didn't have an exact address, only that it was in Kewalo Basin.  I couldn't find it listed in the phone directory either.  I just drove around the Kewalo Basin for a while but with no success.  Sorry Scott.  Our final destination was a drive through Ala Moana Beach Park.  I told Scott this was a good place to hang out if he didn't want to deal with the crowds of Waikiki.  I don't know if he heard me - he was too busy looking at the girls.


I wasn't able to join Scott for dinner, so I dropped him off at his hostel.  I think he enjoyed his scenic overview of Oahu and I hope I gave him some ideas of things to do while he's here.  We talked about getting together again before he leaves.  Sounds good to me!!