Kualoa Ranch on Oahu

Without all the incredible movie sets and familiar scenes from favorite pop culture, the location is still stunning. And anyone who comes here has strict instructions to leave it as beautiful as they find it. And it is truly beautiful. Here are a few more pictures of the amazing views. We then ended our day with some of the most amazing sushi as recommended by our zipline guides. If you are ever on Ohau, this is worth doing and seeing.

ATV Riding Through Kualoa Ranch

After our fun morning of the zipeline, we spent the afternoon doing an ATV tour. Again, spending hours going around this beautiful area was a challenge we were willing to take on. The weather cleared and it didn't rain. Which turned out to be a bad thing. Without the rain, the drive was very very very very very very very dusty. Still fun, but some wetness on the dirt road would have been nice.

The tour stopped us at some pretty cool movie sets, and we did see some pretty iconic things along the way. But the scenery is just so pretty.

Ziplining Through Jurassic Park

 

When looking for things to do, I came across a place called Kualoa Ranch. Turns out this is where they filmed Jurasic Park. They also filmed Lost, 50 first dates, some National Geographic documentaries, Hawaii 5-0, and a plethora of other big films. Not only did the scenery look amazing, and they have so many different kinds of activities to do for all ages, but they had a Zipline tour option that went through this beautiful place. So we could literally zipline through Jurassic Park. I don't like heights, but I wasn't going to say no to this.

The tour was in the morning, which worked out well since rain was in the forecast. While that would make things more exciting, I didn't want to get hit by lighting with all the metal we were around. Luckily it all worked out nicely.

The whole excursion took about 2 hours, including the 20 minutes bus ride up to the location spot. We then went over some bridges, and went down about 7 different lines with our guides. Afterwards it was another 20 minute ride back to the main center. 

Did we see dinosaurs? We actually did. Along some incredible sights. I fully believe that dinosaurs still exist in this beautiful place. After the zipline, we did some shopping, and stayed for lunch. I don't know what they do to their donuts, but they were so magically. The garlic shrimp was really tasty too. We stuck around shopping to kill some time as we had another excursion planned here for the afternoon. I would totally do this again. So much fun.

Morning Drive

We finally had time to go to breakfast this morning at a popular eatery across the street from where we stayed. It was really tasty, and we got to watch the sun come up.

We had to be to our next adventure by 10am, so we took advantage of some extra time to kill and drove around the shore It was so pretty. 

We made a few stops along the way to whatever spots looked appealing to stop at. I love being a morning person. You find so many great spots people haven't taken over yet.

We even found these really cool plants. I don't know what they are called technically, but they are often referred to as a living plant.

I know, all plants are living. But when you touch these ones, you see the leaves react immediately. It's super interesting (see video below). I guess there they are like weeds and can grow to be really huge plants. We had fun playing with those for a bit.

Then came our next adventure -Kualoa Ranch. Aka Jurassic Park.

https://youtu.be/WRhz0K-6PeQ

Pearl Harbor and a Flea Market

 After the morning hike we drove out to Pearl Harbor. I've always heard it was amazing and worth seeing, and it really is. 

The whole thing is very well taken care of, and the museums are so interesting. Really puts into perspective how sad war is and the amount of loss is incredible. We came back on another day to take the boat ride out to the sunken ship. They remind you that this is a memorial, like visiting Arlington Cemetery. It is a grave site. It just happens to be underwater. And how close to the surface the sunken ship is makes it that much more heartbreaking. The colorful coral you see is just below the water's surface on the top part of the sunken ship. Such a beautiful and sad place.

On the way there we saw a giant flea market happening across the highway at the stadium. It took up the entire parking lot. We decided to stop by there to see what they have (we love a good flea/farmers market) but also see if we could get some fun souvenirs. 

We ended up walking around for a few hours. I wasn't feeling really great and being in the sun and heat wasn't helping. But we got a couple things, and even recommended the place to a few other people. So many vendors. I got a purse, and the husband found some sunglasses he's been watching for. I even had an apple banana for the first time. It's just like what it sounds too. It's a banana that has an apple flavor to it. So yummy.

After that we went to the Honolulu memorial park. Which is basically a cemetery with some beautiful pagodas. They were in disrepair and needed a lot of work. But still beautiful to see. It thoroughly makes me want to go to Japan.

After that we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was located right across the street from a huge shopping area of town. We spent the rest of the day checking out the stores and enjoying the lovely weather. We enjoyed some dinner and decided it was a day well spent.