More Parks and Gardens in Hawaii

 There was another park I wanted to stop and see while we were wondering around the island. I can't get enough flowers and trees and greenery from a tropical place. It was hot and muggy, and there were lots of people, but still a pretty place to spend the afternoon.

We did come across a snail that was huge (it's my husband's hand in the picture with the snail. He's 6'5. It's a big snail). I still believe dinosaurs are roaming somewhere along that island. 

Sea Turtles

I'm on a kick where I'm really into turtles. I don't know why, but I love turtles. I was rather excited to learn there are lots of sea turtles along Hawaii. 

Sadly the only way we could find to see them was to pay to take a boat ride, that would then stop out in the ocean where you can swim around and hope you see some turtles. 

Swimming in the ocean with 100 other tourists trying to see a turtle, which are probably running the other direction once they see the crown, was not something I really wanted to do. Plus it was really really expensive to do these 2 hour boat tours. It just didn't seem worth it. But I still want to see sea turtles.

While we were out on the boat to see sharks, one of the divers had mentioned that she saw turtles all the time. 

There was a beach she would go to after work all the time that no one was every at, and there were always turtles. I was rather excited and she was nice enough to give us directions on where to find this magical place.

The location is definitely not a tourist location. It was a smaller, less nice public beach that only the locals would know about. 

It's not as nice or picked up as the tourist areas are, and the beach is not huge or the greatest. There is also a section that is a hard rock shelf of volcanic rock. 

Needless to say most visitors are not going to jump to go out to this beach. (But really they should. It was never very busy so you could enjoy the beach and waves to yourself. Just not the best view of the island).

She described where to go to see them. It took us a while to find the spot, and neither of us were convinced we were in the right place.

We watched and waited and looked around for about 10 minutes until my eagle eyed husband saw then fighting the current in the water next to the volcanic rocks. The diver didn't like. There were turtles. 

We came back to this place 3 different times to watch them fight the surf and eat under the rock shelf. There were never more than 1 or 2 that we could see (and they are hard to see as they blend in really well to the rock surrounding), but every time we went we saw turtles. 

It is illegal to touch the sea turtles, and where they liked to hang out is not a place I would really want to get into the water. But because this rock shelf sat out over the water, we could stand on the edge and see them close up - as in they were only a few feet below us. 

I took a ridiculous amount of pictures and videos. I could easily hang out there all day every day, but my partner wasn't really sold on spending all his days on the Island watching turtles in this spot.

What can you do?

But I got to see my turtles. I was SOOO happy. And I will not tell anyone where we went to see them. As soon as word got out, tourists would rush to this spot. We all know people are jerks, so the habitat would be littered, destroyed, and of course there will always be those idiots jumping into the water to touch them and just be obnoxious. I'd rather not be a cause to decimating their nice little area away from the world. Plus, someone would turn this into a tourist spot and charge a ridiculous amount of money for people to even get into the beach area to see them. 

Let's just avoid that whole scenario and you can enjoy my pictures. My zoom lens on my camera is amazing in situations like these.

Polynesian Cultural Center

 I've heard a lot of great things about the Polynesian Cultural Center and really wanted to check it out. You can also be a part of a luau dinner (which is always a good idea in my opinion), and we were going far enough in advance that we had time to get tickets. 

This center sells out about 3 months in advance. So if you are interesting in going to see it, the sooner you can reserve your tickets the better. They also offer a 100% refund up until the day before, so if you end up needing to cancel you don't lose your money. It is a bit pricey.

The Cultural Center is kind of like a big outdoor amusement park, except there are no rides or concession stands. For all the different Polynesian Islands, they've set up different areas of this park to show a representation of what that culture would look like. 

They have Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, etc. Each Nation has a hut built in their cultural style. As well they have performers who will come out in their traditional garb and talk about the culture, what life would have been like, and some history of what happened to the Nation. 

It's rather fascinating to hear about the culture and history. Some spots show traditional music and traditional style drums. Other areas showed how they would start fire without matches, and climb coconut trees. It's a fun and interactive way to learn about this different nations and what influences they brought to the world. It's certainly worth seeing.

Did I mention it's beautiful? There is a river that runs through this whole park area and surrounding it on all sides are they different layouts for the different nations represented. 

It was a rainy morning when we got there, but it eventually it cleared and we didn't have to use our umbrellas. 

They layout is beautiful. When you walk in there is a section that's all tourist shops, souvenirs, snacks, tickets, etc. Once you get through that on the far side you can enter into the actual area after showing your tickets.

Each nation has what they call a "show" or "presentation" that lasts about 30 minutes. It is timed so that when one ends, another show at another location will begin in 15 minutes. They give you a map at the entrance that tells you where things are at and what time all the performances start so you can plan accordingly. It was lovely to see.

This area finishes up around 6pm, and for those who've paid for the luau seating opens in a separate designated dining area about 6:30, with dinner starting at 7. It is a buffet style dinner, but you do watch them pull the roasted pig out of the ground to begin the buffet. While you are waiting and all through dinner they had music and dancers performing on the stage. It was fun.

After dinner they finish up with an hour long theater show, complete with fire dancers. They do not allow pictures during the performance, but the story was a beautiful one about the birth of a child, his life growing up, getting married, fighting in war, having children, and losing a parent. Very beautifully told and full of both tears and laughter. 

I'm really glad we went and would certainly go again. 

Tidepools

 I'd read about a good place to find some tidepools, though the area was treacherous and off limits for swimming in the fall and winter season. The waves were certainly treacherous, and I would not want to fall on all the volcanic rock. It was a great place to see some tide pools. They were not as full of life as I was hoping though. I wanted to see some sea anemones, and starfish, things like that. But there was none of that. Lots of little Mino type fish and a few bigger ones. But we did happen to find an octopus. That was really fun, and a challenge to see him as he kept blending in with the rock. The head was probably the size of a large fish, so we had fun trying to spot him. 

Sunrise on Oahu

One morning being up and alert long before a person should be on vacation, we took a drive around the island stopping along the beach as the sun came up. This was all the east side the island of Oahu driving north up to Waikiki. I can't imagine ever getting sick of seeing this on a daily basis.

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.