For the 3rd day in a row, we get up with the sun! It's time for us to leave the big island. We're headed back to Oahu with the first plane and gladly leave behind our very noisy apartment. To our dismay, there's no coffee at the airport. We're left to wait half sleeping to board the plane. The flight is event-less and we're too sleepy to see much anyway. After a week in Hawai'i, Oahu is quite a shock. We saw nothing of it when we arrived but it's a very modern and busy town. We go through the chore to get our car with some difficulty. We're free to choose and not very good at it it seems... The first one is to small to fit our luggage and the second one has technical problems! At least it's better to find that out before leaving the parking lot ;) Our host has accepted to let us drop off our stuff earlier than usually so we just do that and go for a mini road-trip around the island.
The plan is to got check out the famous north shore. It has some of the most famous surf spots, with huge waves when conditions are optimal. I don't plan on surfing there, It would not be very smart to just jump in the water for a few hours, not having surfed for some time. We drive north along the coast, stopping here and there to enjoy the scenery. Another big difference between Hawai'i and Oahu is their age. All these islands are formed the same way. There's a stationary hot plume forcing lava up and creating islands. We end up with so many different islands because the pacific plaque moves north-ish. The patient work of erosion is well displayed here. The mountains have sharp angles, making them much more dramatic. I suspect Kauai in even more impressive in that regard. We stop at the poi factory for lunch and try local dishes – poi (puree from taro plant), lau lau (pork wrapped in taro leaved) and beef lu'au (beef cooked with taro and other things). Filling but not exceptional, poke remains firmly first on our dish list! During our multiple stops, one thing remains constant... fishermen. Everyone seems to be fishing everywhere on that island. We keep our relaxed rhythm all the way to north shore: drive a bit, stop for a while, enjoy the view, rinse and repeat. During one of our stop, we get to see one of erosion's creation: Do you see the animal on that picture?
The north shore is a different world, it's not really Hawai'i but more a generic surfer town. There's not much going on in terms of waves but the beaches are busy. It feels a lot like California... nice and chill. We check out the mythic breaks but none of them have much to offer. We make the most of the beautiful sandy beaches but when the sun start setting, we try to find a good spot to enjoy the sunset. We're not plagued with clouds this time so it should be worth it. There's an ancient temple in a nearby hill that should be a good place. The temple in only ruins and we don't have much time to investigate. We follow a red soil track in the forest and reach a little clearing on the edge of the hill. A few people are there but there's space for everyone. And finally we have our spectacular sunset. A festival of colors with a dominant red, reflection in the water, a few clouds for a dramatic effect... gorgeous.
For once we have something to do at night and we don't have to get up early the next day so we plan an little expedition at Waikiki. Once again it's a different world than the one we were expecting. It's a crazy mix of Last Vegas, 5th avenue, les champs Elysee... and Tokyo (I guess). There are lots of Japanese tourists and probably a big Japanese community too and it seems they like to have things just the way they are at home. The craziest thing are the buses with a whale tail on top... It has been a long day for us and we're not really receptive to that kind of ambiance so we don't linger too long and go back home.