Day 20—Kualoa Ranch & Waikiki
While we were watching
Rambo the night before, we were planning today! I really wanted to go the North Shore but while we were in Australia, we had booked the movie tour at Kualoa Ranch for the morning. I was having last minute fears about not loving Aulani (based on my previous Hawaiian experience) and thought we might be getting bored in our last few days before returning home. Those fears ended up being unfounded but we were all still very excited about heading to Kualoa Ranch.
Kualoa Ranch is nowhere near the North Shore but we had a car and we had all day so we were resigned to make it work. However, we could not figure out the best beach for my son’s strong desire to play in some big waves! December on the North Shore contains the biggest waves imaginable but many of those beaches do not make for the best swimming at that time.
There are so many fabulous beaches on Oahu but we could not hit upon one that we were sure would be 1. Swimmable 2. Wavey! 3. Fairly easy to get to from Kualoa. So, in a spark of genius, my husband said we should go to Waikiki! Of course! We had not been there yet. It is historic, has great swimming, is in a lively area and is easy to get to from Kualoa. Therefore, we had our plan and rose early the next morning to head to the ranch.
We left around 8 am for our 10 am tour. The drive was beautiful and again, we had almost no traffic. We arrived a Kualoa early (around 9:00) and they offered to put us on the 9:15 tour. That was great because it would give us more beach time later. We absolutely LOVED Kualoa and the tour. Our guide was fantastic (and I am so sad that I do not remember her name!). We did the basic tour on the bus and it was great fun. We saw areas used in
Kong: Skull Island (I love that movie),
Jurassic Park, and the just released
Jumanji. We also saw sets and props from
Lost and got to hear the history of the Ranch. We will definitely return to Kualoa and probably do the VIP movie tour and maybe the Zip Line or the Catamaran. It was a great place!
Next, we were off to Waikiki. We parked at the Royal Hawaiian (where my dad had spent New Year’s Eve—it is gorgeous!). It is about $20 per day to park there and I thought that was pretty fair. It is a great location and safe parking. There may be better deals but we had scouted that location the day before so it worked well for us. We parked and started checking out the surf shops. The shopping is great around the beach and if you have read my other trip report, you know we are addicted to ‘gear’ stores so we loved checking out all the cool swim/water sports gear in the shops.
Unfortunately, DS does NOT appreciate any shopping (especially when it is keeping him from the Beach). The surly teenager had returned! We were starving and decided to go to Duke’s. Just to show you how clueless we were and how little planning we had done, we did not know it was inside the Outrigger Hotel so it took us way longer than it should have to find it.
We LOVED Duke’s. The mai tais there cannot be beat! We love Monkeypod but this is a classic! DS and I split a burger (so so good!) and DH had fish tacos. We also split an order of nachos and shared Hula Pie. Duke’s was a BIG hit and DS and DH both bought T-shirts.
We hit a few more shops (DS started a full-scale protest at the Tommy Bahama store—he HATES it there because his dad and I love it!). So, we knew it was time for the beach! We actually changed in our car. We had a minivan but it was still ridiculous! We laughed but we got our suits on and headed to the beach. We cut through the Royal Hawaiian but their beach was really crowded so we put our towels down in front of the Sheraton. Waikiki is a public beach but hotels have areas with chairs you need to pay for, etc. We found an open spot of sand and parked.
I took DS out to the water and he went right in! As I said before, I am a TOTAL cold water-phobe to the point that it is ridiculous. The water at Waikiki was lovely but still too cold for me. I went in up to my knees and watched DS from there. I love swimming and the water but am really held back by my fear/hatred of being cold! I just got a riptide wet jacket, though and that should take care of me the next time we are in Hawaii.
In his frustration with my lame attempt at beach swimming, DH who hates swimming and is not particularly good at it (I can say that because he is literally good at everything else!) interceded and took DS out further. They played and had a terrific time. The waves at Waikiki were not as good as Australia but they were pretty awesome. I really want to try surfing!
We loved Waikiki. It is crowded and full of tourists but it is crowded for a reason. It is beautiful and it is a great swimming beach. We are city people and I loved the vibe of Honolulu. It so different from Ko Olina. They are both great and I am glad we got to experience both!
We wanted to try to beat the traffic so we headed back around four. We did not beat the traffic and got fairly stuck on our sojourn back to Ko Olina. Traffic was bad but we live in Austin, TX and I think it is worse here. We still made it back in pretty good shape and DS fell asleep in the back of the van. We were all getting tired so DH and decided to crank a surf mix we found on ITunes Music because at that point, we had dubbed the minivan, ‘the surf wagon.’ DS was jolted out of his peaceful slumber to the sound of his parents belting out
Surfin’ USA. DH still had the music blaring when we pulled into Ko Olina. I thought we might be denied admittance. Once we were back, we had some dinner in the room and went to bed.
It had been a great day! My next entry will wrap it all up and give some final thoughts on the trip!