Oahu Day 5

Monday, our last full day in Hawaii, feeling sated on tourist 'must sees', we drove NE along the shore, stopping at 'Pipeline', one of the famous surfing beaches and several state parks, before heading for a loop hike on a trail outside of the town of Hou'uma.  Although listed as 'easy', once we'd started Leonard checked online and read the change in elevation was 900+' over a 2.5M trail.  Some hikers commented the trail could be muddy, but since there had been little rain in the islands since we arrived almost 4 weeks ago, we didn't expect mud to be a major problem.  I was surprised to find more mud on some parts of the trail than expected.  We took our time enjoying the changing  terrain and listening to the birds.

Hauula Valley looking at the Koo Range  

Hauula Trail Path - the tall pine trees (rows of knobs on the trunks) are Cook pines which were used as masts in the past 

Ferns at Hauula Creek crossing 

This mossy patch caught my eye - it looked like a critter 

Mushrooms, ferns and mosses

We stopped at Sunset Beach on the way back to watch the surfers.  The surf had dropped over the weekend, but had slowly increased during the day, building to occasional 4-6' breakers.  The drop off at the beach looked steep, causing the waves to crash when they came ashore.  It was fun to watch the better surfers 'catch a wave' and work at riding it to the max.

A paddle boarder surfing 

We picked up an order of garlic shrimp from one of the trucks in Haleiwa to augment last night's leftovers.  By the time we got back, the road out front of our place had received a fresh coat of blacktop, and we no longer had to dodge construction vehicles.  After getting a notice from AirB&andB in the morning that we'd have limited access from 8:30 - 4 Monday, Leonard  moved the car up the street in the morning to avoid having issues getting out.

A peacock at Waiema Valley

Tuesday was departure day, and wary of the traffic we allowed plenty of time to top off the fuel, find the rental return place, catch a shuttle to the terminal and clear TSA.  After having TSA issues when we left Kauai we didn't want to be in a rush.  I had picked up some special salt rubs made on the island I had put in my carry on bag, and was tagged for further screenings by a rather surly agent who very carefully did either a drug or explosive test on every package.  Then at a 2nd check I was asked if I had sand in my bag (not legal to remove from the islands) who let me go when I said if I did, it wasn't intentional!  I didn't bring the still 'not ripe' chocolate sapote I'd picked up on the Big Island knowing we needed to go through an agricultural screening since we were heading to the mainland.  The Hawaiians get insulted if you say you're traveling back to the states since they are a state.

It's interesting that packages shipped via USPS do not undergo inspection other than the normal question 'is it liquid, hazardous or flammable.'  Flat rate Priority Mail is a real bargain from Hawaii as it costs the same as if it were shipped to the next state, and weight doesn't change the rate, and is less expensive than paying for another piece of luggage.

After we'd cleared, I asked one of the agricultural inspectors what was banned (basically everything but pineapples).  I didn't tell him he'd missed our lunch carrots, peppers, jicama and papaya which we  planned to consume before we arrived stateside. Given how slowly the TSA line went (one of the slowest we've seen) we were glad we allowed plenty of time. 

Returning from Honolulu to Burlington is long trip.  We checked out of our place before 9 am on Tuesday and arrived home at 11 am on Wednesday, through 6 time zones, and 11 hours of flight time.  We'll require a few days to readjust to EST.  Our flights, although long, were uneventful.  Most flights were full and arrived on schedule.

The weather during our trip was a pleasant surprise.  We expected to have some rain most days, especially in Hilo - the 'wet side' of the Big Island, as well the possibility of showers elsewhere.  We didn't - other than a few night time showers, the days were beautiful and dry with the trade winds blowing to keep things comfortable.  The exception was the morning we departed Kauai when we had light rain, and a few intermittent showers Tuesday morning when we left Oahu, neither of which was enough to be a problem.

Keeping track of the town names was more of a problem.  When Cook arrived in the islands, there was no written language, so an alphabet was designed to cover the sound of the  language - soft and flowing, containing 5 vowels and only 7 consonants, H,K,L,M,N.P and W.  Consequently a lot town names start with the same letter, followed by a string of vowels and glottal stops, which to our ageing eyes, tended to look too similar to keep straight at a glance.  The gps lady helped keep us on track!