Today was a day that I had looked forward to for a while! We were actually going to go on a whale watching excursion! We drove our little car to the nearby marina and were happy to find a little farmer’s market going on. We were really early, so we walked around and I ended up buying a pretty amazing egg and bacon hash brown mix for breakfast. Then we walked over to the boat slip and waited to board.
Of course seasickness was a concern, but thankfully the water was glassy and smooth! Owen and I grabbed seats right in the front of the boat on the bottom level. We felt like that was our best bet for stability and also for watching out for whales. The crew was really amazing too. They kept us entertained with whale facts the entire time and played great music while we all watched the water. We pretty quickly came upon a momma whale and her calf. We watched them for a long time waiting for a whale tail but mainly got their humped backs poking up above the water as they dove down. Finally towards the end of our time, we got one really perfect tail!
It was so nice being on the water, seeing the Waikiki skyline with the gorgeous mountains rising up behind, and just enjoying the beauty. The time went fast but also felt like a good amount. It was perfect!
Once we got back to our car, the plan was to head to the North Shore area to see the various surfing beaches. I had read that in the winter the waves could be HUGE so I was hopeful that we’d see some action! The drive itself was fairly easy and took us through various small towns and rolling hills. I was really glad that we decided to get a rental car for this time because it really felt like we had the flexibility to do anything we wanted!
Our first stop was Waimea Bay. We had to wait a few minutes for a free parking spot to open up, but it’s still so amazing to me that the parking was actually free. I guess I was imagining a much larger beach park or something, but nope. It’s really just a small lot and a horseshoe sandy beach where the waves rolled in.
The sun was hot and we were clearly not going for a swim, so we found a nice shady spot to lay our towels over by some rocks and just spent time relaxing and watching the surfers. Which….there weren’t too many! The waves were solid and the lifeguards weren’t letting people swim, but there were only a handful of surfers. We probably stayed for an hour or so, but eventually walked back to the car for a picnic lunch and heading off.
Next up was the iconic Banzai Pipeline! This area was even smaller! We found some street parking and then joined a group of people sitting in a roped off portion of the beach. The waves were definitely larger here — probably 20-30 feet or so. And there were definitely surfers out there having a blast. We ended up staying here for 2+ hours just talking to people and watching the surfers catch waves. There were also whales way off in the distance, behind the paddling surfers. We grabbed our binoculars and tried to catch one breaching, but didn’t have luck. (Technically I saw one breach at the very end when we were leaving and Owen was in the bathroom! I felt so bad that he missed it though!)
One of the girls we talked to on the beach told us of a great place to grab food, so we headed out only to find that they closed. It was a bummer, but we knew we wanted to try some of the food trucks we had read about too, so we pivoted over to that idea. I got the famous garlic shrimp and rice while Owen got pork sliders. Both were very good except a tad pricey.
We worked our way back to the hostel, got some snacks at a local convenience store, and had a chill night. Because once again we have an early morning snorkeling tomorrow!
