I will be the first to fall on the sword and say I am NOT a fan of Waikiki. Sure, it is beautiful, great beach, amazing shopping, some neat restaurants, and not at all bad. However.... tourists tourists tourists. It is the prepackaged Hawaii you always hear of and always want to visit, til you get there, and then think "yeah, uh, this is it?"
If you are like me at all, you want adventure, the fun you don't hear about all the time, and the non-beaten path. Or at least, the beaten path that every one from the US doesn't visit. You want something cool, special, and exhilarating,. The good news is, Hawaii is FULL of that. You just don't hear it as much as you should.
Sure, if you are on Oahu, you can go to the north shore and surf. Or, if I am being honest, DON'T. The locals will make sure you don't actually, and if you can't surf, they will run you out of the water. Maybe if you go over to Haleiwa to one of the surf schools you can do it, or at Turtle Beach resort you can get a class, but otherwise, do NOT go to Hawaii with any idea that you can "Hang Ten at Pipeline, dude!". It could possibly kill you, it is one of the most dangerous waves in the world, and second, the locals will leave you with a beating for risking their lives in the water or stealing their waves. (Honestly it only breaks in the winter months, you won't find waves there 7-9 months of the year).
But, you can see some of the absolute terrain on earth, and if you are ready for some fun, even have some adventure there. Where am I talking about? Dude, head north on Oahu to Kualoa Ranch. One of the seriously most beautiful spots on earth. Going here, doing the movie tour, and the best thing, the zip lining is one of the best things on the island and a MUST DO!!!
Kualoa Ranch is on the north east side of Oahu and breathtaking. It is a site where a ton of movies are filmed like Jurassic Park, King Kong, lots of war movies, and many others. They raise cattle and many other animals. You can do ATV tours, hiking tours, and my favorite, zip lining. From the great lodge at the front of the property to the beautiful view of Chinaman's Hat out in the pacific, it is something special.
Our zip lining tour started about 10am. We had a group of about 20 of us and we were all raring to go! There were 11 "zips" on our path, and each one got more and more adventurous and higher. They took the time to fit us up with our gear, they marched out to our path, and we had the best time. It took about 4 hours, and we had some fun things to do on our way. We dropped Fukui nuts into buckets from on high, we watched people barely roll down the zip lining paths. We personally ZOOMED down the paths. Needless to say it was something special and we had a blast.
I just wanted to share a day in Hawaii I will never forget. I am not one for the tourist areas and it was certainly a tourist thing to do, but totally worth it. Amazing day. Get yourself to Hawaii, go see Kualoa! Worth it.
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