Thursday April 29th
North Shore Day!
We had a lazy morning. Made croissants, eggs, sat on the lanai, read. Then we headed out at noon for the North Shore.
Pineapples
We stopped at the Dole Plantation on the way north to see what all the brouhaha was about after all these years. We skipped the train ride, tried not to buy anything in the gift shop (which is what is mostly left of the Dole Plantation). We tried the famous or infamous pineapple soft serve sorbet/ice cream. It was quite good, but perhaps not worth a drive to the middle of the island just for that. But if you are on your way to North Shore, just be sure to stay on the Kamehameha Highway a bit to the north-east instead of the the slightly quicker route and you pass right by the Dole Plantation.
We were most pleasantly surprised by their open air garden of pineapples that had some historical placards on how James Dole got the whole thing started with photos and a live sample of all kinds of various pineapple plants from around the world. It is amazing that it takes 18 months for the pineapples to mature, the plant produces for three seasons only, and then it has to start all over again with a new planting. And boy, those plants are RAZOR SHARP. Jenivee's brother picked pineapples on Hawaii some many moons ago when they still actually grew some there (Dole doesn't really produce much in Hawaii anymore) and I can only imagine what you have to wear to be safe.
North Shore
We drove through old Hale'iwa and then worked our way towards Shark's Cove stopping at Turtle Beach. There was a big old turtle sunbathing there and a good 6 or 8 more grazing just off shore in the waves.
Jenivee had purchased us both some cheap ($20) polarized sunglasses for this trip and this is where we could really see their value. With the polarized glasses on we could really see into the waves and watch the turtles swim. With them off, it was quite a bit more difficult to make them out. Plus they performed quite well and weren't so expensive we would cry if we lost them (If you ever see a nice pair of polarized Dragon Mace glasses in Waikiki, give me a call, I lost a pair there a few years ago and I did cry).
We stopped briefly at Banzai Pipe but nothing was happening.
Sharks Cove
We jumped down to Shark's Cove and promptly got slightly scraped up trying to get in. I don't know if there is a super good way to get into Shark's Cove. We have watched people, read about spots, but bottom line is you just need to get in as quickly as you can. The longer you tentatively try to find a good spot, the more likely a bigger wave will sneak in and push you over onto some rocks.
The snorkeling here was great as always. Lots of fish, a good variety, pretty clear water and room to move about. Along with the usual suspects, I spied a brown eel, some nice needlefish, and best of all a family of turtles grazing along the north rocks. There was a Mama, a Papa, and a Baby turtle grazing in spots near each other. Of course it may not have been a family, but it sure seemed like it. The Papa turtle was a biggun! Probably a good 5 foot shell. The Baby was maybe a 2.5 foot shell. And the Mama was somewhere in between.
At one point a couple of young boys came swimming by with spring loaded spears and were catching some striped sargeants I think. The oddest thing, other than that they were spear fishing in Shark's Cove, was they had one fin each. I couldn't decide if this was some tradition to give the fish a sporting chance or if they only had one pair of fins and so they split them up. It was a little bit comical to see them swimming buy.
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