Cousin Isaac

[S] We needed to be out the door by 7.10 am this morning for our trip around the island.  Breakfast doesn’t open until 7 am so we guzzled some juice and pastries and took a cuppa to go before we went around the corner for our pick-up by ‘Cousin Isaac’ – our big cuddly tour guide.  He was very funny and had lots of interesting knowledge.  We had four each of Australians and Canadians plus us on the bus. Isaac was definitely a bit of a foodie so we had some bonus stops to his favourite haunts.

 
The first part of the tour involved peeking at the homes of the rich and famous along the north coast and then lots of beach stops.

[A] First up was Halona Cove, site of the famous beach scene from ‘From Here to Eternity’ (for those old enough to remember) and of course more recently ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.

Most of the morning our drive was overshadowed by dark clouds and rain covering the western mountain range that ran parallel to the road.

[S] We saw some amazing surf that was a bit frightening in some ways.

[A] Including the Banzai Pipeline…

[A] … and Waimea Bay.

[S] At the last beach stop, the surf was marginally less, but it wasn’t good enough for us to have the planned swim with turtles.  Instead Isaac took us to an old sugar mill which now makes coffee and chocolate.  He showed us a cacao bean which was the makings of two blocks of chocolate – interesting to see how it all started.

Of course there were samples!

A few other stops and then we were at the Dole pineapple factory – it was the only low point of the trip – a bit over-crowded and over-commercialised. Other than that, a really fun day.

Forgot to mention that we went to a hotel restaurant for dinner last night – a varied menu and we were happy with our food choices.  Their piece de resistance was a 5lb (2.5 kg) pancake stack where the challenge was if you could finish it within 90 minutes, you got your $25 back.  We saw one go out to a customer but I am not sure if they got through it.  A bit of fun!