Went for first and last swim at Malaekahana Beach. The weather hasn’t been great the last couple of days. Lots of waves, can’t see anything underwater because of swirling sand.
Going back to Mokule’ia is a bit of an anti-climax because we already know what it’s like. But that’s also a good thing, because there’s much to like there! But it feels like the end of the adventure is approaching.
We decided to take a detour into the interior of the island to Wahiawa and Hawaii Surf Campers so they could unlock the safe. The way led us past two tourist attractions: the Dole plantation and a coffee plantation. Soon we were climbing up from sea level to the higher plateau between the two mountain ranges, and actual farmed land appeared. It was pineapples, many, many pineapples.
The planting and some of the harvesting is still done by hand. We saw ladies in conical straw hats bending and doing something in the dirt. At harvest time, the workers have to wear heavy protective gear as they twist the pineapples off so they don’t get clawed to pieces by the edges of the leaves. It looks like hard, hard work under the hot sun, but apparently some people are still willing to do it.
It looked like enough pineapples to be a commercial operation, but the tourist Dole Plantation is a vast gift shop, lots of fancy flowerbeds, the world’s biggest maze, and a small train that takes visitors on a loop tour of the plantation (but not those large fields where the pineapples really are).
We parked and walked around, read about pineapple growing (22 months to fruition), watched the koi fish, wandered around in the gift shop, and left. Too many people!
On the way into Wahiawa, we crossed over a small river on a bridge that had a homeless encampment beside it. It seems that lots of people who are here can’t actually afford to live here.
The van guys took the day off, so we left again.
Back at Mokule’ia, Mike conversed with a chatty guy who had parked right next to the bathrooms. Learned a few things: AirBnbs aren’t allowed up here on the North Shore. How is that possible to enforce? This van camping is the coming thing, and so the guy, Daniel, was fixing up his van to use it for that. Part of his fixing was to put a coating on the outside that made it look like a popcorn ceiling, which he figured was an authentic Hawaiian look. He also said he thinks this beach is “sharky.” Later we asked Luke about sharks and he said in the eight years he’s been living and surfing Oahu, he’s seen three sharks, but there is about one attack per year. So we don’t know what to think about Daniel.
We walked and swam and ate supper. And so to bed.
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