I frequently get asked if I’ve been to the North Shore yet, and the answer was no until yesterday! The North Shore of Hawaii is known for its giant waves, sunsets, turtles, and agriculture. I finally took the trip because it was on my bucket list, and also because I wanted to go on a hike but had no one to come with me. When I searched hikes on AllTrails, I found one that was paved inside a botanical garden that ended at a waterfall just off the North Shore. I figured that was the safest option to do solo, so it worked out I could do that and explore the North Shore a bit!
The North shore takes a little over an hour to get to. I set off at about 7:30am, the botanical garden opened at 9am and I wanted to get there early and eat breakfast.
The ride isn’t incredibly impressive, but you do pass through a lot more agricultural fields out there. The funniest part was when I was coming down over a hill getting close and I saw the water, I was in awe of it and so excited, as if A: I didn’t expect to see water again and B: I haven’t seen beautiful water practically every day. It just felt different!
My first stop was Island Vintage Coffee (courtesy of a quick google search for breakfast). It turned out to be in this really touristy plaza.
I tried the fresh mango and peanut butter sandwhich… it was SO GOOD. And Guava juice, which was super fresh, like the orange juice we get at Fisherman’s when we visit Brian’s family in CA.
There was this fun historical protestant church across from the coffee place.
Then I headed toward Waimea Valley. The entrance fee is $10 for Kama’aina (Hawaiian resident) or military. Not bad for peace of mind about safety.
The grounds were so, so beautiful. It felt like I was walking through a jungle. It looks like they are still repairing some paths, but this is a good example of what it generally felt like.
I’m not entirely sure if these were all the known kings of Hawaii or… but they are big on teaching about Hawaiian culture and history.
There were some replicas of structures that would’ve been found on the land. There were also a couple sites of ancestral dedication.
There were a million flowers, and it was hard not to stop to take a picture every five feet. Here is some flower spam.
They are also big on restoring native species and do a lot of work to regrow them.
They had a whole path/grove just for palms.
I have no idea what month it is because we live in perpetual summer. If you ask me, I think it’s still August. But this reminded me of fall!
Some pretty foliage…
Fun plant name.
And finally… the waterfall! You can swim in it, but I decided not to… it seemed to be more hassle than reward, and I didn’t want to leave my nice camera alone.
I am going to start a second post with the rest of my day… spoiler alert it involved the ocean.
I spent almost two and half hours at this place, I was not expecting that! I could’ve spent more.