Back on the Circle Island

We decided to go back on the Circle Island bus this past weekend again, but this time the goal was to go to one of the many beaches along the route. After a stop at Longs Drugs to pick up beach mats (for the oh-so-expensive price of $1.99 per), we got onto the bus headed north through Mililani again toward Haleiwa.

Now, part of the reason we had decided to go back to Haleiwa was because when we were there last time, we had not partaken of the main tourist attraction in Haleiwa. Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. Now, you may ask, shaved ice is all the same, isn't it? I mean, it's just crushed ice and flavoring. Could there actually be anything that would make Matsumoto's shaved ice better than what we could find out in Waikiki?

The answer to that question is a resounding yes. And here's why: The key to Matsumoto's Shaved Ice is the fact that you can get it with vanilla ice cream underneath it. We were both extremely skeptical when we heard about this, and probably had similar questions to the ones above. However, when we got down to the ice cream (which was after about 1/2 of the shaved ice had been eaten and another 1/4 of it had melted), mixing the two together made for an extremely smooth taste and flavor.

Now, we actually didn't start at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa. When we got into town, we noticed that there were shrimp trucks right off the side of the road. Brynn had heard from a friend that Giovanni's shrimp truck was amazing. By some small feat, one of the truck's we saw right here were Giovanni's. We got off the bus, walked over to it, and ordered.

There are only 3 things on the menu essentially, and all of them are shrimp plates. We decided to split a shrimp scampi plate, which came with 2 scoops of rice and gravy for $13. We even had a coupon for a free soda with the purchase of the plate.

This is with about 8 or 9 shrimp left out of the 12 we started with. They were gigantic shrimp (yes, definitely an oxymoron there), and were DELICIOUS. I had never been out to eat at one of the shrimp trucks that line the North Shore, and I will definitely be back there again.

After we left Haleiwa later on in the afternoon, we still had not been to the beach. As we rode the bus, we saw Waimea Bay again, but didn't like the amount of people that were there. We understood it was a holiday weekend, but we've both kind of come to the conclusion that we're not necessarily huge crowd people. As a result, we kept riding until we found a beach park called Kokololio Beach Park. Off to the side, they were setting up for a 4th of July celebration, but the beach was much quieter than any of the others we had passed to this point. I'm sure at least part of that was related to the fact that we did not arrive at this beach until around 3:00 in the afternoon, but it was still very pleasant.

We ended up staying for about an hour or so, and then catching the bus back to town. It was a long day, as we left Honolulu around 9:45 and didn't get back until almost 7 pm, but it was a very fun day as well.

The Circle Island Tour

On Saturday, we decided to take the bus on the circle island route. The bus in Hawaii is extremely useful, and runs nearly everywhere someone may want to go. Like any other bus, it nay take a little while longer to get some places than it would with a rental car, but there are some definite advantages to the bus. Starting with the low, low price of a monthly pass of $60(compared to 2.25 per trip). For senior ciizens t is even more ridiculous, as they can buy a year pass for $30 total.

The circle island route starts at Ala Moana Shopping Center, and goes up H2 through Mililani and.  On its way towards the north shore of the island and Haleiwa.

Haleiwa is an old plantation town that in recent years has become more of a small shopping area for those looking for something slightly less touristy than Waikiki. Like many of the other places on the island, there is a very quiet beach there.

After getting back on the bus, we continued the tour northeast. The bus follows Kamehameha highway the rest of the way, and we got off at the Turtle Bay resort, which is where the first half of the route ends.

The Turtle Bay resort is a semi-private resort up on Oahu's North Shore. For all intents and purposes, it is a very nice resort, but there really isn't a whole lot out there at that point besides the resort. As a result, nearly all of the guests of the resort go to the beach that is there. We had packed a picnic lunch, and found a shady spot under a tree near the beach to relax and eat.

After taking some pictures on the rocky edge of the beach, we headed back to the bus stop to wait for the next bus going to the windward side of the island. The bus was supposed to run every 30 minutes, so we figured we would not be there for long.

30 minutes went into 45 and nearly an hour passed before the bus we wanted finally arrived. In the meantime, we talked with another person waiting for the bus. An elderly lady, she was definitely a local. She told us that she took this bus just for the views off of the road, and that she thought it was one of the prettiest stretches in all the island. She was right. Around every turn seemed to be another small to mid-size beach, but missing were the tourists. Only the locals really stop at these beaches, she said, since they were so far from Honolulu proper. The most amazing thing to see was the water. Off the windward coast, these beaches were very much untouched, and not really affected by the issues that large quantities of tourists can bring. As a result, we could see at least 4 different shades of blue in the water as we passed it, and was practically clear in a lot of areas.

As the bus ride continued, the elderly lady continued to point out different spots off the side of the road, which realistically we probably would not have really noticed without her there. About halfway back to Honolulu, another local man also began to point out different landmarks along the ride. Essentially, we had a pair of tour guides from the time we left the resort, without having to pay for them. As we came back into the Honolulu area via the Pali Highway, we were shown a couple of locations that we needed to visit at some point during our stay here in Hawaii.

Overall, it was a very interesting trip, and has given us a whole lot of places that we can go visit that are a bit off the beaten path here in Hawaii.