Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden Sunday - Day 10 With just one full day on Oahu, we had elected to take an all day "Oahu Island Tour and Waterfall!" with Oahu Photography Tours. I had originally accidentally scheduled the tour for the previous Sunday and didn't learn of the error until late the night before the previous date, but the manager graciously allowed us to reschedule for this day, charging only the fee for the online service which takes their bookings. The regular guide was unavailable at the last minute and a professional photographer who was a former guide led our tour in a van. I was a little disappointed that the tour wasn't conducted exactly the way it had been described in various reviews, but it was still a good time and I am glad we had the opportunity to see a large portion of the Island in just one day. A couple from Winnipeg were already in the van when we were picked up in front of the hotel and the van made one more stop near the Honolulu Zoo to pick up a woman from Arizona. The couple sat in the back row of the van with two rows of empty seats between them and the rest of us and the driving portions of the tour felt intimate with the other three of us and the driver sitting together in front. After driving northwest of Honolulu on H-I, we crossed the middle of Oahu on H-2, going through some of the Dole Plantation. I wish I had asked the driver to stop to let us get a photo of the pineapple fields. For some reason, we didn't make the listed first stop at Green World Coffee Farm, but stopped to get baked goods and hot beverages at Coffee Gallery, a coffee shop and bakery in Haleiwa. The first attraction we visited was Waimea Botanical Gardens. This is where the waterfall mentioned in the name of the tour is, but the guide said that it was a very long walk, which wouldn't leave time to see any of the gardens, and that the waterfall wasn't that scenic. We took his advice, but the other three people went to the falls anyway (one of them took a quick swim) and I think we would have been happier going to the falls. In addition to the many plants in the gardens we saw lizards, geckos and a peacock perched in a tree. Our next stop was at Kawela Bay and on our way to the water we passed a large Chinese banyan tree with many trunks. A sign next to the tree says this particular tree has co-stared in many Hollywood productions like Lost and Pirates of the Caribbean. Along the shore we saw folks learning to surf on the beach and several green sea turtles in the water nearby.
Just a few blocks away, we stopped at Kuilima Farm Stand to purchase some fruit to enjoy on the ride.
3 miles farther, we stopped for lunch at Fumi's Kahuku Shrimp, where our guide said they farmed the shrimp in the adjacent pond. We had original shrimp and spicy garlic shrimp. Both were good, probably only about the middle of the shrimp we had during this trip.
The tour included several more stops along the shore and a longer stop at The Byodo-In Temple in Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. It is a smaller scale replica of a Temple in Uji, Japan and a popular tourist attraction.
There were a couple of more stops along the shore, first at Makapuu Lookout, where the guide went on at length that the best views were just north of this spot with a nice beach where tours were no longer permitted, and then at Halona Blowhole Lookout where one of our party took a quick dip at Halona Beach Cove.
The final stop of the tour was at a Leonard's Bakery Malasada Truck in the parking lot at Koko Marina Center, where we were treated to hot Portuguese doughnuts. They do not have holes and some were filled with things like custard, chocolate or coconut.
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