Update: May 2020

Day ten was all about our adventure along the north part of Windward Coast and the North Shore where the small surfing downs along the Kamehameha highway.

Tropical Farms:

Our first stop was at the Tropical Farms where they grow some of the famous macadamia nuts. Inside their store, there are tons of macadamia nut products. Any possible flavor roasted with the macadamia nuts can be sampled. Tropical Farms is also one of those touristy stops, so I still recommend coming early to have the chance of seeing the farm without the crowds.

Macadamia Nuts Tried: garlic (theses are very garlicky and if you want to kiss someone, make sure they to had some too.), cinnamon sugar (very sugary), plain roasted, Kona coffee roasted, and jalapeno spiced nuts.

Should Try While There: Macadamia flavored Kona coffee which is the bomb with macadamia milk! Starbucks cannot compete! I wonder where I can find this coffee in Seattle?

Farm Tour:

High recommend this tour if you can go on it because you will get a really good idea in how macadamia nuts are grown and produced. To bad we did not have the chance to go on the farm tour since we did get there an hour after they opened.

Crack Some Nuts:

Apparently to crack a macadamia nut the native Hawaiian way you pry open the hard woody nut casing to reveal a lighter colored nut shell.

Then using an old tree stump and a good size heavy rock you whack the nut with the rock until the casing splits open to reveal a white fleshy inside-the macadamia nut.

The process is close to un-shelling peanuts. I did open my nut with only one whack of the rock, but I did mash the inside a bit.

Kualoa Beach Park:

A mile down the road we stopped at the Kualoa Beach Park in Kualoa to see the small island off the island called Chinaman’s Hat (Mokolii Island). This park affords a great view of the Pacific ocean, Kaneoha Bay, Chinaman’s Hat and the Ko’olau Mountain Range ( setting for lots of movies and TV show back drops). Across the road from the park is the famous Kualoa Ranch where Jurassic Park was filmed.

Stopping For Plated Shrimp Lunch:

We stopped for lunch in Kahuka for the famous garlic shrimp plates at the local shrimp shacks sell lunch food. These places are a nice quick inexpensive lunch places and are famous in this part of the island. Outside this town there are huge shrimp farms where they harvest shrimp for the whole Oahu Island. And really there is no difference between farm grown or wild grown shrimp.

Sunset Beach:

As we continued along Kamehameha highway towards Haleiwa we stopped at Sunset Beach. This beach has a little secret. This beach is said to have Sea Turtles coming up on the shore and lay to the beach.

Trip: most of the time the turtles were either on the beach at sunrise or sunset. 

Haleiwa: North Shore Surf Town

An hour later we pulled into the town of Haleiwa, the surf capital of the world. The beaches were packed with surfers, snorkelers and paddlers enjoying the surf. The waves were not as much monsters yet because it was still summer, and winter is when the huge waves usually came into play for surfers.

Matsumoto Grocery Store:

Since I was in the North Shore area, I had to try the famous local shaved ice treat. So where did I go? To the famous Matsumoto Grocery Store for the rainbow shaved ice.

The picture looks like the shaved ice must be a large, but this is the smallest they had. At this point I figured all things in Hawaii are done big, and never small. This motto suited me just fine.

Having it run down my legs trying to eat it, and having the stick sweet mess all over my hands brought the child out of me again. Matsumoto is not the only place in town that sells shaved ice, but this place is the most famous and popular spot to try one. As you see from the picture below, there are many different flavors you can order. All those flavor combinations, and do I want ice cream or azuki beans on top of the ice? I will have to come back to find out next time I’m there.

Note: Due to economic issues faced by many businesses, some of the places I went to in the North Shore are no longer in business. In updating this post, I had to delete those places.

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