On Walkabout On: The North Shore of Oahu

The North Shore of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu is one of the most iconic areas in all of Hawaii:

It is here that surfers find some of the biggest waves to surf in all of the world in what is known as the” Banzai Pipeline“:

The biggest waves arrive in the winter time so unfortunately since I visited Oahu in the spring I didn’t get to see these monster waves.  That didn’t stop people from still having fun out on the waves that were available:

Besides surfing on the North Shore I also saw plenty of people out on various rock outcroppings fishing:

The North Shore also is home to one of the best walks on Oahu at the beautiful Waimea Valley:

The main town on the North Shore is Hale’iwa, which is small village that caters to large beach going population that visits the North Shore.  The economy in this area wasn’t always tourism.  The remains from an old sugar mill can still be seen near the town and fans of the TV series LOST may recognize this plantation as being a movie set for some of the scenes representing Nigeria in the series:

On the far northwestern portion of the North Shore I was able to have some nice views of the area’s rich farm land that was backdropped by the beautiful Waianae Mountains:

While driving down Highway 930 that traverses northwestern Oahu I happened to pass by this grove of coconut trees which I also recognized as another set from used in the series LOST:

The Mokuleia Beach further down the highway is where the passengers in LOST were stranded on after their plane crashed:

While walking on the beach it was very easy to recognize this place as where so much of the LOST series was filmed:

Despite its LOST fame this beach is not a popular location for people to come to because of its reputation of being a beach with unpredictable waves and a vicious rip current.  However, this reputation didn’t stop this guy from parasurfing:

It was actually pretty interesting to watch this guy because he was catching huge air whenever he jumped off of a wave:

Literally right behind the beach is Dillingham Airfield that was used to store a lot of the props such as the airplane wreckage from LOST:

The cliffs that ran from Dillingham Airfield to the end of the highway were quite impressive:

Here was the view from the very end of the Highway 930:

From here there is a trail that visitors can take to reach Kaena Point which is the most northwestern part of Oahu that is almost like a finger pointing towards the neighboring island of Kaua’i.  All in all we had a very scenic drive along the North Shore and fun checking out the various beaches, hiking up Waimea Valley, and seeing the various LOST sets.  If you have rented a car while visiting the island the North Shore really is worth checking out.