On Walkabout On: The Leeward Coast of Oahu

The very last part of Oahu that my wife and I checked out was the Leeward Coast of Oahu.  This area is on the western side of the island centered around the city of Waianae:

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I have heard a lot of bad things about this side of the island because the locals are supposedly unfriendly to haole coming to this side of the island.  My wife and I experienced the local hospitality when we ate lunch at a Waianae Pizza Hut and the service was horrible and unfriendly and the food took for ever to come out.  It was lunch time and there was almost nobody else in the Pizza Hut but us; you would think the waitress would be happy to have a customer, but we discovered otherwise.

Despite this unfortunate encounter with local hospitality my wife and I drove the extent of the Leeward Coast.  Like the rest of the island the west coast of the island is quite spectacular as well.  This is considered the dry side of the island and compared to the Windward Coast it was much drier:

There was some pretty nice beaches on the west coast that some decent size waves:

With such waves that meant of course there was people trying to surf them:

Something else that really turned off my wife and I about this side of the island was how the beaches were filled with squatters that trashed the beautiful beaches:

They even had junked cars sitting on the beach:

It seemed to me that the Oahu authorities just gave up this side of the island to the beach bums in order to keep them consolidated in one area and away from the major tourist beaches:

Anyway all along the Leeward Coast the Waianae Mountains, the highest mountains on Oahu, provides a lush green backdrop to the dry coastal lands:

Much of the land composing these mountains is actually part of the US Army’s Schofield Barracks training area:

My wife and I next stopped to check out this plaque pointing out the Kaneana cave:

Across the street from the plaque is the Kaneana cave:

The ancient Hawaiians named this cave after Kane the God of Creation because the deepness of the cave reminded them of a woman’s womb.

Once inside the cave it is easy to understand why they gave this cave such a name:

In ancient times entrance to this cave was considered “kapu” or taboo because it was supposedly home to Nanaue’ the Shark Man. Fortunately I didn’t run into a Shark Man when visiting the cave though it was so dark maybe I missed him.

Here was the view from Kaneana looking south along the stretch of coast we just drove across:

Here is the view looking north towards the island’s northern most area, Kaena Point:

Below is a picture of the junky Dodge Avenger that we rented.  The car had just over 10,000 miles on it and it was making strange rattling noises and the radio stopped working after only two days.  Is it any wonder Chrysler needed to be bought out by the government when they are producing junk cars like this?:

The beach located at the end of Highway 93 that spans nearly the entire west side of the island was pretty much deserted when my wife and I arrived there:

There is supposedly some dangerous rip currents here which may explain why we didn’t see anybody trying to surf or bodyboard at this beach:

Up above the beach we noticed this radar dome:

We also noticed what appeared to be a residence or maybe a facility for the radar operators?

From the beach this is where hikers can walk to the very northwest end of Oahu that follows this large ridgeline that points like a finger at the neighboring island of Kauai:

All in all as nice as the scenery is on the Leeward Coast of Oahu it is really a location that should be last on anyone’s Oahu itinerary.  If you have time it is worth taking a drive over there, but if you don’t have time to check out this side of the island, don’t worry you are not missing much and the locals won’t miss seeing you either.