Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [113]
Sandy Beach Park
Here the ocean heaves and thrashes like a furious beast. This is one of O′ahu’s most dangerous beaches, with a punishing shorebreak, powerful backwash and strong rip currents. Expert bodysurfers spend hours trying to mount the skull-crushing waves, as crowds gather to watch the dardevils being tossed around. When the swells are big, bodyboarders hit the left side of the beach.
Sandy Beach is wide, very long and, yes, sandy, but this is no place to frolic. Dozens of people are injured at Sandy Beach each year, some with just broken arms and dislocated shoulders, but others with serious spinal injuries. Red flags flown on the beach indicate hazardous water conditions. Even if you don’t see flags, always check with the lifeguards before entering the water.
Not all the action is in the water. The grassy strip on the inland side of the parking lot is used by people looking skyward for their thrills – it’s both a hang-glider landing site and a popular place for flying kites. On weekends, you can usually find a food wagon selling plate lunches in the beach parking lot. The park has rest rooms and showers.
From Waikiki, TheBus No 22 stops here approximately hourly.
Koko Crater
According to Hawaiian legend, Koko Crater is the imprint left by the magical flying vagina of Kapo sent from the Big Island to lure the pig-god Kamapua′a away from her sister Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes.
One of O′ahu’s tallest and best-preserved tuff cones, Koko Crater now embraces a small county-run botanical garden (522-7063; end of Kokonani St; admission free; sunrise-sunset), planted with plumeria, oleander and cacti and other native and exotic dryland species. You’ll probably have the garden’s interconnecting loop trails to yourself.
To get here, turn inland off the Kalaniana′ole Hwy (Hwy 72) onto Kealahou St, opposite the north end of Sandy Beach. After 0.5 miles, turn left onto Kokonani St. From Waikiki, TheBus No 23 stops at the corner of Kealahou St and Kokonani St, about 0.3 miles from the garden entrance, but service is infrequent; the trip takes about an hour each way.
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MAKAPU′U POINT
The coastal lighthouse at the tip of Makapu′u Point marks O′ahu’s easternmost point. The gate to the mile-long service road is locked to keep out private vehicles, but hikers can park off the highway just beyond and walk in. Although not a difficult hike, it’s a steady uphill walk and conditions can be hot and windy. The path and the lighthouse lookout provide spectacular coastal views of Hanauma Bay and Koko Head, and, during winter, you may spot migratory whales offshore.
A little further along the highway, a scenic roadside lookout gazes down at aqua-blue waters outlined by white sand and black lava beds – an even more spectacular sight when hang-gliders take off from the cliffs. Offshore is Manana Island (Rabbit Island). This aging volcanic crater is populated by feral rabbits and wedge-tailed shearwaters The island looks vaguely like the head of a rabbit, ears folded back. In front of it is the smaller, flat Kaohikaipu Island.
Opposite Sea Life Park and just within view of the lighthouse is Makapu′u Beach Park, one of the island’s top winter bodysurfing spots, with waves reaching 12ft and higher. It also has the island’s best shorebreak. As with Sandy Beach, Makapu′u is strictly the domain of experienced bodysurfers, who can handle rough water and dangerous currents. Board surfing is prohibited. In summer, when the wave action disappears, calmer waters may afford good swimming. Two native Hawaiian plants are plentiful here – yellow-orange ‘ilima, O′ahu’s official flower, by the parking lot and naupaka, a native shrub with a five-petaled white flower that looks as if it has been torn in half, by the beach.