Whale Season Is Here

By Joe Flanagan

The first whale this season was spotted off the west coast of Kauai on September 16, 2014.

Whales have begun migrating all the way from their homes in Alaska down to the warm coastal waters of Hawaii.  The official start of the whale season begins in late December and lasts till about May, with the peak season being from January to March.  Around 7,000 humpback whales come to the Hawaiian islands every year to mate and give birth to their newborns.

Many tour companies will be offering trips out into the open waters to see these massive creatures in their natural habitat.  Maui is the island known to have the most whale activities with the Maui Whale Festival sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation.  They’ll have a marathon run for the whales in January, the Parade of Whales in February, along with many other activities.

Back on our own island of Oahu, there’s many places from the shore you’ll be able to spot the humpback whales:

• Ka’ena Point
• Halona Blowhole Lookout
• Hanauma Bay
• Shark’s Cove
• Makapu’u Lighthouse
• Turtle Bay Resort
• Lanikai

If you see any, feel free to reply back here.  It would be great to get some feedback on potential places to see whales this season.

 

The East Coast Tours

From our tour guide Cliff

We get the van loaded up and on the road bright and early by 10:30am, everyone on board yells their name and country of origin as a form of introduction as we hit the highway. Turns out some of the strangers on the trip are neighbors, and others have just come from someone else’s home town, and by the time we get to the bamboo forest, everyone is chatting like old friends.

In the forest we take a quick stroll to see the old ruins of a summer house of an ancient Hawaiian Queen. It’s cool and misty, and the breeze shakes the trees while the birds screech and yell.

Next stop is the Pali Lookout, a commanding view of the east coast of Oahu, where King Kamehameha once pushed the defeated king of Oahu and thousands of his troops off the sheer edge, to their deaths hundreds of meters below.

We grab some lunch at Whole Foods in Kailua, then hit Kailua bay. There’s a small flat island to swim out too, or maybe just relax and soak up the sun on the beach and watch the kiteboarders and kayakers cruise inside the bay.

After that we ride to the Sherwood Forest at Waimanalo, great for beginner body boarders. It’s a 3 mile stretch of soft sand, light breeze, huge salt cedar trees for shade, and you can see Maui and Molokai on a clear day. Also famous for Japanese wedding photographs! Once everyone is feeling confident on the body boards, we rinse off the salt water and drive a few miles down the coast.

To Makapu’u! This is another great body board beach, but the waves are bigger and the beach is a deep cove overlooked by steep mountain faces. We’ve only gone a few miles, but this part of the coast has different islands offshore and a towering mountain topped with a lighthouse. Once everyone is good and tired, we drive to the overlook, just a minute away, but hundreds of feet above the beach. Here, paragliders swoop in the updrafts just a few meters from where we stand, makes for some great scenic portrait pix!

There are a few more short stops along the way back; Halona blowhole, Sandy’s beach for shrimp truck (if he’s there), and the sculpted sandstone cliff faces of Halona Beach, which is a very popular set for movies and commercial photo shoots. I’ve seen several swimsuit model shoots there recently, it was the set for the famous scene in “From Here to Eternity” and a couple shots in the “Pirates of the Carribean” films.

A short ride back through Hawaii Kai and we are back at the Hostel in time to watch the sunset, and then relax for the evening or decide where to go to dance the night away!

Photos in this post provided by pachd.com