Whale-Watching from Makapu'u Point

Over the weekend, our friend Doris (that I know from my brief time at University of Hawaii) took George, Jason, and I to Makapu'u Point at the Southeast corner of O'ahu. At Makapu'u Point, visitors hike up a short but steep trail from a parking area to a low peak that overlooks the channel between Oahu and Molokai, the next island in the Hawaiian island chain. In addition to the amazing views up both coasts of Oahu and out towards Molokai, Makapu'u Point is an excellent place to watch whales. We managed to see quite a few whales, even though it is very late in the whale-watching season. They were so cool! We saw a few jump completely out of the water and then splash back in. We also saw several good fin slaps, pec slaps, and tandem whale jumps. We were really far away, but the whales are so enormous that you can still see them reasonably well, even from a distance. Apparently, the humpback whales come to Hawaii every winter from Alaska to give birth to a new generation of whales. (Personally, I'd stay all year if I were a whale!) They can be seen in greater numbers in February - as many as 10,000 at a time, but they are still seen around the islands through late March and even early April. As many of the places we've seen in Hawaii, Makapu'u Point was beautiful. The sight and sound of the whales was amazing. On top of all that, the air was clear enough that we could see the island of Molokai from the lookout point. The pictures don't do it justice, but check them out here and you'll get a taste of our day.