The Ultimate East Oahu Itinerary: Sunrise to Sunset in One Day

Did you know you can see Oahu’s Windward side in just one day without feeling rushed or missing the best spots?

For many visitors, the east side is simply a scenic drive, but behind those stunning views are hidden beaches, lush gardens, and photo-worthy moments most travelers overlook.

If you’ve ever wondered how to plan a one-day itinerary that combines jaw-dropping scenery, local secrets, and perfect photo ops, this episode is for you. Join professional photographer Heather Eijenga as she shares her must-visit stops, insider tips, and expert advice for capturing Hawaii’s magic, whether you’re using a phone or a DSLR.

👉 In this episode, you will:

• Discover the perfect, crowd-free time to experience one of the world’s most photographed beaches.
• Learn photography tricks to make your sunrise and sunset shots stand out.
• Get a handpicked route of can’t-miss stops, from a dramatic sunrise at Mokapu Point to a stunning sunset at Turtle Bay.

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Scroll up ⬆️ and hit play now to get the exact plan (and local secrets) you need for an unforgettable East Oahu adventure.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Heather's website
• Kalapawai Cafe – A local cafe for coffee and breakfast on Oahu’s Windward Side
• Waiahole Poi Factory – Local Hawaiian food spot known for traditional dishes and the “Fat Lady of Waiahole” dessert
• Kualoa Ranch – Adventure destination offering tours like ATV rides, e-bike tours, and bus tours
• Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden – Scenic garden known for its iconic entrance road and lush trails
• Byodo-In Temple – Peaceful temple on the Windward Side of Oahu nestled against the Ko’olau Range
• Kahuku Superette – A local convenience store known for fresh poke bowls
• Turtle Bay Resort – Resort offering sunset views, dining, and evening fire dancing shows
• Sea Life Park – Mentioned as a landmark near Makapu’u Point for sunrise viewing spots

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This podcast is for travelers looking to plan a trip to Hawaii. Discover travel tips, itineraries, and traveling tips & hacks with guides to help you explore Hawaii. Whether you’re planning a vacation to the Hawaiian islands, dreaming of a Hawaiian getaway, or visiting Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, Oahu, or Big Island we’ll help you travel with aloha.

Edge of the Ocean, Stick Figure (w/ permission)

Ukulele and Chill, Coby G (w/ permission)

Transcript

172_East Oahu Itinerary

[00:00:00] Bryan Murphy: Coming up on Hawaii's best.

[00:00:02] Heather Eijenga: We're gonna start our day over on the Rocky Coast by Mokapu point. There is a lighthouse up there. There are basically two ways that you can enjoy sunrise over here. You can start with the beaches across from Sea Life Park area. There's usually parking there. No one is there.

[00:00:22] Heather Eijenga: You'll be by yourself if you go over there

[00:00:26] Bryan Murphy: today. Heather Ayenga, a professional photographer, joins a show and she'll guide us. Through an incredible one day itinerary exploring Oahu's Winward side. That's the east side. From capturing the perfect sunrise at Mokapu to enjoying a peaceful sunset at Turtle Bay, Heather shares her top tips for making the most of your day.

[00:00:47] Bryan Murphy: So be sure to stay tuned because Heather's gonna give us her favorite local spots, as well as some photography tips to help you capture your memories. Of Oahu. Let's go.

[00:01:01] Bryan Murphy: Aloha. Welcome to Hawaii's Best, the podcast, helping Travelers Plan an unforgettable Hawaii vacation with insider tips in featuring local voices. I'm Brian Murphy, a husband Data three and certified Hawaii destination. Each week, I share local insights, travel tips, and up-to-date news, sometimes with guests across Hawaii and sometimes solo.

[00:01:23] Bryan Murphy: All to help you plan your next trip to Hawaii.

[00:01:30] Bryan Murphy: Welcome back to another episode of Hawaii's Best. So glad that you're here tuning in. If you're joining us for the first time, just wanna say welcome. So glad you're here. And I can't wait for you to hear some of these tips on this itinerary for the Winward side of Oahu. Heather's gonna give us some great advice and tips.

[00:01:49] Bryan Murphy: It's an ambitious itinerary, but I think it's doable. Today we are joined by Heather Ayenga. Heather is the owner and principal photographer at Little Bird Photography where she combines her passion for family nature and the stunning landscapes of Hawaii to capture unforgettable moments with a background in conservation biology and over two decades of exploring Hawaii's diverse ecosystem, Heather brings a unique perspective to her photography.

[00:02:17] Bryan Murphy: Her work not only showcases the beauty of the islands, but also tells the stories of the families she photographs. Heather's notable contributions include her innovative approach to photography that blends environmental awareness and artistic expression. Today, Heather will share her deep knowledge of the east side of Oahu and give us tips on capturing the perfect vacation photo and why embracing the nature of Hawaii can enhance our appreciation for these beautiful islands.

[00:02:44] Bryan Murphy: So let's go ahead and let's talk story with Heather from Little Bird Photography.

[00:02:57] Bryan Murphy: What is it like living on the Windward side of Oahu?

[00:03:00] Heather Eijenga: So I moved to Hawaii 24 years ago with my husband and. We always wanted to get to the Windward side. We started off in town and we would come over to the Windward side because it always felt so magical. You come through. Poly and you just see this beautiful landscape.

[00:03:21] Heather Eijenga: You've got the steep mountains stretching down to, you know, beautiful blue ocean. It just, there's something about it that just feels really breathtaking and it doesn't get old. I wanna say like living here, like the views are just stunning all the time. I always appreciate them, so it's a really wonderful place to to call home.

[00:03:41] Heather Eijenga: But because we now live on the Winward side, I thought. I might as well share my favorite part of the island with you. And I also think it's a unique spot to enjoy with families. The beaches here are more mellow than you get on the north shore, less crowded than on the south shore. West side is also has very steep beaches with big waves, so it's kind of the ideal stretch to explore with family.

[00:04:09] Heather Eijenga: It's really easily accessible. And the other thing is that it starts with. You have a lot of diversity along the coast. It starts with lava and it's very dramatic. And then you end with nice, sandy, calm beaches at the tip.

[00:04:23] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. And this list that we're gonna go over, I know for as you're listening to this, it might sound overwhelming, but it is doable in a day.

[00:04:31] Bryan Murphy: You can probably split it into two days, but we kind of want to give it to you in a day, partly because there's not a lot of places to stay on the east side of Oahu. So more than likely you're probably staying in South Shore Waikiki, or maybe you're staying at Turtle Bay North Shore, but, or you're, you know, on the west side in Colina area.

[00:04:50] Bryan Murphy: So we wanted to kinda give you the best of, at least Heather did. I think this is gonna be, this is a great itinerary. I can't wait to do this itinerary. I don't know if I can do it all in one day, but I think it's definitely ambitious and it is possible. But where are we gonna start our. I mean, I would assume we probably want to get a great sunrise in.

[00:05:10] Bryan Murphy: So what, what, where are we gonna do that?

[00:05:12] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, so we're gonna start our day over on the Rocky Coast by Mokapu point, there is a lighthouse up there. There are basically two ways that you can enjoy sunrise over here. You can start with the beaches across from Sea Life Park area. There's usually. Parking there, no one is there.

[00:05:33] Heather Eijenga: You'll be by yourself. If you go over there and you get a nice view of the point and the lighthouse from the distance, and you'll see the sun coming up over the water, but the more popular route is to actually hike up to the lighthouse itself, and so you can park right outside the gates and join the other morning people and make your way up that trail.

[00:05:56] Bryan Murphy: Right, because the, the gates there, that little parking lot, they open around seven, right?

[00:06:01] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. They don't open until seven, but there are a lot of people who are gonna be lined up along the road over there.

[00:06:07] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. And that hike, that's one we've done many times as as a family. It's paved stroller friendly.

[00:06:13] Bryan Murphy: You know, there's a bit of an incline, but there's places you can look, look out to along the way that you can kind of stop and, you know, get the shot. So maybe let's talk about getting the shot, you know, doing this hike or maybe at a different spot along, ma capo. What are some tips? How to capture the sunset maybe on your phone.

[00:06:33] Bryan Murphy: 'cause most people are gonna be having their phone on A-D-S-L-R or anything like that. But how do you capture you as a professional photographer? How would you recommend someone getting the shot?

[00:06:43] Heather Eijenga: I think for sunrise and phones do a great job. I mean, they always say the best camera you have is the one on you.

[00:06:49] Heather Eijenga: You can get great photos of sunrise just with a regular, a phone camera. One thing I would suggest is to go darker so you could just kind of. Pull down the exposure just on the iPhone. I know you just touched the screen, and you can drag it down. That's gonna allow you to see more of the colors of sunrise so that that'll look beautiful.

[00:07:11] Heather Eijenga: The only trick is if you're trying to get people plus the sunrise. I know when I'm photographing clients at Sunrise, they always wanna look at me when you have a really bright sunrise, and the problem is you need to have some kind of an external light in order to get people plus sunrise. The camera sensor's not as good as our eyes.

[00:07:29] Heather Eijenga: So we may see, you know, person clearly and see the beautiful colors behind them, but what the camera sees is either the person is very dark and the background is beautiful, or the background is way too light, and you lose all of that color. So what I like to do for sunrise photos is. Forget about having somebody looking at you smiling, but just try to get a silhouette and so then you can get a really nice dark photo at sunrise.

[00:07:56] Heather Eijenga: You can kind of place your people right where that light is magical and kind of right where the the sun is, and you'll get a nice glow from behind them. You might have to get low to do this, but

[00:08:08] Bryan Murphy: it tends to be really beautiful. And if I wanna capture someone's face, how would you do that?

[00:08:13] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, so for this one, because the light is still soft, right?

[00:08:17] Heather Eijenga: And it goes so fast. Sunrise rays goes super fast. It's probably, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes. It's not very long. So don't be late if you wanna get that nice golden glow on your face. You just turn around so the light is now hitting their face. You're not looking into the sunrise, but it is lighting them up beautifully.

[00:08:35] Heather Eijenga: And so then you get that, that nice feeling of sunrise, that kind of golden sunrise kiss on you. Some people are super sensitive and they can't. Handle that at all. Yeah, with eyes closed. Yeah. They're just squinting even, even when the light is low, they're, they're really struggling. Most people can't do it, so you can kind of turn them at a 45 degree.

[00:08:54] Heather Eijenga: That's my mom-in-law. Yeah, she's, yeah. There's always somebody who's like, I just can't handle any direct light. So you could kind of put them at an angle and get like a little bit of a, a peak. So you're kind of at like a. 30, 45 degree angle. The light coming up is just kind of at the corner of your frame, and then it's kind of a mix between the balls.

[00:09:16] Heather Eijenga: You're kind of splitting the difference, so they're not looking straight into it, but you're not straight into the sun and it anyway. It'll work up.

[00:09:23] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. Alright. So we just took in probably the most epic sunrise. We captured it, we documented it, we're ready to go. But we're also in the moment of it too.

[00:09:32] Bryan Murphy: Not just all about getting the shot, probably want some coffee. Right. Is there any spots over there that you would recommend?

[00:09:39] Heather Eijenga: If you're anything like me, you're definitely ready for coffee at this point. There is a great little cafe over there called Kawai Cafe, and so it makes a perfect pit stop. It's just right off of the road, so you can make your pit stop there, get coffee.

[00:09:53] Heather Eijenga: They also have some food for breakfast, and then you can keep on going ready for more.

[00:10:00] Bryan Murphy: All right, let's keep on going. What's, what's next on our list or ultimate itinerary of the Windward side of Oahu?

[00:10:06] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, so this is, this is tough. I'm gonna tell you to drive right past Wyman Beach, and you see it too. I loveman I know.

[00:10:13] Heather Eijenga: I love it too. You're gonna see it, you're gonna wanna pull over there, but another time because that one deserves its own full day. Sure. Yeah. So we're, we're gonna be going to Lon Kai Beach.

[00:10:25] Bryan Murphy: All

[00:10:25] Heather Eijenga: right. And, and there's a reason for this. Lon Kai Beach is normally. Crowded. It's a small beach, and so just having, you know, a couple dozen people out there feels pretty, I don't know, intrusive, I guess.

[00:10:38] Heather Eijenga: But there's this little window after sunrise. Before everyone comes kind of to hang out and enjoy the beach for the day where the beach tends to be empty. So because you had your sunrise down at Mokapu, you had your coffee, you're getting there, it's after everyone is left. So parking is no problem. You should be able to find parking.

[00:11:01] Heather Eijenga: Just walk out to the beach and. You just may have it all to yourself, so it's kind of the perfect little window there to enjoy it and spend some time in a beautiful place without the crowds.

[00:11:15] Bryan Murphy: I mean, that tip right there, that's worth price of a mission for this podcast. Maybe I should have

[00:11:19] Heather Eijenga: shared it.

[00:11:20] Heather Eijenga: That's huge.

[00:11:21] Bryan Murphy: Well, Lonca that this beach is probably one of the most photographed. If you're wondering and you're listening, you're like, okay, what? What's this beach? It's the one with the two eyelets, the two moss. They kind of look like twins out out in the distance. It's the beach with amazing sand. It's one of the best beaches in the world, honestly.

[00:11:39] Bryan Murphy: Typically, it is. So crowded trying to find a spot to park. You mentioned parking a little bit, but finding that window after sunrise and getting to experience lon Kai almost to yourself. I mean, that sounds like too good to be true, but maybe just walk it through the parking because for people who don't know, parking can be a big issue.

[00:11:57] Bryan Murphy: So what were your some tips on how to park legally in order to get to Lon Kai?

[00:12:02] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. Make sure you are following all of the signs there because the people who live in that neighborhood are plagued by visitors regularly and it's become kind of a sore spot, and so they will tow you if you do anything wrong.

[00:12:17] Heather Eijenga: So what I recommend is it's just off street parking. You need to park in the direction of traffic. You need to make sure your tires are fully off the road. If you're hanging out under the road, you're at risk for getting a ticket. Definitely don't. Block the bike path. That's a surefire way to get towed, and if you follow those rules, you'll be fine.

[00:12:39] Heather Eijenga: Don't block driveways. That's it. The only other trick is it is trickier to find parking on weekend because now you have locals competing for parking with visitors, and there is no parking at all on holiday weekends, so don't even try to go over there on holiday weekend.

[00:12:56] Bryan Murphy: Okay, so Lon Kai, check. Probably the best beach you'll ever experience.

[00:13:01] Bryan Murphy: And then we're gonna go to another spot that is also super Instagrammable famous. Where is that?

[00:13:08] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. So the next stop is Twell Malaga Botanical Garden. And this spot I love because we used to live very close to the garden and. Kind of felt like our backyard. We were there so often. So Alia is a great spot.

[00:13:25] Heather Eijenga: You can spend a whole day there easily. There are trails to walk around. There's a lake. You can even go fishing or you could just drive through it. It's free. So it's definitely worse to stop. And it's open from nine to four, so by the time you get here, it should be, oh my gosh, 10. Depends on how much time you're spending at each place, but I think you can make it here by then and get some beautiful shots.

[00:13:52] Heather Eijenga: Maybe stop and wander around a little bit.

[00:13:56] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. This, this garden there, it's beautiful. It's, it's that one as you drive in and the co allow range is it's framing and you got. Palm trees on the side and you know, this is like the beautiful, most beautiful road in the world really. It used to be plagued by tons of of signs.

[00:14:13] Bryan Murphy: I remember visiting pre-sign on that drive and I probably, one of the best picks I've ever captured was actually just. Driving along slowly and just, you know, framing it up and, and grabbing a shot of that, of that drive. But what's the current situation and how to maybe get that, still get that shot of that drive into the gardens.

[00:14:33] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. The entrance to the garden is iconic and definitely worth capturing. I'm happy to say that they've toned down the signs a little bit. They used to have bright orange cones, but now it's not as bad. So you could still get a beautiful photo. They do not want you to stop. So you could take a photo hanging your phone out of the window, maybe of a convertible that would make it easier.

[00:14:58] Heather Eijenga: Or if you really wanna get the shot, you could plan to arrive before the park opens at nine. There are a couple spots right outside, and then the gate has, uh, an access point for pedestrians. So you could just walk in. It's a beautiful spot to go for a run or walk before you get any of that car traffic in there.

[00:15:17] Heather Eijenga: So that's what a lot of people in the neighborhood do. And so you could just pop in there and get some photos of the entrance before it

[00:15:25] Bryan Murphy: opens. Gotcha. Alright. So what time do you think it is you like? Probably late morning,

[00:15:31] Heather Eijenga: I guess. Late morning. Yeah. I know this is, this is maybe an ambitious itinerary.

[00:15:36] Heather Eijenga: Okay. If you have time, I feel like the next stop is worth it. This one is just a beautiful, beautiful temple tucked very close to the LAU range. It tends to be very moody and dramatic and quiet. It's called Bedoin Temple, and there is a small fee to get in. I think it's $5 for adults, maybe two for kids right now, but it's a, it's a small fee to get in.

[00:16:03] Heather Eijenga: It's not a place you're gonna spend a long time, but it is. Just beautiful. The only trouble with this spot is if it gets too late in the day or if it's really like an unusually hot day, you may wanna skip it because the buses come here in the middle of the day, the buses are dropping off, you know, dozens of people at a time, and it gets really crowded and it takes away from the beauty and the feeling of the place.

[00:16:31] Bryan Murphy: So it's probably, it is time for some lunch now. Yeah.

[00:16:33] Heather Eijenga: Yes.

[00:16:35] Bryan Murphy: You got, you got any favorite spots?

[00:16:37] Heather Eijenga: Yes, I do. This is, I think my whole family would say this is their favorite spot to eat is the Ole Poi factory. Cool. It's just this small, unassuming spot along the road on the Windward coast and it has all local Hawaiian food and it's all good and it's all something different.

[00:16:55] Heather Eijenga: So, I mean you could just get a sampler plate and try everything. I will say don't forget to get dessert there. They have the Fat Lady of Ole and it's ice cream and kolo and it's, it's amazing.

[00:17:08] Bryan Murphy: Awesome. All right, so after lunch we're gonna keep on going and where we're gonna head to

[00:17:15] Heather Eijenga: the next stop I have is Cool Lower Ranch.

[00:17:18] Heather Eijenga: Now, this one is a little bit tricky because the only way to really get in there is to schedule a tour. So I would say you could kind of base your whole morning around. An afternoon tour here.

[00:17:32] Bryan Murphy: Oh, okay. And

[00:17:33] Heather Eijenga: then that makes sense. Then you can try to schedule it, or you could make it a little bit later in the day, depending on how much time you wanna spend at different parts.

[00:17:40] Heather Eijenga: But this is, I wanna say, this has gotta be my favorite place on the whole island. Any chance? I get to kinda get into this valley. I take it, they sometimes will have races in there, and I've done a, I've done a half marathon in the valley just so I could enjoy it. It's that good.

[00:17:58] Bryan Murphy: That's cool.

[00:17:59] Heather Eijenga: They have a lot of different tours.

[00:18:01] Heather Eijenga: If you have small kids, you could do something more mellow, like a bus tour. If you wanna do something a little more adventurous, my personal favorite is the e-bike tour, which is really fun. And then the ATVs are also really fun. But definitely try to find a way to squeeze a visit to this valley into your itinerary, even if it's the only thing you do on the Winward side.

[00:18:24] Heather Eijenga: It's my favorite. I love it so much.

[00:18:27] Bryan Murphy: Okay. Well, I mean that's, that's a good, that's important note to make. 'cause you know, someone's getting this list and thinking, okay, maybe I could, I could skip that one. Or maybe not. This is, this is probably one of the stops that you don't wanna miss. Right? Is that what I'm hearing?

[00:18:41] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. I mean, it's pricey, but I think it's absolutely worth it. I love this valley.

[00:18:46] Bryan Murphy: Cool. Okay. All right. So we just tore it up on the ATVs or the E-bikes, and we're gonna keep going up the coast. What's our next stop?

[00:18:57] Heather Eijenga: What you're gonna find is that you're going more and more country, so you've got little small beaches off to your side.

[00:19:03] Heather Eijenga: I mean, feel free to stop at any of those, but the one that I'm recommending is not a beach so much as a lookout. This is a short stop up in Laier and it looks out onto a little island offshore, which is all limestone, and it has a. Hole in the middle. So it's called Hole in the Rock. It's a spot with great views of the Windward coast.

[00:19:27] Heather Eijenga: So you can kinda look back and see where you've come from and uh, get that whole mountain view, coastal view. And it's also fun 'cause usually there are kids jumping off the cliffs into the water down below. So that's always fun to watch. So yeah, this is a good spot.

[00:19:43] Bryan Murphy: Great sunset. We're almost there. First of all, where are we going for sunset?

[00:19:48] Bryan Murphy: But then second of all, how do we prepare for Sunset and where, where do we kind of just wait?

[00:19:54] Heather Eijenga: My, my favorite spot for sunset is up at Turtle Bay, which is a resort, but. There is, there's, you know, the grounds have like a nice rocky outcrop that you can kind of follow out and so you can actually see sunset from that outcrop sun setting over the water, and you're still kind of right on the tip of the windward side.

[00:20:18] Heather Eijenga: So it's a really beautiful spot. You could see the waves over there if you wanna keep it low key. I recommend stopping for poke at one of my favorite places on the island, which is a really tiny little convenience store in Kahuku. It's called Kahuku. Superette. It's just right off the main road. You can grab some poke bowls there.

[00:20:40] Heather Eijenga: They also have. All the food trucks right past that. And the food trucks are always changing, but you'll see things like the famous Giovanni shrimp truck. It's nice to go to the food trucks because there's something for everyone. So if you have picky eaters and you know, everybody can kind of get their own

[00:20:56] Bryan Murphy: thing.

[00:20:57] Heather Eijenga: Hmm. So you could pick up food and then head out to Turtle Bay and kind of make it a sunset picnic? Yeah. Or. You could be a little bit fancier and just go to the resort itself and have drinks or have, you know, dinner at the resort so you can park there. They do have public parking, of course, if you're gonna be going.

[00:21:20] Heather Eijenga: Eating at the restaurant, then you're then parking isn't an issue either. You could even valet park if you wanted to be extra fancy over by their pool. They usually have, if they're just great views of sunset, right from the pool area. And that's where you can get your food and your drinks. And they usually do an evening show, so they'll have the ceremonial torch lighting and then they'll have someone come in and do a little bit of fire dancing as well.

[00:21:47] Heather Eijenga: And so it's kind of like a, a free show to end your day.

[00:21:51] Bryan Murphy: Cool. What tips would you have on. Capturing it like photography wise, sunset. Is it similar to Sunrise or how? How? How would you do that?

[00:21:59] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, it's exactly the same as Sunrise. Okay. It's same deal.

[00:22:03] Bryan Murphy: Well, what's your favorite to shoot like sunrise, sunset?

[00:22:06] Heather Eijenga: Oh gosh. You know, the thing I like about Sunrise is that you usually have empty beaches. So it's kind of a special feeling where if you wanna have a little bit of solitude, it's nice If you're shooting Sunset, I mean, sunset usually is a little bit warmer it seems like. So it does have a little more color.

[00:22:25] Heather Eijenga: But you're fighting with crowds

[00:22:28] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. People. So

[00:22:28] Heather Eijenga: it kind of takes away, so, yeah. Yeah. Everybody's got their phones out and they're jockeying for a good space. And yeah. So I, I think I like sunrise, even though I hate getting up early. I think. I'm a Sunrise person.

[00:22:41] Bryan Murphy: Yeah. Do you have any tips on how to get back to like resort areas?

[00:22:45] Bryan Murphy: I mean, you go back command Maya Highway, or do you travel through the, you know, center H two? How would you recommend.

[00:22:53] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, at this point you are at about the 50 50 mark if you're in Waikiki. Right? So you could go either way at that point. If you wanna go back, it's a, you know, it's a slow winding road. If you're curious and you wanna see a little more, you can drive along the North Shore and then you're taking highways back.

[00:23:13] Heather Eijenga: I don't know, I kind of prefer the slow. Kind of meandering roads personally, and so I usually take that way.

[00:23:20] Bryan Murphy: Oh, cool. Alright. Is there anything else about this route, these, these spots that you feel people often overlook or should pay attention to? Maybe like general tips.

[00:23:30] Heather Eijenga: There are so many different areas, like smaller areas.

[00:23:33] Heather Eijenga: You could stop and explore and I've tried really hard to cram in like the highlights, just so not to overwhelm everyone, but you know, like this, this side is really pretty, I would say, but it is. Called the Windward side for a reason. So the weather comes in and we tend to get dumped on before it goes over the mountains and is nice and sunny and Waikiki.

[00:23:59] Heather Eijenga: So I would say if you're gonna plan this as your itinerary, check the forecast before heading over and make sure that you pick a good day. And then if you're, if you're not excited about getting up at Sunrise. I would say it's not as bad as you may be thinking just because most, most visitors are coming from the, from the mainland, and so you're gonna be, you're gonna have jet lag as your friend for the first few days, and that's gonna help those.

[00:24:26] Heather Eijenga: You're gonna be waking up early anyway, so might as well get out and enjoy it.

[00:24:31] Bryan Murphy: Heather, obviously you know a lot about the island, especially Windward side, and I know a lot of people traveling, A lot of families, they want to capture the moment they have the phone, but they wanna like, maybe this is a once in a lifetime trip for someone or reunion or, or whatever.

[00:24:48] Bryan Murphy: They want to get the shot, they wanna be able to put it up on the wall and frame it and, and the whole thing. And I know you as a professional photographer have obviously a lot of expertise on it, just not just in your craft, but where to go and, and just how to best capture the moment. Where can people find you?

[00:25:07] Bryan Murphy: Maybe they wanna book a session or just learn more about you and what you offer.

[00:25:11] Heather Eijenga: Yeah. I love making everyone's life easy and taking those photos off your hand, especially when I get big family groups and they try to do this themselves. Just bring a tripod that's that's too much. You don't wanna do that to yourself.

[00:25:24] Heather Eijenga: But my goal for families is to kind of show you a spot. That I think will fit your personality. So you're not just, you know, I don't wanna take away from anyone's time on vacation to do something that's not fun. So I make it fun. So I find a place that fits your personalities and we go out and we play games, and we explore, and then you get to take home, you know, these great memories.

[00:25:50] Heather Eijenga: Along with the beautiful photos. I love to do that for people. You could find me. My website is hi like Hawaii. Like hello, HI, hi little bird.com. And it's little bird photography.

[00:26:03] Bryan Murphy: And if someone does this itinerary or a version of the itinerary, I'm sure like, Hey, meet us at Turtle Bay, or something like that.

[00:26:11] Bryan Murphy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's good to know. Yeah,

[00:26:14] Heather Eijenga: absolutely.

[00:26:15] Bryan Murphy: Well, for those listening, we will link all that up. You don't have to remember how to do that. You can just scroll down to the description of this podcast and then click on the link and learn more about Heather and maybe book a session for your next trip to Oahu.

[00:26:29] Bryan Murphy: Heather, anything else that we missed that you think would be important for someone to know? Visiting Hawaii. Visiting Oahu, any of the neighboring islands.

[00:26:37] Heather Eijenga: Most important is to just get out of Waikiki, get out of your resort for at least one day and go explore and you know, see what the island has to offer.

[00:26:47] Bryan Murphy: Well said Heather, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

[00:26:50] Heather Eijenga: Yeah, thanks Brian.

[00:26:52] Bryan Murphy: And that wraps up today's episode of Huge Mahalo to our guest today, Heather. For sharing her expertise and stories about capturing Hawaii's beauty through her lens. Heather's insights on connecting with the environment and preserving memories with photography are invaluable.

[00:27:10] Bryan Murphy: I think. For anyone visiting the islands. For those who wish to see more of Heather's work or book a session, please visit her website@hilittlebird.com. You can also go to our show notes page found in the description of this podcast. We'll link out to Heather's website there and as well as all the resources that were mentioned during this episode.

[00:27:33] Bryan Murphy: Thanks again for tuning in today, and until next time my friend, be well. Aloha

[00:27:41] Bryan Murphy: Mala for listening to this episode of Hawaii's. Best to stay up to date on future episodes. Hit follow on your podcast app. Hawaii's Best is a production of shore break media group with editing by easy podcast solutions and music courtesy of our friends. Stick figure.