The Shaka App

Before we went to Hawaii I had read about the Shaka App on an Aulani FB page. I downloaded it as we were leaving Kualao Ranch and I’m so glad we did. It was awesome. It leads you on a tour around the island. It uses your gps to know where you are and trigger songs/info/directions. We learned a ton of fun facts and saw things we wouldn’t have known to stop at.  Kualoa Ranch was on the Circle Island tour so instead of starting at the beginning of the tour, we just jumped in right there.

We went through a neighborhood that we would have NEVER drove through without the Shaka app and stopped at Laie Point.  The Shaka app told us background on each site.  Hawaiian legend says this was a giant lizard that was cut in to three pieces by the legendary warrior Kana and his magic spear.

Aria likes to be a cat a lot.  In case you wondered what she is doing! 

We drove past Laie Temple.  It was closed due to Corona or maybe because it was Sunday.   Shaka app pointed out that they have a nice visitors center with clean restrooms.  I'm telling you, this app should exist for every tourist destination.  I loved it so much!  We did stop so I could take a picture of some beautiful flowers near the temple.

As a teacher, I thought it was neat to see what schools in Hawaii look like.  I was planning to show my students when I got back.  Obviously that didn't happen.

Here is our Shaka app set up in the car.  We had it on one of our phones and plugged it in so the information would play through the car speakers.  Each orange dot would trigger some music or information about what to look out for.

Then we stopped at Giovannis shrimp truck. I had heard of this too, but without the Shaka app, I would have forgotten to go. I also wouldn’t have known the tips on how to eat it! Suck all the juice off before you peel and eat.)It was raining by the time we got to the shrimp trucks. Antonio insisted only the hot and spicy shrimp. As you can see it was more than he bargained for. Q opted for bbq. He didn’t want to have to peel shrimp.

We walked to a little fruit stand near the trucks and had apple bananas, mango, and the best banana lumpia.

There were some little shops by the shrimp trucks, but not everything was open.  It was raining so it could have been that.  It also could have been due to Corona.  Stuff was starting to shut down. 

When we left the Shrimp truck we continued on the circle tour with the Shaka App. We drove past Ted's Bakery and didn't stop because we were full.  BIG MISTAKE!  We thought we would make it back and we never did.  So sad!

We drove past the Banzai Pipeline Beach.  Unfortunately it was really raining by now so we wouldn't see much.  There were a lot of people and cars out though, so there must have been some surfing going on. 

We were in a hurry because our kids had another premium experience at Auntie's to get back to so we listened to the tour until we got back to Ko'Olina, but didn't stop at anything else.