A Perfect Pantry

After our first ordeal driving a car in America, we arrived at the pineapple plantation in Hawaii. Yes, there was an incident where we may have driven on the wrong side of the road, lost our map out of the window and screamed at each other until we laughed hysterically but we made it, and that was the main thing.

When we first stepped out of the car, there was a little market stall selling sliced up pineapple and sugar cane, obviously I bought one of each and tucked right in. To get into the pineapple plantation, you have to walk through the gift shop. The gift shop seems bigger than the plantation when we walk in and it’s like a maze of tacky key rings and Hawaiian shirts. We run through, successfully only purchasing a post card and make a bee line for the ‘cafe’. The line is like a hospital cafeteria and the menu consists of everything pineapple. Pineapple soft serve, pineapple juice, pineapple pie, pineapple Danish, pineapple cup, pineapple jelly, pineapple sundae, pineapple fritters. The list just goes on. So which pineapple do I choose?! I opted for pineapple coconut water and a pineapple pie. Not disappointed.

We headed out into the pineapple plantation to see what all the fuss is about. Yet again, greeted with tacky merchandise and promotional rubbish. We follow the path through a ’baby pineapple’ patch.

Following the signs to the koi pond, we stop at the fish feeding vending machine. 2 quarters gets you a small handful of fish pellets. The koi are waiting and so are the birds! The koi jump over each other to get to the food, flopping out of the water and smacking each other round until they successfully get their fill.

The weather was humid and there was next to no shade. My little brother entertained us with many songs such as the classic theme song to ‘Sponge Bob Square Pants’ and as delirium set in I found myself singing too - Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUARE PANTS.

It was a great day all in all, although we opted not to take the ‘Pineapple Express’ train, I think part of the fun was wandering around at our own leisure!