Who Knew Oahu Is Where The Party Is At?

The craziest New Year’s Eve I have ever seen

This was our first time celebrating the turn of a New Year in Hawaii. It was not what we expected!

I grew up in California where, for understandable reasons, fireworks are largely illegal and extremely controlled. It was not until my adult life in the Midwest that I was introduced to home fireworks shows. Mind blown. I proceeded to spend $1000 for the 4th of July during one of my first summers in Kansas.

I have been to a lot of fireworks demonstrations, public and home alike. I have never, NEVER seen anything like I saw last night in Oahu.

It all started at 5pm. The booms began popping up while I was at the grocery store grabbing some last minute items. I shrugged. By 7pm the party was in full swing. Explosions were happening every few feet for as far as the eye could see. It was if the millions of island inhabitants were each taking 10 second intervals between lighting their arsenal.

As the night went on, the show became more and more explosive. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Perhaps the millions of island inhabitants had each bought $1000 in fireworks? It couldn’t get much crazier than this. Until midnight hit….

We stepped out onto our back porch to do the countdown and make some noise, but the sound outside was deafening. If we hadn’t seen the sky lighting up, it might have been mistaken for a jet engine directly above our heads. Those 10 second intervals had disappeared and it was now a war zone of sound on top of sound, each one overlapped by the next in a stream of bombardment.

I figured it would die down within a couple minutes, but… The intervals didn’t space out for almost another hour. By 2am they were still going. By 3am it was less so, but I fell asleep. No idea when the party stopped. Has it stopped? Are we in 2024? Or did they blow up the island and this is all a dreamy afterlife?

Moral of the story. If you want to see some fireworks…I know a place.