This being our last day on Oahu, I just HAD TO go to the top of Diamond Head, the crater of the extinct volcano which we’ve been looking at for the last three days. So I skipped the visit to Pearl Harbor (honestly, I know the story, and don't need to see it in person), and headed out bright and early to avoid going up in the mid-day heat. I missed the sunrise there, but that’s OK because, from the number of people coming down as I was going up, it must have been quite crowded up there at sunrise: You have to make a reservation to enter, as the park department limits the number of people who can be there at one time. Which is good, because it must get very busy in peak season.
The climb to the top is slightly under a mile, and is a well maintained trail - with a series of switchback making it easier, and then stairs and tunnels through the rim of the volcano to the top.
This spot had anti aircraft and canons equipment during WWII (still has a military based in the crater itself), so all this infrastructure was built to support it, not to make it easy for tourists to get to the top…. Still it’s cool and you can even get into one of the silos (requires a bit of crawling) and down part of the hill on this cool spiral staircase. There were little kids doing it (though most of them were whining about it), as well as people in flip flops and out of shape (definitely a lot of huffing and puffing was happening). So it is not a huge achievement to make it to the top, but it’s still a lot of steps and up hill the entire time!
The views are, of course, what it’s all about and well worth the climb.
It’s also a great spot to observe the weather: our guide had warned us that, even when the weather is completely sunny, it can start raining at any time. And that’s true. More than once now, I’ve been rained on while there were no clouds at all above me.
From the top of the crater, you can clearly see that at any time, any of the puffy clouds can produce a shower, and my guess is that there is enough of a breeze that, even if not right under the cloud, you end up caught in the shower. Considering the weather, it’s actually rather pleasant - although on our first day here, we ended up caught in a short but strong downpour. As our guide pointed out: the worst that happens is that you get wet, and it’s warm enough that you’ll dry quickly.
Also, showers produce rainbows. This one points to our hotel - the smaller pink one now completely surrounded by much larger buildings.
Since I had started so early, I decided to walk back to the hotel rather than taking an Uber: it’s only about 2.5 miles and it was very pleasant. On the way, I took pictures of the flowers (see the end of the blog), and tried to take pictures of the local birds, but they have the annoying habit of flying away when I get near…. Still, here are a red crested cardinal, a yellow fronted canary, a common myna and an egret.
But by far the most common birds here are white pigeons (some are tanned or grey too, but white is the most common color) and chickens. Wild chickens are apparently all over Kauai, but even here, in very developed Honolulu, there are chickens on every patch of grass! All types of chickens: small, big, beautifully colored, dull….. (more chickens and pigeons at the end of the blog).
The beach on the way back has nice water and surf inspired sculptures. This one is Duke Kahanamoku.
And of course, there are trees! I have a hard time not taking pictures of every magnificent tree. So here is just one for today. 
Joe went to Pearl Harbor and took cool pictures of the USS Arizona memorial and of the USS Missouri - but agreed that I probably enjoyed myself more by going up to Diamond Head.
In the afternoon, we got to try the outrigger canoes, which is the traditional canoe of the Hawaiian people. They are very good at taking advantage of the waves to move fast, and it was a lot of fun!
Fish tacos, decadent desert, and then sunset and moon rise - a nice last evening on Waikiki and Oahu. Tomorrow, we are off to the Big Island (Hawaii).
Flowers, chickens and pigeons.
No comments:
Post a Comment