Despite our good intentions to get an early start we were a little delayed. When we had gathered our bits together we booked our final night at the Big Surf and acquired a parking permit for two days. As I was waiting for my change a local lady said to me 'you smell so pretty and you look pretty too' right before she went on to ramble about my hairclip, which was odd.
We drove straight out past Diamond Head towards Maunalua Bay and somehow ended up in the driveway of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel, despite following signs to the Lunalilo freeway. After turning round we continued our journey to Hanauma Bay, beyond Koko Head. At Hanauma Bay all visitors are forced to watch a short film regarding the marine life in the bay which also warns people of the dangerous areas within the water as well as the history of how the bay was created. Once you've seen the film you are free to access the non-smoking beach and its sheltered bay. I decided to play the sun worshipper for the day and Ian tootled off with his mask and snorkel to splash about with the fishes. Before I even got myself comfortable on my sarong, which was already covered in sand, I searched for Ian's wallet and the car keys. I couldn't find them. Then I suddenly realised where they must be and was forced to do a Baywatch and sprint across the beach in my bikini to where Ian had wandered, hollering his name! The sod had already submerged himself and I tried desperately to get his attention. He looked back, I asked where his wallet was. He advanced towards me and whilst grinning produced his wallet and two sets of keys from his soggy pocket, saying 'oh yeah, oops!'
I spent the next 30 minutes extracting the numerous receipts, business cards, credit cards (mine included) and US dollar bills, all soggy, and placing them into the pages of my book to dry them off, whilst also having to leap up on a couple of occasions when the wind tried to separate them from my clutch.
So when Ian appeared beside me 20 minutes later and asked if it was almost time to leave, I, who had barely sat in the sun, told him 'not yet, I haven't laid on my back yet!' We spent 30 minutes more on the beach at Hanauma Bay before calling it a day at lunchtime and making the ascent back to the car park. After taking a few photographs of the area we travelled to the Halona Blowhole to watch a brief display which earned many bonfire night reminiscent oohs and aahs from the crowd and then looked at Sandy Beach which was quite sandy. Our destination was the dryland botanical garden inside Koko Crater, whose walls were 1,208 feet high. There were attractive plumeria trees, much like frangipani trees but with a twist, oleander and cacti, including a crown of thorns. We managed to find our way off the intended 2 mile track but found our way out of the garden just as we had entered it.
Hawaii does indeed have the blue water that we had been promised by the lady we met in Tonga on Deep Blue I. I noticed this when we stood at a viewpoint on the way to Halona Blowhole, when I observed a turtle in the ocean taking some gulps of air.
We had to make a detour back to the Big Surf to collect my safely stowed valuables before we ventured off out again and drove back around to Diamond Head.
From the crater floor of the tuff cone volcano we ascended 560 feet to the summit of Diamond Head Crater, to 760 feet above sea level. It was a terrific hike, meandering back and forth up the steep crater wall. Emerging from the fire control station through the slits onto a ledge with a very steep cliff face directly in front of you was a little unexpected but immediately round the corner was an absolutely fantastic view not to be missed. The trail we followed was constructed in 1910. It was pleasantly breezy and the vista covered Koko Crater, Hanauma Bay and Koko Head as well as Waikiki Beach and there were marvellous ocean views with the sun beginning to set in the sky. From the summit I could see the island of Molokai in the distance.
Satisfied with our visit to Diamond Head we followed the eastern and windward coasts, taking a look at Kaneohe Bay and the Mokapu peninsula from the Nuuana Pali lookout with the Koolau Range and its fantastic valleys behind us. It was wet and cold at the elevation of 1,200 feet so we made our descent and followed the windward shore and the north shore back to Waikiki. By this time it was dark and still raining, we were singing along to The Beatles.
We quickly changed at our condo, noticing then how sunburnt we were from our brief sitting on Hanauma Bay beach this morning, and had a poor, expensive meal at Outback, before retiring with more beer for Ian.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.