Kehena Black Sand Beach
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Category Archives: Adventures
Double Rainbow Over Lava Fields
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Rainbow Falls
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Waimea Valley
Yesterday, Josh and I went and wandered around Waimea Valley on the North Shore of Oahu. Waimea Valley is a historical nature park consisting of many botanical gardens which contain numerous rare and endangered species of plants. The garden valley is approximately .75 miles in length and has a waterfall and swimming hole at the end. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking around the different gardens and seeing the waterfall at the end. I also had my first ono pop…which was amazing!
Tree at the start of the valley path.
Lily Pads
So many coconuts on this tree!
‘Alae ‘ula Bird. It had a unique red shield on it’s face.
River bed in the valley.
Pretty flowers in the tree.
Thanks to Kalani and our Flower Farm tour, we both knew these were red gingers!
Yellow Heliconia
Waterfall at the end.
Waterfall and swimming pool at the end.
The path that runs through the valley.
Purple flowers all over the valley.
Mossy path in one of the botanical gardens.
Heliconia
Hanging heliconia
Ginger Flowers
This bird was singing the prettiest song 🙂
This wall of moss and vines.
More vines and moss.
Teaching area in the valley.
Beautiful flowers
A very old piece of a tree of a species that will soon be distinct as there are only 26 left in the world and they are all fruitless and unable to reproduce.
Josh walking up the stairs on one of the paths.
Wall of vines between two trees.
Josh after walking through the vines.
Looking up through a tree at the sky.
Birds with green legs!
Red cat tails.
Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail
Today Josh and I hiked the Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail. The trail has about a 1,700 foot elevation over the course of a little of two miles and it took us about two and a half hours. The trail was pretty easy for the first mile and a half…then it got pretty steep and was definitely a calorie burn for the last half mile or so. This is Josh’s favorite hike and absolutely one I want to go on again..the terrain changed frequently throughout the trail and we were constantly surrounded by different, beautiful landscapes. The reward at the end was a ridiculous 360 degree view which included the windward coast, Hawaii Kai, Koko Head and Diamond Head.
First nice view on the hike.
Random cave along the way.
Pretty flowers…they were everywhere!
Start of the pine trees
The trees made a canopy over the trail.
This area was so open…with a blanket of pine needles on the ground.
Heading into the woods. Loved this shot.
Looking back over the first steep portion of the trail. Harder than it looks.
Josh walking through the frame of trees in the trail.
Picture of the valley on the way up.
Josh heading up the trail. Loved the sky in the background.
Diamond Head in the distance.
Koko Head
The end had lots and lots and lots of stairs.
Looking back at Hawaii Kai and Koko Head.
The view at the top. Quite worth it. The view windward coast never gets old.
Peaks to the left.
Koko Head to the right.
Looking down at the valley.
Behind us, Hawaii Kai.
Stairs heading back down the trail.
Almost done with the stairs!
Josh heading down the trail.
Kayaking in Kailua
Josh and I went kayaking yesterday off of Kailua. It. Was. Amaaaaazing. Definitely one of the most fun things I’ve done on Oahu (and I feel like I’ve done a lot of fun things). We started out in the morning around 9:30 and came back around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was pretty cloudy and windy…which made it rather chilly with the water spraying us from the wind. Along with it being overcast, there was a surf advisory for the north and west sides of Oahu which made the normal glassy, calm water around Kailua beach and Lanikai pretty choppy.
We loaded up the kayak from Windward Water Sports in Kailua and headed towards Kailua beach. We parked, got the kayak off Josh’s car and headed towards the beach with all our stuff. Neither of us had kayaked before, but we successfully launched off the beach (probably our most successful launch of the day) and headed towards Popoi’a (Flat Island). It is located about a quarter mile off of Kailua Beach Park and is about four acres in size. Flat Island is a State Seabird Sanctuary where about 3,000 wedge-taled shearwater seabirds call home. The birds nest in the many sink holes on the island so you have to be careful where you step, stay off the center of the island and walk only around the edge. You also have a great view of the Mokulua Islands (our final destination on our kayak adventure).
I was sitting there with my feet dangling in a hole, enjoying the view of The Mokes.
My feet in this random hole in the ground. So cool!
Kaneohe Bay from Flat Island
Kite Surfers taking advantage of the wind!
Fellow kayakers heading towards Moku Nui.
The house Josh and I would buy if we won the lottery.
Water rushing through the rocks on Flat Island.
Water tunnel on Flat Island. Very neat!
After taking some pictures and walking around the island, we got back in the kayak and headed towards The Mokes. This was a bit longer of a journey and definitely a good arm/back workout with the wind and waves. We also had to navigate around the reef and the snorkelers. We finally arrived at Moku Nui (the larger of the two islands) in a rather adventurous landing. A pretty large wave pushed us all the way up into the beach and we had to scramble out and drag our kayak up out of the surf (we were soaked). After getting ourselves together, we gathered our stuff and headed off to the right side of the island to see what it could offer. The terrain was rocky, but nothing that we couldn’t conquer in flip flops. We found a spot, sat down and had a snack and hung out and dried off in the sun.
After about a half hour, a tour came by and the guide pointed out a place where people could jump into a shallow pool. It was pretty cool, so Josh decided to jump and I took pictures.
Josh psyching himself up.
Josh posing.
Still talking himself into it.
Ok..this is it.
Go!
Flying man.
Hitting the water.
Splash!
Success!
After Josh jumped, we headed back towards the beach to visit the other side of the island. We had a pretty good view of Moku Iki, which is off limits to visitors as it is also a State Seabird Sanctuary (so is the middle of Moku Nui), along with great views of Lanikai Beach. After venturing the other way a bit, we headed back towards the kayak to take off and head back to Kailua Beach. This is where it gets interesting…we packed up our stuff and had the most adventurous launch off of Moku Nui. What we thought was a calm area turned out to be where all of the waves from both directions around the island converged into the perfect storm approximately right when Josh and I tried to launch off the beach. This resulted in us doing a 360 a few times and being completely owned by the ocean. Our water bottle went flying off the kayak, the dry bag somehow stayed attached and we both were dying laughing (along with the rest of the people standing on the beach watching us). A very nice person caught our water bottle in the waves and gave us a nice shove and we were off! It was absolutely hilarious…not a single part of us stayed dry. After that, we headed back to Kailua, loaded up the kayak (harder than it sounds) and drove it back to the rental place. All in all, a HUGE success for our first kayaking adventure!
The lighthouse Josh and I hiked to a few weeks ago.
Moku Iki
So pretty…
Water rushing into the inlet.
Fellow kayakers headed to and from Moku Nui.
Somewhere in there is our kayak.
If you look closely, you can see a small minnow.
More kayakers headed to and from.
A cluster of snails in the tide pool.
Panoramic view from Moke Nui.
Whale Watching – Oahu’s North Shore
Today we went whale watching on Oahu’s North Shore for Josh’s birthday. It was absolutely amazing. We went out on a catamaran with North Shore Catamaran Charters for about two and a half hours this afternoon. The water was pretty rough in the beginning and there were huge ocean swells, which put Josh in charge of taking pictures and me in charge of not getting seasick. The entire time we were out there, we were surrounded by whales on all sides. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime!
The humpback whales migrate down to Hawaii from Alaska to breed for the winter. A baby humpback whale weighs between one and two tons when it is born and gains about 100 pounds a day for the first six months of it’s life. It goes through an amazing growth spurt during this time so it can gain strength and body size before the journey back to Alaska. An adult can weigh up to 40 tons and be 45 feet long, with the females being larger than the males. Another interesting fact is that their tails are like their fingerprints. Each one is unique to that whale. Some of the best shots from the day are below. Enjoy!
Whale breaching!
Double breach! There were two of them…super cool!
Back of the whale
Kaena Point – where we hiked last weekend!
Josh and I on the boat!
These two were about 20 yards from us for a few minutes just swimming along. Eventually they decided to deep dive and flashed us their tails.
First of the two deep diving.
Wind farm on the North Shore.
Large ocean swells. They were ridiculous!
Heading back to the harbor.
Aiea Loop Trail
Today I hiked the Aiea Loop Trail which is located in the Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area. The park is located about 10 miles from where I live and took me about a half hour to get there (I didn’t even get lost!). The trail is about 4.8 miles long and took me about an hour and 50 minutes to complete at a pretty fast pace (including stopping for pictures and a few offshoot trails to see some pretty cool views). It runs along the ridge of the west side of the Halawa Valley (not to be confused with the Halawa Valley on Molokai) and I was able to see Pearl Harbor in a few places at a distance. There were so many different types of trees ranging from Norfolk Island pine trees to native koa and ohi‘a trees. It was also an incredibly muddy hike in places and I ended up with mud on my legs past my knees…I also drove home in socks because my shoes were completely covered in mud. I passed a few different people along the trail, but for the most part it was pretty desolate…except for a wild boar (my first time seeing one). I was walking along and all of a sudden it grunted loudly to my right and went running through the woods…scared me to death! However, I tried to get a picture through the trees :).
I thought this was a pretty shot of the beginning of the trail.
So many tree roots everywhere.
One of my favorite pictures from the hike. Beautiful canopy of trees over the trail.
First of many trees on the trail. This was easy because someone had cut it down. The rest..not so much.
One of the offshoots I took went to this view of the valley.
So bright green in the middle of the woods.
I turned around and thought this was a pretty cool shot of the trail behind me.
Huge tree hole in the trail.
Looking down off the trail.
Tons of trees down on the trail. They were fun to climb over.
A bit of a rock hill that I had to climb up and then down.
Most likely my favorite picture from the hike. This the H3 going into the hills headed towards Kaneohe.
H3 below and Pearl Harbor in the distance.
A larger picture of the H3 and the tunnels.
In the upper/middle right is a black boar staring at me….
Tall palm trees along the way.
I loved this shot of the trees along the inside of the trail.
There were three cats at the end. This one was the only one that wasn’t afraid of me. I miss Nola.
Kaena Point
Yesterday Josh and I hiked to the westernmost tip on Oahu, Kaena Point, which has one of the last intact dune ecosystems on the Hawaiian Islands. You can reach the point via two ways, the North route or the South route. We hiked on the Mokule‘ia side, the North route to the point, which is about 2.7 miles one-way. The hike was pretty flat and the majority of our hike was along the beach (I ended up with a lot sand in my running shoes). It was a gorgeous day with tons of sun and very few clouds. The absolute best part was seeing whales all along the way, as well as when we got to the point. Kaena Point has been designated as a Nature Reserve to protect nesting Albatrosses, Hawaiian monk seals and natural vegetation. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any monk seals, but saw plenty of Albatrosses flying around (they are HUGE). There were tons of tide pools along the way, and at the point, that contained fish, snails, crabs, etc. At the point, people were swimming in the tide pools (not something I would do with the fish), but Josh was definitely sad he didn’t bring a swimsuit.
Start of the hike.
Boats on the water…and whales somewhere out there.
The sun shining through the peaks.
The unique rocks.
Josh out on the rocks.
Carefully walking on the rocks…so as to not fall.
Snails up close on the rocks
Inlet on the shore.
Old, rusted gate leading to the point.
The very secure barrier to keep the sanctuary protected.
The point!
The dunes
More rocks on the point.
If you look closely, you can see the whale blowing water.
If you look closely, you can see the top of the whale sticking out of the water.
Cool picture of all the coral washed up.
Tide pool with fish and snails.
View from the rocks looking back a the dunes.
Rocks leading to the point.
Water rushing in to the tide pools.
A little crab (who was not interested in us).
More of the crabs and snails in the tide pool.
Pretty view of the dunes with the West Coast in the background.
Albatross sitting on her nest. HUGE!
Koko Head Crater
After eating my way through Molokai, I knew I needed to workout big time this week. Today, I wanted to tackle Koko Head (I did it this time last year after another big hike and it took me forever because I was so sore). At .7 miles, the trail isn’t very long, but it’s definitely challenging with a 1,200 foot elevation and 1,048 “steps” to the top. You hike up an old rail track and the cross ties provide a natural stair master (which is much harder than a real stair master). There is also a 30 foot rail bridge that can be a bit tricky…I just had to focus on not looking down and had to really concentrate on where I put my feet. This is definitely a great workout with a beautiful 360 degree view as a reward at the end. It was pouring down rain almost the entire time I was out there, which made it a bit slippery. I made it up in 32 minutes and down in 23 minutes. You would think down would be easier, but it’s brutal on the knees and since it was muddy and the cross ties were slippery, you had to be extra careful not to fall. I saw two people slip on their way down as I was hiking up…since I’m so graceful, I took my time on the way down. I didn’t get too many pictures because of how windy it was at the top and the rain. But it should give you an idea of why hiking up Koko Head is worth it!
Koko Head Crater from the parking lot.
The beginning.
At the top, looking towards the rain.
At the top, looking the other way where it was sunny. Beautiful ocean!
It was SO windy! A view of Hawaii Kai at the bottom.
At the top about to head back down.
Looking up after I just started back down. A pretty cool view of the track.
365 Days Of Hawaii 