Island Tour

We thought it was about time we explored beyond Honolulu and Waikiki so before hiring a car, we decided to take a tour.    

One of the main reasons we chose our particular tour was the 1½ hours we had in Waimea Valley to hike to the waterfall.   It’s a lovely hike (about a 1½ mile round trip) through some amazing trees and flowers, at the end of the trail the waterfall cascades in a lovely pool where you can swim.

 

 

Hiking along the trail was quite hot and humid, I wished we'd taken the golf cart as it would've given us more time, but then we'd've missed some of the things we saw as we hiked.   Quite honestly though 1½ hours just wasn’t long enough to see it and enjoy it all properly.

We also stopped at Sunset Beach on the North Shore 

 

 

we watched the surfers for a while,

 

it’s a lovely beach but the surf looks a bit on strong side for me so I think I’ll stick to swimming where it’s a bit calmer. 

We stopped for a nice lunch at a freshwater Shrimp Shack. 

 

One of the stops was Bayodo-In-Temple a beautiful Buddhist temple set against the backdrop of the rain forest and mountains.

 

Even though it is close to a main road, it’s a lovely peaceful spot.

 

 

We also stopped at the Nu’uanu Pali State Lookout.   It’s high on the side of the mountains and has some fabulous views, although sadly the day we went it had turned grey, drizzly and very windy.

A great battle was fought here in the late 1700’s between Chief Kalanikūpule of Oahua and King Kamehameha I of the island of Hawaii as Kamehameha sought to unite the Hawaiian Islands under one ruler. 

During the battle of Kaleleka’anae (leaping of the ‘anae fish) Chief Kalanikūpule’s army was pushed up the valley and some 400 warriors were forced over the cliff to their deaths.

 

After King Kamehameha’s victory a treaty was signed with Chief Kaumual of Kaui’i and Kamehameha became the first King of the Hawaiian Islands. 

We really enjoyed our tour, but as with all tours you never seem to get enough time, well we don’t, but then again we like to take our time, however we visited some lovely places. 

Have fun, we are