Diamond head in the rough
A little behind on posting so here are my first few days.
As I mentioned in my last post I'm in Hawaii until the end of the week. Plane ride over wasn't to bad for a 10 hour flight. An Airbus 330-300 is actually pretty darn comfortable. I had a little screen on the seat behind me with games, movies, and a little plane locater so you could follow your flight via google maps. Most of the way there I played some version of Mah-Johng.
We landed late in the afternoon Hawaiian time and proceeded to settle in at our hotel on Waikiki beach and look around. I was off Saturday, and still jet lagged/time dilated enough that I was waking up at 5am. I thought I'd go see the first thing on my list which was to climb Diamond Head. Diamond head is the caldera of a volcano that exploded many hundreds of thousands of years ago. The way people were talking it was only a mile or two from the hotel so that seemed like an easy walk. I struck out very early in the morning with the thought that I'd climb it and be back in time for breakfast and then further adventuring. I walked probably about four miles before I got to the highest ridge line of it's inland side and still didn't seen the entrance. That's uphill by the way. Feeling a little discouraged I returned to the hotel thinking I'd try again with better info sometime later. During breakfast I run into someone that does know the island well and said I needed to go just a bit further. Since a bunch more people were going to walk there I went along with them. AGAIN I walk that four plus miles, and about a half mile further along there is the entrance. A tunnel that went into the crater. Then inside the crater is another trail...that lead back up the far side of the crater wall...to stairs...OMG lots of stairs. I finally get to the peak of this thing around noon and it is a beautiful view of most of the southeastern tip of the island. The breeze there was heaven sent by that time.
The crater peak, and the crater itself used to be part of the island coastal defense, and was for a time Fort Ruger. If you were going to build a coastal fort it is in an ideal spot to protect the eastern side of Pearl Harbor. We came up through one of the highest observation turrets.
I saw many birds, and took all kinds of pictures of lots of neat stuff. They have lots of pretty tropical birds here and no real predators for them. Neatest to date is Brazillian Cardinals. Hawaii is going through a drought right now so a lot of the crater interior actually reminded me of Arizona. The Jungely stuff is over on the larger mountains that squeeze the water out of the air.
I then walked however many miles it was back to the hotel and my legs were killing me, but they still felt ok enough for me to try a little swimming at the beach. I go upstairs to put my trunks on, and flip on the news while letting my dinner settle a little more. The next thing I know is that it's 2am. Oh well.
I worked Sunday, and then yesterday two of us set out to find a snorkeling spot. We kept hearing about a couple of beaches but they were all full/closed. One of them was blocked by a film crew. They were shooting another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which I didn't even know that they were making.
We drove further along the coast until we found a gorgeous spot on the side of a Marine Corps air station. It had acres of coral with only small fish. However, I did bump into a sea turtle and swam formation with him. Either he didn't mind me being with him, or he couldn't out speed me over short distances. Every time he turned away I was able to catch back up. It's a novel experience to be faster than a sea creature. All of the fish I followed tolerated me enough until they got to spooked and bolted away. This guy had to suffer until I got bored. :D He was pretty good sized, about two feet from the front to back of his shell, and his neck added to the length. I stayed with him for about ten minutes before letting him go on his way. We snorkeled out a little past the breakwater, and then back along the coastline. Really beautiful stuff. I wish my camera worked under water. Only about an hour and a half in the water but boy it was great.
The drive back took us through the mountain range. O'ahu has a range along the entire eastern edge and it literally rises straight up like a gigantic wall. It's almost intimidating as you drive up to it. There is no walking over this range. You gotta go around. Good thing they've built a tunnel over the years.
That brings me up to today. Which is a whole nother post. If they had coral reefs like this one where I lived. I'd be in a lot better shape.
I'd post pictures, but I think this journal is big enough already.
As I mentioned in my last post I'm in Hawaii until the end of the week. Plane ride over wasn't to bad for a 10 hour flight. An Airbus 330-300 is actually pretty darn comfortable. I had a little screen on the seat behind me with games, movies, and a little plane locater so you could follow your flight via google maps. Most of the way there I played some version of Mah-Johng.
We landed late in the afternoon Hawaiian time and proceeded to settle in at our hotel on Waikiki beach and look around. I was off Saturday, and still jet lagged/time dilated enough that I was waking up at 5am. I thought I'd go see the first thing on my list which was to climb Diamond Head. Diamond head is the caldera of a volcano that exploded many hundreds of thousands of years ago. The way people were talking it was only a mile or two from the hotel so that seemed like an easy walk. I struck out very early in the morning with the thought that I'd climb it and be back in time for breakfast and then further adventuring. I walked probably about four miles before I got to the highest ridge line of it's inland side and still didn't seen the entrance. That's uphill by the way. Feeling a little discouraged I returned to the hotel thinking I'd try again with better info sometime later. During breakfast I run into someone that does know the island well and said I needed to go just a bit further. Since a bunch more people were going to walk there I went along with them. AGAIN I walk that four plus miles, and about a half mile further along there is the entrance. A tunnel that went into the crater. Then inside the crater is another trail...that lead back up the far side of the crater wall...to stairs...OMG lots of stairs. I finally get to the peak of this thing around noon and it is a beautiful view of most of the southeastern tip of the island. The breeze there was heaven sent by that time.
The crater peak, and the crater itself used to be part of the island coastal defense, and was for a time Fort Ruger. If you were going to build a coastal fort it is in an ideal spot to protect the eastern side of Pearl Harbor. We came up through one of the highest observation turrets.
I saw many birds, and took all kinds of pictures of lots of neat stuff. They have lots of pretty tropical birds here and no real predators for them. Neatest to date is Brazillian Cardinals. Hawaii is going through a drought right now so a lot of the crater interior actually reminded me of Arizona. The Jungely stuff is over on the larger mountains that squeeze the water out of the air.
I then walked however many miles it was back to the hotel and my legs were killing me, but they still felt ok enough for me to try a little swimming at the beach. I go upstairs to put my trunks on, and flip on the news while letting my dinner settle a little more. The next thing I know is that it's 2am. Oh well.
I worked Sunday, and then yesterday two of us set out to find a snorkeling spot. We kept hearing about a couple of beaches but they were all full/closed. One of them was blocked by a film crew. They were shooting another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which I didn't even know that they were making.
We drove further along the coast until we found a gorgeous spot on the side of a Marine Corps air station. It had acres of coral with only small fish. However, I did bump into a sea turtle and swam formation with him. Either he didn't mind me being with him, or he couldn't out speed me over short distances. Every time he turned away I was able to catch back up. It's a novel experience to be faster than a sea creature. All of the fish I followed tolerated me enough until they got to spooked and bolted away. This guy had to suffer until I got bored. :D He was pretty good sized, about two feet from the front to back of his shell, and his neck added to the length. I stayed with him for about ten minutes before letting him go on his way. We snorkeled out a little past the breakwater, and then back along the coastline. Really beautiful stuff. I wish my camera worked under water. Only about an hour and a half in the water but boy it was great.
The drive back took us through the mountain range. O'ahu has a range along the entire eastern edge and it literally rises straight up like a gigantic wall. It's almost intimidating as you drive up to it. There is no walking over this range. You gotta go around. Good thing they've built a tunnel over the years.
That brings me up to today. Which is a whole nother post. If they had coral reefs like this one where I lived. I'd be in a lot better shape.
I'd post pictures, but I think this journal is big enough already.