Sun setting into Diamond Head Crater
A friend from home was here this week on a family vacation, so I got a chance to take him around to a few of my favorite Town-ish spots. I've known my friend Troy, since the 1st grade and I was stoked to hear he'd be on island. I picked up him and his friend Shane from their hotel in Waikiki, and grabbed two of my schools friends from Downtown. 5 big dudes fit perfect in a Toyota Tercel. I took them over to Kapena Falls. Located 4 or 5 minutes from Downtown, I think this is the best spot to get out of town and into the rain forest with out actually really getting out of town. You walk about 10 yards away from the parking lot and it looks like your on the set of a movie. Love love love this spot. Troy's a pretty hay wire guy, so naturally he was itching to do the cliff jump as soon as I mentioned it to him. I even made him jump first so I could take a video of him. No problem. After a few jumps and some convincing lying about not touching the bottom to my school friend Collin, he finally jumped (and promptly found out we were all though our teeth), and we were on our way to the next spot.
Next stop was Lulumahu Falls, 5 minutes up the road in Nuuanu. Another great hike with close proximity to town. A nice 25 minute jungle walk and we were at the falls. We even had it to our selves for 20 minutes or so. The waters so clear here I just want to stick my face in and start sucking it up! After passing another group of pretty girls Shane started saying how there must be something in the water because of all of the beautiful girls here. I told him I know, somethings going really right here. We were back to the car at about 4:45, and before mentioned pretty girls had they're window smashed in. We gave them sad looks that said "shit so sorry!" and I had a small rejoice of having nothing worth stealing in my car; and we were on our way to Spitting Caves. Hating H1 rush hour traffic with all my soul, I puttered my little over loaded Tercel up and over Tantalus for an hour to bring us maybe two miles east. It was a good decision.
We made it to Spitting Caves by 6 or so, and after the initial awe of the beauty of the sea cliffs, Troy wanted to know where to jump from. Lucky for us it was a pretty calm day. I did what any good friend would do, told Troy to follow me and gleefully jumped off. I pop up from under the water, give a big thumbs up and down comes Troy. He comes up with the fattest smile I've ever seen. I could have counted every tooth in his mouth. We climb back up and Shane needed a little encouragement so we both happily huck ourselves off the 40 foot cliff again and sure enough Shane comes flying down after. He loved it, Troy loved it, I continued to love it and we were all happy as could be. With the sun creeping down towards the horizon and golden hour in full effect, a pod of Killer Whales comes swimming by. Easily the closest I've ever seen them, they were maybe only 100 yards away at one point. What beautiful animals! I love this place.
We take a short drive through Port Lock to China Walls to catch the last of the sunset. What a magical spot. Everyone's drinking beer and relaxing. I couldn't help but to be surprised that they're not cracking down on drinking there considering a drunk guy drowning there just last month, and I also couldn't help but think how much I could use a beer right then! We soaked in a little more after glow glory and made our way back to horrible Waikiki to drop them off. On they way back they were brainstorming what they could sell so they could move to Hawaii. Mission accomplished.
Next stop was Lulumahu Falls, 5 minutes up the road in Nuuanu. Another great hike with close proximity to town. A nice 25 minute jungle walk and we were at the falls. We even had it to our selves for 20 minutes or so. The waters so clear here I just want to stick my face in and start sucking it up! After passing another group of pretty girls Shane started saying how there must be something in the water because of all of the beautiful girls here. I told him I know, somethings going really right here. We were back to the car at about 4:45, and before mentioned pretty girls had they're window smashed in. We gave them sad looks that said "shit so sorry!" and I had a small rejoice of having nothing worth stealing in my car; and we were on our way to Spitting Caves. Hating H1 rush hour traffic with all my soul, I puttered my little over loaded Tercel up and over Tantalus for an hour to bring us maybe two miles east. It was a good decision.
We made it to Spitting Caves by 6 or so, and after the initial awe of the beauty of the sea cliffs, Troy wanted to know where to jump from. Lucky for us it was a pretty calm day. I did what any good friend would do, told Troy to follow me and gleefully jumped off. I pop up from under the water, give a big thumbs up and down comes Troy. He comes up with the fattest smile I've ever seen. I could have counted every tooth in his mouth. We climb back up and Shane needed a little encouragement so we both happily huck ourselves off the 40 foot cliff again and sure enough Shane comes flying down after. He loved it, Troy loved it, I continued to love it and we were all happy as could be. With the sun creeping down towards the horizon and golden hour in full effect, a pod of Killer Whales comes swimming by. Easily the closest I've ever seen them, they were maybe only 100 yards away at one point. What beautiful animals! I love this place.
We take a short drive through Port Lock to China Walls to catch the last of the sunset. What a magical spot. Everyone's drinking beer and relaxing. I couldn't help but to be surprised that they're not cracking down on drinking there considering a drunk guy drowning there just last month, and I also couldn't help but think how much I could use a beer right then! We soaked in a little more after glow glory and made our way back to horrible Waikiki to drop them off. On they way back they were brainstorming what they could sell so they could move to Hawaii. Mission accomplished.