Happy New Year!
Another big day, sitting at 8.5 miles right now and it’s only 6:30 p.m. We have many hours to go and we are both contemplating how badly we want to see fireworks in almost six hours.
We had a great start to the morning. Woke up again around 5 a.m. but was able to get a little more sleep. Then I got up, drank my coffee and read while Jacob snoozed a bit longer.
Then we both got ready to head out for the day. We had a reservation for Diamond Head at 9 a.m. and it would be about a 30 minute ride on the bus. This was one spot that we had numerous people recommend to us and I was definitely interested in checking it out.
After a pleasant ride on the bus, we made it to Diamond Head with no problems. We had to walk up to the start of the trailhead which added a little bit of mileage to our journey, but we got to walk through a cool tunnel. We arrived a few minutes early but were able to get in and get started on the trek.
The hike is 1.6 miles round-trip with 560 elevation gain. The trail starts off paved and then becomes quite bumpy and rocky. The trail is quite steep in parts with stairs in some sections. Because the trail is so popular we essentially ended up in a line of people up to the top. Part of the hike includes a tunnel with a warning that the height limit it is 6’1” in parts. This meant Jacob had to duck through parts of it. I was amused, no ducking for this short queen!
The views from the top were spectacular and we did our best to capture them between the selfie sticks and other tourists. The most exciting part was climbing into one of the decommissioned bunkers to take the spiral staircase back down to the start of the loop trail.
We hiked down the mountain with our now hundreds of new friends, and stopped at a picnic bench to relax and enjoy the views. I was delighted to spot two red-crested cardinals and I snapped some photos for my mom (Mom, look!).
After Diamond Head we got back on the bus and headed to our hotel. We were both pretty wiped from the early morning and warm weather.
We decided to keep it low-key and easy by walking to the local Island Country Market to grab lunch and a few snacks from the deli. We enjoyed the quiet space and good food. We tried a few different flavors of Mochi Donuts which were also delicious.
From there we decided to return once again to our room change out our footwear, grab our beach towels and hit the beach! We hadn’t yet explored to Waikiki Beach and felt like that was an experience we needed. I guess I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but it was completely packed! I believe this is when I said, “There are too many people here.”
We wandered along the water for a bit. Jacob even got his feet wet which is pretty monumental. We eventually found a small area of sand that wasn’t occupied and set down our beach towels. I kept being reminded of being on Bondi Beach back in December 2019 on New Year’s Eve. That beach was huge and much less packed. We also did a huge hike on that day back in 2019 and I thought I was never going to make it back to the hotel. It was so hot and only a few days later I would come down with a strange illness with a dry cough and lack of taste and smell, hmm… weird! Let’s hope we don’t repeat that bit!
After we’d had enough beach time we packed and were on a quest for more ice cream. We came across a gelato shop and found some nice outdoor seats. The birds were getting really bold with trying to eat Jacob’s ice cream so I decided to take their photos. (Lisa Gilchrist – Wild life photographer)
Not much else to report after that. We are back at our room getting packed up for our flight tomorrow morning. We are currently debating our plans for the evening which may or may not involve pizza.
Tomorrow we are Maui bound and my mission to find turtles continues.
Until then!