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Friendship gardens to Oneawa Hills

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I’ve been wanting to knock out this hike but haven’t been procrastinating because on AllTrails it’s only a half mile loop… in fact when I proposed it to Jess I said maybe we can do a couple loops of it.

Well, turns out this is another sleeper hike and there’s a whole extension to it with a pretty great climb! There also isn’t a lot of parking, but we found a couple spots. This is the entrance, and some of the plants have identification plaque along the way.

After about 200 ft of climbing (you drive up a pretty big hill to get there) there’s a really great view and a bench to sit (this is looking out toward MCBH).

This is looking out toward Kailua and my beloved Mokes, plus Waimanalo to the right.

Then, the path continues up and up… like scrambling up… (this next section pictured had ropes to help) and you get pretty much the same views but also a view back toward the H3. It actually wasn’t that bad of a section, it was pretty grippy, but I wouldn’t do it after much rain and sat on my butt a couple spots to get down.

You can barely see the H3 coming around the bend. I’d like to revisit in the morning when the sun is on those mountains, but this shot with the rays is pretty neat. Needless to say, it took about an hour with stoppage to enjoy, and we didn’t even go all the way (we stopped at the top, but it looks like it goes down the other side and dead ends). I think it was 500ft elevation all things considered. Not bad for a Friday afternoon jaunt.

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Ulupa’u Crater Hike

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There is a crater on the Marine Corps base called Ulupa’u crater. It faces out toward the ocean, and inside is a setup for various training exercises. To use the hike there are a few logistics involved, including getting a key and radio and signing waivers. I tasked my friend Jess to coordinate this because I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to. She did great!

We did it for sunrise. We set off in the dark.

We thought it might be tough to get everyone up in time, but we did! There was a bit of scrambling and a few steep parts. But you can see all of base and over to Lanikai.

There’s the golf course we played with my parents, and pyramid rock beach and North Beach.

We got to take our husbands.

You can kinda tell how steep it is here. There are ropes the whole way.

I would not want to do this when it was slippery! Thankfully we had perfect weather for it and it’s been dry.

It was certainly challenging and Brian and I were the last to get up, but we did! I unfortunately don’t have a selfie of just us, but he was there and I was thankful he went slowly with me. There were a TON of gnats through some of the higher elevation wooded parts… the noise was deafening trying to walk through them. We covered our mouths with shirts and ducked low, it helped…

I don’t know if I’d do this again. We’ll see. I’m glad to have gone at least once!

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Ho’omaluhia in the clouds

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I took Brian to Ho’omaluhia for his first, my third time. I did check the weather the day before, but turns out it was definitely going to rain. Looking back at these pictures, they actually came out really cool. But at the time, we were walking around in the rain and it was cloudy, and it just felt less magical being there.

Brian tried to remind me he can’t pick his days off and he was just happy to be with me.

We did discover this cool bridge while meandering. We did a lot more walking than I normally have through here. (usually I drove).

Anyway, still highly recommend this place. It’s so peaceful and very accessible.

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Byodo-In Temple

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Megan has been a great companion to have for the last couple weeks. She’s as adventurous as I am and willing to do just about anything. We had free time one afternoon so we adventured to Byodo-In Temple.

The Byodo-In Temple is located at the foot of the Ko’olau Mountains in Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. It was established on June 7, 1968, to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. The Byodo-In Temple in O’ahu is a smaller-scale replica of the over 950-year-old Byodo-in Temple, a United Nations World Heritage Site in Uji, Japan.

It’s really really beautiful. It also acts as burial grounds and accepts all walks of faith; there was a specific area for Catholics. It was really crowded for a Friday afternoon at 2pm. It was $5 to get in. The first thing you do is walk the bridge over the coy pond, which had HUGE coy. Like, could feed a man for a week huge. Didn’t get a picture I guess.

Then you get to a gong. Ringing it is supposed to bring you inner peace and clear your mind before you go into the temple. About 25 ft away was a meditation gazebo. I can tell you not much meditating was happening there.

You then get to walk inside, but have to remove your shoes and carry them through. Amida Budda is inside, and you can light a small stick of incense to place inside an offering pot I guess? This made me uncomfortable in the “thou shalt not have other Gods before me” way so I passed.

On the back side the coy pond continues and there’s more to the temple. There’s a small garden and places to sit. I was trying to get a good picture of a black swan and this budda, but it was in a high traffic area so I couldn’t get the framing right.

Then you wrap around the front and get a gorgeous view of the whole thing.

We spent maybe a half hour there? And went to visit this very pretty garden with ocean view they were advertising, but it was basically just more cemetery plot space.

For $5 it was ok to experience one time. I’ll probably go back with Brian because he has been to Japan and might find it interesting. I generally thought it was over crowded. Very beautiful.

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