Day 4 - Waikiki & O'Ahu Island

Up early for breakfast today and took some early photographs from our balcony. Down the road to grab a coffee and then onto a bus headed up to the Diamond Head Crater. This is the crater that looms over Kulio and Waikiki beaches. It was around a twenty minute bus ride from Waikiki.

Inside Diamond Head Crater

 The volcano last erupted around 300,000 years ago so the crater itself is mostly grown over now with grasslands and trees making quite a nice reserve in the middle.

We hiked up the one and half mile track to the summit that overlooks Waikiki. Quite a strenuous climb at times with some dark tunnels and steep ladder style steps to negotiate. Eventually we may it to the top to a swarm of people. There are two 'crows nest' type areas you can climb onto for spectacular views in all directions. 

Sometimes there's a bit of a wait and you need to get a little assertive to actually get into position at the railings edge.

Inside Diamond Head Crater from the summit of the rim

I've never been in or climbed a volcano before so it was an interesting experience and certainly got the heart rate up on the climb up.

We took the bus back down from Diamond Head Crater and returned to our apartment for some lunch. 

Afternoon

View along Kuhio and Waikiki beaches from the crater rim

After a nice fresh salad and cool juice, and a shower and change of clothes we headed down to get a bus to Ala Moana where we could transfer to another bus that went most of the way around the O'ahu island. THis was going to be a cheap way to see the rest of the island, even if only from the bus.

Sadly the weather was rather poor and as such much of the beautiful mountains were covered in heavy cloud. After about 20 minutes it really started pouring with rain which was a shame as this pretty much prevented us from seeing much out the windows as they just turned into a wet blur of water.

View along Kuhio and Waikiki beaches from the crater rim

To make things worse, this was apparently just a commuter bus that locals use everyday so it was packed with all sorts of people, including homeless which made for a not so pleasant smell in a crowded bus.

The trip was going to be around 3 hours long so we had to settle in and make the most of it.

At least when we got up to the top of the island the rain had stopped and we were able to get a good view of the famous Sunset Beach and Waimea Bay areas which are famous for their huge surf conditions. No such surf today, mostly flat with only about 30 or 40 surfers out waiting for waves.

After a route back through the middle of the island through the pineapple and coffee plantations and almost four and half hours on this bus we thankfully arrived back in Ala Moana. We were certainly pleased this bus trip was over. 

A quick bite to eat at the Ala Moana centre and then back onto yet another bus to get back to our apartment. There seemed to be some delay with the buses, probably from the heavy rain, but after a 20 or 30 minute wait and then another 25 minutes on the bus we got off the bus near our apartment into the pouring rain and made it back inside for a warm shower then off to bed.