Maybe in Oz

We took a drive around Oahu one day to explore the coastline and get out of the chaos of the city.  The East coast was much more pleasant - less people and lots of beautiful scenery.  The area past Makaou'u point was our first stop as the rocks were beaconing us to go climb around on them. Next we stopped at the Byodo-In Temple.  This temple was in the back of the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, so we had to pass through all of these different cultural cemeteries to get there.  The temple was gorgeous and well worth the stop.  It was built as a smaller replica of one in Japan with the perfect mountain backdrop behind it.  The grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed seeing the Australian black swans that were brought to the temple as a gift.  Farther along the East Coast we stopped for lunch and to check out the view of the Chinaman's Hat. The North side was a bit busier again, but we decided to stop near Sha...

The only way to fly to Hawaii from Australia is through Oahu, so when we first decided to go to Kauai we figured we should stop in Oahu for a few days as well.  At the top of the list was seeing Pearl Harbor, and fortunately by chance it had just reopened a couple weeks earlier after being closed for reconstruction for many months.  The Diamond Head hike was also one of those things I figured we should do. Well, Diamond Head was horrible.  The parking lot is small so we parked at a nearby park and walked in which was fine.  The point was getting some exercise so that helped us get more in.  But the trail was completely packed with all sorts of oblivious people.  It wasn't a super difficult or long walk, which meant all different sorts of people were out there.  The problem with that it we all had to converge into narrow stair cases in a couple points which meant we spent more time waiting in line on the hike than actually hiking.  And then once...

For my birthday I told Phil that I wanted to go on a sunset cruise along the Napali Coast.  They all started in the afternoon, so I pulled the birthday card again and we went to a few different fabric shops.  I was expecting that were wouldn't be many stores and the fabric would be expensive, but I was surprised to find three good shops close by, all with fabric much, much cheaper than Australia prices.  Good thing I had purchased extra baggage allowance for our return trip! We stopped along the way to see Waimea Falls, and then continued on to Puka Dog for lunch.  I had read they had amazing hot dogs, and it seemed like the perfect thing to eat before a boat ride! 😁  The hot dog with pineapple salsa was really darn good and it was definitely worth the stop. Waimea Falls We were a bit confused by this sign...  Then it was time to board the boat and head off along the coast.  We started on the South side of the island, and as we went arou...

After our killer hike to Hanakapiai Falls the day before, we turned our plans of hiking around Waimea Canyon into a drive instead.  I've heard Waimea Canyon described as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, but with the other parts of the island we'd seen I wasn't really sure how to picture it.  It did remind me of the Grand Canyon, a very very green version.  Not quite so grand, but the deep gorge and layers of rock were very majestic.  What I enjoyed almost more than the canyon was this stunning view over Kok'e State Park.  All of the colours and textures were absolutely stunning. Another unexpected favourite from the day was this red dirt waterfall on the road out of Waimea Canyon.  Just before the trip I saw pictures of it and really wanted to see it.  In real life it was a lot smaller than the pictures led me to believe, but what the pictures didn't convey was the contrast to the surrounding landscape.  The hills around were cov...