Hiking in Hawaii

On one of the Hawaiian days David and I decided to go for a hike through a rainforest. We had to drive in to Waikiki to meet the tour bus. First we stopped at a lookout point where we could see the valley that we would be hiking in. If you look at a larger image of the picture you might be able to see the light green leaves in the middle of the valley. This is actually only one tree! We walked right by it on our hike and the sheer magnitude of it was amazing. Our tour guide also told us about the cliff edge that we're standing on. Hawaiians jumped to their death because they did not want to get taken into slavery. Apparently at the bottom of that cliff they are still finding bones.

The trail was beautiful. We learned about all kinds of things, trees that had been brought in as opposed to trees that were native to Hawaii. A lot of the foreign trees were killing the soil around them so the indigenous trees were unable to grow. Our tour guide here is pointing out what looks like a coconut from this tree, but it is actually not a coconut. Unfortunately, I don't remember what he said about it!

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the rooster that followed us for a little while. There were some interesting tropical birds and animals along the way. One of the places we stopped to look at was a maze of roots that grow above the ground. The tour guide was telling us that this is where pigs like to hide out because it is almost impossible to get to them. However, we didn't see a pig because a wild pig wouldn't be that close to a trail. When Hawaiins go in search of a wild pig they will take dogs to sniff them out because the dog would be able to get through those roots much easier.

My favorite part of the trail was the waterfall. We had to wade through the river to get the picture of the two of us, but it was a beautiful view. I was all proud at first that David and I were the only ones who really followed the rules because we wore running shoes as the pamphlet had instructed us to. But, when we had to wade through the water, I was sure wishing had worn open-toed hiking sandals as most everyone else was wearing!

Waterfalls hold special significance for the two of us. David had proposed to me at a waterfall. :) The rest of our little day trip was fun. After the van dropped us off we walked around a huge shopping mall and bought some gifts for friends. Then we went out to dinner together at California Pizza. We didn't got anywhere too fancy since we were still in our hiking gear and since we had been getting plenty of fancy meals all week long at the resort. We had a great day together!