Hanauma Bay - looking northeast.
Jonathan’s conference started today, so after breakfast he headed out on foot to the university while I went to Starbucks for coffee and WiFi, and to begin journaling. Jonathan returned for lunch and shortly there after, I met up with Oahu Nature Tours (Natural Highlights of Oahu tour) for the first of three tours I booked for myself while Mr. Lubin talked mathematics and number theory.
After George, the driver and guide, picked up everyone (I was the first) we drove out past Diamond Head, south then east out of Waikiki. The first stop was Hanauma Bay – a protected inlet with a lovely beach and lots of reef to explore. We stayed up on the cliff overlooking the beach. A monk seal had taken up residence at one end of the beach and looked like a deflating brown bag (Jabba the Hutt?) as it basked in the sun. The lifeguards had put up signs warning people to keep their distance (which they were), so the seal had some prime real estate to itself.
The next stop, continuing northeast was the Halona Blowhole – a lava tube that resembles a geyser when the surf hits just right. Fortunately for us the surf was occasionally hitting just right and we could see the effect. I imagine under heavier surf, it would be even more impressive. From the same overlook, looking southwest is a small inlet and beach where the famous scene in Here to Eternity was filmed; northeast is Sandy Beach.
Hanauma Bay - looking northeast.
Bathers frolicking amid the reef.
Looking southwest.
More reef - looking northeast.
Outside the shelter of the bay, the surf was quite active.
The monk seal with its own end of the beach.
Some of the trees in the park at the top of the cliff.
A couple of figures silhouetted against the sky across the inlet at Halona.
The Halona Blowhole in action.
This fisherman made a hasty retreat from a large swell - he was on the shelf below the overlook.
Sandy Beach - to the northeast of the Halona overlook.
He's back - apparently undeterred by the possibility of being swept into the water.
Eternity Beach - I liked the step-like pattern in the rocks wall over the water.
Continuing northeastward, we reached Makapu‘u Point, looking out over Makapu‘u Beach. While looking out to sea, we spotted humpback whales at a goodly distance off shore. We spotted a number of breaches and jumps. I didn’t attempt any photography due to the distance – it would’ve been like my previous attempts at bird photography “see that dark dot in the middle of the green field… ”? In this case it would’ve been a white spot amidst a (literal) sea of blue.
Makapu‘u Point being the eastern most point on O‘ahu the road turns northwest. At Waimānalo, we walked on Bellows Beach . And north of there we stopped at the Ka‘elepulu Pond a nature reserve where, despite my previous statements about bird photography, I tried to take pictures of a few of the birds.
The low island in front is Kāohikaipu and the light colored one is Mānana - both are bird sanctuaries.
Makapu‘u Beach.
WWII(?) bunker.
Another fisherman daring the surf.
An unidentified flower at the wayside.
Another unidentified flower at the wayside.
Clouds piling up on the mountain behind Bellows Beach.
The path to Bellows Beach at Waimānalo.
Looking SSE.
Beach, woods, mountain.
Some of the woods backing the beach.
Some more scenic ironwood trees.
A highly specific warning sign.
Yet another unidentified flower.
A red hibiscus (at last! positive ID!).
Hawaiian stilts.
Common moorhen.
Scaevola sericea – Beach Naupaka.
Common moorhen.
Common moorhen: it's the unwebbed feet that give it away.
The last two stops were more cultural. The first was the Ulupō Heiau State Monument, a Hawai‘ian sacred temple. The actual structure is a stone platform, resulting from the careful placement of thousands (millions?) of stones and rocks with no mortar – each stone possessing good spiritual energy (mana?). Only the priests and elite class were permitted onto this expanse of rock. Out of respect for the culture, we did not venture out onto the platform. We did walk around the structure to some taro fields (paddies) downhill from the heiau.
Offerings left at the gate of the heiau.
Noni fruit on the tree.
Kukui or candlenut.
George leading the tour around the back of the heiau.
A taro paddy below the heiau.
A view from the Pali Overlook.
An artist's impression of how it looked then . . . Kaleleka‘anae.
The modern highway with tunnels.
A selected sunset shot (there were dozens...).
Yellow hibiscus.
From the heiau, we drove up into the mountains on the Pali Highway to the Nu‘uanu Pali Overlook, the site of a battle between the king of Hawai‘i (as in the big island) and the king of O‘ahu over the desire of the king of Hawai‘i to be king over all the islands. The king of Hawai‘i won, pushing the army of the king of O‘ahu off the cliff. There was a reproduction of a rather graphic painting depicting the event at the lookout. Supposedly when building / rebuilding the road over this pass to Honolulu construction workers found bones – as in hundreds of individuals – and it took them a while to make the connection.
After getting back to the hotel, I walked over to the Ala Moana Park to join the mathematicians at a picnic at sundown.
