Day 1 of 2023 Trip to Hawaii, Honolulu

First day of my January 2023 trip to Hawaii. My friend and I spent the day visiting the more touristy places in the southeastern part of Oahu island, before enjoying a cozy afternoon at Waikiki beach.

Our plan for the day was to drive down the coastal road (Kalaniana'ole Hwy) of southeastern Oahu, visiting some places of interest and taking a few short hikes along the way. For the afternoon, I had been thinking of some more adventurous hikes such as Mt. Olomana or Pali Puka, if the weather cooperated (spoiler, it didn't).

With the jet lag, my friend and I had no difficulty waking up early this morning, as we were down at the breakfast terrace of our hotel (Hyatt Place) before the sun came out. It's certainly one of the more bustling breakfast scenes among the Hyatt Places that I stayed at, an empty table wasn't that easy to come by at 7am.
After breakfast, we grabbed our car from the valet and headed out at 8:30am. First, we planned to check out Diamond Head; unfortunately, it required timed reservations to enter, which we weren't aware of. After being turned back at the gate, we made a reservation for the earliest spots, on the morning of Wednesday Jan 18, just before our flight to Maui.

After that, we continued east, briefly stopping at Hawai'i Kai and Lāna'i Lookouts.

Both Hawai'i Kai and Lāna'i Lookouts were relatively small and easy to park. Things were different for the next stop on our list, Halona Blowhole Lookout, we spent quite some time waiting for a spot there (the parking lot also served the nearby Halona Beach).

For the efforts spent on parking, the blowhole was a bit underwhelming (p1 below), with more spectacular photos an easy internet search away (it could also require more patience to observe a proper "blow"). In addition, a short walk away there's a Japanese Fishing Shrine (Umi Mamori Jizo, p4 below), next to which were some boulders extending to the sea, offering scenic views of the coastline (p5-7 below).

Our next stop was Wawamalu Beach Park, which featured a model aircraft field and was one of the few city parks in Honolulu where one could launch a drone. Nearby, there's Koko Crater whose top should offer great views. But given the physical efforts to reach its top, my friend and I were more than happy to let the drone do the climb for us.

In addition, I also checked out the coastline towards Kailiili Bay, here's a video:

Makapu'u Point

Next on our list was Makapu'u Point, the easternmost point of Oahu featuring a popular trail to an observation deck with fantastic views.
This was a very popular attraction, however, its parking lot only held about 30 cars. As a result, people resort to parallel parking along its access road (Makapuu Lighthouse Road), and when the access road was filled, onto the main road (Kalaniana'ole Highway).
It took us about 10 minutes to get parked, which wasn't too bad for its popularity. After which we hit the trails.
Here's GPS tracking:

The trail to Makapu'u Point was 4km out-and-back with 154m elevation gain spread constantly throughout its length. Its entirety was paved.
It started to drizzle just as we started our ascent. For a moment we thought of heading back to the car to fetch rain coats, luckily, we didn't. The drizzle was so light that it didn't wet our clothes, and completely stopped once we were about 1/3 of the way up. Otherwise, it's hardly pleasant carrying extra clothes in such humid weather as we ended up panting and sweating along the way.

The ascent took us just over half an hour, the changing views from coastal wetland to expansive ocean made the physical efforts bearable. At the top, the views from the easternmost point of Oahu, of clouds crashing onto the fortress of Ko'olau Range along eastern Oahu, were greatly rewarding.

Since the area near Makapu'u Lighthouse wasn't open to visitors, after leaving Makapu'u Point, I found a turnout along the highway and launched my drone, for an aerial tour of Pukakukui Channel.

And here's a video:

After that, we headed for the town of Kailua for a quick lunch. It's also when an on-and-off rain hit the windward side of Oahu.

Nu'uanu Pali Lookout

After lunch, our plan was to hit some hiking trails that were more exciting. Of the two candidates, Mt. Olomana and Pali Puka, we decided on the latter, for it's shorter and thus we could be more flexible when the weather wasn't cooperative. On the other hand, Mt. Olomana involved walking on a paved road for some distance before the actual hike, so it would be a higher commitment.

The trailhead of Pali Puka was at Nu'uanu Pali Lookout. It's located on a mountain gap, so the views were stellar. But for something hardly more than a roadside turnout, the 7-dollar parking fee (for non-residents) seemed exorbitant.

By the time we arrived, the rain was "off", so we first checked out the scenic views. But when the wind (it's a mountain gap) and rain hit, we retreated back to the car.

After the rain passed a few minutes later, we decided to nonetheless check out Pali Puka Trail. Online comments mentioned it's a steep trail with significant exposure, which could be dangerous when wet. After feeling how slippery the rocks were just a few steps in, we bailed out.

Byodo-In Temple

It's only 2:20pm by the time we left Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, a bit early for us to head back to the hotel, so we decided to check out Byodo-In Temple not far away.

The Byodo-In Temple (平等院テンプル) was dedicated in August 1968 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. It's not a functional temple as it doesn't have a resident monastic community, rather a cash cow for the nearby cemetery. Nonetheless, it's a place where one can experience some ancient Japanese architecture in Hawaii (which feels very touristy).

Anyway, since it actually covered considerable land and sure had some exotic feeling, its 5-dollar (per person) admission felt less a robbery than the 7-dollar parking at Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, which most people stayed for less than 10 minutes.

A side story, near the entrance of Byodo-In Temple was a giant bell, which visitors were "encouraged to ring" before their visit as "this brought good luck". Unfortunately when we first entered the temple there's a line of people ringing the bells, so we figured we would leave it until the end of our visit. Since we reversed the sequence, maybe that meant bad luck?

After that, we headed back to the hotel, which we reached just before 4pm. For the remaining 2 hours of daylight, we decided to relax at the nearby Waikīkī Beach.

A portion of the water of Waikīkī Beach was within a harbor and very shallow, which was great for wading or giving my friend a crash course on swimming. But its shallowness also meant it's sort of hard to actually "swim". Instead, lying on the sand was a more relaxing way to kill time.

We stayed at the beach until sunset, after which we returned to the hotel, got a decent shower, and was out for dinner.

 

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