Oahu Day 2

Friday we drove into to Honoulu to tour the Lyon Arboretum, part of the University of Hawaii, which had numerous trails as well as a wide variety of plants spread up a hillside.  Eventually we made it up to the end of the trail to Aihualama Falls, a bare trickle of water (it's been dry), but an interesting hike.  Along with the chance to stretch our legs, we enjoyed listening (and trying to see) to the birds singing in the trees. We would have spent more time, but needed to move our car since they were setting up for a plant and flower sale Saturday and requested we move our car by 2 pm.

 

Panorama view from Inspiration Pt

Wild Poinsettia Tree

Aihualama Falls

 
Here are a number of birds we saw while hiking in the Arboretum.

White Rumped Shama or the Shama Thrush - the bird we've often heard singing when we're hiking

Red-Whiskered BulBul

Pacific Golden-Plover

Common Waxbill

With the Manoa Falls trail just down the road, we joined numerous others on the relatively short, 0.8 M hike. When we arrived at the falls, the small pool under the falls (a slightly bigger trickle than Aihualama Falls) was filled with people cooling off after the hike up.  Given the leptospirosis ( a bacteria) warnings when swimming in fresh water, we weren't anxious to join them.  As falls go, it was a bust, but we enjoyed the hike.

Ficus arch on the way to Manoa Falls

Crowd at pool under Manoa Falls

We debated whether to find something else to do and wait until after the evening traffic jam, or head back in hopes of beating the worst of it.  Traffic seems to be a major problem on the island and we found ourselves in 6 lanes of traffic heading out of town again.  The trip into town in the morning was the first time we hadn't encountered heavy traffic. We ended the day with a short drive to a park on Ka'ena Point and back through Hale'iwa, an interesting little town near our place.