Oahu Day 3

Saturday, trying to get an earlier start in hopes of beating the weekend crowd of shoppers and tourists, we made a quick stop at Costco to top off on fuel before heading into Honolulu.  We suspect almost everyone in the islands has a Costco membership given the approximately $.40/ gal savings and the lines at the pumps.  We'd planned on walking around the historic part of town, but had difficulties finding parking, and decided to head for Diamond Head instead.

After turning down the use of a handicapped spot (must be those gray hairs and wrinkles as we did intend to hike to the top, thus hardly qualifying as 'handicapped',) we had a short wait for a parking spot at the Diamond Head lot.  The various travel brochures listed the hike to the top as difficult, but after looking at the park info, it appeared the trail was a combination of paved, somewhat uneven areas, a tunnel and lots of stairs, .8M with 560' of elevation, not all that bad.  We joined the parade - the hike appeared to be on every tourist's to-do list.

Last flight of steps to the top of Diamond Head

Panorama to the E from the tip of Diamond Head (Click Here and Zoom to full vertical-Note the parking lot in the center and housing developments up the hill sides)

The hike wasn't difficult other than avoiding getting trampled.  As we got to the top of the last set of stairs, we encountered a group around an older gentleman sitting on the top step looking very pale.  I heard someone comment that 911 had been called as we passed.  We continued to the top and enjoyed the views, and went into the fire control station that ended at the top of a spiral stair case (an alternative route up we didn't take), before heading back down.

Looking down at Diamond Head Lighthouse

Panorama looking toward Waikiki and Honolulu  (Click Here and Zoom to full vertical)

As we went through the tunnel section, 2 fire and rescue guys came running up, obviously to treat what now was 2 elderly folks who had made it to the top but were having problems.  Next we heard the 'whump whump' of a helicopter landing on one of the few possible flat spots near the top of the crater rim.  By the time we reached the parking lot, the helicopter had made 1 trip and was returning for the second patient.  At the bottom it appeared all of the fire and rescue crew as well a the fire department had turned out for the 'event' with 3 fire trucks and 2 ambulances.  A rather novel way to get a helicopter ride, and I  wonder if the patient (or Medicare in this case) picked up part of the tab.  The 'copter made a 3rd trip up to retrieve an  unused stokes.  I wondered if the 2 rescue guys got a ride down - they had made remarkably good time getting to the patients.  It looked like the people at the top had been told to keep clear of the rescue area, as no one appeared to be coming down the stairs during the rescue operation.

Helicopter landing on Diamond Head for a rescue

Next we asked the nice gps lady to take us to Koko Park, further out on the point.  She did, but the fee collector at the parking lot had never heard of the botanical park or nature trails reported to be in the park!  It was a nice place to eat lunch.  After a very short walk, we continued along the point, stopping at the Makapu'u overlook to watch several hang gliders riding the thermals and enjoy the views along the NW coast.  We stopped at a few of the many beaches along the way before eventually picking up the H3, one of the interstate highways that have made the list as most beautiful (along with I89 in VT and I87 in upstate NY) - it was scenic.

One of several hang gliders riding the wind current up

Panorama along the N side of Oahu looking at Waimanalo Bay -  the islands are sea bird sanctuaries   (Click Here and Zoom to full vertical)

View from the lookout on 'H3'   (Click Here and Zoom to full vertical)

Although the traffic wasn't 6 packed lanes heading out of town, there was still plenty of traffic as we headed home.  I've come to the conclusion that playing tourist is work - we were both ready to call it a day by the time we got home.