2012.12.10 Hawaii, Hawaii (Day 4)

Our last day in Hawaii and we decided to head north to Waipi'o Valley, which was the home of King Kamehameha I. Compared to the other, flatter and drier regions of the island, the valley looks like a tropical paradise.

It's hard to imagine that the valley once held a thriving population. A major tsunami in 1979 swept away much of the town. Today, only a few people remains in the valley, primarily farming taro and fishing, allowing the valley to return to a minimally-developed state.

We parked our car at the outlook point and headed down into the valley.

 The black sandy beach of Waipi'o Valley.

This valley's got it all, a beach, a river, lush green vegetation.

No wonder the movie Waterworld used this place as the paradise found by the survivors at the end of the film. Looking at its Wikipedia entry, this valley even has waterfalls (a fact that I missed prior to visiting. Drat!)

The road to the valley is really steep - only 4WD allowed, which explains the number of ATVs we saw. According to Wikipedia, "if classified as a road, it would be the steepest road of its length in the United States and possibly the world."

Which made climbing up the road a terrible, terrible ordeal. (When will this road end? Wheeeen???)

Maybe someday?

We had lunch at a charming Italian restaurant, Cafe il Mondo, near Waipi'o. Sometimes the best places are the ones you discover unexpectedly.

The soup of the day+foccacia = happiness.

I have it on good authority that their calzone was delicious too.

Rainbow Falls

We still had a little time before our flight so we stopped by another (yes, another) waterfalls. Despite its name, no rainbow was sighted during our visit.

Still, it's really pretty.

And then it was off to the airport. So ends my all-too-brief Hawaii adventure. And it was really quite an adventure.

P.S. Our flight from Hilo to Newark was filled with marathon runners. Everywhere you look was team tech shirts, gym bags, and fit-looking people. Oh yeah, about my brother and the marathon, aka the original purpose of the entire trip. Before he could confirm the trip date, the marathon got sold out - over 22,000 people participated in the 2012 Honolulu Marathon - which was kind of unfortunate. Still, I think (and hope) he doesn't feel too bad not being able to participate in the marathon.