Oahu's bus system sucks,,, Yesterday we spent 1,5 hours just waiting for busses. We bought a day ticket for $ 5,50 in the morning and took a (very chilly) bus to Hanauma Bay first, a Nature Preserve, operated by the State of Hawaii (bay is on the lower left corner on the map on the left) It's famous for its reefs and its variety of tropical fish. Beautiful setting, that's for sure!
When we arrived at around 10 am (it's been about 45 min. by bus), people were already lining up for the mandatory introduction film and the trolley to bring them down from the Visitor Center to the beach. And, boy the beach was already packed, too. This beach is very popular for snorkeling, but in our opinion it was much too swallow and you were almost laying on stones with your belly. In addition, the sand was stirred up by all the snorklers and view underneith the water surface wasn't really good. We fortunately didn't rent snorkeling equipment ($ 20 a set), but just took our swimming glasses, and didn't see that much more than the day before from the pier in Honolulu.
Rested a bit at the beach and watched people before we climbed up the hill again to catch a bus back. Planned to change busses at a station half-way, but the bus we needed was not coming (perhaps because of the holiday?), and, therefore we took one back into the city and changed busses there (which was pretty time-consuming) to get to Diamond Head State Monument.
Whereas we were a little disappointed by the beach, we loved this attraction! From the busstop to the entrance station it was a 1-mile-walk including a tunnel (pic right), and there we fortified ourselves with fresh pineapple juice sold here for only $ 4 (BTW: gas goes for $ 3,20 max in Honolulu, whereas it cost up to $ 3,70 on the other islands). The trail up to the viewpoint at the crater edge took us about half an hour, easy trail, including a couple of dozens of stairs to climb and another tunnel to crawl through. Originally this construction was a 1911 fire (artillery) observation station of the army at the edge of a volcanic crater. Views from the summit were gorgeous, towards Waikiki, to Diamond Head Lighthouse and into the crater bottom.
Hiked back to the bus station in the late afternoon, and from there back into town. Guess what we had then? A pizza and a beer and a sunset (and a couple of beach beauties) on Waikiki Beach. Sunset on our first day was much better, but, still, it's a unique view! It's been hot all day, we were sweaty and sandy, but in a good mood. Last full day on Hawaii.
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