Waiakeakua Falls Hike

As we continue to celebrate the New Year by hiking around O'ahu, a lesser known Waiakeakua (possible meaning: water used by the gods) Falls hike was next on our list.  The hike is located in the Manoa Valley and follows the Waiakeakua Stream to its start at the Koolau Mountain.  We learned about the hike's trailhead approximate location from the Internet, but otherwise we didn't really know what to expect.

We started on the Pu'u Pia hike, and following the Internet instructions, took a barely noticeable turn to drop (almost slide) down to the trailhead.

 
The trail took us up the steam and we noticed a lot of strawberry guava and guava trees, but unfortunately for A there was no low hanging fruit for his picking.  Eventually, a "frustrated" A climbed up a guava tree and brought down couple of guavas.

 

Eventually we made it a large clear water pool with a rope to climb above the waterfall.

A decided to climbed about 15' to the top.  After passing the first falls there was waterfall #2 with another rope to climb to the top of this 30ft falls.

With A's encouragement R decided to attempt the climb, too.  She almost made it to the top, but just couldn't quite make it thanks to a fun-filled panic attack while hanging from the ropes about 10ft up.  Oh, well, maybe next time.  On our way back we got caught in a sudden downpour that luckily only lasted about 10 minutes and we made to our car without any problems.  A enjoyed this hike better than R as it gave him a chance to climb ropes along a waterfall - how crazy is that?  Were leaving you with some fancy shots from our camera.