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Honolulu - Diamond Head

Our objective today was to explore majestic Diamond Head.

While making the original plans for our trip we decided that due to its extensive public transportation system, we did not need to rent a car on the island of Oahu.

That decision did not last long, as the convenience of having a car outweighed any savings in using the public bus system. Therefore, before leaving for Hawaii, we reserved a car with Budget to be picked up at Honolulu International Airport by 10:00 today.

Our experience yesterday of sitting for over an hour on a crowded bus to get to Pearl Harbor only seemed to make the prospects of getting a car that much more appealing.

On our way back from Pearl Harbor, we also came to the realization that traffic can be quite heavy in Honolulu . The thought of spending another hour on a bus to pick up a rental car at busy Honolulu International Airport was an experience to be avoided.

We therefore scrambled to try and get a rental car near our hotel. All the major car rental companies however had none available. We resorted to looking in the Yellow Pages to find a local company called VIP Car Rentals. I was skeptical because the name seems a lot like the "Acme Corporation", the fictitious mail order company from which "Wile E. Coyote" bought all his ludicrous supplies in an effort to immobilize the "Roadrunner" (you have to be older to have watched this cartoon series). The devices bought always failed due to operator error or defects.

I am glad to report that our two day car rental from the VIP Car Rentals at $42 per day was without operator error or defect. It was only accompanied by a veiled, or perhaps not so veiled, threat that if the car did not come back spotless, we would be charged a $80 cleaning fee . That gets your attention, and in the end found me picking grains of sand from the carpet before we returned the car.

Once we had the car, we were on our way south-east to our destination for the day.

Diamond Head (Le'ahi)

Certain cities are identified with famous "natural landmarks" that te the city landscape. The city is so closely tied to these geographical features they become tantamount with the city.

The one that comes to mind almost immediately would be Sugarloaf Mountain which is synonymous with Rio de Janeiro.

Other natural landmarks which are part of the city image might be:

- the Rock of Gibraltar and the town of Gibraltar

- Mount Royal and Montreal

- the Seine River and Paris

- the Thames River and London

- Niagara Falls and the city of Niagara Falls

- Table Mountain and Cape Town, South Africa

- Kowloon Peak and Hong Kong

Near the top of the list, perhaps right after Sugarloaf would be Diamond Head in Waikiki Beach (Honolulu) .

I notice on the information panels at the site of Diamond Head, it is billed as "Hawaii's Most Famous Natural Landmark". My personal vote would instead go to Mona Kea (....more in a later blog)

In the Hawaiian language Diamond Head is known as Mount Le'ahi.

The Hawaiian language makes liberal use of diacritical marks (accents) which are essential to correct pronunciation. Nevertheless, over the years the diacritical marks have been largely ignored in the spelling of Hawaiian words that have slipped into the English language. Even the word Hawaii is correctly spelled "Hawai'i". Oahu, the island on which Honolulu (Waikiki Beach) is located, is correctly spelled as O'ahu, etc.

Diamond Head was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1968. Its crater, which has been dormant for a long time, is an excellent example of a tuff cone with a typical erosional pattern .

The crater was opened for recreational use in 1976. More than a million visitors visit Diamond Head each year.

Today we were about to become a part of that million.


We approached this hike to the top of Diamond Head with a great deal of anticipation on a beautiful sunny day that would not only lift us in altitude but also in spirit.

The parking lot of Diamond Head is located in the large crater having a 3520 foot diameter and a floor area of 175 acres. One has the impression of being on a large plain.

From there it is about an hour's hike to the crest of the tuff cone that creates the outer edge of the crater.

Initially the hike is along a moderate grade. As the hike continues, the steepness also accelerates and eventually it involves a climb up long and steep stairs and then steep stairs in dark tunnels built right into the mountain . Finally, a low crawl through some gun turrets, left over from WW II, complete the climb to reach the observation station.

Due to the outstanding view over the azure blue Pacific Ocean and the wonderful view of Waikiki Beach to the north-west, this site should be called "Inspiration Point".

A wide smile and thoughts of "it's great to be alive" come with this territory.

It also prompts one to pose the existential question? How beautiful can scenery get?

Therefore, we ed and ed and ed to soak in this beautiful moment, thankful for having a digital camera to record this Kodak moment or, in my case, this Canon moment.

So far, the day had been great, now we were off do something that Barbara likes very much - snorkeling.

Coming Soon: Snorkeling in Beautiful Hanauma Bay