Day 3, Part 1- Waimea Valley

One of the things that I wanted to do while in Hawaii was hike to a waterfall. We ended up going to Waimea Valley, a historical nature park with botanical gardens and a waterfall. We didn't know that they had swimming at the falls until we got there. Boy, were we glad that we had brought along our bathing suits! Everything about this place was beautiful. They have a restored heiau, a Hawaiian temple, in the parking lot at the entrance to the valley.

Hale o Lono

The gardens was filled with plants native to Hawaii and other Polynesian plants. There were too many to photograph! It was so lush and fragrant there; I just couldn't get enough of the sweet smells. We took the advice of one of the workers to go straight to the waterfall and then take pictures through the gardens on the way back. It's a 1 1/2mi trail to the falls. We did wander a bit, but didn't spend too much time in any one area, since we wanted to leave by noon.

Ancient Hawaiian living site

Waimea Falls/Waihi Falls from a distance. I was a little disappointed at first sight, but it was bigger than it appeared.



Jared & I at the foot of the falls

We were the first to arrive at the falls. They have two lifeguards on duty with life jackets and boogie board for people to use if they weren't very strong swimmers. The water was on the cooler side, but felt great once you got in. The pool is about 30ft deep, but there is a rock ledge at the foot of the falls that you could stand or sit on. From that rock ledge, it is a straight drop off. It was fun jumping from the ledge into the water! They even do cliff diving events here.

Me swimming in the lokowai (pool)

I can't tell you what a great experience this was for me. I think it was here that the whole trip started to really become real to me. It almost brought me to tears. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never really thought I would. I have never really been anywhere. And here I was, swimming in this beautiful waterfall! I could never even imagine myself doing it before. It was just so refreshing and peaceful, even spiritual. I stayed in those waters for quite a while. I went around the pool exploring the rocks and trying to memorize every detail. I never wanted to forget the experience. It was perfect!

Jared swimming with the yellow boogie board

More people had arrived by the time we were ready to head back. Being here reminded me of show LOST. It looked like a place they could have film. Since LOST is filmed on Oahu, I was hoping that we would have time to check out some of there sets. Well, it turned out that I did!

No wonder it looked familiar to me!

They also have peacocks and chickens that roam the gardens and they were hanging around the Waimea Valley Grill.


This one would actually try to take food right off people's plates when they were sitting down at the table. He didn't bother us though. We ended up splitting a sandwich and an acai smoothie. After we left, we stopped at a local roadside fruit stand and tried fried banana, fresh pineapple, starfruit, guava, and lychee. We also stopped at one of the shrimp trucks along the road. The food there was really good!