Ready for bed and it's not even 20:00

I either had a really adventurous day today, or I'm just not used to being oot and aboot.

After waking up at 04:30 and not being able to get back to sleep, I thought to heck with trying and I'd just get up. Good thing, too, because I got myself a coffee and walked down to Waikiki Beach, dipped my feet in the water, and watched the sun come up over the Ko'olau Range. There weren't many people on the beach at 6am and the sand was pretty cool, but it was really peaceful in a different kind of way.

That still left me with a couple hours to kill before I could get my hands on a moped, but time passed quickly enough and soon, I was roaring away on two wheels. Wow, but is zooming down a road at 40mph on two wheels ever exhilarating! But I had hiking to do and, given my horrible sense of direction, somehow made it over to Manoa Falls in pretty good time.

Manoa Falls was fairly easy, but I wasn't done. I decided to branch off onto Aihualuma Trail, or at least I though I did.

Instead of turning left, I carried on straight ahead, and was pretty pleased to see how incredibly rugged the "trail" was. There were tons of big, mossy rocks, trees growing wildly over the path, and waist-high patches to climb up. But it looked like a trail, so I kept on...until I got to a place that was just too sheer to climb.

I turned back and then found out where I should have gone, and headed on the proper trail. It was a lot easier to climb than the previous trail, but it was like someone wished for a switchback from a genie, and then had Jesus multiply like he was feeding every single person on earth. I. Was. Tired. I would walk and walk and walk and not feel like I was anywhere close to the top, and the only thing that kept me going was I didn't want the people behind me to pass me.

Eventually, I came to a point where I thought, 'that's it. I have 200ml of water left, I want at least 1000, and this hike is starting to encroach on my planned beach time.' But after talking to a couple behind me, I decided to keep going and boy, was I glad I did. I arrive at a 'look-out' (more of a rough area with a view), and I had the most incredible view. It wasn't the peak height of 1,100ft, but it felt like a million miles over the island.

That wasn't it for me, though. After getting sunburned on Waikiki Beach, I mopeded up to Diamond Head Crater and, for only $1, had a near-panoramic view of the island. I could see the south side of the island's water below me, faaar below me, and I just couldn't help but be so struck by the beauty of it all.

After plenty of pictures, I got back to the digs and started on some work. It's a quarter after 8, and all I want to do is go to sleep. I was planning on the Stairway to Heaven tomorrow morning, but I think I may sleep in instead, to at least 05:00 this time.