We managed to get out of bed before afternoon arrived today and headed up on the bus from Waikiki to the start of the Diamond Head trail. It was already about 11am when we arrived but we had plenty of water and had remembered our hats, so we were ready to go.
Diamond Head (or Le'ahi in the local language) is a volcanic crater, it's age is unknown, but usual estimates put it at about 300,000 years old. The crater covers about 350 acres, its width being greater than it's height. In the late 1700's Western traders visited Le'ahi and mistook the calcite crystals in the rock on the slopes of the crater for diamonds, which gives it's name.
The hike is only 1.3km (0.8 miles) one way and you climb 560 ft (171m) from the crater floor, which is already about 200 feet (61m) up. But it was really hot today with little cloud cover; what saved us was the fantastic cool breeze. Liam speeded ahead and Cliff had no trouble taking on the stairs at the very top. I had to take it a little slower. It was pretty busy going up the trail and at the lookouts at the top - seems we weren't the only ones who had the idea to tackle Diamond Head today.
And the bus driver let us travel for free on the way home when we saw we didn't have the right money (they don't give change), which was awfully nice of him. We headed to the Royal Hawaiian Center for lunch and then back to the hotel so Liam could re-jig his Magic deck. Most trading card shops around the world run something called Friday Night Magic, where players can turn up for a game of Magic. Unfortunately Da Planet isn't one of them, they had a tournament on instead. Liam watched a couple of guys play some games, so hopefully he got something out of the visit, as opposed to just beating Cliff all the time. Cliff and I watched Transformers 2 with the sound down, but with subtitles, while we waited for him. Without the sound, you concentrate much more on the actor's body language and facial expressions. I wasn't very impressed, although maybe Cliff was more impressed by Megan Fox.
Update: Cliff and Liam just finished a game of Magic...and Cliff won! This deserves a mention.
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