Climbing Daimond Head

Yesterday I had to go to Daimond Head to get my TB test read (I'm clear) so while I was there, I thought I'd climb the state monument, Daimond Head, the extinct volcano crater, also known as Leahi, named because it apparently resembles the forehead (lae) of the 'ahi fish. The name also means wreath of fire, because flaming beacons used to be lit along the summit to guide ca noes travelling on the ocean. The name Diamond Head came later, when Western explorers mistook calcite crystals in the rock for diamonds! The trail that leads up the summit was actually built in 1908 as part of the US Army Coastal Artillery defense system.

Devon and Keith came too, and practically sprinted up the trail and 3 flights of 74, 99 and 54 steps while I lagged breathless and sweating behind! (well I'm not used to mountain hikes like them... and am shamefully unfit!)



The pictures (in random order) are of a few of the many incredible views from the top, walking through one of the corridoors mid-trail, a view upwards of the dizzying spiral staircase (54 steps), much welcomed shave-ice that was gobbled at the bottom (half coconut, half passionfruit flavour) - shave-ice is a really common ice-cream alternative, and you can get a virtual bucket load for a couple of dollars!


This is a view if Waikiki from the base of Diamond Head.


The summit, 761 feet above sea level.


As if you'd tip an icecream man!!! He sits on his butt all day eating ice cream!! (Mahalo means thank you).


This is Devon throwing a message in a bottle off blow hole point when we'd finished at Diamond Head. The message was for one of her best friends, Lesley, who's birthday it was yesterday. Lesley died in a car crash just over a year ago. On the anniversary of the crash, Devon wrote the letter, and tried to throw it out to sea but the tide brought it back in. So she figured her birthday woud be an equally good time to throw the bottle. However right after she lobbed it over the cliff, we heard a crunch, so still it didn't make it! Devon said Lesley would have thought it was a riot though, and the thoughts, feelings and ritual was all there.



I've not slept through a single night I've been here and have nightmares most nights. Night before last I had a dream- or an experience- it was so real I couldn't decide if it was a dream or not. I was terrified and hiding under the covers as a girl who I at first thought was Devon entered my room and leaned over me on the bed. She looked surprised and curious and as I cowered beneath her I only saw half her face. The lasting image was her huge, wide eye staring down at me (my covers obscured the other eye). So in the morning I drew it, and never before have I managed to draw something so akin to the picture I had in my head.