Stevanie's Adventure Begins...in the Valley

I have no been living in Hawaii for over a year and have yet to experience the wonders of the island. Steve and I have weekends off together, but we always spent them the same way. Hanging out at the beach, Steve would go surfing or paddling, or we would just hang out on Kona side. Now don't get me wrong, we have made sure to fill some of our weekends with adventure. We spent one weekend down south in a great house and explored the volcano.  

But now that I think about it, there is so much more to the island than I realized. The inspiration truly started after we spent last weekend in the Valley. 

Steve had some friends over from Oregon and one of her goals that weekend was to hike to the waterfall in Waipio. Well, I had been down in the valley before but never hiked to the waterfall. So immediately, I was down for the adventure. Little did I know the treacherous journey I was going to make. Once we made it down into the valley, then I received the warnings and I began to get very nervous. Hiking to the waterfall would take about an hour each way and I would have to cross a river, okay cool I don't mind getting a little wet. There were times though that this river was not a shallow, get your shoes wet river, but a deep Stephanie had to doggy paddle across, river.

I made it through the river that we must have crossed at least 6 times. In addition to river crossing, there was rock climbing, tree dodging and a couple slips here and there. All in all, after a little over an hour in, we made it to our destination. Mentioned previously, I had never hiked into Waipio like this so my reaction to the waterfall was very childlike. I was in awe. I felt like I had never seen anything so powerful before. 

We spent about 10 minutes just taking in the beauty of the waterfall and then decided it was cold and wet, so that meant it was time to hike back. The hike back to the truck seemed much faster than the hike out, but I feel like that's true with most things. We finished our adventure at the beach, Steve surfed, or attempted to. Then had some great pizza in town and made our way back home. 

After that adventurous day, I told Steve, it is my goal to do something fun each weekend.