Waimea Valley Falls

As is natural in Hawaii, I've done a lot of swimming while I've been here. However, swimming here at Waimea Valley falls has been my favorite by far, and I'll tell you why. But first, the hike up to the waterfall:

The hike up to the waterfall is a collection of gardens to showcase flowers and plants that can be found around the islands. There are apparently also areas that you can stop and do an activity or talk to a tour guide, but we didn't see any of that. The 'hike' is only half a mile but if you walk through all the different gardens it's a little further than that. If you aren't able to walk the half a mile to the waterfalls, there's a transport service in golf carts to and from. But honestly, the hike isn't bad. It's all paved and if you walk straight there it doesn't take very long at all.

Here are some of the fun plants we saw:

Hugest lily pad ever!

Crazy roots

I have to be honest, while it was really cool to see all the fun plants, I really just wanted to get to the waterfall and I would have much rather seen these cool plants in their natural habitats and not in some gardens where they were planted.

I assume this hut was apart of the activities you can partake in if there are people there to lead said activities.

So now onto the awesome waterfall and why I liked it better than any ocean.

I LOVE to swim. It's a little hard to do the kind of swimming that I love in an ocean full of salt where I'm extra buoyant and waves that make it hard to swim in the actual direction you're meaning to go in. Plus a lot of the parts of the ocean I've been in have been super shallow so they're good for snorkeling. It doesn't make for good swimming when you're afraid you're going to kick a rock or the reef.

So this 30 foot pool at the base of the waterfall was pure heaven to me! If it wasn't an hour and a half away and cost $10 a person I would come here all the time. But alas...