What Were We Thinking??

And in the 'only fools tread here' department, we bring you the Great Koko Head Stepmaster Marathon in which Dani, Nikki, and Hitomi decide to go for a stroll up the outside of Koko Crater.

It didn't look too bad down at the bottom - wide-ish, flattish 'stairs' which were really railway ties left over from a crazy military installation that ran a supply train up and down the mountain. We were raring to go and feeling frisky down at the bottom...

Then we started to climb....

... and climb. At this point, poor Dani was starting to feel a tad green around the gills. She had a bizarre reaction to something - the heat? not enough water to drink? the endless stairs? We're not sure, but it seemed like she was going to lose her lunch about half way up...

Having come so far, Dani decided to tough it out and keep going... Hitomi and I figure this is a once-is-plenty kind of hike, so we tried our best to enjoy every moment and take lots of photos for evidence...

 One of the good things about the stair configuration of the expedition was that there were always plenty of places to sit and rest. Which we did often.

 One of the not-so-good aspects of the stair configuration was that the steepest part of the climb was at the top, right about at the point where we were seriously wondering whether the huge effort was going to be worth it. The friendly people coming down were so encouraging 'you're nearly there!' and 'one step at a time - you'll make it!' that we had to keep going.

 Whew! We made it! Dani took a little breather at the top of the stairs...

... all 1048 of them... 

Then we set off to explore the rim of Koko Crater. The views from up top were spectacular - and, once we were up there, it didn't seem like such a bad climb after all.

 Looking down on Hanauma Bay.

The rim of Koko Crater. An insanely fit young man and his German shepherd hiked along the narrow lip of the crater rim while we stood around and took photos...

After a pleasant interlude up at the top (during which we spotted whales spouting!) we headed back down. While this was certainly not as gruelling as climbing up, it was harder than you'd think not to trip and fall headlong off the side of the mountain! Knees, hips, and back were all complaining by the time we'd descended halfway and by the bottom, our legs were quivering blobs of jelly.

We were mightily happy to head off to Jamba Juice for well-deserved smoothies after our expedition!