Bamboo jungle trail at Round Top and Tantalus Drives, near Honolulu

One of the things P and I try to do on the weekends is to venture out to places we’ve never gone before.  On Saturday, we drove to Round Top and Tantalus Drives, which are roads going mauka (towards the mountains) from Honolulu.  We parked and took a 2-hour hike, stumbling upon the bamboo forest pictured above.  Imagine this – a wilderness of bamboo, extending tens of feet towards the sky, knocking on each others’ hollow skeletons and making some awesome music.  Can you imagine that it’s just miles from the city, but so pristine and unadulterated?

On an island where most people think that a visit to Hanauma Bay, Waikiki, North Shore, Matsumoto’s shave ice, the various shrimp trucks and Leonard’s bakery is all there is to Hawaii, they’re wrong.  Just from the hikes alone, you get a lay of the land, and as my friend taught me before I moved to Hawaii, you know the importance of “malama ‘aina,” or in Hawaiian, “to care for the land.”

Still excited from our hike and vowing to do more the next week, we unhesitatingly said “yes” when the next day, our friend Duke invited us to hike Waimano Trail with him.  It’s a trail he knows well, and has done about 80 (I repeat: EIGHTY) times.  The trail is located near Pearl City (don’t ask me how to get there – I wasn’t driving!) and is a public hunting grounds for wild pig, so if you bring a dog, make sure you bring a leash just in case you run into a group of wild pig hunters!

Anyways, I’ve always wanted to go foraging in forests for food, and when Duke told us he’d show us how to find various tropical fruits on this trail, the foodie in me perked up quick, and I was on the lookout!

Trees and trees of strawberry guava abundant throughout the valley.  These are still green and unripe.  I tried to bite into it and almost broke my teeth.

Here’s a ripe strawberry guava.  Tart and sweet, resembling a cranberry and mini-pomegranate from its outer appearance.

This is an unripe banana lilikoi (lilikoi is passion fruit).  Doesn’t it look like a small hanging watermelon?  These grow on vines, and we found them teeming over strawberry guava bushes.  We found a few of these on our hike, and only found one ripe one.

Here’s our ripe banana lilikoi.  The skin is slightly fuzzy and orange like an apricot.  You poke a hole on the top of the fruit, and suck out the passion fruit seeds.  My new favorite fruit!  It wasn’t sour like normal passionfruit, but tasted like a cross between bananas and strawberries.  Deeeeelicious!

Noni fruit, also known as the great morinda.  Tasted starchy and kind of bitter.  Definitely not comparable to the banana lilikoi, but at least I can say I’ve tried it now!

A beautiful afternoon on Waimano Trail.

After hiking for 4 hours (my legs feel like jelly today from steep uphill trails!), we visited Duke’s friend’s house, where they gave us goodies from their tree.  Mahalo to Duke and the Lee family!  Now I wished I paid more attention to the coconut-cracking demonstration at the Polynesian Cultural Center, because I have this huge coconut that I don’t know what to do with!

Bottom: Cherimoya, also known as sugar apple or “man cau” in Vietnamese; right: pomelo; left: a coconut I can’t crack open; and kaffir lime leaves

Overall, a great weekend with some unforgettable experiences.  No matter where you live, I’m sure you can discover something new this weekend.  Look around, enjoy, and take care of nature, because you never know what she’ll give back to you.