A small group of my friends and I rented a four wheel drive car and went to a beautiful place called Waipio valley. This was such a breathtaking place! The look out view alone was stunning! The car ride to it was exhilarating, adventurous and full of laughter! One moment we were all laughing and chilling in the trunk of the car and the next moment we were drowning in the rain and freezing our butts off. The weather changed quickly the farther we went into the mountains.
Saulius was our tour guide and driver for the day! He is also part of Kokua Crew with me. He had the best idea ever to check out the waterfalls at Waipio! With adventure and excitement consuming his voice, he told us the plan, "We will need to hike through the jungle and pass through rivers, but it will be fun, not that hard, and totally worth it!" We all thought this would take us about an hour to go up and down. Everyone was enthusiastic about it and ready to see the waterfalls! And so our jungle adventure began....
I was lucky that I wore good shoes! The rocks in the river were very slippery and it was raining the whole time. We needed to cross through the river a few times but it was really hard for everyone. The guys needed to help the girls because the current was so strong. It took us more than two hours to get up higher and closer to the waterfalls.... and we were not even there yet. In addition to this, it was already starting to get dark!
We quickly made the decision to go back as fast as we could! We tried to run and move swiftly but it wasn't that easy. It was getting dark so quick and fear was rising within us all! In no time we were out there in the midst of pure darkness. I was praying for God to lead us out of the jungle. We didn't know the exact road back to the car-- we only knew that it was parked at the end of the river. So we decided to walk in the river as far as possible back in the direction of the car. It took a while and it was an exhausting way to walk back, but we finally made it to the car! I was so relieved to be back and safe!
Two of the girls were still waiting there for us because they didn't want to join the hike. They were so worried and were praying for a safe outcome! We drove an hour and a half back to our safe home base, Hale Ola. We all slept so good that night! We were all extremely tired from a long day of adventuring!
