Po’Kai Bay is a small bay on the Waianae Coast, smack dab in the center of town, and is a popular spot for the locals to bring their keiki’s (children) to play in the water. Even on the ocean’s roughest day, the bay will usually be a safe place for them to play. It’s also very popular for paddleboarding, kayaking, and outrigger canoeing.
I used to be intimidated to walk down the large rock jetty’s afraid that we’d be yelled at to get off or something, but I’ve come to learn pretty much no place is off limits in Hawaii. Even if there’s a danger sign warning people to stay out….it’s just that, a warning.
When we walk out on these rocks, or any rocks near the ocean, we see handfuls of crabs scurrying away.
One day I remembered there was a geocache hidden on the southern tip of the bay so Jewel and I grabbed my Droid, armed with the C:Geo App and built in camera, and went in search of our second cache in Hawaii. (still haven’t found the first one I tried) Below is the view from the southern tip looking into the bay and up Waianae Valley (which also has some hidden geocaches we plan on hunting soon).
Below is the view from the southern tip of the bay to northern tip
We searched for the Ku’ilioloa Heiau Geocache for what felt like forever. It was also the first time I’d ever tried to use a GPS and I quickly learned I HAD NO CLUE HOW TO USE IT. We searched all over, gave up, circled back, and tried again to figure out the GPS. I did eventually figure out I was within 6 feet of the stupid thing so there was no way I was leaving without finding it. I already have a few failed caches under my belt and I don’t really want the World’s Worst Geocacher title, so we searched on.
And after an exhaustive search, in these boulders….we finally found our cache!
Once I stopped, looked around and thought like someone who would be looking for a good spot to hide something themselves, it was obvious. Since we didn’t plan on geocaching we didn’t have anything to leave ourselves so we just looked at the goodies inside, logged our visit, sealed it back up and re-hid it.
That was our first found cache here and since then have failed to find the one on our Maunalahilahi hike and completely intentionally passed up three more on our hike out to Kaena Point. I’ve realized now it’s not the treasure or the find I’m after, it’s all about the hike for me. I’ll continue to use geocaching.com for the trail information and the taking me to places I’d never go otherwise, but I doubt I’ll get too obsessive over finding the cache anymore.
Walking back out from the point we encounter one of those WARNING SIGNS
I think we’ll be obeying the sign on this one!!
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