By Peter Fish, Sunset editor-at-large
I just got back from a family vacation to Hawaii—specifically, Oahu and Maui. My wife and 10-year-old son had never been to the islands, so taking the opportunity to boss them around I made them do all my favorite island activities with me. Luckily, they liked the classics as much as I do: Pearl Harbor (which my son described as “moving and sad”) and tropical drinks at the Royal Hawaiian.
But maybe the highlight was the hike up Diamond Head. This is one of my favorite treks in the world. It’s anything but uncrowded—you walk, slowly, behind groups of hikers from all over the world. And it’s not that long—only about ¾ miles from the arid center of the crater to the Observation Station at the top of the rocky crater rim. The journey earns “hike” rather than “walk” status mainly from the series of switchbacks, followed by steep stairs, that carry you to top.
But once you get there, WOW. What can you see? Pretty much the whole world. To the west, the shiny tourist towers of Waikiki, to the north, the velvet green folds of the Koolau Range. To the east, the posh precincts of Kahala and the bump of Koko Head, and everywhere else the Pacific, rippling with swells in the foreground, seemlessly blue beyond. People stand at the observation platform, raise their cell phones to take snapshots and then call their friends back home. Look, you hear them saying, look where I am, secure in the knowledge that their friends can’t be any place as beautiful as this.
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Any good hike requires a post-hike treat. The classic post-Diamond-Head hike treat is shave ice. Shave ice is the Hawaiian snow cone, although you are never supposed to call it that. And in truth, the traditional snow cone is to shave ice what Dancing With the Stars is to the New York City Ballet. The snow cone is amusing and coarse. Shave ice is supple and elegant. The most famous shave ice place in Hawaii—maybe the world—is Matsumoto’s on Oahu’s North Shore. It’s a great spot, but after a Diamond Head hike you don’t want to drive all the way to the North Shore. You want something closer.
I’m pleased to say we found the perfect venue: Waiola Bakery and Shave Ice II, on Kapahulu just five minutes’ drive from the trail at Diamond Head. Step inside and you worry you’ve ventured into Seinfeld Soup-Nazi territory. A sign advises you to request your shave ice by answering the following questions in the following order:
1. How many?
2. What size?
3. Anything inside or top?
4. No flavor please! Wait for us to ask the flavor.
But in practice things are a lot more relaxed. And Waiola’s shave ice is...phenomenal. All the standard fruit flavors (raspberry, orange) are here, plus some tropical specialties, not to mention add-ons like azuki beans and mochi balls. We didn’t go for those—a fellow customer cautioned that they were for shave ice experts—but the pina colada shave ice topped with a Snow Cap (sweetened condensed milk) was so good it made me want to hike up Diamond Head again, just to earn another one.
Diamond Head State Monument, off Diamond Head Road Between Makapu'u Avenue and 18th Avenue, Honolulu. (Download the trail brochure.) Waiola Bakery & Shave Ice II 525 Kapahulu Avenue, corner of Telephone: 808.735.8886
