Finding the Halepepe Tree on the Halepepe Nui Trail

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 Halapepe Nui – November 4, 2012

P.C. Daniel

I knew Halapepe Nui cut through some valleys. I knew there would be no summit or waterfall. Nevertheless, it was a hike that I wanted to do. One reason is the connection of valleys. Initially, I thought the trail would connect Waiau and Waimano. Although this trail can connect the two valleys, the HTMC Halapepe Nui route does not connect the two.

Halapepe Nui, the trail itself is named after the one or two Halapepe trees on the trail. However, the trees are not noticeable, and most of the hiker’s missed it on the route, including me. Other than the Halapepe trees, this trail has nothing to offer other than a look into Waiau Valley.

Halapepe Nui trail

I woke up early in the morning and drove to Hapaki St. According to the internet there are 3 variations of the hike (Hapaki, Ka'ahumanu, & Royal Summit). Near the trailhead, I met all the up and comers and the regulars of the HTMC; Daniel, David, Erik, Aprille, Alaina, Bob, & Calvin. I also met Darren. A lot of these hikers were and I think still are part of the Kompt hiking crew.

At the start of the hike, we encountered some power lines. The trail followed a ridge. Fred who was behind asked us if we wanted to check out a lookout, so we followed him. The view was of East Honolulu, but it was really voggy today, so the picture did not look too good. 

After that, we followed the trail. I think…I think, we ended up on Waiau Ridge. It sorta looked like it. After a while, we took a left turn and headed down the mountain to gain another ridge. We followed that ridge makai (towards the sea), eventually to our lunch spot. At the lunch spot, we saw a dead tree that was marked. We joked that was the Halapepe tree, but it wasn’t. We found out that the tree was on the ridge we just came from. Boo!!!

We took a super long break, talking many stories. When we got up, we continued on the ridge and encountered a critical junction that headed back towards the valley. The valley was short lived because we eventually headed up another ridge, we encountered the Waiau trail. I knew it was Waiau because we did the trail a few months ago, we continued back down into the valley again to rejoin our original route making it a loop.

Bob & Bernice

Bob, Darren, & I waited for the rest to arrive. And we were done! After the hike, we ate at Shiro’s, a surprisingly fulfilling lunch after this 4.5 hour hike.

What confused me about this hike was how we got onto Waiau trail at the beginning of the hike as we didn’t start on Ka’ahumanu street. This will bother me, until I check out the gps file. Also, I do not know the names of the valleys that we crossed, we weren’t at Waimano yet, so these valleys are unknown to me. The sequence of valleys in the area was Waimano, Waiau, & Waimalu. However there are some small valleys there that are unknown to me.

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