Horseback Riding in Waipio Valley

Mom was kind enough to take us on an excursion to the other side of the island - the Hilo side. This is the side of the island that gets much more rain (200 inches annually versus 20 annually in Kona) and is also near where my Dad bought his land to build his Hawaiian home. It's about a two hour drive from one side to the other, so we were up really early to get to our horseback riding session at 9:00 a.m. Thankfully we didn't get lost and we arrived on time with no issues and only one pee pit stop (that's unusual with a car full of girls).

We had to wear long pants, so I grabbed my suspender leggings and BEVERLY THRILLS tank top from Love Culture. So thankful to wear New Rocks. They worked out perfectly for horseback riding since it was mandatory to wear closed-toe shoes. 

When we arrived at the ranch and parked our car, there was a friendly tiny cat that came up and demanded petting. He even jumped right up into the car.

Mom and Eden cracking and snacking on macadamia nuts from the ranch.

A funny sign. As I mentioned previously, many jobs don't pay minimum wage and the employees get paid in tips only.

I managed to get a close-up of one of the dreaded zipper spiders. Now you see why I am afraid of them…so scary!

When everyone on our tour had arrived, we piled into a four wheel drive van and headed down into Waipio Valley. In order to get into the valley, it is mandatory to drive a 4WD vehicle and go through a checkpoint where they make sure you know what you are getting into. The descent into the valley is extremely steep and the road to get down is a windy, one-way affair that is simply terrifying. Down in the valley, all of the land is privately owned. The people have no electricity and live off of the land. If they want food, they grow it and harvest it. If they want to shower/wash their hands/drink fresh water, they generally catch rainwater. What a very different way of living than what we on the mainland are used to.

The van drove through rivers to get all the way to the bottom of the valley where the horses were penned.

The DEAD END sign cracked me up. It made the perilous drive all the more hilarious. (Ok, Ok, so it was only perilous in my head. I'm 100% sure those guides knew exactly what they were doing and have made that drive millions of times.)

The van was parked and we hopped on out. I dropped my sunglasses and the lens popped out, so I had no shades for the entire ride. :(

All the horses started coming out of the pen. My horse is the white one. 

Mom mounting her horse. 

Eden introducing herself to her horse, who was named George. All the other horses had hard to pronounce Hawaiian names, but Eden's horse was just plain old George. She said he was a doofy horse.

Eden mounted her horse and the guide was checking to make sure everything looked good before he let her loose.

Me on my horse. He was the only white one and I was one of the last people to mount. His name meant Scab or Scar in English, but I can't remember the Hawaiian word for it. He was the leader of the pack and got grumpy when any of the other horses tried to pass him up.

One of the streams we crossed on horseback.

The view from atop my horse.

View from horseback down in the valley. It's easy to see how far down were were based on the height and scale of the mountain.

Only at the beginning of the ride was there another person in front of me. Mom and Eden got separated from me and I basically had the entire ride to just look around and take the scenery in. As I said, my horse was at the front and I got to listen to all the things the guide in front of me said and didn't have to talk to anybody else. For an introvert like myself, it was paradise. Hahaha. Although I wouldn't have minded being close enough to Eden and Mom to have a conversation with them.

The guide picked me a pumpkin cherry. It tasted sour and not like a pumpkin or a cherry. Also, my gel manicure held up well the entire trip. 

Very long waterfall.

Me and Eden on our horses.  The horses look kind of sleepy. Maybe because it was very near the end of the ride and they were just thinking about it being their lunch time.

All of us girls on our horses.

I loved horseback riding. It was my favorite activity by far.

This was a wild horse that came up to the van on our drive back up the mountain. 

We made it safely back up the mountain and our next stop was a restaurant to get some Portuguese donuts for Eden.

Up next - the botanical gardens!