From Mount Tantalus, we went back to the city then headed east.
The scenery outside of the city is relaxing and serene.
Our tour guide, Ronald Wong, pointed at the Haiku Stairs or Stairway to heaven. It’s an almost vertical ladder on the side of the steep mountain guarded by military. It spans 3,922 steps traversing the whole of Ko’olau mountain ranges.
A strong typhoon hit the Oahu island on Valentine’s Day this year and destroyed the Stairway to Heaven also called Haiku Stairs and Haiku Ladder. It caused significant damage to the steep hiking trail. This has prompted the authorities to forbid climbers to use this trail because it’s very dangerous.
The wooden ladder was built by the military in 1942 as easy access to the radio station secretly built to transmit signals to navy ships stationed in the Pacific.
If you happen to be in Oahu, the Stairway to Heaven is at Interstate H3.
It has long been forbidden (even before the typhoon attacked) to hike the stairway to heaven, but up to now, some people are just really pasaway.