The Christensen Hawaii Adventure: Horseback riding in Waipi'o Valley

This morning we went horseback riding in the Waipi'o Valley. We booked a horse riding tour through the Waipio Naalapa Stables. Our day started by meeting our guide at the Waipi'o Valley Artworks store. A lot of the tours going into the valley start here.

We waited here for the rest of our tour group to arrive.

We waited until 9:30 am for a couple people who did not show up. At that time, we were loaded into a big white 4X4 van and were driven down the 25% grade, steep windy road into the valley where the stables were located. Our group consisted of myself, Ann and Allison, two Swiss and two Japanese tourists.

The Waipi'o lookout before we took the road down into the valley

Just before taking the road down to the valley floor, we were told not to put on our seat belts. The road down is very steep at 25% grade. It is also very narrow and winding. The idea behind not wearing seat belts is that if the breaks ever failed, they want you to be able to jump out of the vehicle as fast as you can. In fact, the big sliding door on the side of the van was missing for the same reason. Vehicles going up have the right of way while the vehicle going down must find a wider spot to pull into. We thought it was funny when our driver high fived his cousin out of the window as we were going down and his cousin was driving up. There is not a lot of room on this road for two vehicles and so you're within inches of each other when you meet.

On the road down

Almost at the valley floor

Once we were on the valley floor, it was only a couple of minutes before we arrived at the Naalapa Stables. They already had the horses saddled up and selected for us individually. They offered us helmets and we had to sign a waiver before we could get on our horse. We gave Ally a helmet but Ann's hair was way to pretty to put a helmet on it and I already had a perfectly good cowboy hat on my head and so we opted out of the helmet option. I noticed later, that the two rednecks from Alberta and the two guides were the only ones not wearing helmets. Good for us!

Kioni, our guide gave us a few instructions and then they brought us our horses. Ally got a nice well behaved filly but Ann's mare was a little high spirited and got spooked once by a tractor and took a few quick strides up a hill, but Ann showed her who was boss. Kioni told me he was saving Sally, the last horse for the guy with the cowboy hat. I noticed before they brought us our horses, that Sally was biting and kicking the other horses. Kioni asked me to try not to let her bite the other horses. I showed her who was boss right away and she never gave me any trouble.

Taking photos behind you while riding a horse is not easy. Ally and Ann in the background.

Getting a good photo that is not blurry while on a moving horse is not easy.

Stopping for a water break

Allison and Ann

Every once in a while, Ally's horse would try and stop on the side of the trail for a snack, but Ally would have no part of that and was good at making her horse know who was boss. However, the poor Japanese lady was having a hard time with her horse. I turned around one time and had to laugh when I saw her horse, stopped by the side of the trail, scratching its rear end against a big tree.

Howdy Howdy Howdy!!

Allison on Apache

We had a lot of fun at one point, while following a creek, when the water was up to the horses bellies. We all had our stirrups up in the air to keep our feet dry and I was told not to let Sally stop because she likes to sit in the water. When the water got more shallow, I stopped and let her drink and I noticed that she was blowing bubbles. It was really cute but then I thought that if I keep letting her do that, the next thing she'll do is sit down and so away we went.