The Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 45–680 Luluku Road, Kāne'ohe, Oahu, Hawaii. It is part of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens, and is open daily, without charge, except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
A picturesque lake and walking trails are lead attractions on the 400-acre plot of land, and being a botanical garden, the park is also home to numerous magnificent trees from across the globe, all marked with descriptive plaques. Towering over the garden is the incomparable Ko'olau Mountain Range with its distinctly beveled grooves, like a colossal accordion.
Parking at the visitor center gives quick access to the lake which branches out into several streams, making for two separate, but joining paths. The first forms a semicircle around the lake and the second is a loop trail bounded by streams.
The day we chose to go, started out beautiful with no clouds or rain in site. By the time we went through Costco to get the cheapest gas on the island, the clouds started taking over. If you know how Oahu works weather-wise, you know that when there are clouds coming in over the Ko'olau’s… there will be 100% chance of rain. By the time we arrived at the gardens, the rain was coming down in buckets! It’s still breathtaking to just drive along the roads, so this trip was a no-photography trip. Since I have been here before, I will be using my old pix from that trip to showcase the beauty of this place.
One side note- the gardens have changed a little bit since the last time I was here. They have signage every few 100 feet stating no photography on the roads, which I agree with considering nobody pays attention when they're taking pictures standing in the middle of the road. I did see people not adhering to the new rules, and I hope that they didn’t get run over by everyone else following the rules.
This place is still so beautiful it's surreal, and I look forward to the next time I visit and hopefully there will be no rain. Of course, the location of the gardens is close to Zia's Café, and you better believe we went there for lunch! I highly recommend this little restaurant on the Windward side, their food Is to die for, and I like the fact that the day we went, the chefs in the kitchen were all female! Way to go girl power!
Our trips are becoming the highlight of our week.... so stay tuned for the next adventure!