Best of Oahu Botanical Gardens: Moanalua

Top Picks: Moanalua Gardens (Koi Pond, Wildlife Sightings, Honolulu)

This park is on the smaller side but it happened to be one of our favorites! It is right off the highway, I mean right off…make sure you take the exit slow or you’ll miss it (2850 Moanalua Road, Honolulu, HI 96819)! There is a parking lot and the park is free to enter. This park is known for its epic Monkeypod or Hitachi trees, they are HUGE! You may be able to spot me as a speck by the base. The trees produce some wispy looking flowers.IMG_2445 IMG_2437Their branches fan out a great distance and I would imagine it would be so dreamy to spread out a blanket and forget about life for a while. You can walk past this great big field with the Hitachi trees over a bridge and take a little path full of beautiful flowers, trees, and birds. IMG_2450 IMG_2452This is where I got attacked by mosquitoes (bring repellent!) and my entire foot went into a deep mud puddle. I couldn’t even be mad it was hilarious, ankle deep mud! I rinsed my feet off in a sprinkler. We spied a few green parrots hanging about! IMG_2454We forded a trickling little stream to make it back to the original side (we could have just taken the bridge but we live on the wild side ;)) and found a cottage which was home to King Kamehameha V. IMG_2459While the cottage was a great little piece of history (you cannot enter it), what was right beside it was much better to us: A koi pond with lots of ducks! We bought a huge cup of feed for $2 in the gift shop and had the best time. Jeff was the brave duck master and showed me the way. He let the ducks eat right from his hand and they surrounded him. IMG_2463I got in on the action too; they were surprisingly gentle with their bills. IMG_2486The ducks were all so different in looks and personality. Some were very patient and some more aggressive. Jeff allowed some to eat right from the cup, so funny. IMG_2490We tried to share everything out evenly, and let the koi in on the feed too, but the ducks were a lot faster at getting the food in the pond. IMG_2487After so many laughs we went to the bathroom to wash our hands really well. There are gorgeous benches crafted out of wood from the trees here, this park may be small but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. IMG_2481Go, enjoy!

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