The People of Kalihi Valley

Kalihi Valley is a hidden gem. Mark Twain, who came here 140 years ago, once described Kalihi Valley as the most enchanting valley in all the islands.

I’m surrounded by greenery where I live, about 1 mile back from the freeway. My home is against the eastern valley wall and looks out upon the towering western valley wall. To our left we can see the ocean and reef runway of the airport, built for an emergency landing of the Space Shuttle. A green belt 1/4 mile to our right completes the picture.

All this greenery is a result of the 80-100 inches of rain I estimate we get here annually. It’s a July day and I bet it’s rained 10 times today for 10-20 minutes. That’s pretty common for Oahu valleys and ridges.

We have lots of birds in Kalihi Valley. I feed (sunflower seeds) two pair of cardinals that come morning and evening, often with young. We also regularly see Javanese sparrows (grey and black, with orange beaks), and Meijiro Rice birds (green with a white ring around their eyes). We once had a pair nest in a potted ficus tree on our back porch.

Only three miles from downtown, it is an easy commute anywhere. I figure I could even walk home in an emergency. One of the things I like about the roads here is that I have several choices of roads to travel. There’s Likelike Highway and Kalihi Street as the main roads, but also two, little known back roads that are rarely busy, even at rush hour. One goes west and the other east. If I have some time between meetings, it doesn’t take long to zip home, something I never did when I lived in Hawaii Kai.

My wife and I were talking about real estate values in Kalihi Valley earlier this evening. Both of us feel we live in an undiscovered area, and that housing prices will one day rise when the population catches on to the convenience and beauty we enjoy daily.

Robert L. Sigall, Marketing Consultant, Writer

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