Camping in Hana

Having a great time! Between camping at Hana, celebrating birthdays with food and song, spending Thanksgiving with new friends, and watching the stars while sitting next to the ocean, I have no complaints.

I do, however, have no time to sleep. And I've got to be up for another trip to Hana tomorrow so I must go to bed now. But I will leave you with a quick photo explination of my camping trip from two weeks ago.

The drive to Hana is the whole point. Getting to Hana is cool but it's the drive that makes it worth going. There are all kinds of waterfalls and pretty things along the way like this.

A bit of car sickness meant many stops. But no complaints from me because look at where we stopped!!

The guys foraged for coconuts (which we later ate).

We had a feast for dinner and then went fishing by moonlight on the rocks. See the part that is sticking up from the water at the end? That's where we were at a lower tide. (Scary to see it covered with water in daylight the next day.) Because a few of us were "nervous" about how close we were to the water we backed up and sang any church song that had a round that we could think of for about an hour. It was such an uplifing evening and so beautiful. The moon was a night past being full and provided plenty of light.

We packed up the next morning so we could be on our way to the 7 Sacred Pools.


First we had some breakfast and ate those coconuts I mentioned previously.


Everything is so lush. It's hard to take in so much beauty.

We spent the morning jumping into the lower pools. We even found a natural rock waterslide that entertained us for awhile.

Then it was time to go home. This is a VERY common sign to see.

We took a different way around the back and got to see some amazing views.

It was a truly fantastic and refreshing weekend.

Maui for real

November 22:
This should have been posted two weeks ago but I forgot that I hadn't finished it. I have been so busy that I have not made blogging a priority at all.

November 4:
I've got 6 minutes to try to tell you about the most amazing place I've ever been. I went on a hike this weekend with some new acquaintences that will hopefully turn into friends by the end of this 3 month adventure. It was to a bamboo forest part way up the Hana road (but not the really popular one that everyone goes to near the 7 Sacred Pools). This one did not have a sign. It was a little hole in the bamboo at the side of the road that you could duck into.

I find bamboo forests so peaceful. They are silent and cool and shady. It feels like it must be getting dark outside, even on a sunny day. Part of the hike also involved walking across rocks and through streambeds which was tricky in it's own way.

We had to climb some small rockfaces using ropes and helping* each other get over the top.

After walking for 45/50 minutes we reached the end of the "trail". There was a little channel of water leading around a corner and even though I did not have my bathing suit on (a mistake I will not repeat again - when hiking in Maui, always wear a bathing suit under your clothes**) I jumped fully clothed into the water because I realised that this was an experience that I would regret missing if I did not.

As we rounded the corner my jaw dropped in awe. I was surrounded by 360 degrees of 50-70 foot high absolutely lush, vegetation-covered cliffs. A small waterfall was falling ahead and to the side water was dripping from an overhang in such a way as to form raindrops. I had to tread water for awhile under the overhang and get "rained" on because it was so lovely. We climbed up the rocks beside the waterfall and arrived at another pool that had horse-shoe shaped vegetation-covered cliffs and an even bigger waterfall.The beautiful paradise picture I had had in my head of what Maui should be was realised in that moment. On the way back to the lower pool we saved some time climbing down by simply jumping the twelve feet into the water.

I am in love with this place.

* Apparently I had 2 dirty handprints right on my rear end because the ropes swung out while I was trying to climb and some of the spotters were trying to keep me steady. I have no idea whose handprints they were. Seems kind of disreputable to not even know whose handprints are on one's own bottom.

** Except possibly when hiking up the volcano Haleakala. Don't know how many waterfalls and pools I will find up there. But even though I won't wear my suit, I will probably through it into my bag. Just in case.

Lava fields and ukuleles

Well, I've been busy. Awesomely busy. Cleaning a beautiful training facility, boogie boarding at the beach, and enjoying paradise busy. I've also been watering all the indoor plants. Most of us get assigned extra jobs and mine is that of the Plant Girl. It's a pretty sweet deal because I get to take all of Wednesday morning to get the watering done (and fight the mealybug fight). While doing so, I'm on my own schedule and I can visit with anyone I run into. Plus I'm in all the nicest areas of the building. When I finally replace my camera (which had a tragic and early death last week) I will show you pictures of the atriums. They are awesome and feel quite peaceful. There is a little hole in the roof so that when it rains (which isn't often actually. I didn't realise Kihei is a desert) it rains right inside the building. It's like Hogwarts' enchanted ceiling!!!! Anyway, Wednesday is our half day so it pretty much feels like an entire day off when the only work I do is hang out with plants and walk around. Pretty much great.

Two Wednesday's ago I mentioned I went on a hike in La Perouse Bay through some lava fields out to a light becon. I did have some picture taking potential and I'd like to share with you a few of my favourite shots.

This is a view of the "foothills" of Haleakala which is the volcano that caused all the lava seen here.

The lava flowed all the way into the ocean and makes for a stunning costal walk.

We heard rumors of black billygoats living in the area and were thrilled to witness the truth in that tale! I didn't get any shots of the baby goats but they were adorable. I was surprised how loud the goats were. Their noise is what originally alerted us to their presence.

Views through trees are always favourites of mine.

After we had hiked out to the becon, we stopped by Big Beach. It's a beautiful beach but with powerful waves. It was fairly calm this day...

And I saw my first mongoose in the parking lot (actually there are two hiding in the grass). I have vague memories of a book. Rikki Ticky or something like that? I believe it involves a mongoose and a cobra.

I went to Big Beach again this past Wednesday. Not so calm. In fact, the beaches just down the road were red flagged. If we'd known, I don't think we would have gone in the water. But we didn't know and we did go in the water. And I honestly think that the waves at times were 6 feet high. It's a fairly dangerous beach because the waves break right at the shore. If you get caught in the break it can be nasty. I was there with a couple of ladies and one smart one sat on the sand and refused to enter the water. The other and myself went running in and paid for it. We both have a couple new bruises, several sore spots and I pulled a muscle that I didn't even know I had. Seems to be healing quite nicely though so I might even go on a hike tomorrow through a bamboo forest (during which I am sure I will be devestated that I have not yet replaced my poor dead camera).

Anyway, that's about all I have time for right now. Except that I wanted to post this video of Manoa DNA, a father and sons singing group that played at the ukulele festival I went to a couple of weeks ago.


There is another video I've been trying to post but have had no luck. It is of a female performer called Paula Fuga and she was amazingly fantastic and if I'd had enough cash I would have totally bought her cd. But since I only had $5, I bought some apple bananas instead which I very much enjoyed for the rest of the week in my cereal. I will keep attempting to upload her video because she's not on iTunes and really was quite awesome.

I'll have to post again soon to tell you about the Xterra World Championships, the musical I went to tonight (Urinetown) and the coolest sushi restaurant ever. And I don't even like sushi. I'll also try to borrow a camera to give you a tour of Haggai.