Aloha Hawai'i

Aloha from the land of fragrant lei's, blue skies, sunshine, volcanoes, warm, blue water and amazing sea life. After 6 hours on a freezing cold plane, I arrived in the open-air airport of Maui where it was 80 degrees in the shade. All the walkways to and from are covered but windowless. I stayed at the Northshore Hostel in Wailuku and spent my first full day exploring by foot and bus. The bus system on Maui is pretty good: $4 will get you around the island all day to most places you want to go. The only problem is, if you miss your bus it is one hour in between. Fortunately for me I had the best bus driver ever. He knew I was lost before I did! According to the bus schedule I was to get off at the first stop and change buses. So, that's what I did. As I stood there, looking at the schedule and the street sign, obviously unsure of myself, the bus driver waited. With some trepidation I went back on the bus and asked and he informed me that I wanted the next stop. Apparently that one was put in after the schedule was made. I was so glad he waited because it was at least 80 degrees at 9:00 in the morning, sun blazing and no shade to be had. At the next stop he even stepped off the bus to help me figure out where I was going and give me better directions. I walked around the town and beaches of Kihai for a few hours, and managed to see only one sea turtle. The next day I was on the first bus to Ma'alaea to catch the 6:15 boat to Molokai Crater to do some diving.

We went down at an area dubbed 'the aquarium', I'm assuming due to the crystal clear visibility to 100' and hundreds of beautiful fish and coral like one would see in a tropical aquarium. All sorts of butterfly fish, angel fish, parrot fish, black garden sea cucumbers, and even an amazing manta ray. It was enormous and incredibly graceful, with at least an 8' span and it just hung out, twice getting very near me. Being a new diver everything about it was so freaking cool!!! I was even fascinated by the bubbles; they looked all silvery, like mercury, and as they rose they got bigger but they weren't round, more spaceship shaped. Like a little kid, I was following them up and playing with them until my dive partner signaled me to come down. :-P On the second dive we were much closer to shore and saw some different sea life such as leaf fish, sea slugs, some different tropical fish, purple velvet sea stars, eels, sponge crab, and a large, majestic, green sea turtle! I was so excited!! Unfortunately he didn't feel the same way and casually swam away.

Four days on Maui was not nearly enough, especially without a car. I was fortunate to meet a lovely German lady who did have a car and invited me to join her and a couple others to the beaches. The first beach was quite secluded and stunning. Although there were a few others on it, it felt like it was just us and the Brazilian cardinals. The second beach was much more touristy but also quite beautiful. It always surprises me when ocean water feels like a bathtub. I did some snorkeling there and saw many of the same tropical fish I'd seen on my dive along with some very cool trumpet fish. Then we went to Lahaina to see the biggest Banyan tree in the USA. It takes up one city block. The cool thing about these trees is that their roots grow down from the tree and when they hit the ground they form new trunks. So one tree has many trunks connected by thick branches. They are now my very favorite tree! During my journaling the same few words keep coming up: amazing, awesome, spectacular. As someone who loves words, this lack of felicity was frustrating but I felt validated when my new German friend also said, unprompted, she has so few words, even in German, to describe the beauty and the feelings it inspires.

I had picked up a coconut at one of the beaches and brought it back to the hostel. That night we were trying to open it by throwing it off the balcony and against the curb, to no avail. It was quite the event actually as about half the guests were outside watching the spectacle and shouting suggestions. After about five minutes of watching us, a woman sitting in a van parked out front of the hostel, stepped out with a machete and said, "Maybe this will help." LOL! I love Hawaii!!!

We also went to the IAO Needle which is really just a very beautiful, lush, green hills and valley area with rivers and overall Hawaiian beauty. It was a short thing to do but we were somewhat limited on time as Irene, the German lady, was leaving that day. It was fine though, I needed to rest a bit; I guess I'm getting old...

Next stop, Hawai'i! I heard so many people rave about Maui that I really had no expectations for The Big Island. Yet within my first hour there I already had a much higher opinion of it than Maui. So much more authentic. I arrived in Hilo on Farmers Market day and bought myself some produce at reasonable prices (for Hawaii) from real Hawaiians. I blindly purchased some things that looked very odd and most were good, like the rambutan and dragon fruit. The ruffly green bean things, not so much. Not bad but not good.

I still didn't have a car as they were all rented out due to the Ironman triathlon that was taking place. I was fortunate enough to meet someone while walking back to the hostel that was also staying there and had a car, although leaving the next day. He offered to take me somewhere so I said I wanted to see the lava flowing at the volcano Kilauea. So just before dusk we set out for the 40 min ride to Volcano National Park. It was cool because all along the road in the park there are active steam vents from the volcano we were driving across. Kilauea must be viewed at night to see the glow, otherwise it just looks like a bunch of smoke. It's not a flowing volcano but more of a spurting one in the crater bed. Nobody is allowed to get any closer than the park visitors center but if you look hard enough you can see the lava explosions. So freaking cool!!! After that we went to a Kava bar within walking distance of the hostel. Kava is a traditional, non-alcoholic, Polynesian beverage, made from the Kava root and tastes like dirt water. It is supposed to numb your tongue and relax your muscles but maintain a clear mind. I got the numb tongue thing but the other part was unaffected. Regardless, the whole ritual involved in drinking this (from a coconut shell no less!), and getting the education about it from the proprietor was really cool and I'm so glad I tried it.

The next day I invited myself to join some other people to Volcano National Park. It is a vast, barren area of miles and miles of black lava beds and they charge $10 per vehicle to see this. That guy is a genius. Reminds me of Tom Sawyer! Seriously though, it is quite spectacular. It looks so surreal, like something from a sci-fi movie. Then, out of nowhere grows this beautiful, flowering bush! And I love the way you can see the layers of swooshes where the lava had cooled during a down-hill flow. We also walked through a lava tube and over the lava than ran across the road. And, before we left we walked the 1.5 miles to the petroglyphs. That was interesting although nobody actually knows what they mean.

No rides on day two so I stayed local and walked 1.5 miles up hill to Rainbow Falls. Very beautiful but the unique part for me was hanging out at the top of the falls. I decided to walk back and get a couple things at the grocery store and spend the afternoon working on my blog. While in the store the skies opened up and torrential rains fell. I went back in, bought a large bottle of wine and when I was done, it had slowed to a light rain. I hurried back to the hostel a few blocks away and got there just in time as the downpour began again complete with thunder! I settled in with my iPod and iPad and a glass of red wine. Before the evening was over I had shared it with several other people and spent an enjoyable evening getting to know some new folks. I was even invited to explore the Waipi'o Valley the next day with an impressive young man. So, on my final day in paradise, we hopped on the bus, rode for about an hour then hitched a ride to the top of the valley. A lovely Dutch couple picked us up that had won their trip to Hawaii from a pizza box!!! I never believed anybody really won those things but they did! Anyhow, the black sand beach and Waipi'o Valley were amazing. I really have no words for the beauty so photos will have to do. My new friend and I had great fun creating rock stacks-which were by chance permanently captured in time by a very famous photographer, picking and eating fruit like coconut, pineapple guava and nene. It was an incredibly special day and I feel honored that he shared with me his favorite place on that side of the island. More confirmation that it is the human connections we make in life that make the journey most memorable.

Not having a car proved problematic on both islands. I did not get to do the Road to Hanna in Maui, or any of the things along it. Nor did I get to the south side of the big island which is where the diving, Luaus and other incredible sights are. So I'm sorry, Daddy, I didn't see any hula girls this time as they can only be found at the luaus. However I am already planning a return trip--with a rental car! As for my next adventure, I'm exploring Oregon: from the North to the South along the coast and over east to Crater Lake, Bend and wherever else my EOS takes me.

Aloha Oe, my friends!