Hawaii Part 5 - Na Pali Coast = Beyond Beautiful.

So our last two days of moon-en with the honey were spent along the Na Pali shore of Kaua'i. Ever since I read that this area is only accessible by boat or hiking, I was sold. One of the best ways to experience the Na Pali Coast is by the Kalalua Trail. This is an 11 mile cliff trail that run along the ocean's edge. It is beautiful, rugged, dirty, wet, rocky and really fun. The whole hike is rated as an expert level due to the condition of the trail and the fact that it must be backpacked to reach the end. Unfortunately, we did not bring out camping gear on the honeymoon, but we planned to do an out and back 8 mile hike to Hanakapai Beach and Falls. The first two miles followed the Kalalua Trail and ended at a Hanakapai Beach which is a no swimming or surfing beach due to the high number of deaths there over the years. This part of the trail wasn't too bad, just a little muddy and slippery but the views were excellent. The color of the ocean was amazing.

By the time we reached the beach, it had started to rain. We spent a little time there marveling at the size of the waves. Really giant. Due to the rain, most people headed back the the trail head at this point, but since the rain was fairly warm and didn't bother us, we quickly kept hiking leaving the Kalalua Trail.

We took a side trail back into the jungle for two miles with the destination of the 400 foot Hanakapai Falls. The trail was considered 'unmaintained' and we immediately saw this as it was much narrower and immediately put you deep into jungle thicket. We had to cross a river several times, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but with the heavy down pore the water was raging and I did have thoughts of flash flooding. The trail soon became a river, and every once in a while we would pass people going the other way (most were turning around as the rain continued). After awhile we didn't see anyone else for a long time. We finally ran into one other couple right before we hit the falls and had to help the girl across several river crossing as she didn't seem to have much balance and fell several times. "Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun n games..."

The falls were crazy. The feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere was overwhelming. I think there was a movie filmed here, as the water spilled into a big half circle of deep rock and blocked out a lot of the light. Very cool, but we didn't stay for long as we could only keep warm by continuing to hike. It rained almost the entire way back so I think we did about 2 miles of dry hiking and 6 miles of wet. But being from Phoenix, I couldn't help but appreciate how some places get the same amount of rain in one day that we get in a whole summer. I now have a very strong desire to return to Kaua'i to backpack the entire Kalalua Trail.

After reaching the trail head, we went and took a nap on the beach seen below from the trail. We were coated in mud, water and sweat so the ocean never felt so good.

Hawaii Part 4 - Kaua'i: Land of green & water.

We finally touched down in Kaua'i after a missed connection in Honolulu forced two unsuccessful standby attempts. We finally got our rental car, a luxury Chevy Aveo. This has to be the smallest crappiest car ever made. But it was cheap and brand new and we got to see how much we could destroy it in less than four days. We stopped at the Opaeka'a Falls on the way to our lodging at the Princeville B&B. At this point, Tom was pretty waterfalled out, but I love me some falling H2O.

Our B&B was located along the north shore of the island, also known as the unpopulated gorgeous, wet and isolated part. There was a lot of natural wetland there which made for good taro farming as seen here.

Our B&B was very cute but the best part by far was the personal chef we had each morning. Saturday morning we got up and went for a walk to the ocean to watch the sun rise.

When we returned, a young women around 30ish was cooking in the kitchen. She asked us if we like banana macadamia nut pancakes and said that breakfast was almost ready. Umm yeah. Sounds good. So the basic story is that she runs a restaurant in Philly but was getting paid to run the B&B and take a vacation for one month in Hawaii. I want this job. She would cook us amazing breakfasts each morning with fruit, a main dish, smoothies, coffee, and other assorted amazing things like little mango bars. Let's see, personal chef of free food...chalk another one up for B&Bs.

So Saturday morning, we decided to do a kayaking trip up the Wailua River. A river tributary led to a hike through the jungle to Secret Falls (which isn't really that big of a secret). It was a beautiful day, the river was smooth and glossy and the hike was very informative with our very own ethno-biologist major tour guide.

Not the most impressive falls we had seen on this trip, but it was still great to cool off in never less. How often do u get a kiss from u'r honey under a waterfall anyway? Group awwwww......

On the hike out, we took a small detour to something called "The Green House" which was very aptly named. Very cool enclosed room of green vines and plants. We then kayaked back to the harbor to complete the day.

We finished in just enough time to make it to a sports bar in Kapa'a and catch the second half of the OSU Buckeyes game against Minnesota. They had the game well in hand by then so we also enjoyed watching Florida lose to Auburn and about 5 other top 10 teams that get upset. It felt weird to get a thread back of reality after so much vacation. On the way home, we stopped to watch some surfers. It was funny because it was an absolutely gorgeous beach but there were big signs everywhere saying No Swimming. I guess surfing doesn't count as swimming. I don't think the north shore of Kaua'i is the place to learn to surf as the waves were huge the entire time.

Sunday's adventures proved that we needed to be rested so we enjoyed a very relaxing night just watching the sun set over the north shore.

Stayed tuned for part 5...

Some points.

I interrupt my Hawaii adventures to bring you random blog about life.

1. Married life still consists of going to work every day. I was so lied to. I thought I got a ticket to instant housewife.
2. I don't believe that the bug that camped out in my ear for awhile the other night laid any eggs in there, so that is good.
3. Now that I am no longer engaged, does this mean I can pawn the engagement ring for a hot tub? I'm serious. Maybe I should start a rent-a-ring business for logical ladies who don't want to spend tons of $ on a ring. People only ask to see the ring before u get married anyway.
4. Jonny Wilkinson is back and trying to lead England to a second straight World Cup of Rugby title. As my very British bro-in-law knows since he brought me a calendar of JW for a gift in Christmas of 2003, Jonny makes me swoon. Seriously, ladies, I am not lying, JW makes me say David Beckham who? Google images will tell the tale. Plus he is gooo-oood... at rugby.

Oh wait, I forgot, I am married now, I no longer find him at all attractive. Don't worry honey.

5. Next weekend is Team OPD's first big event, the Desert Rage San Diego. It is a 30+ mile adventure race located at Lake Hodges just north of San Diego. It consists of trekking, mountain biking and kayaking. Since we have never kayaked as a team it should be interesting. We are still working on borrowing kayaks and figuring out how not to die and/or get last place. Angel 'poco uno' and Sarah 'crazy rower' will be my teammates for the activities so we hope to try to make the all women's podium. Since 2 of my 3 teammates haven't ever plotted UTM points, it should be interesting.

Hawaii Part III - Haleakala to Sea

We woke up early on Thursday morning for our next big adventure. Okay, it was earlier than early at 2:30 am so I not even sure if qualifies as morning. We had to meet at the Haleakala Bike Shop at 3:30 to catch our sunrise tour. The bike shop would fit you to a Gary Fisher mountain bike, give you rain proof gear and drive you in a van with all your stuff to the top of Haleakala to watch the sun rise. Haleakala is a dormant volcano that rises some 10,200 feet above sea level and boasts a large moon like crater at the top that could fit the city of Manhattan in it. It is considered one of the best places to watch the sun rise and I can say that it didn't really disappoint. Strangely enough, it is cold cold cold up there (which doesn't make that much sense to me since 12k ft mountains in Arizona aren't that cold) but the temps were probably in the 30 with a lot of wind. The sun rise was beautiful for a short time and before disappearing above the second cloud level.

I promise I did not edit this picture at all.

Tom standing on the moon.

After we watched the sun rise, we loaded back into the van to go to the park entrance where we would start our bike ride. We got to do a self guided bike back to the shop down 7000 ft. It was awesome to fly downhill since this is NOT something we ever get to do in Phoenix. We quickly left our group in the dust (amateurs) and started stripping off the clothes as we got lower in elevation and the temperature rose. My bike, although awesome compared to my K2 at home, had squeaky brakes, so I tried not to use them to much ;)

Hang Loose! We are locked and loaded.

View while biking while still high on the mountain.

Back down into the large tree level.

We stopped for breakfast about an hour down and ate at a table overlooking all of Maui. After this, we had directions back to the bike shop and were supposed to take a right about 2000 ft still above sea level to the bike shop where our car was. We were having a blast and I knew that the company allocated extra time to shop and eat in some of the towns on the way down the mountain so we decided to keep going until we hit the sea. It was an extra 30 minutes flying downhill until we came to the town of Paia. We found an alternative route back to the bike shop which allowed us to bike 4 miles along the ocean before embarking on a long steep climb back up to the bike shop. I will admit the extra 8 mile climb up the mountain kicked both our butts. We ended gasping for air and sweating a lot but I think it was totally worth it! How often do you get to bike from the top of a mountain all the way to the sea. AWESOME!

Tom biking along the Hana Highway.

We stopped to rest at the wind surfing beach we had stopped at before.

The day didn't end there. The whole biking trip only took till about 10:45 am for us because we started so early so we decided to head to the west side of Maui for the afternoon since we hadn't been there yet. We went to a place called Black Rock Beach which was known to be a good snorkeling spot. This spot had deeper water with more fish and some cool fish schools. There were also these long skinny fish that swam at the surface which was a bit unnerving when they swam right at me. I also started to get the hang of snorkeling here and tried some dives under the water level. You just have to remember not to breath in while under water and to blow out the water when you come back up. It was fun when I forgot this periodically.

Notice the long skinny fish at the surface level.

I followed this guy under and tried to learn from him how to dive deep.

This may have been the most packed day of our vacation. We had our B&B book us a luau and this was the only night available, so we went home, got cleaned up and drove back to the west side for our Feast at Lele luau. I didn't have many expectations for this as I knew that they can sometimes be sort of cheesy, but lets just say this one was anything but. Five separate courses of food and and unlimited drinks made for a great night. The food and dance were in four parts consisting of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, and New Zealand. The New Zealand portion even performed the Haka which is a famous dance of the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Team. It seriously gave me chills. Overall an awesome day. I had to keep punching Tom (at his request) on the drive home to keep us both awake. Whatever you want honey. We had been up for some 23 hours before crashing. Definitely one of my favorite days on the hmoon.


Friday morning we woke late and lounged until it was time to back up and hit our flight to Kauai. Good bye Maui, I enjoyed you.

To be continued...

Bug

So a bug flew into my ear last night and got stuck. It was flapping it's wings in there for a couple of minutes and crawling around before all went silent.

I think I may have looked like a crazy. I still haven't seen it actually emerge but I flushed my ear and couldn't get anything out. Maybe I am crazy.

Does weird stuff like this happen to anyone else?

Hawaii Part II - Kihei: Land of Snorkeling & Volcanos

For the rest of our time in Maui, we stayed in a great little place called the Two Mermaids B&B near Kihei (south side). We liked the idea of B&Bs because it provided breakfast and gave us the ability to have a fridge and kitchen if we wanted to cook. This turned out to be a great idea. Our B&B which was very aptly named (see photos below) came with a fully stocked fridge with juice, coffee, bagels, yogurt, fruit, granola, and even Gatorade. Every morning, they would set a basket with fresh fruit and type of freshly baked muffin or bread. We had our own private hot tub on the deck and the place was stocked with beach chairs, boogie boards, towels and everything needed for a home away from home. Great great B&B!

We arrived just before sunset and decided to hit the beach 1/2 a mile away to watch the sun set over the ocean. Sunsets are beautiful in Arizona, but in Hawaii, lets just say wow.

Wednesday morning, we woke up with the intention to have a relaxing beach day. We wanted to try snorkeling and lie on the beach and soak up the sun. Our B&B host gave us a list of the best snorkel locations and we headed down to the South Maui beaches. We were looking for a place to rent snorkel gear but realized that we had left civilization and so we arrived at our destination without any. We decided to ask the bellman at the resort nearby if he knew where we could rent gear. After a minute of thinking, he said, "well just follow me and pick some out from the lost and found pile". We scored snorkeling gear for free which we used for the rest of the trip! Our first stop was at a beach called Big Beach where we learned how to use the gear. We were not so good at first with both of us getting beat up by the waves. I also had fun experimenting with the underwater camera while swimming, breathing and trying not to drown. It was fun! We also went over the hill to check out the Little Beach next door which was 'interesting' to say the least ;)

After sitting on the beach a couple of hours, we decided to keep driving south to check out the La Perouse Bay area. It is a volcanic rock flow area where you could still see where the lava flowed down the mountain many years ago. It was a very strange place where the piles of dark brown/black rock still chokes out any plants from growing. There were also places where bright white rocks in piles on the black. It seemed very unnatural.

On the way home from here, we saw some people snorkeling along the road in a little cove. We decided to stop and it turned out being the best snorkeling we did the whole trip. It was calm, shallow with tons of coral and millions of bright fish. A great way to end the day.

These blue fish were so iridescent.

Finding Nemo? SO CUTE!

Can you spot the fish in this one?

That evening we ate burgers at a small burger joint and went to bed early because we had to get up at 2:30 am for our next big adventure...

Stay tuned for part 3.

Hawaii Part I - Hana: Land of Waterfalls & Bamboo

Hawaii is a place that I have always been interested in visiting for obvious reasons, but never seemed to make it there on vacation. We usually head to Europe since my sister lives there and we love international travel. However, with the stresses of planning a wedding, we figured staying in the US and lying on a beach would be the best way to de-stress from a wedding. I should have suspected though that with so many adventuress activities tempting me, the sun tanning would be at a minimum.

We flew out on a Monday morning and had a direct flight (thank you US Airways) to Maui. After picking up our rental car, a very cruisey PT Cruiser convertible, we headed down the Hana Highway to Hana. This is a very famous highway along the north shore of Maui which has 617 curves along some of the most beautiful coastal shore anywhere. It goes through the rain forest, passes numerous waterfalls and beautiful ocean vistas, and through the cutest little surfer towns where fruit is sold in little shacks. We stopped at a place called Twin Falls to explore and jumped off a couple of smaller waterfalls. There was a cool rope swing we used as well and we just marveled at how green and wet everything is. Trees grow so huge here. and have giant roots.

It took us until dark before we made it to the town of Hana. We checked into our lovely ocean view hotel room at the Hana-Kai Resort and went to ask the resort manager where we could eat. He said at 7:30 pm on a Monday night, there was only one restaurant open in town, the Hana Maui Resort up the road. That is what is great about Hana, it is tiny, and really caters to getting away from everything, including stores and options. We had Ono fish semi raw at the resort and then took a nice moon light walk along the back sand beach that was in front of our hotel. Both of us were still very tired and a little jetlegged due to the 6 hr time difference from Ohio to Maui so it was an early night for us. This pretty much became a theme the whole trip, early to bed early to rise. It was good to maximize daylight since its dark at 6:45 pm in Hawaii.

I was up early the next morning and got to watch the sun come up over the ocean from our hotel room. It was amazing and the perfect way to start our vacation. We had a breakfast of oranges, bananas and candy bars and before taking a walk on our black sand beach.

Sun rising from our balcony @ Hana-Kai Resort

Our hotel was on a black sand beach in Hana.

The plan for the day was to head to the Ocea Gulch area (known as the 7 Sacred Pools) to play in the waterfalls and take a 4 mile hike to a 400 foot fall in the jungle. We got there early and it was beautiful and deserted. We swam up to some falls and played in the gorgeous water for a while before heading up to the large falls.

The hike up to large falls was beautiful and actually passed by at least 4 other large waterfalls. It rose up into the rainforest through jungle, large strange trees many baring smelly fruit and finally a mile walk through the coolest bamboo forest I have ever seen. The bamboo was so thick that it was almost pitch dark beneath it and no undergrowth could grow at all. It was very disconcerting since you would have no sense of direction if you left the path in either direction. The hike ended at the 400 foot Waimoku falls which looked very movie set like. Overall, this hike was amazing for only being 4 pretty but wet miles.

Makahika Falls (200 ft tall 0.5 miles in)

The bamboo forest went on for a mile with no light.

Waimoku Falls (400 ft tall 2 miles in)

After leaving Ocea Gulch, the drive back to central Maui that afternoon was gorgeous along the Hana highway. We stopped to look at waterfalls along the highway, eat ono (delicious in Hawaiian) Mahi-Mahi cooked by a Hawaiian in his front yard, and watch wind-surfers at the beach known as the wind-surfing capital of the world.

Wind Surfing Capital of the World on the North Maui Shore.

We reached our Two Mermaids B&B at around 5 pm to begin our second part of the Maui Adventure. To be continued...

To put Sarah out of suspense.

Me in a dress... strange, I know, I know.

UPDATE: Wedding Slideshow

I love this photo.

Back in the Desert!

I'm back! Hawaii was terrible, very ugly and boring.

Okay I admit, I am joking. It just seems like all my posts are like "this was awesome, that was cool, things went great...etc". But truly, Hawaii was awesome. We did so many bloggable, picture takeable (made up word, i realize) things that I can't possibly dedicate one post to it, so the plan is to break it up over a few. This way, the suspense can keep building... what did they do next?

My new waterproof camera worked like a champ and was completely necessary on most days. I got tons of great pictures, some sketchy videos and a whole lotta good memories. Tom and I both feel beat up after the honeymoon. Now that is what I call a good time.

Luau Feast at Lele, Maui