Happy Halloween!!

My sister hooked us up with a condo in the resort-choked Ka'anapali for two nights which was a blessing to have during all the hubbub of Halloween in Lahaina. In the morning we went back up to Honolua Bay where you have to hike through a small forest before you get to its rocky shore, and I snorkeled despite a sore throat and major headache. The bay is partially brackish water so you have to swim pretty far out to get clearer visibility. There was also a lot of leaf debris. The wana (sea urchins) like to disguise themselves with pieces of shell or coral, but all the wana here wrapped themselves in fallen leaves! Snorkeling is da bomb! I love floating over coral and swimming with the brightly colored fish. Saw some I've never seen before. Neat. I saw a huge moral eel poking his head from out under a rock, his jaw opening and closing, all those sharp little teeth making him look so menacing. There were the hugest papi'o I've ever seen, maybe 3 feet long. They're usually a deep sea fish and it was surprising to see them here. My favorite part of this session was encountering a school of some kind of silver fish. They were in a long line so I just swam alongside this shimmering wall, at times about 10 feet tall. Way cool!
Then back to the condo to get dressed. I forgot that mom was a professional wig fitter back in the 70's, and I was impressed with her hair hiding technique: braiding my hair 4 ways, pinning it just so, "it's all about the criss cross" she said, and making hair "latches" in the front and back so the wig doesn't slip around.
Mom was a devil-ette. Jimi was hit! I felt like a total celebrity with everyone calling out, "Jimi!" "Hey Hendrix!" "Dude Purple Haze!" "Play me a song" or "I remember those days!" I had to pose for a million pictures too, probably going to be all over the internet. We just walked up and down Front Street in Lahaina and ran into Garth, Elvis, and Jesus! among other great costumes. No other Jimis though, and at least 10 Jack Sparrows. If we had all night I would have entered the $1000 costume contest, but we left after a few hours when it started to rain and I was feeling really lousy.

West Maui

Made our way up to the dry and calm-watered West Maui, and then to the rougher north part of West Maui to Nakalele Blowhole. What a crazy thing of nature - the waves crash under the rocks and shoots out of this one hole, sending a tower of water straight up into the air, making a rainbow with its spray. The area around it looks alien with strangely eroded rocks.
We attempted to go snorkeling at the famous Honolua Bay, which is also infamous for car break-ins, but as we pulled up, there was a guy who had just gotten robbed! He was stupid enough to leave all his valuables on shore while he went snorkeling way out there with no one to watch his stuff. Two other people got hit at the same time, so we decided to come back in the morning, but mom helped them out with the use of her cell phone and a $40 loan.

Decided to end the day at Dragon's Teeth - another wind and water eroded alien landscape.

Red Sand Beach

(I was able to re-upload pictures from past blog entries, so you can scroll down and check em out. Gonna try to continue where I left off here....)

Before leaving Hana I wanted to do one more thing to do: Find (and swim in) the elusive Red Sand Beach. To get there we had to bushwhack past an old Japanese cemetery and hike along the backside of Ka'uiki Head on a narrow sliding cinder rock trail. A local guy was heading there as well so we asked him to lead the way. Once we turned the corner there was a stunning view of the inside of the cinder cone, collapsed and eroded by waves to create a private red sand cove. There were only 2 other guys there plus our trail guide and it was apparent that if you wanted to fit in, it wasn't about what kind of clothes you were wearing... At 10:00am we were already sweatin', so I took a (skinny) dip to cool off. Ahhhhhh! Nothing beats refreshing Hawaiian ocean covering every inch of your skin in the morning.
Visited an orchid and exotic plant farm (major tourist trap; they only let you run around for 4 minutes to smell the orchids, then they take you down to their gift shop! poor tourists...)
and then Kahanu Garden and Pi'ilanihale Heiau (sacred Hawaiian temple) - the largest in the state. Built with hand-placed lava rock, no concrete, this heiau is the size of two football fields. I could only fit half of it in the frame. The Garden had various native Hawaiian food and medicinal plants like taro, banana, sweet potato, awa, noni, as we all very large spiders! (sorry 'bout all the gross close-up bug stuff - but it's my blog and I can post what I want to! :)

Drove down the lush Nahiku Road to the coast and observed some clueless tourists taking photos of each other on very treacherous wave-splashed rocks. As we were driving away, I noticed one of the girls was juggling something which I thought was an avocado at first, but after my eyes zeroed in on it, I felt this furious Hawaiian pride well up inside me and in my best gandalf-you-shall-not-pass! voice I boomed out of my car window to her, "You can't take that rock with you. I'm serious. You can't remove rocks from Hawaii. Go put it back." I didn't explain why but was satisfied when I saw her take the fist-sized smooth rock back to the ocean. It is a fact that tourists who have taken pieces of Pele home with them fall deathly ill with her curse until they mail the rock back to Hawaii.

Checked out windsurfers flying across the water and surfers gliding by in the foreground from Ho'okipa Lookout. Maui is the windsurfing capital of the world and this is definitely where the action is.

uploading problems....

sorry folks, i'm having uploading problems. big bummer. i had stayed up til 3am blogging, only to find that none of the images were online! I managed to put some back on there, but there are many that still need to go on. But alas, we are off again for a few days to West Maui to spend Halloween in Lahaina, so I won't be able to post until we get back.

Metamorphosis

Near the cottage Mom noticed a crown flower bush which she said attracts monarch butterflies. Upon closer inspection sure enough there were a handful of those classic black/white/green caterpillars AND a chrysalis! Way cool! There was one caterpillar getting into metamorphosis position, so we made a mental note to check up on him the next day.

We walked back up to the bush and looked for our friend. We couldn't believe it! In 24 hours (or less) our dangling caterpillar had turned into a shiny green chrysalis! Whoa! How do they do that?

MEANWHILE, on a lower leaf I noticed some action taking place: a wasp had attacked a caterpillar and was devouring it before our eyes! The poor dude had its green guts spilled all over the place. Mr. Waspy chewed off his head (I think) and flew away, leaving the gruesome green remains for a CHAMELEON to witness! This all happened within 60 seconds, I'm not kidding you. I think I should be working for Discovery Channel or something, eh?

Pipiwai Trail

After a breakfast of poi, ulu, and banana, we walked down to Hana Pier in the morning to see the unusually rough water there, and see the sun start to warm Ka'uiki Head, the large red cinder cone that dominates the area.

Then we drove further south to Kipahulu to hike the Pipiwai Trail. This has to be one of my favorite hikes in all of Hawaii - actually it's in my Top 5. It starts out climbing past ferns and smooth brown-skinned branches of guava trees.

Then you get to visit huge old mangos and one majestic banyan tree. The air is thick with the sweet smell of fallen guava and mango. A half mile up there is a view of 200 ft Makahiku Falls, fed by Infinity Pool. You can get to the pool by a short detour from the trail and gaze down the falls all the way to the ocean.

After passing several more rushing falls and serene pools, you enter The Bamboo Forest. This is the crowning jewel of the hike. The trail leads you through tall hallways of large smooth green bamboo stalks.

Mom and I went off trail to wait for gusts of wind to blow, making large sections of bamboo sway and swirl above us, giving us peaks of bright blue sky, creating an energized rustling of leaves and then an orchestra of deep hollow knocking of the stalks. Most of the trail through the bamboo portion is on a charming boardwalk to keep you above the mud. In some places you wouldn't know it was a bright sunny day because the canopy's coverage was so complete it felt like nighttime!

The 2-mile trail terminates at the base of 400 ft Waimoku Falls. You have to rock hop across two streams to get there. The falls are so tall you almost fall backwards craning your neck just to get a look at the top of it. We had lunch there enjoying the breezy mist of the plunging water. Now I am covered in mosquito bites (literally, my right arm has at least 30 bites).

On the way back to Hana we checked out surfers at Hamoa Beach, and then stopped at Koki Beach to press our tired overheated feet into the soft cool moist sand. This beach has an arresting cinder cone at the far end, and when I reread my guidebook it said that Oprah Winfrey owns it!
Stayed at Aloha Cottage a 2nd night. Ducked in just in time to take refuge from the rain. It comes down hard here! And the wind seems to kick up at the same time. After it cleared Mom and I lounged outside talking story in a breeze that was warm but not hot, cool but not cold. In other words, perfect. I pondered the fact that my parents stayed in Aloha Cottage 30 years ago. I thought, hey, I'm 30! Perhaps I was conceived here!