What the blog!?: Pre-Departure: Hawaii [July 13

Secret Beach, Kauai. With my not-so-secret bright green running shoes.

"[The] loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored to any ocean." - Mark Twain

More than a hundred years later, Mr Twain would be pleased to know his aphorism holds true. Hawaii is beautiful. I spent a total of 8 days in Hawaii, two days on Maui and 6 on Kauai (the private island!). After I flew into Kahului airport on Maui I rested up before my big accent of Haleakala, a 10,000 foot peak in the center of the island. After the climb, I retired to my room at the Banana Bungalow, promptly passed out and woke up early the next morning to board a plane for Kauai.

I've always wanted to go to Kauai! Hearing so many incredible things about the island just prior to my departure only made me more excited to arrive. With it's knife ridged mountains, white sand beaches and amazing coast line Kauai does not disappoint. I spent time hiking the beautiful Na Pali Coast, playing in waterfalls, cliff diving, snorkeling, swimming, surfing, meeting new friends – oh, lets get to the pictures already!

Mm, but on second thought, before we do I didn't know very much about Hawaiian history before arriving in Hawaii, so one of the things I was surprised to find was a sometimes subtle (sometimes not) undercurrent of animosity from native Hawaiians towards non-natives (whites, Japanese and others). So I decided to do a little research on the history of Hawaii. So, here's...

A Brief History Lesson:

If a big wave comes in, large fishes will come from the dark Ocean which you never saw before, and when they see the small fishes they will eat them up. The ships of the white men have come... they will eat us up. - King Kamehameha IV

Unfortunately, Hawaii's history reads similar to that of native American's: an indigenous people had their land taken from them by a more advanced, economically-aggressive society. After western gunners helped Kamehameha the Great unify the islands in the late 18^th century, westerners continued to win friends and influence people (we've written books about it) around subsequent King's. It was only a matter of time before abundant natural resources made Hawaii a prime economic target.

After the westerners helped initiate the Great Mahele, which literally means "division of land", in 1848, five sugar companies came to dominate the Hawaiian economy. These “Big Five” essentially steam-rolled the native government. When the Queen proclaimed her desire for a new constitution toward the end of the 19^th century, the group formed an "Annexation Club", called in a US warship and declared a provisional government. The Rough Guide to Hawaii, an excellent guidebook, take it from here:

Democratic President Grover Cleveland responded, "Hawaii was taken possession of by the United States forces without the consent or wish of the government of the islands. It was wholly without justification, not merely a wrong but a disgrace." With phenomenal cheek, the provisional government rejected [the President's] demand for the restoration of the monarchy, saying the US should not "interfere in the internal affairs of their sovereign nation." They found defenders in the Republican US Congress and declared themselves a republic on July 4, 1894 with Sanford Dole as their first President.

So not only have you been taken over against your will, but you have a guy who owns a fruit company as your president. Crappers! To polish off the story, as US interests in the islands grew and in light of it's strategic positioning after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii became the 50^th state in 1959 after foreigners outnumbered native Hawaiians nearly 10 to 1.

So... Hawaiians, who never really wanted to become Americans, remain trapped in paradise unable to afford to live on the land that was taken from them.

However, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement seems finally to have made progress. This article from the New York Times on July 17^th, 2005 titled “Bill Giving Native Hawaiians Sovereignty Is Too Much for Some, Too Little for Others” reads:

Now, 112 years after United States troops helped overthrow the independent Kingdom of Hawaii and 12 years after Congress apologized for it, that Hawaiian distinctiveness appears close to being formally recognized by the United States government. A bill that for the first time would extend sovereignty to the native Hawaiian people is poised for a vote - and likely approval - in the United States Senate despite opposition from many Republicans who denounce the measure as unworkable and as promoting racial Balkanization.

The bill, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, is considered the most significant development for native Hawaiians since statehood in 1959. The measure would give them equivalent legal standing to American Indians and native Alaskans and lead to the creation of a governing body that would make decisions on behalf of the estimated 400,000 native Hawaiians in the United States.

As Mr. Bush would say, freedom is on the march. But not without conflict:

The measure, which took more than five years to reach the Senate floor, arises from conflicting crosscurrents in Hawaiian society, as native Hawaiians grow impatient for the United States to right the wrongs of more than a century ago, while many nonnative residents and interest groups seek to scale back entitlement programs already available to native Hawaiians.

So hopefully Native Hawaiians will get what they deserve... and a good south swell. Now, onto the good stuff!

Haleakala

The view from, um, ah route 41... yeeeah, route 41 on Maui. Haleakala rises over 10,000 feet about the clouds to the left.

The road up. From were I started, the bike ride was about 30 miles one way - all uphill! I saw many groups ride down Haleakala's slopes in bright unicolor suits with motor cycle helmets on. Each time a group would pass me I'd think "Curious things." I'm sure they had the same reaction to me. Companies advertise the rides by saying, "Bike 30 miles downhill and don't peddle once!" Hmph. Now tell me - where's the fun in that?

T'was windy! Which made for an exciting decent.

Haleakala is also a national park. The friendly rangers hand over my ticket. Ladies, ladies!

The view down into the volcanic crater.

Rock star! About 8500 vertical feet, 30 miles and 5 snicker's bars later I made it to the top. The support of the tourist was very gratifying. One lady actually posed with my bike pretending to have rode up herself. Silly goose!

Na Pali Coast

The Na Pali coast lies at the very north coast of Kauai. It's serrated cliffs that drop as much as 4000 feet into the ocean below, and it's status as a state park, have left it totally undeveloped. This is the Kauai many people, myself included, come to see. Interestingly enough, my guidebook said the word "Na Pali" and "Nepal" actually stem from the same Polynesian root meaning mountain. Baaph re baaph.

The coastal trail is a challenging 11 miles one way. I only went 2 miles into the first beach, then cut a very muddy 2 miles up the tropical valley toward the Jurassic (forgive the pun) waterfall at the trails end.

Showin' my gang sign! I am hard core!!! ...tell me the truth, does this shirt make me look fat? Does it make me look like I have boobs!?! Because I don't! I swear to God I don't!

Sneakin' a peak of the beach below.

There are so many exciting ways to die in Hawaii! (I especially love the drawings of the person being hurled by a wave in exciting-way-to-die picture #1!)

Oh no! It looks like I chose exciting-way-to-die #3! Strong current!

Them there some crazy roots!

Every good hikes needs at least one Zen-like picture. (It makes a good background for your desktop, too!)

Did I mention that the trail got muddy?

After hiking over an hour from the beach, the trail pushed out into the river. From where I stood, I looked up to the left expecting to see more overhanging trees and jungle. Instead, I was amazed to see this unbelievable waterfall a couple of hundred yards in the distance. The tree gives you a false sense of scale. It's actually in the foreground with the waterfall far in the distance...

...but hopefully those three people in the picture provide a better scale. The fall was massive.

The view from below.

The Many Faces of the Waimea Canyon

A photographic odyssey. Come with me...

Surprised!

Aghast!

Gleeful!

Just .. plain .. SEXY!!!

How do you say "adorable" in Hawaiian? Anyone?

Okay the face without-the-face of the Waimea Canyon. Click on this picture - that's one helluva view.

Koke'e State Park

With only a few day left before I headed home to San Francisco, going to Koke'e state park was a bit of risk. The only lodging I could arrange was at Camp Sloggett, a scarily named camp run by the YWCA. Koke'e, which is in the northern highlands of Kauai juxtaposed to the Ne Pali coast, is considerably cooler than the rest of the island, and the camp didn't provide any blankets, bedding or pillows. But one of the advantages of traveling alone is that I could freeze my butt off, potentially have a miserable night and have no one to blame for it except myself. Yippee! Hearing about the spectacular hikes with awesome views of the lush river valleys below, I simply couldn't stay away. So off I went. Everything turned out better than I could have hoped for (see the picture of Eric - not me - below)...

The serrated cliffs of the Ne Pali Coast.

I spent 11 miles on the Nuololo, Cliff, and Awaawapuhi trails. At times, the trail meandered through beautiful forest. At other times...

...along cliff edges! Exciting-way-to-die in Hawaii #4!

Woops, watch your step! That's a 3500 foot drop!

A little further along the trail - one of my favorite pictures.

Hawaii Friends

Trish, myself and - hey! How'd that ferret get in the picture!?! Spending a nice day at the beach.

Steven performs a very graceful back flip into a tidal pool...

...while I have spent years perfecting an alternative technique! Hey, what happened to that onlooker!?

Eric was the man. Not only did he do a helluva good job looking after the camp, he was a wonderfully laid back, intelligent and thoughtful human being (I should wright his personal add, no?). Eric hooked me up with some sweat lodging when I would have otherwise been out in the cold quiet literally. Not only is he a good guy, he has an interesting story - despite having an MBA, he picked up and left the race to settle into a more serene, dare I say conscious life in paradise. He found a good deal on some property and, after he evicted Uncle Willie, fixed the place up, got some chickens, ducks - he even built himself a tree fort and found a nice lady to move in with him! Not bad for a city slicker! Thanks for everything, Eric! (Must be the name.)