pa'ia and the hike

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thursday afternoon, we took an easy day on the tours and went to hang out at the beach and in pa'ia, a hippie hawaiian town. pretty easygoing day. got some good shopping done in hippie town (go figure) and even had some hawaiian shave ice for the first time. i chose coconut, mango and papaya as flavours of choice!

we then got a special treat from our tour guide isaac. isaac and his wife laina are leaving for a year in australia in 2 weeks and are therefore finishing up with work and what not. yesterday was his last friday tour, and since he's leaving, he has decided to make all his last tours special... which means doing stuff that we're not usually suppose to do. so he took us to this secret waterfall, where the land owners who are hippies have a restraining order against the hostel (long story, but basically, one of the guests ended up jumping from the top of the waterfall and shattered both ankles, had to be helicoptered out, and the owners said "no more of you crazy hostelers here!". the hostel continued to come, and then the owners put a restraining order). so we got to go there, and it was absolutely amazing! small waterfall, but nice water and great times. we then went to this small road that was originally used by local women a long time ago to access the birthing pool and give birth. this road lead to the ocean, with magnificient landscapes and a small path that lead to the bottom of the rocks. needless to say, we got back at the hostel a bit late (2 hours), but truly satisfied with our tour! bed came early, mainly because of the 3am wake-up, but also because the next day was going to be our hike in the volcano!!!

saturday started off with an early wake-up to leave the hostel at 9:30am and do the haleakalá hike in the crater. we got to the top of the peak where we had watched the sunrise the previous morning and started our hike at 12noon. we hiked 12 miles. yes, miles. down to the bottom, across, and back up on the other side. the most amazing hike ever, with beautiful views. the volcano hasn't erupted in 250 years, so it is pretty safe there, but all the rock inside is volcanic and whenever you walk, the sound is different because that kind of rock is so different. it sounds more high pitched... and the rocks are so light. there is a special specie of plant in haleakalá known as silversword that glitters in the light. kind of like a fern with a green base and sparkly stuff on it. it grows flowers and smells like honey. another specie that is unique here is the néné bird, who are close to extinction. appparently, the néné bird is actually a decendent of the canadian goose. a long time ago, a flock of canadian geese got lost while migrating south, and landed in hawai'i. they apparently liked it so much that they never left... evolution did its work and the species evolved to the néné bird - which kinda resembles a goose, but smaller and not the same colours (greyish and more varied feather gradients). they're pretty cool birds and we got to see a couple when we were there! our hike finished at 8000 feet, where we drove to the top to see the sunset and let me tell you... i don't cry at a lot of stuff, but this sunset absolutely blew my mind and i had to have a moment. it was hands down, the most beautiful sunset i've ever seen. sun setting above the cloud line, with the island outlines below... the colours and the scenery... absolutely magnificient.

the ride back down was quite painful as we all wanted showers, bathrooms and food desperately... early night for me tonight!

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Comments

[jane]

money in the bank
Hi Louise, I just wanted to let you know that I cashed the cheque for you on Sat. and had no problems so if you wanted to buy something that you could not afford you've got the cash!!! hee hee. I love hearing about your stories.. sometimes you are so in the right place at the right time! Have a great rest of the trip! be safe.. Love janer