Day 7 - Maui - Ioa Valley

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Well today was the first of the free tours were were able to attend while staying at the Banana Bungalow Hostel. Jordan opted out of the tour. He hadn't slept very well. Not surprising. The mattress he was given was wafer thin, it must have been like sleeping on the floor.

So he stayed back which was sort of a bonus as we really want to go on the tour tomorrow and as you aren't alllowed to sign up for the next days' tour till after the current one has left, we got a jump on the others and a guaranteed spot. But enf about tomorrow let's talk about today.

Today we met our tour guides - Nadine and Henry. They do these tours on a daily basis 7 days a week along with one or 2 others to share the load with. Henry has just recently recovered from having a broken foot so he wasn't going to be able to do the hike, just take us on the bus and leave us in Nadine's capable hands.

The Ioa Valley was only a few minutes away from where we were staying, but on the way there, we stopped off at a memorial garden. It is a garden that was put up as a tribute to many workers who were brought over to work the land with the promise of bg money, the chance to bring over their families and given a chance at a new life. But it never happened. They were pretty uch forced to work their whole lives to repay the debt and were never given anything they were promised. The garden was dedicated to them to say thank you and sorry.

There are individual exhibits for the Korean, Chinese and Filipino workers that came over. It is a very pretty and tranquil place.

A little further up the road we reached our desination. The Iao Valley is very important in Hawaiian history as this was the place they fled too when they were at war wit the British (I believe Captain Cook was involved). At the time it was thought that they could protect themselves from higher ground as they had the advantage of being abe to see all around and all the way down to the harbour. They supposedly also stole a cannon from Captain Cook and hauled it up the mountain.

I'm sorry you can't see the pictures I took. It really is an impressive sight. Anyhow - the plan was to climb to the top of one of the smaller mountains, however, we weren't that much lower than the other mountains around us. The climb took about an hour but I had to say the pace was really rapid. The last 10-15mins were the hardest and I was puffing considerably. It was really steep by comparison to what we had already accomplished.

On the way up - when I could take a moment to look around and not get left behind - I was hoping to see a chamelion or 2. Nadine had mentioned that they were now at the point of being invasive in the park but try as I might, I didn't see any. guess they were in hiding.

I did get to try an Hawaiian raspberry that was growing along the trek. there were also strawberry guava (which we had tried at Princeville) and cocoa beans which apparently taste nothing like coffee. I couldn't say for sure as they trees appeared to be picked fairly clean of most things, finding something ripe was a fairly rare event.

We stayed atthe top for nolonger than 10 minutes I guess when we were told we were heading back down to go for a swim, For the trip down, we were given 2 options. We could go back the way we came, else here was a shortcut for part of it. The catch... it was almost straight down!! Tho it wa a much shorter trek.

Consulting with Madison, she opted to take the shortcut, so off we went. Nadine wasn't kidding about the steepness. At one point Maddy lost her footing and was almost running down the hill. I was behind her and could do nothing but watch. It was rather frightening to see in my minds eye her literally rolling down the hill. Thankfully she regained he footing and was able to steady herself, but it was definately a heart stopping moment there for awhile.

Once things levelled out. She forged on ahead trying to catch up with the part of the group that was ahead of us. The rest of the group behind me seemed to have fallen back and so I was stumbling thru the foliage on my own for probably 15 or so minutes praying that I was still on the right track.. It wasn't that hard to stay on track really and as I went along I recognised things we had passed on th way up - but it would have been better for my piece of mind to be able to see the group ahead of me.

Thankfully I found them all not far from the end of the trail and I was able to finish the rest of he hike with them. I had to say this for Maddy. She is certainly not afraid to have a go at things. She had to be wandering on her own for some time after she left me before she caught up to the others and losing her footing iks she did, she didn't freak out. She just kept on going.

When we got to the bottom, we headed to the stream to go for a swim. It was a taad too chilly for most of us, but Maddy and I ventured across the stream, chosing to cross over the rocks. The way back was a little harder and we opted to wade thru the stream for part of it. I should hve known that helping Maddy across would result in me getting wet. I tried to help her between the rocks and she managed to pushme in while keeping herself on top!! All I can say is thankfully it wasn't deep, I only got a wet butt and the camer managed to stay out of the water.

The trek is not an easy one. It is single file the whole way and often the foligae is pressed right up against you from all sides. It ground is often went and muddy, especially near the top and that was the most difficult part of the trek. My knees were complaining loudly by the time we reached the top. Tho it was my toes that protested on the way down. I seemed to be sliding within my shoes trying to descend carefully and hit the end of my shoe with each step I took. I was very grateful when everythng began to level out.

Then it was back to the Banana Bunaglow and tiem to check on JT. He seemed to be faring better than when we left and had dutifully signed us all up for the tour for tomorrow. We took a quick wanted up to a small shopping mart just a short way up the street that hadn't been opened when we arrived to grab some meat to cook on the BBQ for dinner. Maddy opted for pork, I got some steak and Jordan a T-bone. It certainly wasn't my finest effort. THe meat was quite thick and hard to judge if was cooked enough, so some parts ended up being under done and inedible adn the potato chips were a bit of a failure as well. Oh well. We got fed.

So we are heading to bed now for an earlish night due to it being a 12 hour tour tomorrow leaving by 8:30amd. Jordan has just started complaining of bad stomach pains and of course there is no heat pack or hot water bottle to be found on the premises. HAve given him some tablets and hopefully he will get to sleep fairly quick. If he isnt better in the morning, i might need to head to a pharmacy and see what I can get to assist him.Fingers crossed it all blows over by morning.

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