Will it Float?



Chris' boat actually looks nicer in this photo than it does in real life. We took it out spearfishing Saturday. This spearfishing stuff is harder than I imagined. Chris got two fish in about three hours. I got zero. I had one goatfish on the spear but it got away. The highlight was listening to Humpback Whales sing underwater and eating our catch the next day.

We went spearfishing a few weeks ago, also. On that trip, Chris woke up a shark that was sleeping under a ledge by shooting a fish as it passed by. If someone threw some steaks on the grill right outside my bedroom window, I'm sure I'd wake up, too.

Returning to the dock was pretty fun. A DLNR guy was inspecting boats and trailers. It seems most folks don't have their trailers safety inspected and what not. I'm sure the guy took one look at our boat and assumed he'd be writing some citations. He was a bit surprised when Chris produced the necessary papers, stickers and safety equiptment. The man next to us with a fancy, big boat, brand new trailer and a shiny, jacked up truck did get a ticket.

Chris later told me he paid more to get the boat registered than he paid for the boat. That, I believe.

Goin' fishin'- this way beats shopping:

A Little Toilet Humor

There's always a problem in the women's bathroom at work. This time it's a leaky pipe leading into one of the toilets. Instead of fixing the leak, management placed a cup under the pipe to catch the water. Over time, the leak accelerated, so now a large, deep vase is required. I couldn't resist. I took one look at that and ran out into the atrium to gather foliage for an arrangement. Turned out pretty nice, didn't it?

Pahala Pig Path

We recently took a group of folks for a hike up a pig hunter's trail through native forest mauka of Pahala. The highlights were meeting some new, interesting people and watching Ken make several attempts to drive his truck up the steep, dirt road. (no problem for my Jeep, of course) The disappointment of the hike was our failed sledding attempt. I carried a genuine saucer sled up the trail in hopes of sliding down a moss-covered stream bed. It didn't work.

My dad, Chris and I:

Surf Safari

A surf day turned into quite the adventure. We paddled out from the beach at Honokohau, and found a spot about a 1/3 mile out with some fun waves. We were getting some good rides and I was happy, but I think Chris was getting impatient waiting between sets. You know how the grass is always greener down the road...we paddled the entire length of the harbor beach scouting better spots, catching waves as we went. Then a few good sized sets rolled in and I got pounded a little, then spent some time fighting white water. We were now about a mile from our starting point and I wasn't about to paddle back. So we opted to walk back, but our ocean exit was less than graceful. Rough a`a lava lined the shoreline. It was just too shallow to paddle, and whitewater made it impossible to see where you were putting your feet. My ocean luck finally ran out, I stepped on my first wana (venomous sea urchin) Kicking my leg to get the needle-sharp spines out of my foot made me loose my balance on the board and the waves smashed it into the rocks. Then I had the challenge of balancing over razor sharp lava with wana foot while carrying a nine foot board.

Honu
The incident was worth it, though, because on the hike back we saw on the beach what was by far the biggest sea turtle we had ever seen. It was massive! Then we gazed up at the view of snow covered Mauna Loa. Lucky we live Hawaii.

Close call
We returned to Chris' house for lunch and for a surf board repair session. On our way back from the hardware store we observed a truck with a trailer that had lost its brakes coming down La`aloa. It had slammed through a rock wall on Ali`i Drive. It must have happened just minutes after Chris and I sat at that intersection on his motorcycle. Chris figures we escaped death by a minute or two. Weird.

Enough Already!
Having our fill of adventure for one day, we chose to end with a romantic, full moon stroll along Ali`i Drive and on Kailua Pier.

Yet More Caving

We're still scouring the island for caves. We have a map of Goat Skull cave and we've been looking for a way in. Chris found two leads on aerial photos so we went looking again. The first lead turned out to be a skylight, but it had about a 40 foot drop, so we had no way to get in. Steel rods pounded into nearby lava were evidence that someone else has rappelled into the cave. We hiked mauka for a ways and found a tiny entrance. We smashed some of the lava covering the hole so we could fit inside, and away we went! The cave went a good half mile and it was large enough to stand up in most of the time. The best news is, there's still more fun to be had. We found one more skylight on our hike back, and we still have the other lead from the aerial photo.

Our entry. We had to smash some of the lava out of the way to make the entrance big enough.

Ill-equipped. We'd need mountain climbing gear to get into this one.

Hau`oli Makahiki Hou

I know I'm a little late with the New Year's post. I've been busy as usual, and I refuse to forgo fun so I can update the blog.

Here's my New Year's in a nutshell. Chris sent these beautiful roses to me at work on New Year's Eve. That night, we attended a party where we ate homemade pig and sheep sausage and light off fireworks all night. One of my favorite firework inventions was stuffing an old wreath with fireworks, then lighting it on fire.

Retraction

I may have recently posted inaccurate information. Jerri's nephew claimed to have built the beer tree, but now I don't believe him. He emailed Jerri this week to complain about other people's drunkenness at a Christmas party. An interesting position from a beer tree builder, don't you think? I Googled "beer tree", and discovered the photo is all over the internet. Plus, the vegetation doesn't look like Texas, where Jerri's nephew lives. I should have checked my facts before printing the picture. It's a beautiful tree, though, isn't it?

More Caving

Chris and I went back to the area north and mauka of the airport to look for more caves. His map shows a long one out there, but we haven't found the entrance yet. We did find a few short caves and neat places to poke around in. One went about a 1/4 mile (see picture with Chris standing in the exit) Another cave had a Willy Wonka chocolate ceiling.

Hoppy Holidays

Jerri's nephew decided to spread some Christmas cheer by creating this Christmas beer tree. I'll bet it's beautiful all light up at night. We don't know how many hours it took him to stack the Grolsch bottles or how many weekends it took to empty the bottles. It's a good thing he lives in Texas where they're not prone to earthquakes.

Beside the Still Water

(GAME! Name that Psalm:10 points to the first person who knows which Psalm contains the title of this blog post.)

We hiked out to this queen's bath near Waikoloa. The water was calm, cool and refreshing.

Plane Wreck!

Chris and I drove around the back side of Mauna Kea last weekend and hiked to a plane wreck. He has been eyeing the site for years and even had it marked on his GPS so he could one day go find it. We were expecting a Cessna, but it turned out to be a small jet. Chris was amazed at the number of complex mechanical parts strewn across the mountain. The engine was the farthest piece from the plane, it flew about 100 yards past the body of the aircraft. It makes me wonder what caused the plane to crash, where was it headed, and who were the people who met their maker unexpectedly that day on Mauna Kea?

I'm feeling thankful

As I reflect on the goodness in my life it's obvious there's lot more to Thanksgiving than good company and a plate full of turkey. What I have I owe to God, he has really blessed me.

I could go on about my family and the friends I have and how much they add to my life. I could tell you about the joys of exploring the island every weekend in my shiny, jacked-up Jeep. I could be, and I am, thankful for my ability to hold down a good job that supplies all the gas, steak, Brew Pub trips, scuba gear rentals and ipods I could ever want.

I'm grateful for all of these things. But they seem minor when compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. It blows my mind, a God bigger and more holy than anything I can ever understand, is also more loving than I'll ever comprehend. I'm amazed that he makes himself known to those who seek him, and that he offers us salvation. When I realize our magnificent God chose to make himself known to me, I'm completely blown away. I'm not sure the words thanksgiving, gratefulness or gratitude fully grasp what I feel.

Tread Head

If my dirt bike lessons with Chris continue, maybe one day I'll live up to my college nickname, Tread Head. Nate first called me that at an AMA Supercross race in Indianapolis in 1996. I don't know if I've ever seen anything as delightful as Jeremy McGrath launching his bike 30 feet into the air, dirt flying, and smoke filling my nostrils.


I've never driven a motorcycle before, so for now it's slow going- practicing an obstacle course made of soup cans. I did pop my fist wheelie and lay a little rubber in the church parking lot, so I think there's potential.

Going Underground

Chris and I explored the area mauka of the airport in search of lava tubes. We parked near the Tripple Puka Cave (the huge lava tube you see from the highway) and followed it up hill. We explored a few dead ends, then we climbed into a huge skylight and discovered that cave kept going. At times the ceiling was 15 feet high and other spots required crawling. My favorite section was the double deck (pictured below) We popped out the bottom of cave and realized there was another cave above us. After plenty of fun and adventure we climbed out a small skylight to discover we had gone about 3/4 mile from where we started. Chris has a map of a couple more caves in the area, so there's more fun to be had next time!

Our exit:


A double decker. We came out the bottom cave to realize there was another cave above us to explore.

Dive Day

A group of 10 WHT employees took to the sea today on a diving adventure. Our first dive was at 8AM at 4-mile on Alii Drive. The highlight was finding a white tip reef shark sleeping in a cave.

Our next dive spot was at the harbor. We saw a ray (eagle ray I thing) tons of garden eels, a moray eel, and watched Travis's shenanigans- he let a shrimp climb in his mouth and clean his teeth.

I'm happy to know the underwater housing for my digital camera holds up- it made it to 93 feet and didn't leak a drop.

Eagle Ray:

Travis with a shrimp in his mouth:


Part of the WHT dive team: Lorelei, John, Kestrel and Andi.

We didn't get to see his teeth

I think I've mentioned before I carry a camera in the water as shark insurance. I figure I'll never get close to a shark when I have the chance to take his picture. But this reasoning proved to be untrue, as evidenced by the video below.

We were diving at the 4 mile marker off Alii Drive today and came across a small white tip reef shark sleeping in a cave. He didn't like my flash going off in his face so I didn't take many stills.

Here comes Halloween...

The fun is just getting started. Carolyn threw a fun Halloween bash at her place last night. We showed Korben no mercy during a water fight in the pool, ate junk food and carved pumpkins. Ken gets my vote for creepiest pumpkin, see above.

Sargent Slaughter and Miss Indiana

Exploring Puuanahulu

Saturday brought another hiking adventure. We parked Chris's truck on the lower road above Keawaiki and entered the point in the GPS. We parked my car off the upper road at Puuanahulu and began our seven mile journey. This uncertain hike worked out a bit better than the one in Pahala two weeks ago. The Jeep road we started on went farther than the map showed so we didn't have to traverse any a`a, and the last three miles brought easy hiking across a 1959 pahoehoe flow. My favorite terrain was the deep, fluffy dirt at the base of the hillside. It felt like walking through powder snow.

We saw some wicked wiliwili trees and tasted the fruit from a lama tree. The entire Kona landscape would have been covered with these native trees at one time, yet in seven years this is the first one I remember seeing. Another highlight was exploring a lava tube by the light of the GPS unit and a digital camera. They provided just enough light to keep us from hitting our head on the ceiling or stepping on goat skulls.

Inside the lava tube- note brown goat skull with horns in center:

Perils of Paradise

Living in the tropics has its disadvantages. I've never considered ants to be more than a nuisance. That's before the power windows broke in my Jeep. While troubleshooting the intermittent problem, I suspected a loose wire in the fuse box. When the windows became stuck open I broke down and took the car into the dealership. The cause of the problem? Ants ate the relay for the windows.

I had been fighting ants in the Jeep for a few weeks prior. The neighbors were probably growing concerned by my singing of Metallica's Creeping Death (Die by my hand...)every evening while I smashed ants and sprayed poison in the car. I never connected the broken windows and the ants. Apparently, ants eating the electronic components in cars is not uncommon in Hawaii. I've been told to leave a perimeter between my vehicle and any bushes, and not to park under the fountain trees at work.

Ant powder on the fuse box in the engine compartment:

The shortest distance between two points...

...is a straight line.

But the shortest isn't always the best, as evidenced by Saturday's hiking adventure. Chris spotted ancient ruins on a map in a remote area below Pahala town more than six years ago and he's been aching to get down there ever since. He attempted the trek once with a guy who turned back because he wasn't prepared for the amount of "hardship" he'd have to endure on this particular hike.

We started on a road at the edge of a mac nut farm, but the road didn't go the direction we wanted to head so we bushwhacked for three miles through six-foot tall grass, thorn bushes, weeds that conceal cracks in the lava, rough a`a lava, and finally my favorite, the weed covered a`a field. According to the GPS, we kept a very straight line all the way to our destination. No wasted effort; that made us proud.

We were disappointed when we found the spot, however. The coastline was beautiful but ordinary. The ruins consisted of a few rock walls littered with old beer bottles, an interesting rock table and piles of opihi shells- nothing we haven't seen before. Chris was expecting a canoe launch site, fresh water, trees, something "magical." To add insult to injury, a boat load of fishermen and all their junk littered the cliff. So much for going "where no man has gone before."

We were relieved to find a road and decided to hike that out, even if it meant going five miles out of the way. Instead, it lead right back to the orchard and nut farm. It was the very road we started out on! Why did we ever stray from that path? All I could do was laugh.

Don't let this dismal report fool you. We both had fun...good times, good company. It gives new meaning to the phrase, "the joy in in the journey."

Making use of a stone table and chairs

This is where we decided to stray from the road and head through the woods. Why did I decide to wear a tank top and shorts?