Hawai'i - Day 7

Today we got up rather leisurely. We awoke at about 7AM, but really didn't get moving until about 8:30, finally leaving the cabana at 9AM. We should have gotten going much sooner, because we knew that the tour buses from Central and Western Maui would get to Hana at about noon. But its Maui... hard to feel pressured to do much of anything.

We went to the Eastern side of the State park named Haleakala, the same park with the giant volcano. This time we got to see the tropical side of the park. The other, was a desert in sharp contrast to the beauty of this side. We hiked up a 1.8 mile hike with total 800 ft elevation. It was rather warm and, of course, extremely humid. The good and bad thing about this park is that it is surrounded by trees. The good thing about that is that you stay shaded for most of the hike, sheltering you from the equatorial sun. However, the bad thing about this is that the air is rather stagnant, and you don't get much of a breeze. The summit of the hike is an amazing waterfall, that I would guess to be at least 600 ft tall. So the trail itself goes along the stream that is created by this waterfall. We kept passing deep pools in the volcanic rock as we went toward the waterfall. The last third of the hike was an AMAZING bamboo forest. We thought of Ang Lee when filming "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". The forest was so thick that it almost completely blocked out the sun. The hike was pretty flat at this point, and the park service provided us with a boardwalk through this bamboo forest. We also found some berries that looked like a cross behind a raspberry and a strawberry... and we both tried it before we knew if it was safe to eat. Team Norris always things with the gut. It didn't taste like much.. definately not like a strawrapsberry, more like sweet dirt. The forest ranger assured us that it was safe to eat, but didn't have a name for them, other than "berries". Go National Park Service! When we finally reached the climax of the hike we were awarded with an amazing view... and discovered that the waterfall was easily accesable from trail.. in fact the trail went basically right into the water. This goes right against what we had been told by people hiking down... that there was no water access, and nothing to swim in. We didn't see a single wet person coming down. When we did reach the top we saw a few people swimming in the little pool under the waterfall, but not as many as you would think. There were 5 people in the pool and 30 people watching them in the pool. Were they scared? Were they cold? Was the water contaminated? We decided that they were just dumb. The hike got us very warm, so Molly and I, of course, jumped right in and immediately soaked ourselves under the cool water. We stayed for 20 minutes or so and decided to head back down to beat the major rush to the 7 sacred pools.

The hike down was much easier and faster than the hike up. We didn't really get hot because were still pretty wet.

At the bottom we got our our picnic lunch of ham and jarlsburg sandwiches and fruit juice. Molly suprised me with a lemon-mango-shortbread cookie which was yummy. After lunch we lathered our tired bodies with lots and lots of sunscreen and headed to the short trail (1/2 mile level hike round trip) to the 7 sacred pools. When we got them it was already crowded. However the most inaccessable, and highest of the pools was pretty much vacant. Just one couple up there... so obviously we went up there. It was the only pool not filled with teenagers and screaming kids. I should say that it is also the largest of the pools, being about 60 yards in diameter, roughly, with a large waterfall at one end, and drained into the second largest pool at the other end (via another waterfall). The trail to get up to this other pool was challenging with flip flops (no, not molly... she, for once, had proper water proof climbing sandals). The pool was about 68-70 degrees... cool compared to the 85 degree air, but felt wonderful. Molly immediately swam for the waterfall, and I followed. The current was strong... Molly was strong enough of a swimmer to reach it that way, I edged along the rocks. Some of the previously mentioned teenagers saw us up there, and decided that was the place to be, so it got pretty croweded not long after we got up there. The sky started to look a little ominous, so we decided to take the hike down before it started to rain.

It started to rain before got all of the way down, and I broke a flip flop... just my luck. So the rocks were slick, my flip flop was flip floppy... but we took it slow and made it down ok. It started to rain harder, and then everyone left. A rain storm in hawaii is not like a rain storm in Kansas... they only last 15 minutes tops, and its nice and warm. However, every other person there was shivering and cold... Molly and I were just fine, so we decided to explore some other pools, nearer to the ocean. We sat and enjoyed this wonder of nature for about 15 minutes, and eventually stopped raining and people started pouring back in, at a much faster rate than before... Tour groups. These people were the biggest babies I've ever seen, with sweatshirts and rain gear and constantly asking other idiots how cold the water is, and one person described it as "glacial"... dumbass. The hike back to the car was bombarded with questions about how much futher the pools (only 1/4 mile, level, easy walk.. remember?) and if it was worth the walk? WORTH THE WALK? Why the heck did you get on the damn bus if you didn't want to see the stupid pools? Whatever, I fear no hike... only stupid people in their SUVs on the road on the way back. The 9 mile drive from the park to your cabana took almost an hour. And we followed a mother f*@#ing tour bus.

We stopped at the store and got some ice cream and looked for replacment flip flops for my giant feet... with no avail. Oh, and we also ate a hot-dog. It tasted good after all of the hiking and swimming and white knuckled driving.

Came back to the cabana and opened some wine, got into the hot tub, overlooking the ocean, and smelling the amazing tropical flowers here. We also took a little tour of the grounds here to see all of the different fruits and flowers they have. (This place sells exotic flowers also).

And that is the day! Tonight we plan on cooking up some Ahi, with a light alfredo pasta and some very ripe avacados. One of the gardeners here offered to bring us down a couple of papayas, fresh off of the tree today. To bed early tonight to hit the seven pools again early tomorrow, and then one more hike tomorrow afternoon, on our last day of vacation.

Enjoy the pictures!

Hawaii - Day 6