After awhile, the ladies and I just posted up around the hot pizza spot and started making life plans. One of these plans was in the immediate, future- we organized a hike up in Olinda at the Waihou Spring Forest Reserve. The hike is on a cypress forest and it reminded me soooo much of the Midwest/East Coast forests I'm familiar with.
The drive up the mountain was like driving through aroma therapy- windows down we could smell the hundreds of eucalyptus trees we were under. We stopped the car and picked a few eucalyptus leaves- if you break them the smell just explodes out- oh my goodness. Incredible.
The cypress forest is all human-planted so the trees are in straight lines, very reminiscent of the CCC forests in MI. It is used to research the best growing conditions for lumber. The trail was very open at first, a large, clear path through extremely straight and tall-towering trees. One tree caught my eye on the first stretch, its branches reminded me of 'eagle arms' in yoga, tall and strong but wound and bound together. Beautiful.
We reached the 'switch back' trail I'd heard about from the Kula-family and embarked on our very steep, slippery dust, trek down. It seemed like a long walk and we weren't exactly sure what we were looking for. I was told that there were old irrigation tunnels that came out near the bottom but they weren't described to look like the tunnels I saw in Olowalu. So, we took our time and arrived at the bottom and were totally astounded by the sight we were greeted by. The entire way down, we hadn't seen it, but there was a maaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssive wall of rock with 2 rows of about 5 irrigation tunnel openings in the side of it. The valley floor was covered in huge boulders and big rocks covered in several shades and textures of green moss. After we stopped gawking at its beauty and the ways it reminded us of places on the mainland- we climbed up near it and checked out the irrigation tunnels. I peeked my head in and 'saw light at the end of the tunnel'- meaning that the stone 'holes' we saw were connected. We shined a flashlight in and crouched and walked in- it was big enough to comfortably move but not big enough to stand. I felt like a little gnome crawling through the mountainside. It solidified my halloween costume plans. We took some pictures, I perched on a huge boulder and saw a coffin-shaped and sized rock directly under the spot I was most likely to slip off and decided it was a sign to get down haha. We headed back up the very steep, switch-back hike and were off on our second half of our adventure day.
We went to a beach in Makena to watch the sunset and swim. Its awesome that we were in a cool spot in the afternoon and headed to a hot spot for the evening- I'm starting to get used to microclimates and the ability to 'choose' the weather I get to experience on my days off.
I drove home and got some yogurt and chocolate at whole foods- I bought a chocolate bar made 'in house' called 'chuao honeycomb bark" it reminds me of seafoam in extra yummy dark chocolate bar form.
I worked at school today and worked a little bit at home. I went to yoga and talked to this dude at yoga that has reminded me of my buddy Andy at home since I first met him a few weeks ago. I had been introduced to him in passing before but didn't really catch his name. Tonight, I found out that HIS NAME IS ANDREW ANDERSON. ANDY ANDERSON. I call MI- Andy, Randy, ANDERSON ALL THE TIME! So, needless to say, I'll remember his name now.
Made a yummy veggie curry egg scramble when I got home with a lot of the CSA veggies. Yummmm. Spicy food.
Time for sleep, its far past my 'goal' bed time.
Aloha pumehana,
Betty
The cypress forest is all human-planted so the trees are in straight lines, very reminiscent of the CCC forests in MI. It is used to research the best growing conditions for lumber. The trail was very open at first, a large, clear path through extremely straight and tall-towering trees. One tree caught my eye on the first stretch, its branches reminded me of 'eagle arms' in yoga, tall and strong but wound and bound together. Beautiful.
We reached the 'switch back' trail I'd heard about from the Kula-family and embarked on our very steep, slippery dust, trek down. It seemed like a long walk and we weren't exactly sure what we were looking for. I was told that there were old irrigation tunnels that came out near the bottom but they weren't described to look like the tunnels I saw in Olowalu. So, we took our time and arrived at the bottom and were totally astounded by the sight we were greeted by. The entire way down, we hadn't seen it, but there was a maaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssive wall of rock with 2 rows of about 5 irrigation tunnel openings in the side of it. The valley floor was covered in huge boulders and big rocks covered in several shades and textures of green moss. After we stopped gawking at its beauty and the ways it reminded us of places on the mainland- we climbed up near it and checked out the irrigation tunnels. I peeked my head in and 'saw light at the end of the tunnel'- meaning that the stone 'holes' we saw were connected. We shined a flashlight in and crouched and walked in- it was big enough to comfortably move but not big enough to stand. I felt like a little gnome crawling through the mountainside. It solidified my halloween costume plans. We took some pictures, I perched on a huge boulder and saw a coffin-shaped and sized rock directly under the spot I was most likely to slip off and decided it was a sign to get down haha. We headed back up the very steep, switch-back hike and were off on our second half of our adventure day.
We went to a beach in Makena to watch the sunset and swim. Its awesome that we were in a cool spot in the afternoon and headed to a hot spot for the evening- I'm starting to get used to microclimates and the ability to 'choose' the weather I get to experience on my days off.
I drove home and got some yogurt and chocolate at whole foods- I bought a chocolate bar made 'in house' called 'chuao honeycomb bark" it reminds me of seafoam in extra yummy dark chocolate bar form.
I worked at school today and worked a little bit at home. I went to yoga and talked to this dude at yoga that has reminded me of my buddy Andy at home since I first met him a few weeks ago. I had been introduced to him in passing before but didn't really catch his name. Tonight, I found out that HIS NAME IS ANDREW ANDERSON. ANDY ANDERSON. I call MI- Andy, Randy, ANDERSON ALL THE TIME! So, needless to say, I'll remember his name now.
Made a yummy veggie curry egg scramble when I got home with a lot of the CSA veggies. Yummmm. Spicy food.
Time for sleep, its far past my 'goal' bed time.
Aloha pumehana,
Betty
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