I can't believe I'm finally sitting down to write again. The last 5 days have been unrelenting and by the time I crawl into bed at night, blogging is just a wisp of a thought drowned out by snores.
I landed in Honolulu around 9 pm on Friday and the first thing I did was roll the windows down in the car. Sometimes I think the air is actually sweet on this island. It is a wonder what some fresh warm air does for the body and mind.
The weekend was filled with all sorts of adventures. A little tour of the areas I will be calling home and quite a lot of sleep. Friday had been almost a complete 24 hours of non stop traveling so I think I deserved it.
On Sunday Zac and I went for a hike up to the Pali lookout. When the sign on the highway said "Pali Lookout" and we took the exit only to find a hoard of tourist buses and a lot of little old ladies looking out over the island it didn't seem quite like the hike I was imagining. As I had been instructed I had stuffed my feet into "hiking" shoes, donned a pair of running shorts and an athletic shirt and was prepared for what I had been told was a "really easy hike" to get me "ready for the harder stuff." Pish Posh! If just driving up a mountain and looking out was what we were doing then I think I could handle the harder stuff.
I. Was. Wrong.
If you've seen the Harry Potter movies or read the books and are familiar with the scene where they run with their carts full of trunks at the wall where Platform 9 3/4 is supposed to be then you'll be able to play along really well with this next part.
We traipsed just past the parking lot where the tourist masses were loading and offloading their large hungry busses and straight at a low 3 foot stone wall marking the edge of the lot. Just when I thought Zac was going to turn around with a peeking tongue a-wagging, teasing me for being so gullible, he swept aside the branches and stepped into the dense forest. See now, I am going to write the word trail here but I don't think it paints an accurate picture for most of you. I truly believe this trail was made by nature herself; a conglomeration of twisted trees, sloping rocks, and breath-taking drop offs no man would forge for himself. We followed anyways.
Normally the hike would have been 100% doable for my feeble, weak legs and my pathetic "hiking" shoes. There was just one added complication. The rain. It had been raining for a few hours and Zac swore up and down, from here to kingdom come that it would stop soon. "It never rains for very long here in Hawaii," he said. "No, no don't worry it will stop soon," he swore. "You might get just a little wet," he promised. BAH! It rained and rained and rained, a small river formed coming down the trail we were going up. The wind howled, the trees bent, and it kept on raining. The red earth turned to mud. The stone turned to what felt like glare ice. The roots criss crossing underneath us took on the frictional properties of oil on a freshly wet roadway. Did we stop? No. We soldiered on.
It was enjoyable. It was comical even.
Zac is an avid rock climber and so he gave me a lot of assistance along the way. Everything from the occasional verbal instruction to the often mandatory hoist up a particularly vertical section. If you're up on your rock climbing terminology he called this a Level 4. Level 3 being your regular run of the mill hike (think Lapham Peak if you've been there) and Level 5 being your vertical rock climbing (think Adventure Rock). This is what you call a scramble. Half hike, half climb. It seems an appropriate name as I spent most of the time with both my hands and feet on the ground scrambling up like one of those pre-evolved creatures they say were our ancestors 55 quadrillion million years ago on the Discovery Channel.
After a lot of discussion to determine which way the trail went at several points we made it to the top. There there was a doughnut shaped hole struck out of the middle of the crest of the mountain so you could sit on one side and look out to see the other. It was awesome, I must admit, except it was raining so hard and so foggy you couldn't actually see anything.
Then.... the descent.
I should probably mention (thank goodness my father doesn't read this) that large sections of the trail were bordered on one side by thick trees and shrubs and on the other side by the vast nothingness of sheer cliffs. In portions we were able to strike out a long ago forgotten trail to the inside and avoid the cliffs but sometimes it was not possible. Going up slippery trail is one thing but climbing down slippery rocks is another. Zac says that I did really well and he was really impressed. I think he was just inflating my ego so that I'll go hiking with him again.
We did make it out largely unscathed except for the 6 feet of near vertical rock that I slide ever so gracefully down on my upper thigh and rear end. I stuck the landing by colliding into a tree and Zac's legs. He claims he was there to stop me. I'm not so sure. I did not cry thankfully but I do have a pretty large scrape to show for it. Battle wounds, people.
By the time we reached the bottom again we were covered from head to toe in the red mud that the volcanic nutrients turn the soil here, tree and shrub debris, a fair bit of our own sweat, and in my case a little bit of blood. And we were very, very wet. Soaking, saturated to our very cores.
As we emerged from our secret natural platform 9 3/4 a bus full of white hairs on an organized tour was loading. There in the front seat were two very cute little old ladies and I will forever remember their faces as Zac and I crawled from the forest like strangely pale aboriginals who had been lost and wandering the peaks of Hawaii for weeks. He and I shared a smile and he offered his hand as I jumped from the wall to the asphalt. We strode past the bus, smirking to ourselves aware of the stares, and on to our next task... how to get home without completely ruining the car...
Editor's Note: I know. A post without pictures is not a post at all but it has been raining for the last three days with very little relief. I was afraid to take even my phone out for a photo while were hiking and my camera hasn't left the bag since I got here. I promise to make it up to you!
Stay tuned for more!
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