Haleakala Crater
1
I just came back from Oahu, one of the Hawaiian islands.
It's as if I dreamed a very wonderful dream.
A long anticipation gone, it added to my memory archives as a good one.
I simply assumed Hawaii was the 50th American state
where people were happily living dancing hula
and enjoying tropical climate surfing at beaches.
(Actually I saw intimidatingly huge waves coming to the beaches endlessly
and they made different pictures at ocean with wilder beauty and scales
when I stood at the beaches in Hawaii.)
Didn't think about Hawaiian aboriginal people or their relationship with white Americans.
My daughter's housemate was a Hawaiian and through him she learned
how Hawaiians were feeling towards white Americans.
It's a rather negative feeling to my surprise.
It reminded me of Australian white people and aboriginal people.
Fact
Hawaii has the highest percentage of Asian Americans and multiracial Americans
and the lowest percentage of White Americans of any state.
It is the only state where Asian Americans identify as the largest ethnic group.
White Americans were called 'haole' meaning strangers or foreigners.
They have never been accepted as locals in Hawaii.
So my daughter was really enjoying favourable responses from Hawaiians and
living happily among majority of English speaking Asians.
2.
We left Sydney on Wednesday night after 9 pm
and arrived at Honolulu on Wednesday morning around 10am
after 10 hour's flight.
We time travelled.
Wow.
My daughter picked us up after lots of texts messages and waiting.
She had never picked up people at the airport before.
She bought her own car in Hawaii only a couple of weeks before we went.
Positively I expected her to learn that owning your car would be a daunting task
except few convenience when you were a newbie driver.
As much as I was concerned I had to remind myself it's her money after all
and she would have to acquire necessary skills rather not under my
too protective manners.
From then on mostly Eddie drove the car.
She happily gave him her car key and concentrated on navigation for him.
I had to sit at the back all the way during this trip.
She was very happy to see us and very good for the first full day.
Waikiki from Diamond Head
We stayed in a house in North Shore far away from busy tourists first 4 days
which suited us all right.
We tried to leave Honolulu before 3 pm after lunch and a simple grocery shopping
when traffic congestion started.
In November it's a rainy season in Hawaii.
My daughter said it's colder for Hawaiian standard (or her standard to be exact).
But for me it was perfect.
I heard rain pouring down almost every night in my sleep like a lullaby.
Unlikely but it had a soothing effect.
Rain fell several times during day time as well but it stopped as quickly as it came down.
Two times we were caught in quick heavy showers:
one in Diamond Head, the other in Ko Ko Head trail.
To my surprise a heavy shower instantly got us soaked to the skin
but hardly had we put on rain jackets we were carrying all the time
like seasoned hikers when rain stopped.
No wonder other people didn't seem to care too much about rain there.
Rainbow near Haiku, Maui
Constant rain showed us a perfect clear half circle of rainbow almost everyday both in Oahu and Maui.
My daughter burst out an exhilaration about it especially clear purple colour of it.
In November sun in Hawaii was still gloriously bright and not too scotching hot(Thank God).
We spent most of evening at outdoor couches on the patio
enjoying heavenly cool breeze after dinner which was
secured for privacy by wooden fences while we were staying at our air b&b house.
I never enjoyed relaxing at outdoor settings that much before.
It may sound funny but it's one of our highlights.
I loved the genuine feeling of relaxation.
When we arrived at our four-day home, non other than a cat was welcoming us.
Unfortunately I am not used to pets or animals around especially indoors.
First I was extremely uncomfortable with this cat following me all the way
while I was cooking.
Or sliding down under the dinning table while we were eating.
I felt uneasy cos I couldn't see what it's up to.
It sought after our attention and cuddling unwaveringly
regardless of our efforts to try to kick it back to owner's house upstairs.
It passed me touching my legs which I found it creepy.
Eddie had to yell at me 'here comes the cat, so don't get a fright' several times.
It came and went as it pleased.
Of course it's his or her house after all.
We were only guests there.
I was frankly embarrassed to admit how I felt towards this cat.
Totally forgot about my right not to be with a cat there.
We got a really good review from the owner of Air B&B in Maui.
We were quiet and used the cottage very clean and she thanked for us
as good guests.
But the owner from Oahu was quiet.
I'm sure she was happy with our staying and cleanness at the same rate as the Maui owner ranked.
But my daughter called her twice regarding this cat.
Which could be disregarded easily.
The critical point we might have made her not so happy(I am just guessing here!)
was that our car was accidentally parked behind their car
and we had to call them 6am in the morning when we were about to leave there.
We had to go to the airport.
Oh well...what can you do after all?
2a
When you're in Rome do as the Romans do.
Really?
To my utter horror there was no single person wearing a helmet
when riding motor bikes or bicycle in Hawaii.
Also when we were driving at legal speed limit according to the road sign
cars behind us seemed impatient and started overtaking us in no time.
Even I felt our car was the slowest on the road.
What was going on?
At the petrol station we even couldn't fill it without paying first.
I realize it's not a trustworthy society there.
One time I paid 30 American dollars for the petrol before we filled her up.
We couldn't get it more than 26 dollars before the tank was full.
I didn't bother to go in again to get the refund but it was automatically refunded
into my card later on.
One thing more logical there was that they had number systems for exit points.
It was easier than to look for the names of town/areas or road/street.
For example we exited H1 at 23B for my daughter's place.
It was impressive!
During our stay in Oahu we traveled round the island clockwise and anti clockwise several times.
We could say we saw most of important parts of island roughly by doing that.
3.
Now I learned there are Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, and Hawaii or Big Island.
We spent time both half in Oahu and half in Maui during 11 days.
Someone asked me which island was better either Oahu or Maui.
I expected Maui was better before I went.
But if you have to go to only one Island probably the answer will be Oahu
especially to Waikiki where full excitement and fever of tourism existed.
It was not my thing to spend a lot of money for food, shopping and accommodation.
But this trip we enjoyed partially being typical tourists by enjoying food, shopping and
strolling around Waikiki or visiting a temple and so on.
We did moderate length of hiking 4 times along with Diamond Head and Koko Head trails.
One of most important reasons I went there was my daughter.
We wanted to see her doing all right there and celebrate her birthday together
like we do usually every year.
I visited her place, her uni and met her friends so when she's back in Sydney
we can talk about her life or time there on the similar bases.
It made our trip meaningful and difficult at the same time.
Usually people have their own routines and because she lives there temporarily
she has her own life there.
It clashed with our holiday mood
and typical relationship or generation conflicts arose a few times.
4.
Our trip consisted of 3 parts.
First 4 days in North Shore of Oahu.
Second next 5 days in Maui.
Third last 2 days in Waikiki in Oahu.
Like the previous trip I wanted to cook as much as I could during our Hawaiian trip.
As I am a health freak I tried to put relatively good amount or portion of fruits and vegetables into our diet.
I gather a strange satisfaction when I cook and eat good food.
I am not happy when we end up having unhealthy food.
I bought a few unnecessary items for the first part of our stay as I was too ambitious.
I have to say I wasted some of it.
We had to eat outside more often than plan which was inevitable.
As there was not enough time for us to go back and cook dinner at a reasonable time most of the days.
Also we needed to try new cuisine in Hawaii too which was all about trips.
We were quite happy with our own breakfast.
I don't really like typical western restaurant or café breakfast.
Except some places I always find they don't put their soul to the food.
To me they just cook or arrange food too casual or careless.
I think that is rude to food as well as to customers.
But sometimes I know it's not all about health or taste standard.
So I suggested one exception which was attributed from end-of-trip-wistful sentiment
I guess.
On the day we left Oahu we went out to walk Waikiki beach
to have breakfast at a nice café at the beach.
We were happy that we shared one more thin thread of good memory together and we were
a little bit(not too much) sad because we had to say good bye to each other soon.
We liked famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck which turned out to be just before our accommodation
from the way from south on the second night in Oahu after Ka'au Trail.
We loved garlic and butter scented scampi and its environment.
We were thrilled with tuna Poke dish at Hawaii Sushi that we had after a brief Diamond trail.
It was very similar to sushi here in Australia but yummier and tasted better and fresher.
And finally we were hugely impressed with food in Sushi Murayama at our last night in Oahu.
Their sushi was arts.
Even Eddie was so impressed with their food and taste he wanted to come back to Hawaii solely for this yummy food.
From the beginning of this trip I had been frustrated with this terrible American coffee though.
I was never satiated at breakfast due to this.
I couldn't understand how they were OK with this hideous horrible taste of coffee.
I like eating and especially eating healthy food.
But one addiction or treat/indulgence for me is one good cup of coffee or two a day.
They were quite generous about coffee refills but I never wanted it.
For my daughter she had another desire as well as coffee
which was a cold drink such as smoothies or things like that.
So we had to try another famous Hawaiian thing, Banan which was basically frozen fruits
but texture was like ice cream.
It was quite tasty and healthy so we tried twice at different times.
On my daughter's birthday we decided to go to a Jazz café named Blue Note.
It was a bit different from my imagination but we enjoyed their performance
and food as well.
At the later part of performance the leader singer invited a big lady to their stage
(I don't know this was the plot or improvisational act)and her voice was mesmerizing.
She looked like a Hawaiian and her voice touched my soul.
Most of all my daughter was very happy with this arrangement, so was I of course.
After that we walked on the balmy Waikiki street which was brightly decorated for Christmas.
People were everywhere laughing and enjoying the night.
I loved festivity mood then very much and relaxed outside at night in a very long time.
We stopped for a Tarot reading on the street which was very vague but we had fun.
4.
Hiking in Hawaii was not easy.
Eddie was very enthusiastic and ambitious for hiking in some parts of Hawaii
but my daughter was too tired for that.
(Although I couldn't deny I felt lethargic from time to time
from being hectic with a short trip schedule too.)
She didn't have any desire for hiking after 3 months' relaxing Hawaiian life style.
She totally forgot about this excitement and adrenaline rush for hiking and the absolute pleasure
and content feeling afterwards.
It was unforgettable for me to feel alive and rejuvenated as soon as we started walking in Ka'au Crater
hike and Sliding Sands Trail in Haleakala National Park despite all sorts of hindrances.
There were so many trails which were prohibited for hiking there.
Also they gave us this impression that they didn't encourage people to hike in many trails.
At Ka'au Crater Trail in Honolulu there was a warning sign when we arrived at the starting point.
It said intimidatingly "Take your own risk to do the hiking blah blah" which made me disheartened.
It must have been magnificent if we made it to the ridge by passing two more waterfalls
on upright paths and it's a loop we didn't need to use the same way to come back.
But it's a very slow progress there especially with one less enthusiastic person tagging along.
It rained on and off which made the trail slippery and risky as well like the warning we saw in the beginning.
We should have started earlier I realized by then.
After first waterfall and then one more steep hill, we reached a point from where the trail dramatically converted to upright paths towards two more waterfalls.
I couldn't forget Eddie's longing gaze upward at waterfalls and beyond.
On the other hand my daughter looked hugely relieved when we reluctantly decided to turn back.
We decided we were a bit late to do the whole trail by then.
Ka'au crater trail, Oahu
We were very excited and looking forward to visiting Haleakala National Park in Maui.
I didn't have any doubt this part would be our highlight of the trip.
The top of Haleakala Crater was 3055 meters high.
It was my first time ever to the place over 3000 meters at all.
We talked about going to see a sun rise early morning but eventually we gave it up
due to wet weather, our physical condition(especially my daughter) and so on.
As we estimated it was windy and freezing around mountain top areas.
We had to wear our down jacket when we got out of our car.
We could see vertically dancing clouds under our eyes just after 2000 meters on.
We chose Sliding Sands Trails and walked down to the bottom of crater for a few hours.
Problematic symptoms occurred when we started climbing back to the top.
I felt slightly dizzy ,nauseous and lightheaded.
Also Eddie said I looked pale and my legs were too heavy to move.
Haleakala crater was described as Lunar Landscape.
For me I instinctively thought it a bit more like Mars.
Or any lifeless place from outer planets.
Volcano erupted 80 to 90 millions years ago
and it's an unimaginably long time given short human life span.
However long it had been it must have been hard for any life survived there except Silversword.
I could smell strong sulphur when we did the Sliding Sands Trail.
It was a new experience walking on this surreal beautiful trail down to the basin and came back to the top.
The lower we went down the warmer it became.
You'd got this feeling as if you'd lost in a time travel.
Kaleakala Crater, Maui
We couldn't find out the entrance to access to Crouching Lion on the last day in Oahu.
While we were trying weather got bad and time ran out to do it so we had to call it off.
In Hawaii people probably do more swimming or surfing naturally.
Or rather relax by doing literally nothing.
Lying down on the beach under the sun or shades feeling cool breeze.
Eating or shopping might be more sensible there.
Problem is if it weren't for hardship it couldn't be memorable experiences for us yet
and you'll forget them so easily and quickly.
Chinaman's Hat, Oahu
During the trip unexpected things or things different from the plan or things we overlooked
popped up as always and I could say we managed it all right eventually.
That's how we learned from the trips and mistakes.
As we get older we learn to accept things different from our plan or expectation more easily.
11 day's trip was done and we are back to daily routine again.
It was too short and hectic but we tried to enjoy every bit of it.
Until next trip then!