Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Paradise Island aka Hawaii Jan 2-9 2010

We got in on Sunday morning from Paradise aka Hawaii the Big Island. It was such a beautiful wonderful spiritually opening (it always is when we go there) warmfull freeing trip to the island. When we first got there we had a few things planned, a loaou (sorry I don't know how to spell that!), a trip up to the tallest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea at 14,000 ft up, and a dolphin swim/snorkel adventure in the ocean from a sailboat. The first few days were beautiful and sunny. The luau was nice and was held at the Marriot Hotel in Waikoloa Resorts but we did notice that the drinks were watered down. I had 5 mai tai's and I could walk home, and wasn't hung over the next morning. Thats saying alot, I drink two glasses of wine these days and the next day I'm feelin' it. They were definetly watered down, but it was worth it, not really for the food (which was a buffet of salads, and some chicken) for the performance! We got to see very feminine ladys dancing with flowers and very masculine men doing crazy dances where they threw fire and pounced their feet on the ground. Just watching it I have to say turned me on!! lol. It seems like that island is very feminine, I said it last time we were there too. Its just flowery and lovely and warm and flowy and just, well female, and makes me feel more female than I've ever felt (other than when I first met Martin...and when living in Long Beach Island at the beach). Its the best thing to feel "right" in a place you know? Like the place matches you and the way you are feeling. I felt that way when I first came to NYC and thats sort of waned I guess. So we are at the luau and, other than me spilling my first drink on myself, (my necklace wrapped around the cup when I sat down), it was a very fun awesome night of watching fire throwers. Here are a few pics and a little video!




One of the days we went on a tour with Mauna Kea Summit Tours up to Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain the world, at 14,000 feet (taller but not higher than Mt Everest because it started under the ocean). There is a warning with this tour though if you have heart or respiratory issues because of how high you go up, you should check with a doctor first. One guy on the tour got really sick when we got to the top. He had to sit for awhile. I felt a slight sense of nausea when we were really high up, but just kept breathing slowly and walking slowly. It was a great experience and so beautiful to see above the clouds. Our tour guide was Mike. He picked us up at our hotel, and we drove through alot of farm country to get to our first rest stop, 9,000 feet up. Here we stopped and they handed our boxed dinners, ours included grilled chicken, rice and a brownie. After this we went up to 14,000 feet up (as described above) and then headed back down to 9,000 feet where we drove to a small opening in the trees, parked the van and Mike and his partner (from another van we met up with) propped their digital awesome looking telescope up. It was huge! He kept talking about how many pixels or something, and all I know is it was pretty amazing to see Jupiter (an actual planet!) with its 4 moons around it. He also had this really cool laser pointer (that was legal because we were in a no fly zone) that looked like it reached all the way to the stars. We looked at the dogstar sirius, orion and his belt and his bow, the galaxy andromeda (which looks exactly like the galaxy pictures in movies like battlestar gallactica), casseopia, and finally the north star also called the stable star because it never moves (even though the earth moves...isn't that weird???? got me thinking maybe its our axis or something?? I mean we spin, so all the other stars in the sky spin, I get that, but how come one doesn't??? it must be connected to us somehow right?) so my mind was pretty much blown after this night. Not to mention that every night driving on the road back to the hotel was like looking up into a planetarium. I honestly feel that after that trip, I've never really seen the stars before. It was well worth the 340.00 for both of us (and fyi if you book 2 weeks in advance online, they give a 15% discount!) not bad for a once in a lifetime experience. Mike also told us that up until about 100 years ago, only kings and spiritual leaders were allowed up on top of Mauna Kea, I'm guessing because you can go alittle kooky without oxygen, and they are already kooky!? Thankfully they now allow the rest of us ordinary ones up there:) And up on top of the mountain is where snow actually falls in Hawaii. There was no snow, but it was freezing! Mike gave us parkas and gloves thank God! I couldn't get pictures of the stars for you, they wouldn't come out, but I did get the clouds. Enjoy:)





Another really cool experience we had there was going on a road trip to the bottom of the island to visit 1 of the 2 green sand beaches in the world. On our way down I saw this, jumped out of the car and had to take a photo! Look, its a bird on the cows back! Thankfully I brought sneakers with me, and when we got to Kae Le to hike the 2.75 miles to the green sand beach, we ran into a couple who warned us how tricky the hike would be. Little did they know how much I love a challenge, so we were off. Martin had brought a thing of water, good thinking him, and so we took turns taking sips to get there so we'd have enough for when we got back. We arrived at the bottom tip of the island after hiking the clay rock path and looked around, where the heck was this place? it seemed to take forever to reach it. And then we saw a huge black rock, which is the tip of the island, with a little inclave. After climbing down a tiny ladder and a few rocks, we made it! It was actually green sand! I have a theory though, as I said on the other entry, I think the green is a mix of the clay and the black sand from the lava flow. Either way the water was warm and green and sparkly like I've never seen before. People were jumping off the rocks and I felt like the picture I was seeing was straight out of a paradise movie, you know the ones where everything is so perfect, that something bad like shark attack is bound to happen. Well happy to report no shark attack! lol. It was beautiful and definetly recommend it with shoes and water...oh and sunblock. On our return hike we saw the dolphins in the distance doing spinny flips and whales doing big splashes.
We booked a dolphin snorkel swim during the later part of the week but it was overcast and the waves were too big to be able to get out of the harber, so it was cancelled. It gives us something to look forward to if/when we go back! It is truly such a beautiful place to go, I definetly recommend it.


We did try another road trip on the Hilo side of the big island to check out the Kapaho tidepools These tidepools are apparentely, yup I said apparentely, heated by the volcano's from inside the earth, and so they are supposed to be warm. On our way there, we got alittle lost and ended up going through a rainforest. It was beautiful but we were alittle nervous because it was getting late and dark out, and I don't know if you've ever been to the Big Island Hawaii before but there are very few streetlights except on the main highway, and to get home we could have to drive through this gorgeous valley that looks like your in a king kong movie. The valleys not the problem though, its the roads on the sides of the cliffs without streetlights that are the problem! I snapped a few shots of the rainforest before we left.


On our way outta there, we bumped into the road that we were supposed to take to the kapaho tidepools and in Martin's galliant nature, even though it was getting dark cause he knew I wanted to see them, he turned for me:) We drove down the Kapaho-Kai Road and at the end were the tidepools. It was about 4pm and figuring it would be warm, I stuck my feet it. It was not even slightly warm! It was actually cool water! It would've been nice if we were laying in the sun all day and going for a swim but I thought these would be like jacuzzi warm pools, nope, it was just like cold ocean water. Kind of a dissapointment but pretty to look at.

Our first and our last days we were there, we went to the local Kava, or awa as they call it in Hawaii, bar. Kava is actually sold in health food stores and herb companies, like Gaia Herbs, as a calming herb in capsule form. Martin had about 4 cups and I had 2 and after 2, I felt like I had just had 3 glasses of wine, but without the dehydration. Its common to have it with sugar cane or pinneapple; the sweetness from them can balance out the bitterness from the drink. The bar we went to was called Kanava Kava, yummy stuff.


Our flight home got us home safe enough, but I have to tell you, going over the Pacific Ocean was terrible. There was so much turbulence I was actually shaking and Martin was even alittle scared. At one point, I just let go and said well you know if this is it, this is it. I did go over where the life jackets were and that the exit doors can be used as life rafts about a 1000 times to make myself feel better. We were all going up and down like mad. Everyone was in their seats, when an older woman stood up and the stuartness told her to sit down and she said she couldn't find her oxygen mask. It was quite scary, but I am glad to be alive with 140 mph tailwinds. The captain told us at the end that its typical to have high winds over the Pacific during the winter months from Dec 1-March 1 since the hot air is mixing with the cold air from the land and creating a wind tunnel. I was happy when we got over California and the turbulence was gone. If you do go, please please trust me on this, don't go between December and March!!

Thanks for coming on our trip with us!!

* All photos are property of Simple Travels. If you are interested in purchasing rights please contact me at thereallifetravels@yahoo.com

11 comments:

  1. gorgeous pictures! thanks for sharing your adventure with us! i have never been to Hawaii but have always wanted to go.

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  2. Great pictures! You two are so friggin cute. We went to Kaui 2 years ago and I would love to go back again. If/when we go back we'll probably go to the Big Island for a week and do Kaui for a week.

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  3. wow, that's amazing, I'm just a tad jealous! I'll get there someday : )

    btw, I tagged you in a meme....

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  4. glad I found you thru SITS. I was in Honolulu this time last year.
    Hey, I missed all last season of Grey's. Thanks for letting me kno 'bout tonite! Are Meredith & McDreamy on or off?

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  5. Hey Nik Nik! Welcome back home!!! Glad your trip was so much fun. Your pictures are just beautiful!! I especially love the first one with the sun, and the one of you at the green sand beach! You look gorgeous girlfriend!! Sending you hugs!!

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  6. I've never been to Hawaii and I so want to go especially after seeing your pics. I've always wanted to apart of a luau on the beach.

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  7. Oh my goodness, that sounds like one helluvan amazing trip! The pictures and vid clip are fabulous! Take me with you next time? I've always wanted to go.

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  8. PS. Nik, what does Kava taste like?

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  9. Nikki, i have been to Hawaii once, and i love it.
    Amazing pics, glad that you had such a great time!
    have a sweet weekend!
    hugs

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