October 2006
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006: Transit & Rationale
Amidst the sound of plinking slot machines, Bobbi and I parted at the (lovely) Las Vegas International Airport the morning of October 11th. Bobbi is on her way back to Minneapolis (where it's supposed to snow tomorrow), while I am on my way to Hawaii (where it surely is not going to snow tomorrow). See ya soon Bobbi! :)
Why Hawaii?
There are several reasons to target Hawaii as my destination, but the most compelling is the new "potential adrenaline rush love" I stumbled upon while visiting Toronto in May of this year. While walking along the (fresh water) beach of Lake Ontario, my jaw was scarping on the ground when I saw these crazy people .. being pulled across the water by giant kites.. while riding on these things that looked like wakeboards.. I fixated. I oogled. I fixated more. Surely, this is the coolest thing ever! Surely these people are quite mad. And surely I am quite mad as well, so... I'd seen this before, but from a distance.. never quite near enough to appreciate the unbridled deliciousness of it all: Kitesurfing. Surely, I must learn to KiteSurf -- and SOON. But how? .. and where?
Fast forward to the August Pig Roast with Johnny in Maine. J, a kitesurfer about whom I've heard a great deal but never have actually met, is purported to be attending the festivities with his kites and gear in tow.. and he may well be willing to give me a Kitesurfing lesson! Indeed, he is a great guy it is so.. But while J is willing, the fickle Maine winds are not operating in our favor.. (an omen?) They're blowing offshore, and then erratically. Hence, while we don't get wet, Jay does rig up his trainer kite and I learn to fly it
for a few hours. Flying the kite is not as easy as it might seem.. and being dragged down the beach is an easily achieved thing as the kite does generate a lot of power. Am I diggin it? What do you think? Shortly thereafter, I buy my own trainer kite and harness.. and with the guidance of the included DVD, I hit the various open areas in Minneapolis for as many weekend training outings as I can.. Do I feel the warm rush of pending addiction? What do you think?
So.. back to vacation.. When it came time to deciding on a destination for the October, 2006 decompression vacation.. it was at least as much about solving the "I need to kite surf" problem as it was the "I am wickedly stressed out and need a rest" problem. This should be solvable at the same time, no? The destination considerations are:
I need a place where KiteSurfing is commonplace such that I can easily find lessons and gear. (This implies warm weather in October, consistent winds, etc)
I am doing this leg of the vacation alone, so I'll want to make new friends while I'm there.. Hence, an English speaking destination is going to be a serious (if not absolute) requirement.
I'd like the flight to be relatively short so as not to lose days in commute and jetlag.
No matter how much I looked, the only answer that kept coming back was to stay in the US.. and the only place in the US where this is all possible in October is Hawaii. So Hawaii it is. I burned up the 'net and the phone interviewing KiteSurfing schools on the islands.. After 10 or so hours of investigation, it became clear that The Kitesurfing School of Maui was the right answer.. So, then, Maui it is. The rest of the trip will converge around that somehow. I'd like to thank Northwest Airlines for letting me use Frequent Flyer Miles, Hertz for "#1 Miles", and Cingular Wireless and my DSL connection for making it all happen. I pack all my gear. Let's rock.
Here we go ..
I fly into Honolulu International Airport on Wednesday evening, and then connect off to Kahului International Airport on Maui which deposits me on the island around 10:00PM. I rent a(nother lovely) Ford Taurus from Hertz (thank goodness Ford is discontinuing the Taurus after the 2007 model year, as I'm really tired of driving the damn things as rental cars) and I'm on my way to Paia,
a cute little town on the North Short of Maui where the room I rented is located.. . I arrive, I crash, and bag it for the night. I should have put all these coins in the slot machines in Vegas. Hmm.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
I've planned to be on Maui for 6 days.. Today, then 5 days of KiteSurfing, and then .. well, off to somewhere else. The "where else" isn't clear to me yet, but, I'll figure it out over the course of the next 6 days.
Today, to acclimate and unwind, I decide biking is in order. I rent a schweeeeet Specialized road bike from Island Biker of Maui in Kahului and prepare to head out. The nice guys at the bike shop sell me a nice map of Maui, and point at a nice route around West Maui saying "go here." West Maui, in local parlance, means the West-most volcanic mountain of the two mountains that make up the the island. (See satellite view:
.) The route is advertised to be "about 60 miles", which I'm thinkin' is about perfect (a 3.5 hour ride), given I've slept in late I'll surely want to stop and take some pictures.. and I'll need to get home before sunset.
It's 90 degrees and sunny and my ride starts through the sugar cane fields in the valley between the two mountains
(not everything in Maui is beautiful), then quickly emerges on the South shore of the island. The first 30 or so miles of this ride is all coexisting with traffic on what is most aptly characterized as a "2 lane highway."
It's easy and quick riding, if not a bit annoying with all the heavy traffic. I drink plenty of water and mow into my cache of snacks. Despite the urban feel, there are plenty of "pull-outs" that overlook the water and some stunning views
of the ocean and beaches.. the other nearby islands
(in this case, lanai) some cool views of the arid side
of the mountain. After about an hour (22 miles), I reach the small town of Lahaina
.. with a great view of Molokai
and then 45 minutes later, the next small town of Kapalua. So I'm 2ish hours in and I'm feeling like, "Wow, this ride is going to be too short", since I've only really got about 35% more of the island to circumnavigate. Then I see this sign I will later recognize as being ominous: "END OF HAWAII STATE ROAD."
Turns out that sign marked the end of civilization on this (one and only) road around West Maui. While the surface of the road remained asphalt the entire way,I should have paid more attention to those maps that said, "Do not drive your rental car here as it voids the contract."
It quickly turned into an un-maintained pothole-filled stretch. The views
got
better
.. but all the little towns or Kwik-E-Marts where I was buying water .. well.. they just stopped happening. I knew from the map that the towns wouldn't be there, but it didn't seem like a big deal: "It's only 10 miles to the end of this stretch and back to civilization." That mileage estimate was technically correct.. it *was* 10 miles farther.. in a straight line.. however, I soon discovered there is no way short of chartering a helicopter
(like some others did) to actually TRAVEL in a straight line. The terrain changed quite markedly.. from largely flat where I would have traveled in 30 minutes.. to insane "switchbacks" that make non-stop winding swaths from sea level
up to 500 feet..
then a hairpin turn and a glide back down
400 feet..
then another 500 foot climb.. A "sawtooth" climb that didn't seem to end: Lather, rinse, repeat. From arid leeward stretches
to wet and green windward stretches
all within the course of a few miles and a few minutes, this is a great route to see more of the diversity of the island. By the end of the ride, what had looked like 10 more miles of riding ended up being much nearer to 30 due to the zig-zag nature of things... exactly half of which, of course, was very much uphill.
however, I found myself a bit unprepared. An hour in to this "10 mile ride" the GPS told me I had hardly made a dent in getting back to kahului. The temperature being 90 degrees, I quickly started to run short of water, and just as quickly realized that I was running out of energy. Some of the climbs were so steep
that I literally either ran out of legs or lungs (or both) and had to stop mid-way to rest for a minute or two.. [That's a bit embarassing]. When they did rarely appear, kind tourists driving by in cars would yell, "You're crazy!" out the window at me, which actually only served to make me smile. It got worse: I bonked pretty badly.. We're not talking near-death experience here, but, suffice it to say a bowl of Lucky Charms and a tall glass of Lemonade would have been just what the doctor ordered. I took my time.. stopped to shoot more photos of the fabulous scenery..
Salvation! I didn't get a picture of him, but I eventually stumbled upon a (pretty hot lookin') dude selling coconuts on the side of the road.. He apparently lived around there *somewhere*, and I'm guessing these things were growing on trees in his back yard and he figured " let's see if I can sell 'em." I swapped him $5 for one, which he carved into little pieces and I ate readily -- 80g of saturated fat and all. I joke that "I'd be dead now if that dude didn't sell me that coconut". I doubt that is true, but, then again.. maybe it is. Come to find out the dude was sitting "right at the top of the ride" (max elevation 1852 feet).. and after him, it was almost all literally downhill back into Kahului. (Soon: For those of you GPS enabled, you can follow the tracks of my trip here by downloading this GPS tracker file (pick up map/reader software for this HERE). This ride was a gorgeous ride and a great experience. From there, it was off for a shower.. then off to sushi and then home to bed.
Feeling spunky, I did make this ride again a week later, that time in the pouring rain. I did it in just shy of 4 hours of pedaling time -- without bonking. I just needed to see that I could make it with ease, and it was fun. It helps to be prepared. The pictures of the 2nd trip are actually intermixed with the above.
Friday, October 13, 2006 - Just my luck.
Today is to by my very first day of Kite Surfing Lessons! Unlucky Friday, indeed.
So first, we need to have a talk about Hawaiian weather and trade winds: Local climates on the islands vary considerably and are grossly divisible into windward
(Koʻolau) and leeward
So, promptly at 9AM I call Martin at the KiteSurfing school.. who promptly informs me, "It's very unusual, but there is no wind today.. So we'll have to cancel. I'll talk with you again tomorrow morning." Indeed, the weather forecast for Kanana Beach (The "Kite Beach") is for unlucky "calm" and "warm" today.. which, were I not so excited about getting under a kite, this would be a beautiful thing. Alas, I am cut loose to explore Maui.. Which is fine, because there is so much more to experience on the island.. and losing one day isn't going to screw up my vacation. Turns out I kept the bike from yesterday, and take it out again for another 70 or 80 less-eventful miles of riding. I can't find the pictures from this day of riding, which is OK since they were a bit less interesting ..
Saturday, October 14, 2006 - Today for sure?
So, promptly at 9AM I call Martin at the KiteSurfing school.. who promptly informs me, "It's very unusual, but there is no wind today.. So we'll have to cancel. I'll talk with you again tomorrow morning."
I am not happy. Maui is beautiful, but, I really want to KiteSurf. I do set about understanding more about trade winds at this point, which we'll visit a bit later. :) In the interim, I am left once again to explore Maui.. Nothing on the agenda today, so, it seems like a tour of the beaches are in order. I consult with a few locals, and make my way down to the South end of the island.. there I am to find two beaches.. One called "Big Beach" and, ever-so-creatively, the other called "Little Beach". Big Beach is spectacular.. words don't really do it justice, so you just need to see the pictures:
. October, not being peak season, is a quiet time on the beach which makes it that much more pleasant. I end up spending most of my time on Little Beach, which is about 50 yards NE, as it is the clothing optional version. While like any nude beach Little Beach contained its fair share of walking deceased, elephant people and those seriously disturbed and freaky.. the rest of the people watching here was as good as it gets on a nudie beach.. I highly recommend it. [And no, I followed conventional nudie protocol and did not take photos on Little Beach .. although I *should* have.. ]
The rest of the day was spent sunning, eating, resting, and otherwise goofing off.
Sunday, October 15, 2006 - Shake, Rattle and Roll.
Sunday is the normal "day off" for the KiteSurfing lesson industry on the island.. Although Martin told me that we'd go if there was wind, I had accumulated enough knowledge about weather patterns by this time to know in advance that there wasn't going to be any that was favorable. As a matter of fact, there is a big storm coming and the wind is already howling out of the South. So I know what you're saying -- wind is wind, right? Go ride. In a sense, that's true. . but in this case with the prevailing South winds you'd really need your next stop to be the Aleutian Islands to venture out on the North Shore (which is the only place Martin teaches). By now, I've learned to have a backup plan, and today's is a full day drive trip with Lahaina Divers set for 0630 this morning. I get up at 0500, and drive the hour across the island to get there around 0600. Our target journey for the day is to include Lanai as a first stop, and then on to Molokini
later in the afternoon. I haven't been under water since Bonaire in December of 2005, so this promises to be fun! We should be be back by 1630.
We dispense with the usual crap: sign this waiver, pay this amount, etc.. By 0630 we're starting to walk from the dive shop down to the pier, watching the storm clouds roll in.. The channel between Maui and Lanai is really choppy, and the Captain starts to give us this briefing that we might want to take sea-sick pills if we have them. He also advises that most other dive shops have canceled their trips for the day, but that we are still planning to sail.. He does ruminate on that decision for a while, and seems to want to change his mind to cancel, but.. he continues to be positive. I'm a bit concerned about the lack of sunlight, but once your head goes under the water the roughness (or lack thereof) of seas doesn't matter.. and I need to have the weather cooperate with me for SOMETHING this trip so far.
So it's a little after 7:00AM and I get to the pier and step off onto the boat with all my dive gear. As I do this, the boat starts to shake and rumble.. and there's a noise like the engines have just been started. Seeming normal, I go about my business of starting to organize my gear.. but suddenly stop because something just isn't right. Those aren't the engines.. I spin around to notice that the pier is shaking... violently, as is the .. well.. as is the SHORE. Having never experienced something like this before, I cocked my head to one side and just gathered imperical data for a moment. 10 seconds later, the rumbling ceased and everything stopped moving. All the power has gone off, but every car alarm within earshot is wailing. Processing. Processing? Processing. Earthquake? No way.
Way.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 6.7 Magnitude quake has struck just off the coast of Hawaii (the big island), which is about surface 70 miles from my position. The epicenter is 19.820°N, 156.027°W, and 18 miles "underground" (which really means below sea level). While the effect of the quake was very cool, the damage I saw on Maui was virtually non-existent. There was a 6.0 aftershock a few hours later, which I didn't even notice .. As a matter of fact, when I saw all the drama unfold on TV I said, "Were these people in a different earthquake than me?" Most of the damage was on the big island, where proximity made things a bit more intense. The largest effect I saw on Maui was that some loosened boulders on the sides of various roads had fallen loose and were blocking traffic. . Back at my room, my box of granola was knocked off the 'fridge and fell onto the floor. I struggled to find SOMETHING to photograph to remember the 'quake, but.. sheez, there was just nothing worthy. Hence, all I have is this story. The power came on about 4 hours later; locals bemoaned the quake the rest of the week complaining how it had upset their lives dramatically.. Of course, none of them could actually tell me how. One complained that she "couldn't cook" for 4 hours while the power was out, and had to endure the horrifying pain of "eating cold food, like sandwiches." She seemed seriously distraught by this, which troubled me a great deal. In any event, I thought the quake was fun.. and wish that I'd been on land rather than on the boat when it hit so I'd have felt it more.
The Captain, upon realizing this was an earthquake, was pushed over the edge of comfort and decided there was just too much drama to think about setting out today: Diving canceled. I grumbled, and begrudgingly left the boat. Adding insult to injury, 30 minutes later I saw some KiteSurfers out playing in the wicked South Winds -- it almost made me cry. (Movies of some of these KS'ers is located here. (Warning: These are anywhere from 3 to 16MB in length). M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11) This is not working out as I'd hoped. Later that day it rained a total of about 15 inches, with 10 of that falling in a one-hour period.. I hit the gym, napped a bit, and suffered immensely the rest of the day by force-feeding myself ice cold sandwiches. Driving the Taurus at full speed through the "foot or so" of standing floodwaters was at least a treat for the day.
More information about the quake is available on this USGS provided FAQ.
Monday, October 16, 2006
So, promptly at 9AM I call Martin at the KiteSurfing school.. who promptly informs me, "It's very unusual, but there is no wind today.. So we'll have to cancel. I'll talk with you again tomorrow morning." I think I really did cry this time.
It's a Blur, Some Later Date, October something, 2006
So, promptly at 9AM I call Martin at the KiteSurfing school.. who promptly informs me, "It's very unusual, but there is no wind today.. So we'll have to cancel. I'll talk with you again tomorrow morning." This pattern repeated itself every single day through and including Saturday, October 21st, 2006. I can't leave Maui without KiteSurfing. . so each day we cancel, I push my Maui departure out another day.. and another day.. and yet another day.. eventually, there are no more days left on my vacation so I know I will spend the entire remainder on Maui. Eventually, I'm supposed to be on a plane home before I ever KiteSurf, but I deem this completely unacceptable.. So I extend my vacation a few days.. hoping with every fiber of my being that the winds return.. In the interim, and fortunately, Maui is a veritable wonderland of other activities.. The dates have become a blur to me.. but I do have memories and photos of the other various activities I used to fill in the time until I could fly.. most of which are mentioned below:
Surfing
I decided had had seen too many surfers around the island and needed to get into their heads a little. Hence, I visited a little place over in Lahaina called "Maui Wave Riders" who were kind enough to swap $50 of my money for a surfing lesson. We started
on land,
and then eventually got out in the water
to give it a shot. Between you and me, the quality of the lesson was just marginal.. but I suppose it's not such an easy thing to teach. I had fun, and managed to get up
on the board immediately, even though it was so huge it was much more like dancing on the Lido Deck of a cruise ship rather than surfing. They also train you on tiny little waves, which sorta sucks. On a different day, I hung out with my friend Kiet's brother (who has a place there) and did some surfing with him. . Conditions were wacky that day, and my ability was marginal... marginal at best, that is.. . so I never really got much (if any) of a ride in, although my arms did get tired. Overall, while fun to try, I think that Surfing is one of the (much) less interesting water endeavors... Although, I obviously never caught a sick wave like this guy..
which could probably change the whole experience.
Waimoku Falls
One of the ways I learned of interesting things to do on Maui was to peruse the brochures that blanket most every public space on the island. "Come learn to surf", "Come take our Helicoper Tours", "Come Diving with us to Molokini only $19.95!", etc.. I had little interest in paying someone to take me on an adventure, but I did want to see what the adventure options were. One of the brochures presented helicopter rides to view various amazing things on the island, one of which was a "400 foot waterfall". A bit of googling and map reading later, and I hear about Waimoku Falls, located on the far East portion of the island. I set out with camera and hiking stuff, thinking this will be especially cool.
Waimoku Falls is a few mile hike uphill from the East-Coast portal to Haneakala National Park. From Paia, this means I need to find my way to Hana, and then about 10 miles farther to the gate of the park. It's 44 miles by road from Paia to Hana, which you'd think would be an hour drive, eh? Not so fast. . literally. The only route is to take the "Hana Highway", which gives you visions of on-ramps, off-ramps and other normal highway stuff. . In reality, most of this is a meager 2-lane highway filled with incessant switch-backs very much like my bike ride around the North side of West Maui. It contains over 600 sharp curves and 54 one-lane bridges, so making a driving mistake can plunge you into the Rain Forest, or over a cliff several hundred feet down to the drink. The speed limit for most of the way is 15mph, and most folks didn't seem to even want to go the speed limit. The drive was PAINFUL, since the caution people were employing was overly ridiculous. I didn't actually make it to the park until after 1PM, by which time I had yelled "YOU ARE STUPID!" out my window so many times I was hoarse. The lady driving the white Dodge Caliber that would not pull over and let me pass -- YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE -- must die. Fortunately, a nice 100 year old lady selling bananas (4 for a dollar) on the side of the road once I got to Hana raised my spirits and potassium levels considerably. That's one banana per hour of driving. I arrived around 1PM and began the hike up the hill.
For those of you afraid of hiking, this one isn't particularly grueling. The GPS told me it was 1.8 miles, and about 800 feet of climbing. It was largely a "maintained" pathway as part of the National Park so it was rather leisurely. Once again, however, the many ecosystems of Maui were awesome. To start, the views of this side of the mountain are stunning..
The vivid greens of the bamboo forest
, and a waterfall
pretty much every time you turned around. Also, a rich variety of tree species
I had never seen before,
.. and fresh fruit from them falling on the ground..
trampled by the passers-by. The most stellar part of the hike was the trek through the Bamboo Forest..
The forest is so thick, it's practically "night" while walking through it.
though occasionally through a break in the coverage you could get a quick glimpse of the sun.
The trees were blowing in the wind, and the sound of them creaking and
colliding with each other was eerily cool.
Suddenly, I round this corner and there it is.. Waimoku Falls, in all its splendor.
I felt like a tourist who'd just visited New York for the first time, following the falls with my gaze from base, with then-craned neck to the top. This is yet another one of those instances where the photos don't do it justice, or even hint at the actual scale. I borrowed a fixed 14mm lens from some other folks who'd made the trek (Thanks Charlie!), which was the only thing that allowed me to capture that whole shot in one single frame. This gigantic waterfall drops 400-feet down a sheer lava rock wall into a boulder-strewn pool.. 400 feet! That's a 40-story building to you and me. I'd never seen anything like it, and found it captivating. Being a National Park, the lovely government had posted signs saying, "Do not go near falls! Danger of falling debris." But, since living causes dying, I can't imagine a better way to go if indeed that "bolt of lightning" chance of a rock hitting me on the head were to come true.
The river falling on my head felt like being pummeled by gravel.. fantastic!
I spent about 3 hours near the base of the falls enjoying the cool mist on my face and enjoying the peace of it all....
I connected with the various other folks who came by and took pictures of them in the falls as well. Only the impending sunset caused me to pack up my stuff and head back down.
The same river, of course, eventually dumps out into the Pacific via another set of falls and pools
back near the Park. The whole place is beauty beyond words.. shorlines..
.. wacky volcanic rock formations..
I found myself just walking around with a big smile on my face the whole time. Alas, the sun eventually set, and it was time to head home.
I bemoaned the drive back to Paia, calculating my 6PM departure wouldn't get me back until 10 since people'd have to slow from 15mph down to 7mph at night.. The good news is that it would seem that no one likes the Hana Highway after dark -- barely another vehicle blocked my forward progress, and those who did pulled over to let me pass! Hence, I was able to wear a few thousand miles off the rental Taurus' tires by traveling back at roughly triple the posted speed limit.. Sushi for dinner and then bed after a fun and exciting day.
Diving
Having been diving in Hawaii before, I wasn't expecting much from the conditions here. Moreover, having visited Bonaire in 2005 (which I think is Diver's Heaven), I knew this wouldn't be cosmic for me.. Indeed, the torrential rains had made the average dive conditions more murky hence less interesting.. Still, I did get
out on two separate days,
not including the "Earthquake day" dive. My first trip out was a half day journey to a specifically sunk wreck called the Carthagian (shown here before they sank it
) .. The profile was about 90 feet for 20 minutes on 21% (normal atmosphere)...
and then down a second time after an hour surface interval.
[I've got no underwater pictures from the dive.] An interesting wreck, but not much else going on.. a few Cowfish, a few parrots, and a few other miscellaneous creatures.. I wouldn't do the dive again. Doing it with Nitrox is a waste -- not enough to see with the extra bottom time.
So I'm a bit over it.. but I have my Vyper.. and I did have time.. so I decided to stay down the 2nd dive and max out. Other divers started to bail at about 15 minutes, but I suck air slowly and was going to push it to 20 or 25. I buddied up with the only other guy left down there (the guy carrying about $20,000 worth of camera gear is usually a safe bet as a someone who'll stay down long) , and continued to explore slowly without the clutter of other people.. . When the Vyper showed me one minute of safe bottom time left, it was clearly time to leave and I started to head for the line.. it was then.. feeling like the world was spinning and not really knowing which was up.. I realized I had totally narc'd out.. This had never happened to me before.. It wasn't smart, and I wasn't really expecting it as I thought the Vyper would give me a little more buffer. So this is why I get grumbly when people go diving without going through the proper training: My trained reaction was to recognize what was happening to me, realizing that the chance to die here was very real. I glued my vision to my depth gauge, and began a very slow "I know I'm drunk, prone to doing something stupid, and I would really rather not die or worse" move to rescue myself. I think to myself: Slowly.. carefully... reach the line. Grab it and cling on, then a slow hand-over-hand climb up. The rope feels very strange in my hands.. I didn't always have sufficient hand-eye coordination to grab it again during the hand-over-hand process.. It took a lot of concentration, but I knew what I had to do. I'm fine. By the time I made it up to the safety stop, the obvious effects of the toxicity were gone.. and by time I made it to the surface I felt fine. They did a headcount, and we took off for shore. No flying or visiting the crater for 18 hours 21 minutes, the Vyper tells me.
Kids, don't try this at home. I'm glad I experienced narc'ing so I can know better how to handle it should it happen to me accidentally at some point in the future... but it wasn't the brightest thing in the world to do for fun.
Later in the week I did another afternoon dive with Lahaina.. This time to Molokini,
Haleakala
As we discussed earler, Maui is made up of two Volcanic peaks.. Canonically, one is "East" and one is "West". Haleakala, the larger eastern peak, reaches its greatest height, 12,000 feet (3,600 meters) above the ocean- some 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) from its base on the ocean floor. The entire volcano is a National Park with a visitor center on the top.. so off I go. I'd been wearing tank tops and shorts all trip, and for this journey I was dressed no differently. About quarter of the way up I realized that the peak was going to be 12,000 feet.. and that it might be cold up there. :) Another Maui ecosystem at work. I returned back to the room for a fleece, gloves and wind breaker and ventured out for it a 2nd time.
The rental Taurus didn't like the steep climb, but at least traffic was light. I reached the top, which I am guessing roughly resembled the surface of the moon. Air temperature? 42 degrees with a light mist -- good thing I brought the thermal and wind layers. :)
It's so amazing to be in Maui, where one minute you're in rain forest.. 3 miles away, beautiful sand beach.. then 15 miles that way and 10,000 feet up, 40 degrees cooler and in the innards of a dormant volcano.. So, here are some pictures of said "surface of the moon".
a few of
them with me in the shot thanks to the various other tourists!
...
Interestingly, life finds a way to exist most everywhere, and a little hunting revealed the very delicate flora
in the various nooks and crannies. They say that sunset is beautiful up here,
but I didn't get to quite see it.. I caught this rainbow shot of the sun setting through the fog at around 6:00PM.
This was cool, but get me back to the beach. :) The Taurus did get 77mpg
on the way down the mountain, although I would rather have done it on a snowboard in about a 6 foot base. :)
Sunday, October 22, 2006
So I've been studying the weather charts for weeks. I get it now.. For the trade winds to blow, a high pressure center needs to be sitting just North of the islands. Various factors make this the case most days of the year. Check this out with me -- here's a weather map of the Pacific Ocean
showing all the high and low pressure centers. Find Hawaii.. it's about 157 degrees West, 20 degrees North... It's own there on the map at about the "5:30" position.
Now, check out this image..
showing a sick high pressure center just positioned to the North of the islands. Remember, air rotates clockwise around a "High". Hence, on this day, Hawaii was getting some rather tasty winds from the NorthEast -- perfect for KiteSurfing.
Now check out this image..
showing a whole glop of low pressure in the same spot just north of the islands.. Since air rotates counter-clockwise around a low, today was a heavy South-wind day.. The trade winds were absent from Hawaii from October 4th, through October 21st due to weather patterns just like this.
However, when I woke up today.. Sunday, October 22nd, the leaves on the trees in the back yard were going crazy.. I raced for the weather web site and crossed my fingers. Wind from the NorthEast at 22mph, gusting to 34.
So, promptly at 9AM I call Martin at the KiteSurfing school.. who promptly informs me, "The winds are blowing. Get your ass down here."
YES!
