An assortment of thoughts.

Nice-huh?

I've been dating different stand up paddle boards to find 'the one' that I have chemistry with. So the little one foot surf (of late) on the South side has been a perfect learning curve playground for me.

It's what I do with any significant purchase, I try all my options before making a final decision so I have no doubt that I made the correct choice. It's a carbon copy the attribute testing I recently went through with the camera. How heavy is it, can I manouver it easily (on and off the water), do my feet like the decking, is my balance easy and of course how much does it cost. There won't be a second date with this particular board but I had fun while we were out.

As I rested my paws post paddle, I thought about the ironic Craigslist post I'd just replied to. Months ago I tried a Hawaiian Island 10' board that has since been the standard I've measured all others by. A few days ago that exact board was on Craigslist and I answered the ad as I knew who it belonged to. I asked the owner if he was willing to give an 'exwife' discount and of course he wasn't. The universe gave me the board I wanted but with the joke of attaching it to a man I used to be married to! It was/is all amicable between us, but still I noticed a little voice in my head saying "ya know-he was always bloody stingy, so I'm not giving him the satisfaction of paying full price". Evidently arguing for my limitations worked a treat as I made a low ball offer and didn't hear back from him!

So in my purchasing journey I've got a few more boards to try and amusingly I'm now entertaining the idea of buying the same board my 'ex' is selling.....so I am willing to pay full price, just not to someone I feel I've already given enough of my money to!

Enough of that, lets all stick our noses into nature (but not where it doesn't belong) and take a good long gander at her scrumptious perfection.

My goodness me, what would I do without her?

This is a leftover pici from Hana, a salt and pepper beach in the making and talking of pepper.....

......I didn't do it!

Exactly Cozmo, nap time.

Weekend summation.

My walking on water skills are coming along nicely, my tan (on the other hand) is not.

My life is divided into 'up the hill' and 'down the hill'. It's bizarre Maui-speak, that when you live here often explains why you won't be attending a scheduled event "Uffff I'm so sorry I can't make it, I'm knackered and am already up the hill" the reverse of course works just as well. This is normally met with knowing comprehension and sincere understanding.

That being said.....I was heading down the hill and pulled off to snap the late evening sunrays.

It was worth the trip as I attended a delightful soiree to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the Tamara Katz store. The tango demonstration was a hit, leaving those of use without Argentinean blood (OK me) slightly envious of the sensual and dramatic dance floor rhythms.

Even Ms.Katz's husband (aka the lovely and talented Francisco Goya) showed us his Buenos Aires home town moves.

Switching countries to Venezuela, Diony gets this afternoons vote for one of the best set of obliques, blimey mate not too shabby. Meanwhile, the reason Diony and all of us were at the beach was this....

Sir Jeffrey Henderson had organized all of us that love his Superfreak sails to come to the beach and play. The lack of wind didn't seem to phase anyone and gave rise to this magnificent spectacle. Plus, Jeff had graciously organized nosh and bevies for everyone at his pad just down the beach, which is a slice of ocean front perfection.

Post lunch Tammo and buddy head out - double Dutch style.

The beach walk back to my car was just as enjoyable as the rest of the day. What a lucky bastard I am!

Hana

Gee whiz; how does nature get it so perfectly and wondrously right every time? Ti and bananas anyone?

These beautiful taro fields are on the Kaenae peninsula. Coincidentally yesterday (4-20-09) the State House Agricultural committee passed a bill which places a five year moratorium on messing with the genetics of Hawaiian taro. Hurrah!

I had some friends that lived in the Islands for a few years whose previous home had been New York. I remember them being flabbergasted at the plants growing wild on the side of the road in Hawaii that they used to pay $20 per stork for from the florist in Manhattan. Case in point, the roadside heavenly Heliconia.

Here is a shot of roommate #1 that captures the tranquil and sweet nature of the lovely Maurizio.

On our hike to the falls I kept asking Dario (roommate #2) if he wanted his picture taken and at his constant refusals GP finally countered " oh come on....per la mama"!  Being the young buck that he is he was the only one willing to suffer the crushing chilly power of the falls and finally asked for his photo to be taken. We all agreed Mama will approve of this one - Jesus Christ, she'd better!

It’s always fun to share your favorite spots with others, so we exposed our Italian friends to the Dumo di Bamboo. There are moments of awe, reverence and intensity as the light fades and floods through the forest canopy. There's also another peculiarity that I'm sure isn't mine alone, but for me it's not possible to go there and not have this damn song in my head at some point!

You see, now it's started... that thing that happens where everything I look at reminds me of a song. Dinner comes accompanied by Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy....

Trivia: my first boyfriend was called Michael Waterfall......there's a song that goes with him too, but that's just too embarrassing to share!

As I started my journey home I stopped by Laulima Farm which is a privately owned fully off the grid organic farm in Kipahulu. Want a smoothie? No problem, just jump on the bike located conveniently in the middle of the stand and pedal like hell to make the small generator attached to the bike send juice to the blender. Oh beloved genius! These guys are the real deal and I had the best latte I've ever tasted there, seriously, that I've ever tasted  hmmmmmm.

Here's a side of Maui you don't get to see very often, it's her glorious and beautiful backside. 

That little ledge at the bottom of the cliff is the road. At this part of the drive it's not even paved, just a dusty, pot holey, organ jangling, teeth clattering dirt road surrounded by the vast panorama's that are a stark contrast to the lush greenery of Kipahulu.

And when your wheels hit the tarmac again ahhhhhhhhhh what a sweet moment that is. There was a simular photo on the wall at Maui Coffee Roasters for years that I always loved and so this pici is my homage to the creator of that wonderful snap.

Hana

 When my soul is pulled to Hana it’s time to go, so off we went this past weekend. As luck would have it our trip to Hana coincided with a keiki surf contest, which are always good for a little photo journalistic action.

The groms not in the spotlight were ripping just as much as those in the heats. These little rippers have the art of pumping a surf board down and make something out of nothing with their agile young bodies, fearless approach and endless play time hours on the water. It's pure joy to watch them in action.

I left the surf contest by peddling away from cars, tents and heat announcements easing up on my cadence on a cliff edge or when ‘whatever’ caught my eye. Joy of joys, the only traffic I saw gave a friendly wave as they passed by and getting exercise while surrounded by such beauty is (for me) the perfect spiritual balance.

I haven't a clue what this is, but I know what it's not - which is a pineapple. It is simply flora in full bloom, but what a glorious fruity imitation it is.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet and all words end in a vowel. As I rode over this bridge I thought "bet you can't say that properly after a couple of beers', but then again, maybe you'd actually start to get it right?

Our pad was right on Hana Bay which is home to some resilient shoots.

It's also a glorious black beauty of a sand beach on one side...

and something that looked like the Okovango Delta on the other. 

There was plenty of wildlife on display of the two legged kind...

some more adapted to the conditions than others.

There's enough beauty in Hana for a lifetime so I'll leave you with this lovely vision and the promise of more to come.

Flutterbuys

A few more pici's have surfaced...not the sexiest look on the planet, but one has to protect one's delicate English complextion! BTW that's Meesh about to launch her kite near the water.
Thanks to Alex's hubby Dan for taking this shot from the jet ski.

The journey from my house to the water takes about 20-25 minutes. However, the excuses that show up during that time to not actually get in to the water are infinite and often win out. Todays was especially pathetic, ‘there was no parking at Kanaha’ (well....it was a sunny Easter Sunday). See I told you, it's just sad........

The experience is a little like aging in reverse, it’s the 48year old who’s psyched to go in the first place and packs all the gear, water and snacks. Yet the mental dissension has already started before I depart and I often have a back up plan (the gym or a bike ride). I call it 'exercise triage' so that in the face of feeling like a complete loser, my little kid still gets to play and doesn't totally miss out on all the fun should those bastards 'the excuses' win the upper hand.

Let’s just say that it’s happened more than once - that by the time I get to the beach I’ve now become an insecure, timid and apprehensive eight year old that won’t even think about rigging up without a hand to hold or a word of encouragement. So given all that, it’s pretty humorous what I ended up doing yesterday!

It must have been a slow day for The Gods to set up the amusing the comedy of errors that ensued. First I’d not gone to bed until midnight the night before but was so happy to see a sunny day I was up early and raring to splash about a bit. A miscommunication between GP and me had my truck perfectly parked at Kanaha for the events that were about to unfold. It was there that it became apparent that he had no intention of accompanying me on my first down winder (cue waning enthusiasm from Paley). In a fraught move to find a baby sitter for me we called Meesh who informed us about 50 woman were about to do a group down winder from Hookipa to Kanaha. GP must have been silently praying his arse off to pull that one off!

Here we are leaving Spreks after a short break for water, snacks and helicopter shoot. I've pinched these photo's from Tatiana's blog without her permission and hope she doesn't mind. To pay her back energetically let me say this, she and her pals created a fabulous safe and fun environment for all kinds of Maui women to come and spread their butterfly wings. They clearly had done their homework and were both well sponsored and well organized. I'm sure this is just one more step toward her manifesting others bigger and more adventurous water dreams to come true. Nice one sistah!

So bottom line, not only did I not have time to regress I got a rash guard, a lei, a helicopter photo shoot, pizza and many happy faces to accompany me on the watery road to confidence. As a bonus The Gods threw in Kauli to skeg at (who while devilishly handsome, also looks if he's wearing a party hat at a jaunty angle-which he's not!) If all this were not reason enough to buck up my doubts that the water is a fun place to be, I don’t know what would.

Anyway, I’d like to thank my sponsors, GP for encouraging me to do it and his loaning me his paddle, Ulli for lending me his perfect board and Meesh for her shock and delight at spotting me in the front of the pack (instead of bringing up the rear) as she gracefully kited around all the human buoys exuding joy and happiness as she so naturally does.

‘Twas big fun and I will do it again.

Feeding my senses.

The touch of the wind against my skin is chilly at first and I know I have to pedal hard (initially) to get my body temperature beyond my own momentum generated wind chill factor. I warm up quickly and it allows me to delight in the view. My eyes always light up as I whiz by the poppies. My friend Lex said recently that when she first moved to Maui she didn’t grock the flowers as she came from the East Coast where the flora are soft and have petals. Here the tropicals are magnificent stiff, waxy creations and while she did learn to love them, I think about her comment every time I pass by this lovely garden. The little kid in me really wants the Jacaranda's to have the smell of the palmer violet sweets I ate when I was eight. Well, they don't and that’s probably a good thing so nothing distracts from their sheer purple perfection. Which reminds me of a funny 'tweet' I read recently. Someone asked Lord Fry how he pronounced the word 'ate'. He replied, 'I'm an "ett" man, but there's no right or wrong about it. In the North they're likely to say "eight" I think." Damn him, how does he know these things?! Hmmmmm now what kind of cycle 'safety first' is this? Still, now I think about it not all traffic cones are meant to give advance warning of hazards or temporarily redirect traffic in a safe manner.........or are they? (Cue Scooby Doo flashback music)!


Tour de Maui. Un Petit Film from Sharon on Vimeo.
And finally a little amateur hour entertainment from my pau hana ride after work last Friday, a hui ho!

House of the Sun.

Through the wide angle lens of my camera this morning, you get a pretty good view from my vantage point from 10,023ft up.

From the above photo to my left was one of the impressive ridges that make up Haleakala Crater. BTW-the last 'a' in Haleakala should have a macron over it and if my keyboard has the ability to do that......I don't! 

The weather can be very unpredictable at the summit so as I soaked in the majestic quiet of one of the most glorious places on the planet, I kept my eye's on the cloud bank that threatened to push up the crater wall. 

Years ago I had a friend told me that the first time he went up to the summit with his girlfriend his fantasy was of romance, tranquility, a spiritual connection, your basic full blown magical experience. So he was in shock when instead of just the two of them kissing, cuddling and sharing the dawn's breathtaking arrival, it was the two of them and coach loads of parka wearing, camera clicking, shaka signing tourists......not quite what he'd had in mind. So this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find the parking lot half empty and people in quiet reverence which is easily accomplished with a view of a broader perspective on the world. 

Here's the live webcam It's  pretty nifty because you can type in any date and it gives you a short timelapse clip of that days weather.

I could have watched the clouds spill over the peaks all morning.....

....but it's cold as shite up there and when the wind kicked up, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (or more correctly because I can't roll my 'R's -BUR). I've always maintained the opinion that when travelling it doesn't matter where you are or how long it's taken you to get there, it is so easy not to be present. You could be at one of the seven wonders of the world but if you need to pee or are bloody starving guess what you'll be thinking about?. Such was my case as my fingers got numb with the cold my desire to cloud watch diminished. 


The park is home to many endangered species, the most famous being the Silversword. It only grows above 6,000ft elevation on the slopes of Haleakala and can live as long as 50 years, but (as with so many magnificent creations) it blooms just once then dies.

Death by blooming. 

Not a bad view from the office but it's just a bugger of a commute. What's up there? Well here's the best copy/paste I could find:

 The LURE facility, for example, bounced lasers off reflectors left on the moon, to measure tectonic movement on earth. Another, an Air Force observatory, is part of the USAF Ground-based Electro-optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system. In 1996, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab installed a system using one of this station's 39-inch telescopes to monitor space for asteroids that might pose the threat of a collision with Earth, as part of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program (NEAT). Over 5,000 asteroids have been detected by the system already. The Air Force also maintains a large satellite tracking and monitoring station here, part of the Air Force Research Lab called AMOS, or the Maui Space Surveillance System, which includes a supercomputing center elsewhere on Maui, and one of the most powerful optical instruments ever designed to identify and "characterize" enemy satellites. Also on site is a solar observatory. 

"lady in the back with the blue hat....yes you, oh I'm glad you asked" The dormant volcano has not erupted in over 200 years and is 3000 ft deep, 7.5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, a total of 22 miles in circumference. 

I'll shut up now and let you have a moment.