too much time at the pope house

a couple of pictures i found from the old days.
yet another amy rouse impression, this time done by yet another sarah, cleaver to be exact.





alex helps me out with one of cleave.

wilhelmina rise

quinn and selina's house on the hill
diamond head on the left, and waikiki on the right.

check out their awesome business at www.reusehawaii.org





mountain apples found on a hike


a waterfall and swimming hole found on same hike

kayak

sea kayaking, tandem style
harder than it looks to paddle at the same time.

( i hear this is the beach cameron diaz and oprah live on)


the shaka




twinny twin twins

China Town in Honolulu

Dim Sum, Sashimi, Pecking Duck and lots of packed stalls.

A family business butcher stall.



squids


banana flowers


unloading pigs for the meat counters


squash greens

are you all tired of beautiful beach shots yet?

this red sand beach was made when the rhiolite cliffs seen here were eroded into beautiful reddish purple sand you see here. Volcanoes are amazing. The hike here was tracherous, drawfed only by the drive here that was even more treacherous.
The bottom line is that most things worth seeing and doing on maui are a little dangerous. But, rounding the bend on this place was not what we expected and was totally worth the wondering and questioning of, "is this really a good idea?"


the rocks make a protective cove here keeping the real waves and changing tides crashing on the outside of the cove while the calmer waters inside offer swimming with marginal pull.

botanical treasure hunt

infinity pool dropping into a waterfall and overlooking the ocean at seven sacred pools.



Dioscorrea batata!
We were thrilled to see this relative of the Eastern Wild Yam (Dioscorrea villosa) with all this reproductive potatoes in full swing.




we kept our eye open for kava kava the whole time we were on maui -- hoping that we would know this plant when we came across it, even though we have never seen it before. it was on the road to hana, coming back the same path we had previously braved earlier that morning when i screamed, "stop the car neil, its kava!" Check out its lizard's tail -- almost like Saururus cernuus, a plant called Lizard's Tail in the South East. Actually that and Anemopsis (Yerba Mansa) are the closest relatives of the Piper Family, of which Kava is a member (also Black Pepper aka the stuff we grind on our food). Kava is a super important plant that is native to the Polynesian islands and has been transported all around Polynesia and Miconesia for many hundreds of years as people moved and explored new lands roots of this were always taken; used as medicine and for ceremony Kava is the center piece of many of the islands traditional ways.

Anyways it seems to have turned out that it is not real Kava afterall, but rather the false kava aka Root Beer Plant. The leaves didnt smell like rootbeer as they are supposed to, but some kind person has directed us to the veination of the leaves as a tell tale marker for distinguishing false from true kava. the search continues.


Piper auritum


And it has knees -- giant knobby knees and much more leggy & stalky than i thought it would be.

'Ohe'o Gulch

Waimoku FALLS
through a bamboo grove, up the mountain to the last and biggest of the waterfalls.




taro plants growing in less water than they need -- this is where poi comes from.

more maui wowis

first time anywhere 29!



a hike in Waihe'e Valley -- check out these suspension bridges, they were really scary -- like right out of indiana jones and every other movie every made were the bridge falls apart and you are left hanging by a rope...or where your foot falls through the rotted out boards, i would have taken a picture of said boards, but i was too busy clutching the wires.



cayenne vervain in flower -- taste like mushrooms. vervain is also a bach flower remedy and an excellent nervine.



nakalele blow hole. neil says this was the highlight of his trip.

the feast at lele --- neilio's 28th birthday!

mustache turns 28.

Hawaiian hula & Polynesian fire dance.




white ginger blooms-- one of the best smells in the world.



passion flower vine -- makes a deilicous fruit known as the passion fruit, it ranges in color from green when unripe to yellow and brownish purple when ready to pluck. the pulpy pod is filled with seeds surrounded by a flavor sack, kinda like a pomegranate, but unbelievably fruity, crunchy and delicious.

the passion flower

is it weird to be blogging on your honeymoon?

not when you're makin' pina coladas.

he likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain


our sunset


fermenting the noni fruits into juice.

olivine mineral pools -- the first mineral i ever IDed in my geology class, neil thought they were pretty cool too. deep tide pools good for protected swimmers.



isn't this thing outrageous? The hawaiian name, which i don't know, means broken poo-poo, good thing its a lot prettier than its name.


a little shrine, rocks wrapped in ti leaves with a petroglyph.