Swimming waterfall pools in Hawaii

There was no path. We’d trekked through the Boiling Pots, roiling pools of waterfall water to get to Pe’epe’e Falls. Jumping and slipping over giant river worn blocks of old lava, swimming in places to get to land – Tyler with his wrist cast held above the waters. Eventually we reached the falls which are pronounced peh-eh-peh-eh, not peepee just so you know.

I’ve been to a lot of waterfalls, but these were magical. I swam alone to the centre of the pool, cliffs encasing nearly all of it. Pe’epe’e leapt down to meet flat rock at the base two falls on one cliff and round the corner another. Ferns and vines wetly, greenly lined the rock walls and palm trees peered over from above. The choppy water flicked in my eyes, but I just looked up at the sun, perfectly timed, showing it’s face for the first time that day.

Earlier that morning we’d visited Rainbow Falls, wandered around the riverbank to the most enormous Banyan tree I’d ever seen and then to the pool above the falls. Which I enjoyed a nice jump and a dip in. Feast your eyes on these:

Rainbow Falls

This Banyan tree spreads its branches everywhere, they then plug into the ground and grow more versions of the same tree next to it making a forest of one tree.

Tiny jump but you got to start with small steps right? I’ll get do bigger ones yet.

Jus chilling

A couple of days before we visited Akaka Falls on the way to Hilo, which is a lovely tall waterfall, but it falls on rock and you can’t swim there. Lots of giant leaves.

And then we went home over the Saddle Road. My new favourite road in Hawaii, it travels in between the two huge volcanoes on The Big Island – Moana Loa and Moana Kea. Click here for a song we listened to while travelling it. Vast, barren land stretches out either side of the tarmac strip with cupcake mounds – remnants of old lava spurts – punctuating the calm landscape. At its height you reach above the lower cloud height so the view is of sweeping, rolling hills poking out of a layer of cloud. Nene live here. Nene are very stupid relations of Canadian geese. Since there are no predators, they lost their ability to fly. And their brains when they were cross-bred in a desperate attempt to stem their population decline.

They don’t even move when you go near them, no wonder they’re almost extinct. Stupid birds.

Lumpy landscape.

Up at 6,000ft, the sky is sharp blue, the sun white and bright and the air is crystal cool. See the clouds on the horizon?

Tyler, my chauffeur.

There’s a military base on the top of the Saddle in the clouds. Volcano as backdrop of course.

Looks like a 70s roadtrip, love it.

When the sun goes down. (tune!) See we’ve mounted the Saddle and are on our way down to the ocean.

Epic journey listening to Fischerspooner and Slightly Stoopid. And back to Kona for a beer.

Three New Paintings Inspired by Hawaii

A present for my ‘ohana – adoptive family here in Hawaii. Thanks for looking after a wandering couch-surfer!

Julie loves pink flamingos and plumeria flowers

The gecko tattoo I’ve designed for Tyler’s shoulder.

Hippy Town Hawi and the Hilton

A couple of days later Tyler and I did a little road trip to explore a cute chilled out town in the north of The Big Island called Hawi (in Hawaiian you pronounce the w as a v in the middle of words). We checked out an art gallery, had a coffee and wandered round a couple of cute shops. I found the Filthy Farmgirl soaps hilarious, there’s a huge range.

Also love the wash your filthy mind soap.

The Hilton here looks like a giant temple to an Indonesian Neptune. It’s full of art from south east Asia and pretty quirky. Like all Hawaiian resorts, it has an uncomfortable feeling of mass consumerism and American-esque ease in a “why should I leave the resort? Everything I need is here” kind of way. It even has a tram from one end of the other in case guests can’t quite make those few hundred metres. But this is partially mitigated by long corridors of art punctuated by pools of koi and lily pads.

These colours sprung out.

Long corridors full of funny creatures.

Another funny creature

Crazy huh?

When we got back, Cory was working on his Jeep again and Tyler helped him.

The brothers and Rua the dog work on the Jeep.

The next day I left Kona for Hilo.

DAY SEVEN: WAIPIO VALLEY WATERFALL HIKE

Ok, DAY SEVEN:

Driving from Kona to Waipio took about two hours, but after a funny break in Waimea, the Wild West town of Big Island, Hawaii, where stop signs say ‘whoa’, we got to the magical valley of Waipio.

There are two famous hikes here – the 2 or 3 night hike to Waimanu, and the waterfall hike.

If you do the former, you start from the lookout carpark and trek down the 4WD hairpin road to the black sand beach and traverse the valley to the steep track the other side.

For the waterfall hike that we did, take your 4WD down to the valley floor and go left to the ford. Start from the ford.

What to wear: swimwear, no clothes and trainers with socks.

Route: some track along the river side, some swimming upstream (keep shoes on), some rock hopping.

Take: WATER

Beware: Of Lepto. This is a disease caught in freshwater in Hawaii. I still swim here, but might get fever in a couple of weeks. Unpleasant, but easily treatable I hear.

Timing: It takes about two hours to get to the waterfall base, about 45 mins back.

Dogs: Don’t take them, ours ended up in a backpack on the way back, she got tired of scrambling.

Bugs: I didn’t wear repellant and normally I’m annihilated, but I was fine.

Izzy and her owner Gavin. Izzy started by drinking from a makeshift rucksack bowl. Finished by being piled inside it when she got tired.

Black sand beach at Waipio Valley

After we’d had our picnic on luxurious tree trunk seats, we found these cool little things at the corner of the beach and creek. If only we’d walked a few metres further and found them earlier… Gavin and Tyler. And IZZY!

When we turned the corner, we were like… WHOA! This photo doesn’t really depict that scenario, the waterfall looks a lot bigger than this honest, and hopefully your friends won’t be pretending to throw up. Steve!

Amazing waterfall. And that was Day Seven. Over and Out.

I love bleached wood and most other stuff Hawaii

DAY FOUR/FIVE:

We trundled back to Kona from our seven mile hike in the 70s military Jeep without a windshield. It was dark already, but that wouldn’t stop us travelling to a two mile 4WD track to go camping. On Makalawena Beach (pronounce the W as a V). This white sand beach is backed by black volcanic lava rock and fronted by magnificent bright aqua sea. Dive beneath the ocean’s surface and find one of the best snorkelling spots, well, that I’ve ever been to. Better than the Great Barrier Reef a couple of months ago. The trees made it even more striking. Twisted roots lay exposed and bleached out by the sun; palm trees struck out at angles, blown by the wind; and stubby trees etched with lines as if from illustrated fairybooks edged the shore.

Like white fire

if I write something in this space it gives the photo a nice grey border.

Illustrated storybook trees

There are lots of giant sea turtles here

DAY SIX:

I woke up with half my upper lip the size of an eyeball. Nice. Cory invited me out on the tourist snorkelling day trip boat he works on sometimes. After an hour or so I decided it had gone down enough that I could go out in public so Tyler drove me breakneck speed to the harbour and I just caught the boat. THIS WAS AMAZING! The company’s called Captain Zodiac. The snorkelling was great, though not as good a Maks I think. But I saw yellow trumpet fish and some man handed me a red pencil urchin which was pretty cool. Plus I saw my favourite fish – the parrot fish. Google image it, beautiful.

Day six was also Cory’s birthday so in the evening we had friends over for a grill and drink. I went to bed at 4.30am. A good night. This is Cory, he’s got a black eye from when he jumped off a cliff into the ocean on our hike.

He’s a ninja pirate.

I’m going to get a rum and coke.

My ‘ohana in Hawai’i

In Polynesian culture, the concept of family includes many non-blood related aunties and uncles who all contribute to the upbringing of the children. In Hawaii this wider term for family is called ‘ohana (the ‘ is a punctuation mark indicating a pause, it’s usually used in the middle of words such as Hawai’i). Well I’ve found my ‘ohana here, in Kailua-Kona, Big Island.

Now you see why it’s known as The Big Island. Yup, it’s the biggest. Actually, it’s officially called Hawaii, the same name as the whole island chain of Hawaii. Confused?

The house is made up of the beautiful Liz who scuba-dives with manta rays for a living and taught me to hula hoop in her front drive, Cathy Liz’s mum who wears only white and is eternally positive about everyone, Tyler the master chef with his broken arm and enormous heart, his brother Cory with his wild waist-long blonde hair and killer abs, and the boys’ mother Julie, a hippy at heart who looks after us all and takes me to art fairs.

I’ve been here a week and every day they’ve taken me on adventures I couldn’t have possibly found on my own. Here’s me hula hooping at the house:

I was watching the ocean as I hula-hooped.

A couple of Fridays ago on Coyote, a boat in the Waikiki sailing regatta:

Alec who I met once before: “Hi Cory? There’s this cute English girl coming to Big Island, can she stay with you?”….. to me: “He says you can stay…”

DAY ONE:

My first glimpse of Cory is from fairly far off down the airport road. With his bare chest, amazing hair and most of all, his 70s military Jeep with no windshield, he’s pretty easy to spot. He picks me up and deposits me at their gorgeous house where I meet the gang plus Joao who’s flying back to Oahu that night. But not before he takes me to the most beautiful beach, a slither of white surrounded by hectares of churned black lava flow.

Kua Bay is OK! We swam out to a big rock, climbed it and jumped off, then back stroked back to the beach.

That evening is Mothers Day and we have a big meal with some of the guys’ friends from where they come from – Colorado.

DAY TWO:

I hung out at the house, started a painting for these guys and then went snorkelling with manta rays at night. Manta rays are up to 12 feet across and feed on plankton. The snorkelers float on the surface of the water pointing torches down. Scuba divers sit below on the seabed directing torchlight up. The light attracts plankton and the manta rays open up their huge mouths, swirling and diving between the lights to filter through as much of their microscopic dinner as possible. The grace and elegance of these creatures is something to behold. Have a look here: Manta Ray Ballet

DAY THREE:

Sorry, but nothing really happened.

DAY FOUR:

The Cory Hike. After picking up Lucas, we deposited the Jeep at the trailhead to the Captain Cook Monument and trundled down the two mile trail to the coast. We then struck out right, walking over swirling lava flows of black with white arcs of stranded storm beaches striping our path. Bleached out Kiawe (kee-ar-vay) trees twisted out from rock cracks like white fire and the aqua sea pounded the caves and crevices to our left. The highlight was reaching The Grotto – a massive collapsed roof sea cave with a lava tube inside it. We tied our essentials inside a series of air filled bin liners and swam across, climbed the rock face to reach the lava tube and hiked 400m inside it. Lowlight was Cory’s interesting cliff jump which after a momentary lapse of concentration once in the sea, resulted in a heavily bleeding head. But he was fine, just a black eye for the next few days. The Cory Hike also involved rolling down the hills of an exclusive golf course and hitchhiking back to the Jeep.

Down near the monument

And at the end of the tunnel lay:

Gorgeous bleached wood

Our path along the lava field was dramatic.

Cory doesn’t do fear.

See the dark space on the right of The Grotto? That’s the entrance to the lava tube. Quite a hairy scramble up to it. And of course, the swim to it in the first place.

Not just the preserve of festival fun, you can roll down hills any time.

And back to the Jeep via lifts from a couple of pick up trucks. Seven hours later. Good hike!

And back to the Jeep, isn’t she cute?!

That was a week ago, but I’ll be surprised if you’ve read to this far. I’m off to watch a Will Farrell movie.

Aloha Awesomeness II

This is going to have to be a bit of a photo diary post because I have so much to say and a picture is worth a thousand words… well, I don’t think that’s actually true all the time, but perhaps in this case.

The weekend permaculture design course was an eyeopener. The leaders Hunter and Matt are inspiring because they are living embodiments of what they teach. Following the principles of permaculture, a sustainable existence, they are truly happy and it’s uplifting. These two photos show the classroom inside and out.

This lady made a guest appearance talking about The Transition Movement. The guy with beige liquid in a bowl is eating poi, a traditional Hawaiian staple made from Taro plant.

More info about poi here.

I love drawing these mountains, they remind me of Japan.

On Sunday Florian picked me up in his doorless red 80s Jeep and gave me a tour of North Shore all the way over to the most westerly tip of Oahu – Kaena Point.

First we snorkelled at Sharks Cove to see the giant sea turtles. Then we stopped off to see them on land. They come on to the rocks to nibble algae.

I love these giant turtles, Honu in Hawaiian.

To get to Kaena Point you must off-road it for about two miles and then comes a giant Children of Men type enclosure with a double gate to enter. This is to protect the albatross that breed here. Albatross hold a kind of mystical allure for me since I read Coleridge’s hypnotic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It’s another few hundred metres down a sand track to the point and wow is it beautiful. Click here for more pics.

Sunset at Kaena Point, Oahu

On Monday I wandered out of my deluxe bedroom to find Max. Like Griff, the first thing Max says to me is, “What are you doing today, want to go for a hike?” (with Griff it was surfing but same difference) So we hiked up to some fir trees Max had seen from the ocean while surfing, climbing some 1,500ft up those amazing Hawaiian peaks. We’re both adventurous spirits so when we’d got to the trees, we saw another track, followed it. It got smaller, we followed it. We found another campsite and through that we saw a tiny track going up. Soon we were pulling ourselves up some scree with the help of a hardy wire fence and we got to the crest of the ridge so we could see both coastlines – the north shore and the west side at the same time. Magical.

I love these mountains!

On Tuesday I drew their house – Jayme, Max, Austin and Alex’s.

Wednesday Florian came up and we paddle boarded all morning, so much fun and such good exercise.

Thursday I started reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, amazing book, learnt some Spanish, painted a painting for Dahlia and Griff’s household and drove down with Jayme to Kaneohe for the Thursday night sailing regatta.

After sailing Jayme and Brad drove me over to Florian’s where I’m staying since he has a a spare room, when I’m in Waikiki.

Friday I was sailing again on the Coyote and then Dahlia had a houseparty for her birthday. Really fun, lots of beers, fairy lights, taking the mickey out of my English accent as usual. Honestly, American’s LOVE to imitate my accent and they sound so breathy and a bit stupid when they do and I’m thinking do I really sound like that?? Golly gosh.

Saturday was amazing, Griff and I went surfing at Tongs and I caught a few waves. So much fun, but I was perhaps a little drunk when we left the house in the morning and what did I forget? Sunscreen. The back of my legs were bad, but my bum? My poor white bum where my bottoms rode up? It’s still highlighter pink three days later.

Sunday I flew over to The Big Island and perhaps that needs a whole new post.

ALOHA indeed.