Moloka'i

Not a single traffic light.  How intriguing to be on an island so quiet and unfamiliar to the daily hustle and bustle of it's densely populated neighbor.  Moloka'i is the perfect place to embrace the concept, or master the art of "doing nothing."  Of course, there is much more that goes on with doing nothing than actually doing nothing.  But we'll decipher the beauty of this concept later.

Leave from Maui and get a bird's eye view of the world's highest sea cliffs.

Don't get me wrong, my Mom and I found loads to explore.  Serene stretched of beaches where we were the only visitors.   Beautiful tropical vistas and sea cliffs from above.  Ancient fishponds.  And get this - my mom is an off-roader...who knew?!  We traveled nearly every paved road on Moloka'i which left us to discover some unpaved roads, and more specifically, not well-maintained and heavily eroded unpaved roads. 

One off-roading mama on a quiter stretch of road

Moloka'i's south shore is dotted with fish ponds.  These ponds are used to trap and harvest fish.  We learned that different styles of fishponds exist allover the world.  Hawai'i's are unique because of how they capture fish.  A wall of rock with a single opening is built around a fresh water source, usually either a stream or freshwater spring.  This is because the interaction with the freshwater and saltwater create a nutrient dense environment which fishies love. 

The restored Ali'i Fishpond

The opening is small enough for fish too little to eat to be able to get in and out of the fish pond as they please.  One day, they will enter, feed and grow too big mighty to escape the little whole.  Bam, food for the people.  There is a bit more to it than this, and tides also play an important role.  But this is the basic concept and I find it fascinating.

All the islands have/had fishponds along the south shores and any other area protected by the powerful seas.  Development on O'ahu has practically eradicated most of the ponds, sadly.  But this is the world as we know it.

Fortunately, there is a movement on Moloka'i to restore the 60+ fishponds as a way of cultural preservation and a way to embrace and live sustainability again as a way of life on the island. We came across one and an NGO (www.kahonuamomona.org) involved with restoring the ponds...what a beautiful sight.  This is a good article in the Star Advertiser about the organization.

Clearly the fishponds intrigued me.  The political activism intrigued my mama.  The people on Moloka'i are certainly not willing to be bullied by corporations and manipulated with money, that's for sure.  It's so inspiring.

 

King Kamehameha V's Coconut Grove

 

View of Kalaupapa Peninsula

 



Handstand in Moloka'i - Halawa Valley.  Check that off the list.

It's so easy to appreciate the beauty of simplicity here

 



Southeast Coastline with Maui (left) and Lana'i (right) in the disctance

 

Sunset on the beach :)

 

Back x5.

The Gathering Place is lovelier, yet crazier, than ever.  My five year "plan" is on phase 2.  'Plan' is in quotes because, well, plans change.  At least in my book, they do.

This fifth time returning to O'ahu has been an island hopping and job/apartment hunting whirlwind.  I'm ten days away from being settled into a beautiful and peaceful Manoa home for a few months.  Until then, my temporary abodes have resided in Hawaii Kai, Maui and Moloka'i.  And the first week back was family time at its finest.

Bonaynay and Matti R are somewhere in there..Go Go Go!!!

A beautiful snorkeling spot, and apparently surfing as well, on the Maui coast.

 



My arrival included a family greeting at the Kahului airport, followed by a fun an exhausting swimbikerun, Xterra style.  I rocked the swim.  I give thanks to my little kiwi island and the local Paihia swimmers for motivating me to take the frigid plunge multiple times a week.  The warm aloha seas off the coast of Maui were quite inviting and an ease to plunge into.

Taking the plunge in Paihia's waters will do the above left to your hands. 

 But swimming around a beautiful kiwi island (above right) everyday makes it totally worth it.



The very warm and inviting Maui coast.

The mtn bike was actually fun.  Loads of hills.  Lots of twists and turns.  I think it's the heat that got me.  I drank Gatorade, also.  My body is in such a transitional place in terms of how I fuel it and this sports drink was the first highly unnatural and multi-unpronouncable-ingredients-list-hydration-source I've ingested in ages.  We'll just pretend it helped me and call it a day.  But I was in a hydration pickle and decided that due to the amount of sweat coming out of my body, it was best to ingest some electrolytes rather than straight up water.  We will NEVER know if this was the best choice.  my apologies.

The run went by speedily.  Ha.  not my time so much.  It sure as schnockers didn't feel like I was running for over an hour...but I was.  A super nice lady gave me her extra electrolytes.  My legs were cramping up a storm.  Ugh.  This is a new experience for me.  My first experience really, REALLY feeling cramps was on a run in Christchurch eight-ish months ago.  They are nearly debilitating.

Check out what the first of three falls on the bike did to me:

 



You wanna here a kinda funny story?  So I had a new pair of goggles that I used for this race.  They worked like a charm.  I wrapped them around my wrist as I was running from the ocean to the swim to bike transition (above/right pic).  And I forgot to take them off.  So I completely ate a bunch of fluffly red dirt on the fall that created the little scraped off skin above...my favorite souvenirs.  Meaning my new goggles wrapped so nicely around my wrist completely ate fluffy red dirt as well.  lovely.

 

Soooo... I rubbed out the cramps and walked and ran, then my legs cramped in a different place, so I rubbed those out and walked and finally was able to run the last four miles without another cramp.

And that was my race.

And now that the race is over, I can focus on becoming a ketosis machine full force!

I loved seeing my family and we gradually parted out separate ways the following days.  Mark and Paige returned to the Lands of Peaches, and Hayhay the Bonaynay and Matti R returned to the Garden Isle.  Mom and I made our was to the most peaceful and lovely island of all, the Friendly Isle.  Aka Moloka'i.

Not even a traffic light exists on this island.  Here is a sneak peak of what's next: