Up West Maui and beyond

Last week, Justin and I headed up the west side of Maui.  Ka'anapali is big, tourist city on that side of the island, and is home to multimillion dollar condos galore.  There are supposed to be some pretty awesome beaches here, but we didn't stop.  We wanted to keep heading up, because there are some pretty awesome sights beyond "civilization."  Near the end of the road (where the arrow is pointing), the "world's best banana bread" can be found.  I really enjoyed exploring this side of the island, though the drive at points made me incredibly nervous.  (You'll see why when I get to the pictures!)  :)

The first stop for us was supposed to be the Two-Tiered Tide Pools of Honolua.  We never actually got there...lol.  We pulled off the road, and followed what we thought was the correct path, but didn't actually end up anywhere near it.  But I'm pretty sure we could see it from where we ended up.  And the views were pretty anyways!

Justin peeing off a cliff.  Because he thinks he's cool.  :)

First trail we took attempting to find the two pools.

Pretty sure those are the pools.  Not only were we far from them, but I think the high tides would've made them dangerous

View of the awesome coastline

Next on the agenda was the Acid War Zone hike that eventually leads to the Nakalele Blowhole.  The Acid War Zone is a space along the coastline that has had slammed by billions of tons of sea water, and the salt has eroded away the rocks in ways that seem surreal.  The guidebook named is the war zone, and comments on the fact that movies should be filmed here.  It definitely seems like a scene out of Starship Troopers.  :)

A mini blow hole on the way to the big one!  :)

Close up on an "alien" rock

Justin checking out an acid rock

Once through the war zone, you come to the Nakalele Blowhole.  I swear everytime I turned the camera off, a massive amount of water would come shooting through the hole.  And when I would turn the camera back on, little baby poofs of water would come through.  Haha.

After the blowhole, we hiked back to the car and continued on to the Olivine Pools.  I've been wanting to see the pools since we got here.  The guidebook compares them to Queen's Bath in Kauai, but says they were better.  Unfortunately, I don't know if its because of it being early Spring or because the tides are crappy, but the pools weren't nearly as awesome as I had expected.  I think we'll have to head back to them in the summer months and check them out in all their splendor.  :)

The Olivine pools

Other folks checking out the further pools

Ash deposits from when island was young and volcanic--erosion reveals these splendors to us!  :)

From the Olivine pools, we had to make the decision of making the trek back down through Ka'anapali and down into Lahaina.  Or, we could make a dangerous, but much shorter trek and end up in Wailuku in 12 short smiles.  I'm glad we ended up taking this route, even though the roads were terrifying!  :)

The road was quite literally one car wide.  There were spaces where you could pull off, but a little further up the road, there is no space, AND there is a giant cliff on the left hand side!  :)

Narrow road doesn't even begin to cover it!  :)

And of course!  A frickin' school bus decides to come towards us while we're coming down!  I held my breath the whole time it was passing us!  haha.  Though at least it was closest to the cliff!  :)

Shortly after the school bus, we came to the little fishing town of Kahakuloa.  See the map at the beginning of the entry to see where the village was located.  Here, we purchased "The best banana bread in the world," as well as some kick ass coconut candy.  Julia, the gal who owns the banana bread stand, sat in a little green stand at the end of the village road.  The bread and the candy were awesome, though I don't know if the banana bread was worth the life threatening drive it took to get there!  lol.  I'm not really sure why I don't have any pictures of the village.  Maybe I was still freaking out from the trip, or maybe I was in awe of how cute the little town was, and how secluded it was. 

Julia's banana bread stand--you can purchase it online: http://www.juliasbananabread.com/id27.html

The rest of the drive wasn't nearly as treacherous, and we did stop at the Turnbull Studio and Sculpture garden, which was actually incredbibly cool.  The sculptures were pretty awesome, both inside and outside the studio, and the main guy is obsessed with giraffes, so I took tons of pictures of them for my sissy!  :)

Go Cougs!  :)

Badass bird getting ready to scratch your face off!  :)

A bronze giraffe sculpture

Well that was the trip!  :)  The road pops you back out into Wailuku, where we stopped for some awesome Vietnamese food before heading home.  :)

SUBBING!!! :)

Today was my second day of subbing!  :)  I subbed at the elementary school that is literally one street over from our apartment in South Kihei.  A 4th grade class too, which I actually kind of enjoyed...haha, but don't tell the Kindergarteners! 

Their teacher was out because she has 3 broken ribs.  Because one of the kids in the class purposely tripped her.  Awesome, right? 

Yesterday morning, I walked into the office and confidently introduced myself.  When I told the office aid what teacher I was subbing for, she said, "oooooooo," and kind of grimaced.  I told her not to lie to me, and she said the class is one of the worst in the school.  Oye.  As I walked to the room, a student asked me which room I was looking for.  When I said the teacher's name, another grimace, and a "Good luck!"  FROM A 10 YEAR OLD.  Haha.

Yes, it was awful at times.  Both days.  The kids have no boundaries, no expectations, no rules, nothing.  They do what they want, when they want.  They have no idea how to raise their hands, they talk over each other, over me.  They bicker, fight, shove each other, scream at each other, and write "fuck u" on the tissue box.  I found 24 paper airplanes around the room when I cleaned up after school today.  TWENTY FOUR!  And they don't even have recycle bins here!

I was firm.  I raised my voice sometimes to get their attention.  And I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I asked for their attention, and if I didn't get it, I stood in the front and I stared them down until I got it.  A handful of the kids still didn't understand.  It took their peers screaming at them to get their attention, and obviously I didn't really want that either.  Haha.

BUT, we had some amazing moments, and one of them was actually witnessed by a fellow teacher.  I got the kids to write in silence for 7 straight minutes about things they like.  The teacher that came in said she's pretty sure they've never been that quiet...ever.  (It did help that 2 of the problem children were out of the room, hanging out with the principal for the morning for how they treated the previous sub.)  OH! And their punishment for their behavior?  Writing lines!  I didn't even know that was a legal punishment in public schools.  They had to write a sentence saying something like I will treat adults with respect, ect 400 times.  FOUR HUNDRED TIMES!  Oh, my goodness. 

I gave them the option during SSR to draw while I read them Shel Silverstein poems.  (Which, they loved, and I freaking loved too.  And some of them were actually paying enough attention to laugh at the poems!) 

The first day, they had nearly earned a little bit of extra recess, but at the last minute, I took it away and we sat for the last 5 minutes of school.  We discussed how we had done for the day, and one kid raised his hand and said it was a 50/50 day.  I asked how today could be, and he said 75/25, hopefully.  :)  Another kid asked me if I was actually coming back on Friday, and when I said yes, he said, "So you don't hate us?"

Today, when the kids were taking a reading test, one boy tried to talk to a girl sitting near him.  She told him to be quiet, because I was going to get them in trouble.  He said I was mean.  She retorted back to him, "No she's not, she cares."  Good God, my heart nearly broke when I heard her say that.  Later, she made me a thank you card for being their sub. 

I'm so thankful for my student teaching placement.  Especially after meeting kids that could give my practicum kids a run for their money.  They're all amazing, but crappy circumstances and teachers that had given up on them made them give up too.  The sub they had on Tuesday WALKED OUT during lunch.  Said it wasn't worth the money to stay.  I can't even imagine...

One of the office ladies mentioned that the teacher will probably be out next week too.  The kids don't have school on Monday for a Hawaiian holiday, and I have Tuesday and Wednesday off from the coffee bean.  I told the vice principal that I would love to come back next week, and left my contact information with the secretary.  I really hope they call!  :)

I love that.  It was absolutely awful, but I would gladly go back.  To work with these kids.  To teach them how to respect one another, and me, and to teach them to think something of themselves.  The kids earned 20 minutes of extra recess today, but ended up wasting nearly half of it because I can't get them to transition out of the classroom to save my life.  Why they wanted to waste their own free time, I'm not sure, but they really like to run back in the classroom and hide.  *shrugs*  It was a great couple of days, and the teacher in me has re-emerged.  :)

OH!  And the Sounders won!  We went to the bar to watch the game, and we both  got two free beers!  :)  One from a fellow Seattle fan, and 1 from a beer rep.  Yeah buddy!  :)

For even more fantastic news, check out my fat blog: http://www.kayleenisgoingtobethin. blogspot.com

Iao Valley

Justin and I decided earlier this week that we wanted to go hiking. He had Wednesday off, and I didn't have to work until late afternoon. One of the girls at work mentioned that she had went hiking in the Iao valley, and that it was very pretty. The Iao valley is only 5 miles from Wailuku, so the drive was quick! :)

The Iao valley was very pretty, and full of history as well! The valley is the site of the battle of Kepaniwai in 1790. This battle was between King Kamehameha I and the Mauians. King Kamehameha defeated them, which eventually led to the Hawaiian islands became united under one king. The battle was especially bloody--the name of battle, Kepaniwai, translates to "the damming of the waters" because the numerous dead bodies clogged the Iao river. Crazy, right?

The hiking itself was kind of joke. It's a state park, and the "trails" are all paved with numerous signs telling you not to leave them. The hike to the top of the lookout point took about 5 minutes...haha. But we did wander off the path a bit and hiked alongside the river for a little while. We passed a boulder with some ancient glyphs carved into them. (Maybe that was why they didn't want us in there? Haha.) We hiked for about 20 minutes, but then the path started to climb very quickly, and I chickened out. I don't mind climbing up paths, but its the coming back down (fear of falling) that destroys me. So we turned around and headed back.

Not exactly what I had planned for a hike, but it was fun nonetheless! :)

Oh, and we noticed while we were walking that there were random rocks with leaves wrapped around them.  I just googled it, and apparently it's a super controversial act!  I pulled this explanation from a reply to someone's question on tripadvisor.com:

"Ti leaves are considered to be powerful and offer protection from spirits, and this is why you will see ti plants planted in front of and around buildings, and especially on entryways and around the front door. So wrapping a rock in a ti leaf might protect the rock but it will do nothing for you personally.

 

Seriously, this is just disrespectful. You would not go into St. Peters and give yourself communion, nor would you go into Masjid al-haraam and offer salat (unless, of course, you are Muslim). Unless you are a trained practitioner, a kahu, you shouldn't be performing sacred rituals and certainly not leaving offerings. First of all, you need to know what is the proper offering to leave to who, and when, where and how to offer the item. Leaving a random offering to a random akua in a random place results in nothing but a pile of rocks where one should not be."

Interesting, right?  

The Iao Valley

One side of the valley wall

The Iao needle--
A" vegetation-covered lava remnant rising 1,200 feet from the valley floor or 2,250 feet when measured from sea level."

View of the needle from the upper viewpoint

Because the cement trail was lame, we wandered off into the trees.  A little down the trail, we found some Hawaiian glyphs.  Pretty awesome!  :)

The Iao stream

And because you read my blog, you get to laugh at my St. Patrick's day misfortune.  My husband is a wonderful photographer.  :)

King's highway to unnamed beach! :)

So Sunday was the first day that both Justin and I had the same day off in forever. I definitely wanted to do something active, mostly because I've been a lazy ass recently. So we chose an adventure out of the guide book! The book warned that the hike was pretty awful, but the views, and the pretty private beach you get to at the end is worth it.

So we headed off to Makena! Its only 10 or so miles from our apartment. And, its at the end of the road for this side of Maui. Once you hit La Perouse Bay, you literally have no road left to drive.

So we parked, got out, and hiked along the coast.  1/2 a mile along,  the trail moves onto a trail made entirely of crushed lava rock.  (Hence why I am SOOO sore today.)  At some points, the rock was small, so it made the hike easy.  And at other points, you are literally boulder hoping.  Haha, so awesome.  You follow the trail for another 1.5 miles until you get to a beacon.  The point at the beacon was CRAZY windy, and I could feel the windy literally blowing me over at times.

From the beacon, its another mile to the beach.  You have to "follow" a trail that is marked with pieces of coral.  The coral trail leads you up to the King's highway, and from there, it was only another 10 minutes or so before we hit the spur trail to the beach. 

The King's highway, also known as Hoapili Trail, was created in the 1700's to transport the Kings of the island to the rural fishing villages on the coast.  It was also used to move cattle.  All of the guides I've read online said this trail is specially an advanced trail and not for amateurs.  I felt pretty good reading that, though my feet, ankles, and knees are killing me today.  Apparently hiking on lava rock is hard!  :)  The trail continues to another beach that is easier to get to and not nearly as secluded.  Another hiking day?  :)

As for the beach itself, I was pretty disappointed.  The guide book said that its usually a pristine beach, UNLESS there has been heavy storms or rains.  And of course, last week there was major flooding around the islands and huge storms.  So the water was rough, and not very clear.  Justin went out with this snorkel gear, but said he couldn't see much.  I didn't head into the water at all, because the water crashed pretty much right into the lava rocks on the beach, and I'm pretty clutzy as it is.  :)  Haha, so I didn't get in.  But that's okay.  The hike was very pretty, and very adventurous, and the beach was beautiful!

I tried to put the pictures in order, so they make sense with the narration I wrote about.  :)

Where we were!  The end of the road to Makena

The ocean is right next to the road! Crazy!

Hello ocean!

Driving through the lava field

A mini beach as we hiked along the coast

A mini spouting horn!

Hiking along the coast

Got to the top of the beacon!  You can see Kahoolawe behind us.
No one actually lives there though, due to lack of fresh water.

Olivine pools--too bad you can't swim in them!

The guide book said to get to the beach, you should follow the trail marked with coral.
And sure enough, there it was!

Smiling in the wind!

Another olivine pool

Justin was like, "Honey, go stand next to the cave."  Haha.

One of the pieces of coral.  I thought it was so pretty!

Stripped down to my swimsuit to cool off!

We made it to the beach!  Totally empty!

The tide was really high, so there was hardly any sand to sit on

View of the beach from the top of the lava rocks

Finally saw a goat!  On the way out.