Oahu the Beautiful

I've gotten to do quite a bit of exploring in Oahu so far and I am really enjoying this place.

On Sunday we spent the morning at the market where I had my first vegetarian manapua (think soggy ball of wonder bread with vegies and gravy in the middle). It was interesting but I don't think I will make a habit of eating them. They would make me pretty fat! We spent the rest of the morning tidepooling at the end of Sandy Beach near Hawaii kai. This place is super fantastic. I saw lots of nice fish, coral, snails, hermit crabs, shore crabs, and huge sea cucumbers (see album "Sandy Beach Tidepools").

In the afternoon, I went on a short loop hike in the forest just up from the house. The forest is mostly comprised of exotics owing to complete deforestation and cattle grazing of much of the island in the early 1800's followed by an aggessive re-foresting effort between 1830 and 1860 when conservation corps planted heaps and heaps of trees in an effort to stop errosion and regulate stream flow. The re-forestation effort planted a huge variety of both native and non native species, basically whatever they could get their hands on. The unfortunate result is the prevalence of non-native species. However, the upshot is that if the non-native plants had not been planted, the top soil and seed bank may have been lost and greater system collapse could have occured. I guess you get the good with the bad. Here are a few pictures from that hike:

On Monday (November 3) I had a hair appointment (yes my friend Mel is so awesome that she hooked me up with a much needed free hair cut from a stylist in training), so I spent the day in town. I visited the Foster Botanical Gardens in the am while the air was still cool. It is a great treat! Situated in urban Honolulu within walking distance from downtown, there are lots huge old trees (some native, some not) and lots of wildlife (almost exclusively non-native, but new to me so I still appreciated them). There was a great variety of palms and cycads from all over the world, a good collection or orchids and native plants, and a really fun edible plants garden including a basil bush four ft. high!!!
See: http://picasaweb.google.com/snailhugger/FosterBotanicalGarden#

Tuesday was spent at the Bishop Museum followed by election day festivities. The museum was pretty cool. They have an excellent display of artifacts from Hawaii both pre- and post european contact, a good historical display and collections from the former royal family from Kamehameha (who first "united" the hawiian islands under unified power) through Queen Lilio'kalani who was dethrowned by those with bussiness interests shortly before Hawaii became a part of the US. My favorite displays showed artefacts and implements from the various islands or island groups throughout polynesia, melanesia, and micronesia. They had some good stuff from Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately this display looks like it was set up in about 1968 and is in great need of repair. The carpet is green shag, some of the signage has warn away, and many of the lights in the display cases don't even work. What I really wanted to see was the insect collections, but with the exception of a few drawers that were in the children's science museum, there weren't any to be seen. Real shame!

Tuesday night we went to an election party at Jesse's friend's house. On the way there, we drove past the private school Barak Obama used to attend. I guess a lot of kids go to private or charter schools here in Hawaii because the school system is not so good and getting beaten up for not being Hawiian is pretty common. We got to the party just after the election result had been announced. Great news! I am very excited about what the future might hold, although it is going to take quite a bit of work to get our country back in working order. I am impressed by how many people were engaged in this election. I heard prissy girls making fun of other prissy girls on the bus for not getting out to vote. This is the first time voting has ever been en vougue. Que bueno! Hopefully people will stay engaged. Oh, and the view from the porch of Jesse's friend's house was as good as the election results!

Wednesday I went touring around the island. I started with a morning hike to the overlook on Makapu'u (see "Makapu'u overlook" slide show) followed by a strenuous climb down to the tidepools and blow holes at dragon's nostrils. It really did sound like a dragon breathing in and out. Eerie! The holes weren't blowing much but a fine mist would fly out every once in a while. I saw tons of fish down there chasing each outher around (see "Dragon's Nostrils tidepools" slide show) but the hike back up to the top sure wore me out.
From Makapu'u I took the H-3 over the mountains toward Pearl City. Wow!

Then I headed up the H-2 to the north shore for a rather rather bad fish burrito (apparently my stomach is particularly uninterested in cod) and a stellar visit to turtle beach (see "Turtle Beach" slide show) where I saw six turtles while I picked my way along the rocks.

From there I headed toward sharks cove and tidepool. The snorkeling was divine!!!! I saw tons of fish all tropical and very beautiful and in great abundance. There were several different species of sea urchin including the pencil urchins. I saw two eels and a shape shifting octopus too. Yeee! This is what the site looked like:

On the far end there was a breach in the sandstone wall and water would poor in like a waterfall.
On my way back to Mel's house, I drove along the windward coast and stoped in the mormon town of La'ie where there is this great sea arch:

Thursday I spent the day walking on different trails in the mountains above Mel's house toward Mt. Tantalus. Beautiful vegetation and amazing views!! See "Tantalus Trails" slideshow.

Today I am taking it easy and looking for travel insurance but it is time for me to go check out the Leeward Coast. More soon. I promise!