Friday, January 9, 2009

My Days With Mother Nature

By Murph

So I have been spending as much time as possible outside the last couple of days, it's been awesome out, but as I was telling my friends Ang and Jamie earlier today, Mother Nature is kicking my ass! I've spent the last couple days doing everything I can fit in. Yesterday (Wednesday) I began the day with a run along the whole of Waikiki Beach - it took FOREVER, a lot longer than I had expected, and i was gassed....the problem with that was at 10am I was off on a snorkeling/sailing trip on a catamaran and I didnt have any time for a breather. Anyway, the snorkel/sail was pretty sick. They brought us to a place called "Turtle Cove" where there were sometimes 7-8 turtles visible at a time. We were out there snorkeling for about an hour, I never came out for a break, and refused to use a "noodle" so my legs were pretty much luggage, but I was fired up. Anyway, I wasnt in SCUBA gear, just a snorkel, so I never got much more than 10-12ft. underwater, and for not much more than 10-15secs, but it was enough to get right in the mug of some HUGE sea turtles when they swam up to surface. I got a good chance to get right up in a big boy's mug. I have some pretty cool video clips (ALL of "good" video clips and pictures I have thus far can be found, as I mentioned in my last post, at photobucket.com/scottamurphy), and here are a couple teasers:





I was captivated by these turtles, the big boy in the second video was pretty damn big, had to be close to 5ft in length. After the snorkeling we took off on a sail, and it was super windy out so it was sweet. On our sail we ran into a group of "spinners", or spinning dolphins, it was so hard to catch one in the act, but i got close (we got real close to a few, some good pics at the photobucket site):



After we got back into shore, around 12:30pm, I set off to have lunch at a beach spot. During lunch I was speaking with the waitress who was a local and I asked her where the best place within walking distance would be to sit on the beach, read, and get away from the madness (there are like 25,000 people on Waikiki Beach, it's crazy AND loud...)....she told me to head out to Ala Moana Beach where the "locals" hang out. I initially didnt realize what kind of walk I was in for, it was a LONG one, and I almost bagged it...but I kept trucking, and set up shop at Ala Moana Beach. There werent many people there at all, and it's a pretty damn big beach. It's real chill and sheltered from any big waves with a huge park behind it. Anyway, I sat there and read for a couple hours, it was gorgeous out. I love how at this time of year here it's never more than 80 degrees with plenty of clouds (like 4mins of sun, then 1min of clouds...on and on...) and the water is nice to swim in too (NOT like Sunset Beach). I stayed there most of the afternoon and then trucked it back to Waikiki Beach and caught another sunset before heading back to shower, then dinner/drinks.

This morning (Thursday morning) I got up EARLY to catch a bus up to the Diamond Head trail in order to catch sunrise from up there. All I can say is WOW. It was a decent little hike, commencing with something like 400 stairs (you end up around 800ft. above sea level I think), but well worth it. I was cracking up at the top too, I was seemingly there with half of Tokyo. When the sun emerged they pointed and screamed "SUN!...SUN!....SUN!", they ALL were doing it...part of me wanted to turn around and start saying, "NO SHIT!....NO SHIT!....NO SHIT!"...then there was this OLD southern dude, soaked in sweat, that was yelling to his wife while on his cell phone (which I couldnt believe worked), "How you ants-swere tha call waitin' darlin'?"...it was almost too much....Here's a few sample pics: (sunrise with Koko Head on the left, Waikiki at sunrise, and my mug between Koko Head and the sun[I need to brighten myself up a bit in the pic, I'll figure it out SOME day]- all around 7:20am):




It was quite a sight to see, seriously...I'm starting to fall for the sunrises and sunsets, the colors are ridiculous, especially over the ocean here, everything just seems clearer and the contrasts are better (but then again, what the f&ck do I know!). I got back to Waikiki Beach around 9am and decided to get a quick nap in. Afterwards I grabbed a quick lunch and headed out for a hike to Monoa Falls to see myself a waterfall (not the biggest, but I still wanted to check it out....that's what she said). So it was only a mile-or-so walk out to the falls, up maybe 500 feet or so in elevation, but it seemed like more than that, and since it was in the rain forest it was absolutely POURING most of the time, the trail was a disaster, but that meant that the waterfall would be in full affect. I got out there pretty quickly grabbing a walking stick from a pile that you can borrow/replace from, and it was quite a sight to see. The walk is CLUTTERED with filming sights from "Lost", or some I'm told, so all you "Lost" viewers checkout the photobucket site and let me know, because I had no clue what to look for and was snapping away. The waterfall that was visibile from close was around 160ft. high, and it was coming down at a decent rate, it was pretty loud up close. You couldnt swim under it though (waiting for Kauai to do that), it was pouring and there were random rocks flying down from like 800ft. that would NOT have felt nice. I got unappropriately close and snapped a few photos, but the walk along the way was pretty sweet as well...here's a few I had snapped of myself (DRENCHED), a good video and some good pics on the photobucket site:






I was back just in time to take a quick shower, and head out for the NCAA National Championship game - I hit a beachside bar to watch (3:15pm here), and then hung out and had dinner. I came back here to do write this bad boy up before I got too far behind, and shortly will be heading out to catch a Hawaiian/Reggae band at a bar nearby that a ton of people go to on Thursday nights that I got an inside tip on, should be good...

Tomorrow Pearl Harbor and the beach. Saturday morning off to Kauai. Early Kauai plans: rounds of golf at the Prince Course in Princeville (check it: princeville.com, filthy, it's also where I'll be staying for two weeks) and Po'ipu Bay Resort (NICE course), Waimea Canyon, Smith's Garden Luau and Fern Grotto, TONS of hiking (camping out at LEAST 2 nights) on the Na Pali Coast (looks incredible, some sick canyons, cliffs, beaches, and waterfalls), snorkeling on the South Coast, Queen's Bath and some cliff-side beaches, and obviously Sunrise, and Sunset somewhere cool......

As for my last week, that still remains open. I was thinking about a Saturday-to-Saturday cruise around the Islands, but now I'm thinking about hitting the Big Island (Hawaii) and hitting/hiking-around Volcanoes National Park (something about watching molten lava pour into the ocean seems ridiculously cool to me) and hitting the top of Mauna Kea Moutain (where there currently is SNOW)...not sure yet, the last week is still up in the air....

Hope all is well with everybody, cant wait to go home (yah right.)...PS: To my Male readers, the woman down here are NOT ugly.

With Aloha.

Murph

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Be honest. What kicked your ass more: Mother Nature or Drinking for 12-18 hours a day for 10 days straight? If you say Mother Nature, then I don't think I did my part.

Anyway, these photos and videos are sick. Glad you got to swim with some turtles like you wanted to.

That Princeville golf course looks insane. The over/under on the number of balls you'll lose is 8... I'll take the over. And, I'd ruin you if we played there together.

Also, a few photos of the "not ugly" locals wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Keep the posts coming... we're all so jealous.

Anonymous said...

murph, love the updates. i'm sure we all wish we were there with you. those pictures are unbelievable...keep those coming as well. did you know that with the wind chill it is 7 degrees in boston? and we are getting hit with a 5-9er storm saturday night. i long for turtle bay and ko olina. and random chicks at the bay club with nun-dies. we buried that kid with tequila, he deserved it.
talk soon, stay safe

john and jackie

Anonymous said...

getting hit with a 5-9er...that's what she said.

thanks for a great trip, everyone!! and thanks for making it all happen, scott!! ...and KJ, thanks for setting up the blog so we can relive these memories forever.

we'll have to have a reunion once scott is back in town and everyone has recovered from the drinking debacles....and of course when brian is back up this way too.