Here I am back in Phoenix, all 110+ degrees of it, and a long way from this spot where I was standing yesterday, the top of the hike up Kuli’ou’ou Ridge on Oahu, some 1700 steep feet above the beach.
After the end of the NMC Summer Conference, there was a good bit of catching up or promising to with many colleagues there before next year in Cleveland (the tune goes “Cleveland Rocks…”). Nick Noates was moving about recording podcast interviews with his iRiver device.
Grabbed a nice lunch with D’Arcy and his family at Cheeseburger in Paradise (thanks for the burger, you nice Canadian).
I then met up with Bert Kimura who had offered to tour me around the island for a day and a half. On June 19 we visited a bunch of great spots on the southeast corner of Oahu, a small park in a residential area that was actually a crater, visited a heiau hidden away at the back of a subdivision, climbed Makapu’u point (eastern most point on the island). We had a great dinner at “le Bistro” where I was treated to a tasty meal of “Moi” (a supple white fish).
The next morning started with a great breakfast at “Jacks” (no sign of tourists there), were there were good Hawaiian style breakfasts and the most delicious biscuit I ever had. Our big task was the hike up Kuli’ou’ou Ridge, which was a nearly 3.5 mile trek up through several unique floral zones. The view at the top was masked in clouds, but the hike along the ridge line was fabulous (tagged photos).
On the way down the raind started slowly, and grew more intense, never letting up. I felt bad for the 10 or 20 so soulds we saw heading up the hill. We were soaked by the time we got back to the car, but thoroughly pleased with the hike.
The rest of the day was a driving tour of the North Beach, with some stops to try and enjoy the numerous beaches along there. I was a bit turned off by how crowded and tourist oriented most places seemed, and hold out hope that there are still a few quiet or lesser known spots on Oahu (the Dole Factory tourist attraction/trap is a great magnet to keep ’em from going elsewhere 😉
Anyhow, after a full day, it was a full night’s flight home on the red eye to Phoenix, arriving tired, but content to the lovely stinking hot desert.
Mahalo, Hawaii!
The Top
available on my flickr
The end of the Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail marked by this sign, about 1700 feet higher than our starting point. The view behind it which should be the shoreline is masked by clouds. The rain really started coming down hard on the way back down.