Veteran's Day weekend

This past weekend ushered in some rain.  Unfortunately it cancelled our backpacking trip in the north Koolaus.  Friday night I told the group it would be miserable if we went, I felt bad because we had been planning it for weeks.  So instead we went chasing waterfalls.

Saturday morning it rained and rained.  We decided to sleep in a little and get a late start.  We met at Swanzy beach around 1 pm and hit up a 300+ ft waterfall I had seen almost a year ago.  It only forms when there is heavy rain.  Near the beginning of the trail head we were greeted by a fast flowing stream.  Amanda and Will's dog Tango, led the way.  We got to the first obstacle where the group had to carry Tango up a fast flowing waterfall that was two tiered.  Cory helped out with that because he's and expert climber.  We got to the waterfall shortly after.  It was just like I remember the last time I visited except it had a little more water coming down.  The wind generated from the waterfall was making it chilly so Katie and I posed for a few pictures but went downstream to wait for everyone else because it was too cold.  We came back out the way we came and went to a restraunt with some ramen to warm us up after.

Saturday night the rain didn't let up.  We planned to hit more waterfalls!  Our first stop was in Nuuanu.  Nuuanu is notorious for waterfalls.  But the waterfall we wanted to see is really rare and only a handful of people seen it's full effect up close.  There are stories of an upside down waterfall.  We went search and we definitely found it.  

Driving up the Pali highway on Sunday it was so cloudy and rainy but through the clouds we saw it and were super excited.  We met up with a few friends.  Emma, Jessie, Will and Amanda met up and headed to the obscure trail head.  We headed Mauka for about thirty minutes and hit the wall.  The rain was falling and water was misting everywhere.  The waterfall wasn't running against the wall but instead falling and getting blown up by the wind hence, "upside down waterfall". The name is Waipuhia and we hit two of the chutes on our initial approach.  We had to hug the wall and scramble a little to hit the third and final chute.  This one was flowing well!  Sometimes the water would fall and sometimes it would be blown by the wind.  It was extraordinary to see and just VERY different than any other waterfall I had ever seen.  When we were finished watching we headed back to our cars and went to our second hike.

Our second hike was Koolaupoko Chutes.  This time we only visited chute four and one.  It wasn't flowing as well like the last time we went because we went later in the day when the rain let up a little.  As we were hiking there we could see that all four chutes were going but not like the last time we were there.  Chute four was going good, we visited there first.  On the way there I got some nasty cats claw thorn stuck in my fingers, it hurt a lot!  Passing chute three and two we headed straight to one after that.  Because it wasn't flowing as well I could actually take my DSLR out and shoot a little.  The wind coming off the falls wasn't string either.  After hiking to all of these places we decided to finish there.  Tomorrow was going to be our grinder hike.  

Veterans Day we did the "Going against the flow" hike.  I was really looking forward to it because this time around the water levels were a bit higher which made for a more challenging and technical hike.  We had a larger group this day than the other days.  Our friend Garvin decided to join us on today's hike.    We hit over eighteen waterfalls.  Most of which you have to climb or have the aid of a rope to help you up.  We celebrated at the last falls with some beer and snacks.  

Veteran's Day weekend was great even though we didn't get to do what we originally planned.  Hopefully we get to do our North Koolau trek soon!

 Friday waterfall hike.

First hike on Sunday morning.  Upside down waterfall.

The second hikes 4th chute. 

Where the water falls into at the 4th chute.

The biggest falls we saw all weekend. 

Hard to imagine the last time I was here I was being blasted by mist.

Our Veteran's Day hike consisted of climbing series of waterfalls like the one pictured above. 

Veteran's Day weekend from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.

West Maui 2013

From Kahoolawe we anticipated coming back to Maui on Friday, at the end of the work week.  So Katie and I decided since we don't work weekends we might as well grab a car and a room to explore more of Maui. Christian and Cory decided to stay as well!  They brought fishing gear with him as well. 

When we got back to the airport I went to pick up our car and the first thing we did was head to Da Kitchen to eat.  Seth came along with us since he had booked a later flight.  After eating we decided to head to our home which Christian arranged for us.  It was free and it was more than accommodating.  We stayed in a mansion in Lahaina with a jaccuzzi, pool, grills, and a full game room!  Pretty good for free huh? 

We were pretty beat from Kahoolawe so we decided to stay in and chill.  The following day we slept in a little and decided to do a drive around the north western side of Maui.  We went counter clockwise and had a few things in mind.  The first thing was to go explore some waterfalls.  The last time we went to Maui Katie and I spotted some falls while hiking Waihee Ridge Trail we decided to check it out.  We definitely weren't disappointed, we headed makai and spotted two big swim holes 5 minutes into the hike.  Seems like a lot of locals know of this spot since there was a lot of rubbish around.  We headed down stream more and climbed down one waterfall.  The second falls was a little sketchy for Katie so we decided to hang out here for a while.  Cory explore more down stream and found several more waterfalls.  After an hour of chilling and jumping off the waterfalls we decided to head mauka.  We hit a well trodden path and after crossing the stream 13 times we hit our first waterfall.  It was tucked away, and reminded me of Kakauki falls on the Big Island.  We climbed up the side of the falls and hit a twin falls.  After climbing the falls clouds started to roll in and I reminded everyone that there is a flash flood advisory, we should head out soon.  We all decided that that was a good idea, but not after coming to a terminus at the next tiered waterfall.  We quickly snapped our pictures and booked it out, climbing down the way we came and out the path back to the car.  We probably made it out in record time!

We continued on our journey counter clockwise along the coast.  The road was a little more narrow and a lot longer stretches of narrow than the road to Hana.  The coast line reminded me of something from Ireland... or what I think Ireland would look like.  Steep cliffs down to the coastline with pasture lands and lush valleys all along the road.  Our next stop we made was Nakele blow hole.  We watched as people went down to take pictures up close but we had other things in mind.  We wanted to fish and swim in tide pools.

We drove for about 15 more minutes until a LOCALS ONLY spot.  We scaled down a cliff with some ropes.  We got to the bottom where there was a emerald green tide pool.  Katie and I swam and hung out while Christian and Cory fished.  We caught two fish and headed back home. 

We picked a few steaks and veggies.  We prepared the meat and gutted the fish.  We took the fish outside and forgot the seasoning.  With no one watching the fish outside next to the grill an imposter cat swiped one of our fish!  The whole thing was gone and we never saw the cat for the rest of the night.  To say the least we were pretty mad yet tripping out because it had never happened to any of us before. 

The next morning we slept in even later but I was set on surfing since I brought my board over.  I stopped at two places but that north swell that was supposed to fill in wasn't that big.  I settled for Hookipa and surfed there for an hour or so. 

Our Maui leg of the trip was pretty lax.  Everyone was really tired yet we all didn't want to go back to work on Monday.  Oh well till next time Maui! 

Cruising West Maui zones!

Mental jumping session

The couples gotta pose next to the falls!

Christian getting the shot!

Nakele blowhole

Cliffs!

Emerald pool down below!

My love posing for a picture underwater

La'i, catch of the day!

After the cat swiped one of them!  

Dinner time!

Sadly I didn't get to surf Honolua.  Next time...

Hookipa with the new spring suit

Paia fish market for da grinds!

 
West Maui 2013 from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.

Last day on Maui

The night before the last day on Maui we came back to our home stay and ate some hotdogs.  We were beat from that days activities that most of us were really tired. 

In the morning I woke up so sore.  I woke up before the sun so I decided to head down to a secret brackish water pool to take some sun rise shots.  As I was getting ready the rest of the group over heard me talking to Katie that I was going to take some pictures so they got ready quickly.  The plan was to beat the sun and try to take some pictures with the sky bright and orange.  Here's how it turned out...

Secret swim hole at sunrise

A little further out waves were crashing on some rocks.

 Unreal view of the sunrise

They should have a HRS for hiking and not only for ocean places.

After watching the sunrise from the pond we checked out early from our home stay and slowly made our way back to Kahului via Hana Highway.  Our next stop was Hamoa beach to get some waves in.  Hamoa beach is a nice black sand beach in Hana town.  I jumped into the shore break with my Gopro and snapped some pictures.

 

There aren't any showers here but the waves are nice.

I was sitting on a sand bar and waves just kept coming!


Look at the clarity of the water.



Behind the barrel shot

Of course waves closed down on me. 

After spending an hour in some good waves we left the beach en route to find Kaihalulu beach.  We couldn't find this illusive beach but we did find another red sand beach.  The beach was small but the peninsula where it was located was also where Queen Ka'ahumanu was born. 

There was a super small strip of red sand next to Hana Bay.


Katie and I stumbled upon Queen Ka'ahumanu's plaque.

After driving around trying to look for the red sand beach we couldn't find we decided to try the Hana banana bread.  We stopped on the side of the road and picked up banana bread.  It's a must try in Hana.  After the banana bread stand the Katie wanted to check out the largest Heiau in the Hawaiian Islands.  We stopped at Pi'ilanihale. 

 This is the banana bread stand we stopped at.  

 This shop had six different variations of banana bread

 As seen from the road. 

 The admission is $5.00 Kama'aina rate.

We cannot set foot on the structures so we looked at it from afar.  Haleakala in the distance.

Some Kalo.

Some sweet potato. 

They had a canoe hale.

Of course a canoe was in it. 

 On the slopes of Haleakala.

After spending an hour at the Heiau we had two more stops in Hana.  Two falls on the side of Hana Highway. 

One of the falls you have to hike 10 minutes to get to. 

Group picture at Three Bears waterfalls.  Waikani Falls

Kissy picture

A spur of the moment decision came when I wanted to go to Haleakala.  We had a few hours to kill but we still had to grab dinner and check in at the airport.  We got to the top in less than an hour with my awesome driving skills! 

We talked about doing Holua Cabin one day soon.  

Rounding out our trip on top Haleakala

I've always had a special place for Maui in my heart.  It is my favorite island out of all the islands I've visited.  I hope to come back soon and explore more of these waterfalls!

Backdoor to Hana

At 6 a.m. I met up with Keahi, Dural and Matt at the Kahului airport.  They flew in just for the weekend to hike with us.  I decided since it was so early that we would enter Hana through the South end of the island.  We passed through Kula, Ulupalakua, and the Kaupo area.  If you have never ventured around this side of the island I highly suggest it. 

Passing through the hillside along Kula down toward the ocean was pretty cool.  Nice hilly and slightly windy road through the foothills of Haleakala.  The Kaupo area was nice to visit but before that was at least a half hour of driving through some bumpy gravely road.  I'm not really sure if you are allowed to take the rental car through there.  But the van handled like a champ.  We named our van Bessie that day.  We saw the rugged dry land coast with newly constructed windmill farms.  I was quite in shock because just a year ago they weren't there.  One of the coolest things along the way to the Kaupo store was the Wiliwili trees.  They actually had leaves but weren't flowering just yet. 

We hit the Kaupo General Store around 8 am and they were closed.  We kept driving for another 10 miles or so and hit Kipahulu.  This was one of the most scenic parts of the drive.  The scene changed into a lush forest carved in and out of valleys.  The road would sometimes drop down to sea level and there would be beach access to some rocky beaches.  We passed those and headed into Kipahulu. 

We reached Haleakala National Park pulled up to the booth and paid our $10 fee to park there.  We had access the the National Park for 3 days.  I decided that we should check out Seven Sacred Pools first so that we could get the pools all to ourselves.  We hiked down and everyone seemed to split up.  They all were either climbing or jumping into the big pool or just chilling and watching the waterfall.  It seemed like Disney Land but natural.  I decided to try my best to take pictures of the pools but the sun had already risen and was making for some horrible lighting.  I hiked up to the second waterfall and climbed up behind it to relax.  Keahi was already there just chilling.  Katie Dural and Matt followed suit and we all were playing and jumping off of waterfalls. 

After 2 hours or so chilling at the pools and losing gopros, we decided to take a hike up to Waimoku Falls.  Making stops to check out dry Makahiku I wasn't crossing my fingers for Waimoku Falls to be flowing really good.  We also stopped at the Banyan tree to take a break and pictures.  We came to the first bridge and supposedly you can launch off this one.  We just had to look for the "X" in the bridge but we couldn't find any.  We continued on to the second bridge and into the bamboo forest.  The bamboo forest would probably be the second best thing on this trail but I actually found another waterfall and not only Waimoku.  When we got to Waimoku there literally was a line of people to take pictures under the waterfall.  I decided to take our shots a little further away and luckily my camera could capture the waterfall top to bottom.  This was the third time that I visited this fall and probably the tallest waterfall I have ever seen in my life.  We made our way back down the trail a little and followed a faint trail to another waterfall not too far away.  We had to climb a small waterfall and then wade across a pool.  After the pool we saw our new waterfall that I was itching to see.  I've always wanted to see this falls ever since the first time I visited Waimoku Falls.  I set up my tripod and camera to capture this empty waterfall scene.  To get to the base of the waterfall we had to climb one last waterfall below it.  The waterfall came off the cliff as a single falls and hit a ledge in the face of the cliff making the stream of water come down in two different spots into a fairly large pool.  I'd definitely check this falls out again instead of Waimoku just because it's not crowded and you can find solitude here. 

We made our way back to our cars and it was mid afternoon.  We chowed down on some cold cut sandwiches in the car with some chips.  Our next stop was our vacation home rental.  The home was just south of Hana and luckily was only half an hour away.  We met our contact for the house and settled in.  Unloaded a bunch of stuff from the van.  We were exhausted from the day's adventures.  The house had a lot of mosquitoes so Keahi, Katie, and I decided to take a drive out to the only general store in Hana called Hasegawa General Store.  We found mosquito candles and some snacks for the house.  Before we went home we drove around to see what was in the area of the house.  We passed near the coast line and found Koki beach and Hamoa Beach.  I heard both these beaches had waves so I wanted to go but, not today.  When we got back home we showered, some went to the coast line across the street, and I decided to make dinner for the group.  We had spaghetti and what ever else we could find that was in our chest full of food.  Keahi bought us some apple pie and some vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. 

Tomorrow was the biggest day full of adventure.  We had friends coming down to Maui from Oahu to show us two different gems on the Hana side of the island. 

Like I said the drive from the Kula way into Hana is beautiful!


The road doesn't stay like this the whole way.  It gets really bumpy!


Enjoying the view below Haleakala

One waterfall above where most people stay.  Gotta climb or contour on the right side to get here. 

Below the falls.


On our way to Waimoku Falls we got to sit in a giant bamboo tree.  Small kind shakes with the camera but wouldn't have been a perfect picture!


Taking pictures was difficult with the harsh contrast of the canopy light coming through. 


Gopro shot in the bamboo forest.


Group shot at Waimoku Falls


Couples shot below the falls.  There was a line of tourist to take this shot. 


Check it out!


No name falls.  If anyone knows the name of this falls please message me. 

Maui 2013 from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.