Tripler Ridge to Haiku Stairs

Posted on August 5, 2013 by sandersnm

On Saturday, we hiked Tripler Ridge to Haiku Stairs. This is a hike that Josh and I both wanted to do, but hadn’t done yet (we’ve both hiked the stairway at night/early a.m. but not hiked to it then down it during the day). Since Bailey and Kyle were here, we thought it would be a great time to go so they could join in on the fun. Josh’s friend Tony also volunteered to come and be our tour guide since he had just completed the hike a few weeks before. It turned out to be one of the BEST hikes on the island yet. It took us about six hours to complete from start to finish. We hiked from Tripler hospital up the mountain on the ridges and back down the Haiku stairs on the other side of the island to Josh’s car (which Tony and Josh had staged the night before). It was EXTREMELY muddy and we were covered by the time we were finished (Bailey and I maybe slipped and fell a few times…). The views were unbeatable from the top and the pictures can’t even begin to do them justice. With the views, came a few scary portions along the ridge. We definitely put Kyle’s fear of heights to the test, but he made it the whole way without any issues! It was such an awesome way to spend a Saturday and we could not have asked for better weather!

The beginning of the hike looking through the fence at Tripler.

Bailey hiking through the woods.

The start of seriously scratching our legs up. TONS of thorns!

Kyle…he didn’t even know what was ahead of him yet :).

Pretty picture of the valley.

Cool moss along the trail.

Cool tree along the trail.

Josh hiking under a tree.

Group shot!

I think this picture is hilarious. Josh and I are both making ridiculous faces.

Bailey and I tended to be a bit slower as we were trying not to fall…so we stopped and took a selfie :).

Love the shadows of the clouds on the mountains.

Kyle and Josh hiking.

Hiking into the clouds!

Kyle concentrating!

The trail looking back.

Kyle doing a celebratory dance at completing part of the hike. Little did he know what lied ahead.

Incredible views before the scary ridge hike to the top of Haiku stairs.

Bailey and I.

Bailey and Kyle.

Josh and I holding our blow pops that Bailey provided for all of us!

Love this picture. Waiting for Kyle to join us.

Cousins plus Josh!

Josh and Tony..holding hands…

The start of the tough stuff…my favorite part!

Heading towards that power line.

Kyle and Bailey hiking along the ridge.

Looking down!

Made it to a bit of a platform with some old radio tower or something.

This looks much less scary than it actually was. it was SUPER steep and even I started to freak myself out a bit. Josh said “pause right there”. Oh ok no big deal Josh.

Bailey climbing along.

We made it to the top of the stairs!

SUPER muddy. Somehow I think I was the worst out of all of us.

Josh making PB sandwiches at the top…it was difficult b/c it was SO windy.

LOVE this one!

Starting to head down the stairs.

Loving spending time with her!

Bailey heading down the stairs.

The H3 tunnels and highway.

Heading down.

First platform on the way down.

View of Josh’s base.

Tony leading us down.

Pretty flower along the stairs.

A piece of the wooden ladder. What the stairs used to be made of…that would be terrifying!

The bottom of the stairs looking back up!

Josh and Tony in the bamboo forest.

The bamboo forest…where I slipped multiple times the first time I hiked the stairway

The entrance to the stairway.

Shark’s Cove

Posted on August 4, 2013 by sandersnm

Today, we went out for our second round of snorkeling at Shark’s Cove on the North Shore. Neither Josh nor I had been snorkeling here, so we were excited to go and check it out. From everything we had heard, it was a million times better than Hanauma Bay. It definitely did NOT disappoint! We saw tons of beautiful fish and coral and got to swim with a sea turtle. It was significantly less crowded than Hanauma Bay as well, so we basically had the area we were snorkeling in to ourselves. Plus, I continued to conquer my fear of the ocean :). I compiled all of our video footage into one video (it’s long but great footage of the turtle!).

Shark’s Cove

Hanauma Bay Round Two

Posted on August 4, 2013 by sandersnm

We ventured to Hanauma Bay last Friday so Bailey and Kyle could snorkel and see all the beautiful sea life. This was my second time here, but this time I really got to explore and enjoy snorkeling myself (last time I was on a field trip). We saw some amazing things! TONS of beautiful fish (some were HUGE) and Bailey and Kyle saw an eel! It was the second time using our Go Pro and I got some pretty cool videos (some of them ended up being corrupted…still learning 🙂 ).

Hanauma Bay Video 1
Hanauma Bay Video 2
Hanauma Bay Video 3
Hanauma Bay Video 4
Hanauma Bay Video 5

Bailey and Kyle preparing to snorkel!

Shark Encounters!

Posted on July 28, 2013 by sandersnm

On Saturday morning, Josh and I got up super early to head up to the North shore to go shark diving in a cage. It has been on my list of things I wanted to do on Oahu for awhile now and on a whim on Friday, we decided to sign up for the 6:30 a.m. tour with Hawaiian Shark Encounters….and it was AMAZINGGGGG! We left from Haleiwa and traveled about four miles off the coast and saw about five or six Galapagos sharks that were about eight feet long. They were extremely curious about the boat and the cage and were fearless when it came to venturing close enough to see what was going on. The guide was telling us that there have been a few generations of Galapagos sharks in the area due to fishermen feeding them from their boat. It was an incredible experience and so amazing to be so close to them! Pictures and videos below! The waves were really big, so we got tossed around in the cage quite a bit. Once again, Josh had to be the photographer and videographer so I didn’t get sick all over him (and everyone else). We purchased a GoPro for the occasion and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made!

Videos:
Shark Encounters 1
Shark Encounters 2
Shark Encounters 3
Shark Encounters 4
Shark Encounters 5

Arriving at the cage. There was a bird hanging out…refusing to leave.

Sharks swimming around!

The shark swimming under the cage.

Heading back to the harbor!

Atlantis Submarine

Posted on July 23, 2013 by sandersnm

On my last Monday field trip for summer, we went to the Atlantis Submarine in Waikiki. I was actually pretty excited about this, because they go about 100 feet under water to the reefs below to check out the marine life off the coast. The water was pretty cloudy, but it was still awesome!

View of Waikiki from the boat on our way to the submarine.

The submarine.

Diamond Head.

First sighting of fish!

Our submarine.

An old plane. It didn’t crash down here, they placed it down here as part of the artificial reef for wildlife conservation.

All the bubbles as we rise up to the top!

The Day of the Honu

Posted on July 22, 2013 by sandersnm

This past week, I had friends visiting Oahu after the wedding in Maui. On Saturday, we did the tour of the North Shore and on our way stopped at a beach close to Haleiwa to check out all of the sea turtles (Honu). There were probably about 20-30 turtles in the water that we could see and many of them came up on the shore. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it and am so happy I got to see these unique creatures up close while I live here!

Loved this one!

Turtles of all sizes in the water.

Thinking about going back in….

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 3

Posted on July 19, 2013 by sandersnm

Laura and Jim’s Wedding Day!!!

On Monday, we woke up and headed down to have breakfast at the resort. After that, Josh and I drove to La Perouse Bay to hike around and see what it was all about. It was beautiful, but very windy. Snorkeling is supposed to be great in the bay, but the ocean was pretty rough. On our walk, we saw several goats just hanging out on the beach and in the wooded area. It was kind of hilarious to see goats hanging out on the beach. I feel like that would happen only in Hawaii.

The bay.

Looking towards Haleakalā.

A little sea arch.

Tiny beach. I loved this little beach. It looked so small compared to all of the black lava rock around it.

Goats!

Goats like the beach too.

One day he will learn to like having his picture taken.

Looking at the storm clouds coming in.

After we got done with La Perouse Bay, we went back to the hotel to grab lunch at the pool bar and then got ready for the wedding! We went to the wedding around 4:00. It was in such a gorgeous location! Everyone looked so beautiful and it could not have been more perfect! I am so incredibly happy for both of them :). Towards the end of the night, Laura and I even got to dance to our song (Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys). The night could not have been more perfect for the two of them!

The backdrop for their wedding.

They did it!

Colleen and I.

Josh and I.

After the ceremony.

Rainbow!

First dance.

The food was amazing!

Me, Laura and Colleen. Boiler up!

Maui: Trip 2 – Day 1

Posted on July 17, 2013 by sandersnm

On Saturday, Josh and I arrived bright and early on Maui to celebrate my friend Laura’s wedding. Our plan was to meet them around 9:30 to do the Four Waterfalls hike on the Road to Hana. Since we landed a few hours before that, we decided to stop in Paia for breakfast and to kill some time. However, before we even made it out of the airport Josh’s bag decided to quit on him. In a matter of 30 seconds he had all three straps break. First, the carry strap, then he picked it up by the handles and one of them broke and then finally we started walking again and the last one broke. He had to carry it the rest of the way without any handles. This early in the morning, we found it absolutely hilarious as it just disintegrated in front of us.

Josh and his disintegrated bag in the Maui airport.

We headed to Charley’s in Paia because we were starving and it had great reviews for breakfast. I ordered the breakfast burrito and Josh had an omelet. We had planned on sharing (thank goodness) because mine was HUGE. I ate about 1/4 of it and made Josh eat the rest. All of it was delicious and I would highly recommend it to anyone. To top it all off, it is Willie Nelson’s favorite place for breakfast and we are 98% sure he walked in as we were finishing and hung out at the bar.

Delicious Orange Juice.

My giant breakfast burrito.

Josh’s Omelet

After breakfast, we changed and headed towards Hana to where we would start our hike. The hike would take us to four waterfalls. Two of which you could see staying dry. If you wanted to see the third and fourth waterfalls, you had to swim. We came prepared with our dry bag so we could take our camera to take pictures. We met up with everyone (SO HAPPY to see some of my best friends) and then started the hike. There were about 20 people total of friends and family that had come for the wedding. We hiked to the first and stopped for a bit to take pictures, then continued to the second to take more pictures. After that, we hiked up a ladder (with the help from a few ropes) then boulder hopped to the stream where we had to jump in to swim to the third waterfall. It was a BLAST!!! We all jumped in and swam up to the third waterfall. After that, we had to climb the falls and boulder hop again upstream to get to the final and biggest of the falls. It was beautiful! But I will say, the journey is what made it so fun. It was a great hike to do with a big group of people. See the pictures below!

The first waterfall with everyone hiking over boulders.

The view downstream from the first waterfall.

The second waterfall.

Brent and Colleen at the second waterfall.

Laura, Colleen and I at the second waterfall.

The beginning of the boulder hopping.

People starting to boulder hop after climbing up the ladder.

The fourth waterfall.

Swimming at the fourth waterfall.

We were a large group!

Fourth waterfall.

The beginning of the hike was almost all bamboo forrest. It was beautiful.

Loved this picture looking at the sky.

A little bridge we had to cross over to get to the first falls.

After returning from the hike, we changed and drove back through Paia for lunch. We stopped and ate at the Paia Fish Market. It was delicious! Josh had a sandwich and I had blackened cajun fish. We then wandered around the town and headed to our hotel in Makena to check in and take much needed showers.

My blackened cajun chicken. Delicious!

Josh’s fish sandwich.

We checked in and then headed over to Big Beach to hang out with everyone for the rest of the day. It was beautiful and the sun was setting. After that, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We all met at the bar in the hotel to just hangout and eat. I had one of the best cocktails ever (Dancing Koi). I don’t even know what was in it but it was fantastic. After hanging out and dinner, we all called it a night and headed to bed. It was a long day!

Big Beach

Laura and Jim hanging out on Big Beach.

Hau`ula Loop Trail

Posted on July 10, 2013 by sandersnm

On Monday, we hiked the Hau`ula Loop trail with the kids. It is a 2.6 mile loop and was a great workout. We had nice weather with the exception of the major humidity. We were all soaked by the time we were done!

We all started out together, but definitely ended separately.

The riverbed was almost completely dry. Easy to cross.

It was super shaded on most of the trail.

Pretty flowers lining the trail in places.

Loved the shots of the sky and ocean through the trees.

Loved this.

First view of the valley. Gorgeous.

More of the valley.

Random palm tree in the middle of the woods.

First Peak of Olomana

Posted on July 9, 2013 by sandersnm

On Saturday, Josh and I hiked the first peak of the Olomana Trail. It has three peaks, but the first peak has the best views and is the highest. The other two peaks require you to be a much more advanced rock climber and since the best views are of the first peak, we didn’t see a need to hike past it (plus Josh has already done this hike a few times..including all three peaks). We could not have picked a better day to hike it. What can be a very muddy trail was dry and in perfect condition for hiking. It was a VERY humid day, but it made it quite the workout. We had a pretty steep incline the whole way there and towards the end, you had to start using ropes to hike up the rocks. I LOVED the rock climbing portion! Once we got to the top, the views were absolutely breathtaking. We could see Molokai, Maui and Lanai all at the same time. I didn’t even know that was possible! We had a beautiful 360 degree view of Kaneohe, Kailua and the Ko’olau mountain range behind us. One of the BEST hikes I have done on Oahu yet. Pictures below!