There was a last minute scare which involved losing my passport. I remember bringing it to Vancouver October 2009 with the intention of driving to Seattle. Somewhere in the last year it went missing. To make a long story short, I was able to get a 24 hour passport (urgent passport for an additional $70) within 3 hours of applying, and didn't have to change my travel plans. The time difference between Calgary and Hawaii is 5 hours. I was worried since I'd gotten in the habit of waking up at 5:45am Calgary time but didn't have a problem adjusting. It's easy to wake and sleep with the sun. In the mayhem of finding my passport, I canceled my booking at the Hostel in Honolulu for 1 night (Westjet had a sale to honolulu so I'd take an interisland flight the next day since i've already seen oahu). The kind people at the airport let me use the phone in order to call a few hostels. I ended up choosing the cheapest hostel which was 2 blocks from Waikiki beach. It was a dingy place, I didn't even get bed sheets (I only found out the next day that they had forgotten...i just didn't bother to ask and used my camping sleep pad).
After the flight to Kailua-kona, I swam a portion of the Ironman World Championship course. It's BEAUTIFUL! It's literally like swimming in an aquarium full of coral and fish! There was a boat 700m out serving coffee.....This was my first swim since Ironman Canada and wasn't even sure I'd make it to the boat! I swallowed water a few times, but took my time stopping everytime I saw a fish. That night I dove at night time with 18 manta rays! Mantas are similar to sting rays (the animal that killed Steve Irwin), minus the barbed tail. The mantas came within inches of my head, and it was neat to feel the RUSH of water as they swam by. They're such graceful animals and it was neat to look straight into their mouths as they swam by! I got a little sea sick on the way back to shore.
RACE DAY! My initial reason for going on this 3 week adventure was to capture the most amazing photos possible. Logistically this would be a challenge since the bike course was (supposedly) fully closed to all vehicles. I ended up seeing mopeds and bikes along the trail, which angered me a little bit. I was still able to get some photos that i'm happy with.
I seemed to be in perfect position to catch some 'key' moments of the race. Chris McCormack (2007 champ and also 2010 champ) passed Chris Lieto 10 miles in the run and I was in the right place at the right time :)
I also had the chance to meet a few pros such as Faris Al Sultan (2005 champ) and Miridna Carfrae (2010 champ). Someone mentioned that Mirinda's "support crew" was staying in a private room at the hostel where I was staying. I thought it was a few of her friends. Turns out her mother, brother, BF, aunt and friend from Australia were staying upstairs! A friend that I made at the hostel and myself chatted with the crew on the way to the awards dinner. Before checking out of the hostel I ran into her brother and we started chatting about things to see on the island. He mentioned that Mirinda was upstairs and invited me to chat with her :) She showed me her toe nail which had ripped off the night before at the K-Swiss Pro Party and took a photo together. She then had to run off to a photo shoot.
If i could do it all over again I'd ask her something more interesting and whitty instead of just saying congradulations. Ironman tradition is to head BACK to the finish line just before midnight to cheer on the last few finishers! I was truly inspired by the entire race and would love to race in Kona one day. I can only imagine the feelings I'd feel running along Ali'i drive with 8 miles of people cheering shoulder to shoulder!
Post-Ironman, but still in Kilua, I rented a heavy aluminum bike with cage pedals and rode up 1000ft to Houaloa for some coffee and pastries. Silly me decided to bike up on a Sunday and most galleries were closed. The 1 shop that was open had amazing cheese bagels and the coffee was pretty good too. Three times i've been at the 1000ft level and notice a big difference in temperature (from elevation) but also the breeze is cooler.
The fruit has been amazing in hawaii. From Farmer's Markes I've found lychees, tomatoes, avocadoes, pineapple and passion fruit. In the wild I've found Bread Fruit, and guava. WATCH OUT FOR FALLING FRUIT
I had macadamian nut, coconut brioche french toast from Fish Hopper's and it was AMAZING! it's been my favourite meal this whole trip...but i've also been eating like a poor person.
I tried the snow cone once, and got the best of the best! the Savanah, which is ice, but with ice cream in the middle and a condensed milk 'cap' on top:) I wish it was real fruit, but they used flavoured lychee syrup to flavour the ice.
I rented a car and started my clock wise drive around the island. I based myself out of Spencer State Park for 2 nights. One of the phenomenons of Hawaii are the tradewinds. At night time when the sun disappears, the air begins to cool. It pulls air from a higher elevation down towards Mauna Kea, and the air near the summit of Mauna Kea is pulled to the coastline. This makes for dust-free, perfect star gazing air above the mountain, but also GUSTING winds at the campground where I was staying. Since I was on the DRY side of the island I went without the waterproof Tent fly. It made the evening sleep comfortable in terms of temperature, but the wind brought fine sand into the tent through the mesh air vents. I woke up covered in sand and found it in my ears too. I made friends with a couple at this campsite and have run into them 2 more times this past week. They're an interesting couple, who spent the past season harvesting Mac nuts and coffee. Alot of fruit and coffee farmers will provide free acomodations and food in exchange for manual labour.
I headed up to Mauna Kea for a sunset, and star-gazing. The temperature dropped to 39F, but I was prepared with my down vest and several wind breaking layers. Instead of taking 30 minutes to acclimitize at the visitors center (as recommended), I headed up after only 20 minutes. I suffered the consequences! There was a 100ft climb from one of the parking lots to the TRUE summit (13 796ft). although short in length, my heart was pounding so hard and I started getting light headed. I had to slow down and move very slowly. It was also recommended to havea 4WD vehicle between the visitors center and the summit parking lots. the first 4 of the 8 mile road is unpaved, and the 2nd half is paved. Being a cocky Canadian I figured as long as i kept my speed I could make it up the 15% inclines and I was right! I eventually passed ladies in the 4WD vehicles going slower than the posted speed limit.
I was treated to a beautiful sunset and i've never seen so many stars! Each photo took about 5 minutes to properly expose and another 5 minutes to reduce the noise. I only got about 3 photos.....looking back at the photos, I should have focused the camera instead of leaving it in manual and focusing to infinity....it made sense in the moment...maybe the elevation was getting to my head. I went back to the visitor center where they had telescopes set up. I was able to look at the surface of the moon and count all the little craters on the moon's surface. The astronomer also showed me 'double stars' and also different clusters discovered by some guy who found alot of 'garbage' while looking for comets.
Yesterday afternoon I was faced with a tough decision.....Start a 19mile round trip hike with significant elevation gain during the hottest part of the day hiking solo? or head to Hilo a day early and also leave a day early in order to gain an extra day at the Volcano national park. I opted to begin the journey to Waimanu Valley. I packed 2.5L of water, all the dry food I had, and fresh fruit I had purchased along the way. To keep the pack light, I left the tent fly and sleeping bag in the car. The trail starts with a significatn climb up the other side of Waipio valley, followed by 13 gulches ('in and outs' along the valleys......). I knew the climb up the valley would burn the thighs and would be in the sun, but I wasn't expected the gulches to involve elevation gain...the entire hike took about 5.5 hours and I arrived before sunset. I JUSt had enough water and was left with about 0.5 L's to spare. Halway through the hike I knew I had forgotten my White Gas bottle and wouldn't be able to boil water. No biggie..i'd start a fire right??? I didn't have luck getting the fire started and there wasn't much to burn. To throw salt in the wound, half the fruit was bruised.
I was able to get by on Triscuits and cookies. Also....to get salt in my diet, I was wiping sweat from my brow and licking my fingers.....I also lucked out because the can of sardines contained 44% of the daily recommended in take of sodium.
To avoid the heat, I woke up this morning at 2am and began hiking under the stars! The moon provided minimal light and my headlamp did most of the guiding. By 6am I was back at the initial climb and was treated to a gorgeous sunrise.
After descending the valley, and hiking across the beach, I hitched a ride back up the 25% road to where my rental car was parked. Today was a recovery day. all i did was take some photos at the Akaka Water falls and check into a hostel in Hillo. Instead of $25/night in the hostel, you can camp on their lawn for $10.
