Entries Tagged as 'tien'

Ziplining in Princeville

March 16th, 2011 · No Comments


Jeannette & Paul on the truck driving through the ranch to the zipline area.


Cows (and Chickens!) on the ranch.


Jessica & Rachelle (The Pose)


Amanda going down the first line.


Kate


Ted


I tried to take a video while ziplining. Mostly all you see is blue sky and my hair in the wind!

Since we had so much fun ziplining with Donna and Dustin on Maui, Dallas decided early on in our vacation and wedding planning that he wanted to coordinate a zipline tour for our friends. I didn’t want another thing to plan, but Dallas was all for it, so I let him take it and run with it.


Paul & Jeannette on the suspension bridge.


Shannan. The guides told us to run across the bridge and not use our hands to hold on. It was ok til they started shaking it like crazy!.


Stephanie. The ravine was really deep and you could see straight down it between the bridge slats. Scary!

Dallas did all the research and found that Princeville Ranch Adventures would best suit our needs. We were interested in the Zip ‘N Dip Expedition which lasted 4.5 hours, included 9 ziplines, a suspension bridge, lunch and an hour at a hidden swimming hole. Dallas sent an email to all of our friends and within less than a day we had 34 friends interested, which worked out great because we could do 12 people per time slot so, including us, we’d take up 3 full time slots (out of 4) that day.


Ted


Tien


Stephanie


A short hike between lines. Richard, Amanda, Tien, Jessica, Shannan, Kate.


Jessica


Shannan

Dallas split everyone up into the following groups: Team Discovery Channel: Caroline, Tammy, Limey, Kristin, Chad, Brian, Jill, Jess G., Trent, Loden, Allison, Herm. Team Packerrific: Rachelle, Richard, Amanda, Stephanie, Paul, Kate, Tien, Shannan, Jess B., Ted, Jeannette, Yvan. Team OG Kush: Dallas, Jordan, Liz, Cousin, Ross, Matt, Adam, Christine, Brian, Sara, Todd, Kelly. So, needless to say, all of my photos are of Team Packerrific.


Paul


Richard


Jeannette


Guide Taylor showing off!

Our guides were Keiki and Taylor. Keiki was a local guy, born and raised in the Princeville area. He said he lived about ten minutes away from Princeville Ranch. Taylor was a transplant, I think. Keiki was super jokey, teased me a lot for being the bride, and also told our group about local culture. Taylor was fun, too, but more straight-laced.

Most of the people on our tour had never ziplined before. Maybe no one, except me, I think. And even though I’d done it before, I still had a few moments of panic! It’s so fun, but can be freaky too. I thought Amanda was going to have a heart attack before the first line, but by the 4th one she was running off the platforms. You can run if you’re brave, but most people just step off and let gravity do its thing.


Ted and Jessica racing down the last line, a double line called King Kong.


Richard and Amanda racing down King Kong.


King Kong is 1200 feet long, the longest line of the day.


The ladder up to King Kong is 26 feet tall.


Looking down from the King Kong platform.


Guide Keiki getting Kate locked in.


Paul and Kate racing across the King Kong line.


Paparazzi at the end of the King Kong line!

The last line is called the King Kong and it’s 1,200 feet across! This zipline actually had two lines and you were supposed to race. Most everyone in our group was coupled up so the couples all raced against each other. Leftover was me and my niece Stephanie, so we raced. I thought I’d beat her for sure, just because I weigh more, but when the guide said “1, 2, 3, GO!” I hesitated and Steph ran off the platform when he said go. So I lost!


Back: Ted, Jeannette, Richard, Paul, Tien, Yvan, Shannan. Front: Jessica, Kate, Rachelle, Amanda, Stephanie.


Riding in the truck back to our cars.

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Ho’Onani Birthdays

March 15th, 2011 · No Comments

That night Jeannette and Yvan flew in and Tien, Shannan, Jess G. and I decided to meet up with them for dinner. We ended up going to our old favorite, Keoki’s, where I introduced our new arrivals to the wonders of the lava flow. Jess and Jeannette loved it, of course! I had some delicious Hapu’upu’u (Hawaiian sea bass). Keoki’s is never a let down and it’s always close to where we stay. No wonder it’s a favorite.

Afterwards we went back to the house, the back house, and so many people came over. It was two of our friend’s birthdays that day – Kristin and Adam. After they went out for birthday dinners, everyone headed to our house. Plus, each day more and more people were arriving on the island and paying a visit.

As I look at the photos above it is awesome to see all of our different groups of friends all mingling together. You know, people told me that your wedding day just flies by, and it did, so it was these daily gatherings that made the trip and the stress and planning well worth it. Just the fact that we got to hang out with all of our friends in Hawaii every day for weeks was awesome.

One more funny photo. As you walked up to either of the houses, you could tell how big the party was inside by how many slippers were on the lanai outside!

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Glass Beach

March 15th, 2011 · 1 Comment


Tien, Rachelle, Shannan, Kristin, Jill (Photo by Jen)

After my we got shave ice, my brother guys went off on their own to go shopping at Aunty Lilikoi’s. I thought the rest of us were all just headed home, but then Shannan and I got to talking and somehow Glass Beach, a beach I’d never visited, came up. Shannan had read about it in a guide book and realized that we were not far away, so we telephoned Kristin and we all went on a detour.

Glass Beach is located in the Hanapepe Bay near Port Allen Harbor in a really industrial area. The beach gets its name because it is covered in sea glass, glass from bottles, windows, windshields, that has been tumbled and smoothed by the waves, water, and sand, creating smooth, frosted pebbles of glass.


(Photo by Kristin)

The reason for all the glass is that this was a dump site for many years. Around the corner, to the left, there still is a dump. And decades ago, locals used to dump their old cars and trash at this spot.

Next to Glass Beach there’s a stretch of rocky shoreline, called Swiss Cheese Shoreline, that is full of fused in metal auto parts, old appliances and industrial looking stuff. Jess G. was off exploring this while we were all marvelling over the glass. I didn’t really take any photos over there, but check out this Flickr set I found online.

I read on some message boards that most of the glass at Glass Beach has been picked over and removed. It’s said that a generation ago you could go to the beach with 5-gallon buckets and just scoop the glass up. That the glass was about 6-inches thick. Now, it’s just a thin layer mixed in with the sand. but we still had a fun time beachcombing and finding all sorts of colors of glass. Since it’s by a dump, glass is not all that washes up either. Watch out for garbage, metal.. I found a button. Who knows what all is out there in the water.


Kristin

Sea glass is getting to be a rarity these days. More and more, things are being packaged in plastic instead of glass, shipwrecks are rare these days, people don’t dump their garbage in the ocean any more. Also, a lot of beaches bring in sand to replenish the shore line, burying any sea glass that may have washed in. For this reason, I’m glad we stopped at Glass Beach. So we could see it before it’s gone.

Glass Beach is really beautiful, if you ignore the gas tanks that overlook it on one side, but it really is just a place to do some beachcombing. The lava rocks and surf make it unsuitable for swimming and it doesn’t seem like a place you’d really want to hang out all day at either. When you think about it, there must be so much junk off shore, it kind of grosses me out. Still, there’s a lot of beauty in the grit. I found the lava rock with the waves crashing in on it really gorgeous. And the sea glass is definitely something to see.

Sources: Washington Post, To-Hawaii, 43 Places, TripAdvisor, Sew Trashy.

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Jo Jo’s Shave Ice

March 15th, 2011 · 1 Comment


Jill & Jen

After our treacherous drive out of Polihale, we decided to get a sweet treat in Waimea Town. Jo Jo’s Shave Ice is a favorite and since most of the people I was with never had shave ice, we had to stop! Happy to report that everyone loved it, but really.. how could they not!? I ordered the “Tropical Rainbow” which is lilikoi, mango and guava. As always I got the macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. So delicious!


(Photo by Jen)

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Polihale Beach

March 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment

After visiting Waimea Canyon, we continued up to Polihale Beach. Let me just stop and tell you what we were driving. Kristin was driving a Jeep Wrangler with Jen and Jill inside. Tien was driving an SUV with me, Shannon and Jess G. inside. Richard was driving a Jeep Wrangler with Amanda, Stephanie, and Jessica inside. The reason I mention this is because the road to Polihale is always rough, with lots of holes and boulders and stuff, but this time it was also very muddy from all of the rain. When I say muddy, I mean like off-roading-TV-commercial muddy. Like don’t-try-this-at-home muddy. If you didn’t have 4-wheel drive you weren’t going to make it in.


What did we get ourselves into!?

Kristin lead our small caravan and was really cautious about the mud, trying to avoid it where possible. Tien was very aggressive about driving as fast as he could through everything. I thought we were going to die, or at the very least, break the car. My brother was in the back and I think was driving somewhere in the middle of the two styles. The road was fun, but it was long. It seemed to take forever! Maybe it was a half hour?


Stephanie & Richard


Tien (Photo by Jen)

Once out to the beach we took a look at the cars. Yep. Muddy. So muddy.

We hauled all of our things to the beach and made a kind of camp. Polihale is never busy at all, very secluded, because of the long and treacherous drive it takes to get there. It’s so beautiful and quiet, with the Na Pali cliffs looming to the west.


(Photo by Jen)

After setting our stuff up and eating lunch, some of us took a long walk as far as we could go. Polihale Beach is the western-most publicly-accessible beach in the United States, so I was trying to see how far west I could really go. Ha.


Stephanie


Jessica

The only problem with this beach, aside from it being difficult to access, is that it’s not good for swimming. The currents are extremely strong so we made sure just to only go about ankle deep or so while walking along the coast. Needless to say, there are also no lifeguards at this remote beach! Although, surprisingly, there is running water, toilets and outdoor showers.


Driving Out of Polihale


(Photo by Jen)


Jill took this video of Tien driving out of Polihale

Somehow we miraculously made it out of there without throwing someone from a Jeep (Jill!) and without breaking a vehicle (Tien!). On the way out we did stop and warn some people that they weren’t going to make it in their fancy Mustang convertible or regular sedan car. We had the mud to prove it!


Rachelle & Jessica in Waimea. Very proud of the mud!

Source

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