Born of Fire

Hawai'i, the Big Island, the newest and largest of the islands to rise from the sea is quite a place. It has been great the last few days to leave the tourist nation of Oahu and get to the real Hawaii. A few nights ago I went up to Mauna Kea, the "highest mountain in the world" (rises 32,000 ft. from the sea floor, and the best place for Astronomy on Earth. From there I saw a sunset that made me breathe in contentment, "worth the whole trip." Those moments that God reveals a bit of His power and beauty are truly an awesome preview of what is to come. Up on the mountain I hobnobbed with the star geeks and looked at the rings of Saturn and the craters of the moon.
The next day was on to the volcanoes, the most active in the world. I went down to the coast and got to see real lava flowing into the sea and sending up huge steam clouds as it cools and forms new land. Looking up you could see the whole hillside glowing with red fire as the lava slowly made its way down. Pretty awesome sight. I spent a night camping under the stars and then made my way to Kona, the land of coffee, where I actually spent a night in nice hotel and went to a very touristy yet fun and entertaining Luau (hulas, roasted pigs, the whole bit).
Now though it is quite weird to think that I am now on my way home, for from here it is on to the planes and waiting rooms of many different airports until Knoxville...

Caution: Big Wave Advisory!!

Wiamea, Sunset Beach, Off-the-Wall, the Banzai Pipeline... the fabled North Shore. This 7 mile long holy grail of surf really lives up to it's name (it's a shore and it's in the north) and its reputation (as the best in the world). I've spent the last three days up there. Hanging out with the hardcore surfers and watching some incredible waves. As soon as I got there the meterologists started talking about a sweet swell coming in and you could literally feel the excitement in the air around "town." The North Shore consists of a road along the beach that is lined with ramshackle houses, broken surfboards, three food stands and a grocery store. An awesome getaway from the rest of Hawaii filled with tricked out tourist spots. And when the swells come in you can see why they're there - huge friggin' waves! (Don't worry I pretty much stayed out of them, I read about how much even the pros get hurt and I've got more important things coming up) I would go from one break to the other and watch the pros shred and the others get worked. Sunset, to Pipe, to Wiamea, they were all good and amazing to watch such fluid power, and those who try to harness it.
Last night I pulled out my $10 Walmart sleeping bag and slept out on Sunset Beach with the sound of surf crashing in my ears (not like you've heard before, I mean crashing!). I woke up at dawn, hid my bag before the lifeguards came, and watched as guys showed up with their boards and paddled out to where the waves were breaking at 15 feet.
Tomorrow I wake up before the sun and fly over to the Big Island to explore it for a few days, the last segment on this current adventure. Live it up!

PARTY ON!

HEY YOU! Yes, you. If you want to come and see some cool pictures, or at least just get some good food, I decided to put a slideshow together and maybe try to cook up some stuff I've had traveling. You can come see it and I'll be happy to tell some crazy stories on::: April 2nd at 12:00.
That's a Saturday and we'll have food around noon with a slide show around 1:00ish. But come whenever you can, I'll be around all afternoon.
Directions to my house:

Kingston Pike to Cherokee Blvd.
2nd Right onto Woodland Dr.
4th House on Left
3646 Woodland Dr.

Thanks to all of you who've written comments, I've loved hearing from you- and I'll see you that Saturday or sometime . And seriously, even if I don't know you, but you're reading this - well, I'd love to meet you so come on.
See you there...

Wind and Waves

ALOHA, Howzit brah? (Go around saying this if you want to sound Hawaiian)
It's been a bit but I've been having large bundles of fun, however, this will be a little short because I have this bandage on my thumb (not really Mom). I went out of NZ in style by surfing the skies, or Hang Gliding! It was really awesome. It's not an everyday feeling to go running off of a mountain cliff 2,500 feet above the ground. I went tandem though so I was with a guy who knew what he was doing even though I ended up flying everything but the landing and he just took pictures. The scenery was certainly worth taking pictures as we were gliding over this valley surrounded by majestic mountains. And yes, you can see those pictures, and an awesome video of us doing aerobatics (you can really throw those things around!) as well as lots of other cool pictures and stories, details on how to follow in the next post.
Anyway, next a much longer flight to Hawaii, rather boring, the 2nd time they were showing Bridget Jones 2, but here's a plug for my Uncle J.R.'s pharmaceutical product Ambien. This is quite a beautiful place and the people are really awesome. In case you didn't know Aloha doesn't really mean "hello" as much as represent the spirit of friendship and hospitality (but I digress and the thumb throbs). The surfing here is great, no wonder it is legendary. The first night, I hung out with some great people from Knoxville and a new artist friend, we drove most of the coast and it is spectacular. I ended up going boogie boarding with Michael today at Sandy Beach (orignal name) and it was really cool. Dropping into these sweet waves and charging through a nice tube, gotta love it. Sadly, it only lasted about an hour and then one wave decided to be different and just crashed all at once. It sucked me up like a rag doll and threw me down onto the reef. My world became a somersaulting whirlwind of small bubbles with brief interruptions by large rocks. When I got out, I saw I was bleeding in a few places so I went to the doctor and got nice and cleaned up. Now I'm doing fine, no real stitches(honest Mom), and it's kind of cool cause I look like I got in fight or something, "You should see the other guy." Turned out we were on the most dangerous beach in HI (oops). So I'll go somewhere else next time.
An interesting thing happened the second night. I ended up getting a flat tire in my rental car. I changed it a parking lot near a movie theater and felt pulled to go over there. It turned out they were showing The Passion of the Christ and I knew why I was there. I just finished reading through Matthew and the thing that struck me the most was how numbed many of us are to the story, how ordinary it can seem. When in fact it is the account of the absolute singlemost amazing and meaningful time in the history of all that we know. I mean the God of the Universe put himself into the skin of a human and did a great number of things that we now only expect to see through the "magic" of the movie theatre. And then He shattered the divide we created through obstinance and gave all humanity access to return to the selves we were created to be.
WoW.

Over the Rainbow

Yes, I am alive!
The last few days have been quite an experience. So, the Kepler Track is in Southern New Zealand and forms a large loop through some incredibly varied and majestic terrain. I started out walking along the shore of beautiful Lake Te Anau, which turned into marshland and then into a very old forest with some huge trees (actually the same one used in various Lord of the Rings scenes). After a couple of hours the climb began, and kept going over 1000M until I came out into the windswept peaks of the Mt. Luxmore area. At this point the wind got nuts and the rain was no longer blocked by the trees. As I turned my head away from the wind I looked down and saw a huge rainbow - below me! It was brilliant. I had finally entered the land of Oz or wherever it is that is "somewhere over the rainbow." Got some good pics of that.
Each night I stayed at these National Park Service Huts, which provided shelter and even had stoves in a big room where everybody cooked their food. It was a pretty cool atmosphere because there were about 50 other people doing the track and we would hang out each night in the shelters. That night the temps dropped well below freezing and I was a bit chilly in my rented sleeping bag. However, I certainly wasn't expecting the day that came next.
I walked out on Day 2 into winds gusting well over 100Kph and temps of -14C (yes, factually recorded by the Rangers). Of course, it would too easy without constant rain, sleet, and hail, so we had that too. What was I wearing? Oh, just what you would expect: my light rain jacket, some semi-waterproof pants, and running shoes. I was passing over some of the best scenery in NZ, but I couldn't see any of it as the visibility was only 20M or so. Though a couple times as I crossed over these fantastic knife-edge ridges the visibility openned up just a tad and I got the mere suggestion of the beauty I was surrounded by. But then the wind would howl and the mountain would try to throw me off so I had to crouch down and run for it. There were two makeshift shelters and I stopped in the first one to eat a powerbar, but stopping let me get way too cold. I ended up moving hard and fast for five hours with only one five minute break. And I didn't get some of the pictures I wanted because by halfway through my hands didn't really function and I couldn't push the buttons. It would indeed be an understatement to say I was glad to get to the next Hut. It was a good experience, but not one I will knowingly repeat soon (Paul, worse than Mt. Baldy). Those times are good though, when you can find out if you can take the worst nature can give you and beat it.
The next day, I decided to hike the third and fourth days worth and finish up the trek. It was decent weather though and it was a very nice walk, and I had a great time that night getting together with the friends I met (Isrealies are awesome). All in all, I ended up going almost 60 km in three days, which as I write it, sounds like a lot and it makes sense why it hurts to walk today.
Tomorrow I get on a plane for Hawaii, and that sounds very nice right now. I love New Zealand though and definitely want to come back. The people are great, especially Dave the bus driver who I talked with for two hours today, and the natural beauty is magnificent.
Good on ya!

Celsius, Kilos, what the heck??

I am here now in Queenstown, NZ. New Zealand is amazing. I'm talking take-my-breath-away-oh-now-I'm-choking beautiful! Picture this cool little town perched at the edge of a brilliantly blue lake that is nestled among 14,000 ft. mountains (or 4500 meters). It is known as the "adventure capital of the world" and is absolutely full of insane things to do. So of course the people who live here are very cool. They love to explore the creation and there is are at least two outdoor stores on every block (I'm really not kidding). So obviously, it's my kind of place! There is a thriving downtown area on the waterfront and even a little gravel beach. Right in the middle of the town there is a park extending on a penisula out into the lake that I'm getting ready to go explore. I was actually booked to go hanggliding right now but the clouds are really low so up on the mountain it is socked in- maybe later. I was also hoping to do the world's 2nd highest bungy jump (140M (Paul already has the highest!)) off of a gondola but they hang you by your ankles and I sprained mine recently, when they said it wouldn't be a good idea as I was going hiking tomorrow I decided on the hanggliding. Speaking of hiking, tomorrow I'll start on the Kepler Track, which the locals say is the best one in NZ. It's a four day trek, so you won't hear from me till the 12th. But I'm sure I'll have much to talk about and some great pictures to show later. And by the way, I rented a digital underwater camera on the reef so I've got 100 great pictures of it too!
Here's something that I'm rather confused about: the friggin' Metric system! They told me it would be about 9 degrees Celsius or so in the mountains. But I thought that was a lot warmer than it is (I just bought a sweatshirt and gloves). I was thinking that the conversion was about 3.5 X Celius + 32, but now I'm thinking its more like 1.8 x Cel + 32. Anybody know? All I know is that 25 degrees feels pretty good and 15 is chilly with a 140 KM wind (that's what they clocked the wind at yesterday!!) Let's get some Metric conversions coming this way...
And just make a note that I personally think we should switch to the Metric system as frankly it makes much more sense and we are the only country left on the Earth that is clinging to the traditional system. If you want to feel like a New Zealander go around and tell everybody you meet this week, "Cheers, mate"
I'll talk to you in five or six days,
Cheers mates!

Beneath the Waves

Fantastic trip out to see the largest living organism, the Great Barrier Reef. I was on a boat with probably 20 people and we simply went diving, ate, and slept. I did a total of 9 dives (averaging about 40 minutes each) and also finished the training for my Advanced Open Water rating. I went down to 30 meters and actually did two dives at night (that was freaky and you'll want to hear more about it). It was incredibly beautiful and definitely a good thing to do (this was one of my lifetime goals actually). So now I fly to NZ tomorrow morning to experience a different kind of beauty that our Creator designed for us, the Southern Alps! Maybe the following can help you get a feel for what it is like to go diving...

Taking a deep breath and blowing out your B.C.D. you slowly descend beneath the surface. The ocean is no longer a trackless blue waste extending to every horizon. It explodes in color, in life, in unparelleled diversity. It is alive! Descending deeper and deeper you become more and more a part of the world around you, inquisitive fish come to peer into your mask while others simply ignore this bubbling double-tailed creature. The closer you come to the magnificent coral formations surrounding you the more life they present. They become full of waving sea fans, tiny technicolored fish, thrashing anemones, and caves and passages holding unknown wonders. School of flashing fish swim in every direction staying in a formation as perfect as any Air Force pilot. Then they scatter as the one they fear comes swimming near, the shark who is king in this underwater realm. Next the sleepy turtle comes ungainly yet somehow gracefully trundling past and allows you to stroke his shell before he follows your bubbles to the surface to take his own breath. By this point you also begin to realize that you are but a trepasser in this world and must soon ascend to the land of bright sun. But you do so willingly, because you know that you will be back beneath the waves someday soon!

Who are you Singapore?

Man, Singapore is quite a shock for senses that were attuned to the rest of South East Asia. This place is incredibly westernized, to an almost laughable extreme. I mean we're talking seven story shopping malls right next to each other! Singapore is like the younger sibling that tried to copy his successful elders and went way overboard. I have walked all over the place yet never found it's national identity. It is a mix of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Tamils, and many others. If America was the great melting pot of the 1800's and 1900's then the torch has certianly been passed to Singapore.
By the way, how'd you like the trick question about their language? Their main language is English! I mean, what the heck are they speaking English for?? They have taken everything they are from other cultures, yet it is a sometimes winning combination as they have certainly done pretty well over the years. However, I think that the guys who put together their socialist system were really into Orson Welle's 1984 , I mean I really think that Big Brother was watching me everywhere. It's still hard to believe, but I almost got fined $500 for eating an apple on the subway!
Oh well, if things go as planned in ten hours I'll be on a boat heading out to dive the Great Barrier Reef. Though if it doesn't go as planned I will look forward to who I am supposed to meet.

The music of the night

I just had my whole post erased so this one will be shorter cause it's really hot in here.
I really love the jungle though, it is an amazing place just brimming with life! It was like being there on the dawn of creation, for it was all brand new to me, every flower, tree, animal, sight, and sound. I felt like Adam on the day of naming as new thing after new thing was presented to me.
I hiked in a few hours down some overgrown and hard to follow trails and spent the night alone in a hide overlooking a clearing. I didn't see any animals, but I sure heard them! At sunset and sunrise they all come together to create this incredible discordant yet perfect symphony that was fascinating to listen to. In the morning I walked ten minutes to the river and took a bath and washed my clothes. I also stopped at an interesting cave and came across hundreds of bats a foot over my head and they swarmed all around me.
Now it's off to Singapore on a night train and I fly to Austrailia tomorrow night. Trivia question: what language do they speak in Singapore? And actually, if anyone can find out how to say, "hello" and "thank you" I would appreciate it.
Cheers