Go Seahawks!!!

Since its officially football season again I had to do somethin for my Hawks...

Takin a bath

The kids spent the most time in the little bath in the rocks. Reis had to leave for work but I came back and stayed til late the second night. Labor day was spent at home resting and the next day began my two week adventure with leptospirosis. (Month long at least if you count the fact I'm still feeling the effects of it.) Well, thats all for now. Hopefully I will update this thing a little more often.

Creature from the bay

Little Joey was showing off an octopus the skin divers caught in the bay. I think they let this little guy go but I'm not sure. They did catch lots of opii and a 7 11 crab. I didn't get to try the crab but they said it was unbelievably good. I also missed out on the lobster:-(

Lounging

Most of the time spent at camp was just lounging in the sun and eating. We did also do some lounging in the water of course.

Beautiful water

Its hard to see in the pictures but each wave creates huge whirlpools and waterfalls in this little cove. The color of the water was incredible.

Mornin coffee

With a cup of coffee I decieded to check out one of the outcroppings. Its cool when a wave hits and water comes up thru all the rocks.

camp from the corner

This is the end of the camp from around the corner. The rocks extend out pretty far to the right and there is a good spot to jump in with a ladder. There is a bay right in front of the camp with good snorkling, fishing and shell fish.

rock outcroppings

Right around the corner from the camp are some rock outcroppings. The waves crashing into them was awesome to watch. There are actually gaps under all these rocks and the waves flow thru them.

Rise and shine

Some people were quicker than others to get movin. Huge breakfast burritos helped coax the last few out of their sleeping bags

Mornin at the camp

After a night with very little sleep thanks to a cane spider in our tent, we started our second day in camp. The spider was bout three to four inches across and it crawled over my legs, ears and face a couple times before we figured out it was just a small bug in the tent with us. The next day one of the other campers found it or another one and killed it.

Trystyn

Lianne's daughter Trystyn has plenty of personality. She is one of the best kids either of has ever known. She goes almost everywhere the FedEx based group goes. Hope she stays the way she is

sunset the first night

Hangin loose in Hokulia. The sunsets down at the camp are spectacular almost every night. Hopefully we will get to go here many more times

The semi-permanent tents

These are the tents that stay at the camp. After dark and during the meals most everybody gathered under these. Cards were played into the wee hours of the morning under their shelter...

The natural bath

The little pool at the top of these rocks is a natural bath formed by the rocks. There was some pretty good swell the first day camping so getting in the water was a little tricky from the spot just to the right of this.

Tents everywhere

There were probably a least sixty people at the camp. This is only a few of the tents. Everybody talked story, ate great food including steak and fresh seafood, and of course many beverages were consumed.

Before I got sick

During the time that the lepto germs were brewing in my system, we spent Labor Day weekend at our friend Pua's family picnic area at the bottom of the Hokulia private resort. Its basically just some grassy land on the shore with some big tents, a shower, stove, a sink and some benches. It was a blast.

Hiding demons

Somewhere in these pristine waters are the lepto germs that almost killed me. Little bastards! Oh well, I still like Waipio valley

Waipio river into the sea

This is the river in Waipio draining into the sea. Just above this is the giant pond that I rinsed off in after body boarding. Apparently it is common knowledge to most islanders and people that live in tropical climates that you NEVER swim at the bottom of a fresh water river in a place like this if you have an open cut because of a nice little bug called leptospirosis. Ten days later, the day after Labor Day I found this out when I went down with flu like symptoms and a 104 temp for 8 days. After this, on my second visit to the emergency room they realized what I had since I couldn't walk and my kidneys and liver were failing. After three days in the hospital in which I was finally able to sleep I got to go home and take antibiotics for another week. Its been a couple weeks since then and my legs are still screwed up and I still don't have all my strength back. Needless to say, I will NEVER be returning to the taro fields in Waipio and I will never rinse off in this river again.

Waipio beach

After rinsing off in the head waters of the valley's river, Reis and I headed to the shore to do some body boarding. I thought the ocean would clean out my injured finger but turns out I was wrong bout that.

Gettin ready

Boots on, bug repelent applied, we all went down and started pulling weeds. Unluckily for me it turns out, while pulling a thick, bark covered bush from the field it slipped and drove a huge sliver of wood under my fingernail.

The innocent taro

For those of you that don't know, this is what a taro field looks like. Actually these ones are clean and the ones in back were the weed infested jungles that we had to clear.

What was a fun day

On August 25th we ventured down to Waipio valley to help our friends halau clean some taro fields that they do every three months.