Aloha, Mahalo and Hanging Loose in Hawaii

Tree Calendars in New Zealand
 like pages in a diary.

We live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and we think this to be normal? Happy Earth Day 4/23.
Why do they call it Planet Earth when it is clearly ALL ocean. Well, come to think of  it, it's the trees, and Nature: I Shrink Therefore I am - I feel so small, when these mega waterfalls, glaciers and forests come in my view:
I posted on these happy spots: Alaska,  Norway, South Pacific, New Zealand, but Hawaii has an Über special  place in my heart.  Read More at

 It's Called The Big Island Not The Tiny Island

This is a conversation between Sarah Kennedy And when the sky was painted with stars, and she was spotting landmarks out like the  southern cross- in another hemisphere- in a  land down under.

KENNEDY: I was born in Zambia. We lived in a kind of Garden of Eden in Chingola, Picking fruit off the vines. Throw a seed down and a day later you’d have a plant growing wild in the fertile soil. I would look up at the stars and see thousands of them because there was no power grid around, (We made our own electricity) and I stayed up on a hill in our “back yard” with my brothers Liam, Dermot and Jonathan and camped there until night fell, feeling a sense of the presence of all creation -- sensing underneath that night sky, in that vast place, that I belonged to something ancient, something very much still alive. The whole jungle was charged like that. the "way of the animal powers," the "way of the seeded earth," the "way of the celestial lights," and later when we moved to Capetown, the "way of man." And the city.

REIF: I know that feeling going into a forest. As a Boy Scout we camped at Cathedral Pines on Long Island, (appropriately named). The  feeling that the gods are there the divine and divinity is present. It  becomes known to you're in your sleeping bag, no tent,  ‘under the stars”. There are these “Cathedral Pines” everywhere. 

I can remember in the 1990’s Hilo Hawaii, there are sacred Banyan Groves everywhere, and when you go into a grove the presence of the HUNA becomes known to you, and the BIG KaHuna isn’t far behind. I can remember being a true tree hugger-worshipping a great big old tree, thinking “OMGosh what you have known and been”. I was actually brought to spontaneous tears because it reminded me of being a kid and now having the wisdom to”Get It” 

We're on the Big Island, the west side, at the local Starbucks,

 for some Kona Joe, sitting with our friends cream and sugar.

American coffee is "dirty water" and

 Instant coffee takes too long. Kona, however, is "Ono". Tastes good.

Oh, that's your god, Pele's mine

Shoveling Sunshine-My First Extended Stay In Paradise

  A Sophie's Choice meltdown over which island or for that matter, which town on the Big Island gets to check into Hotel @nyware--- my memoirs-- I'm  feeling like the Oskar Schindler of travel bloggers-Kona and Hilo , you were nice to me. You get to live in digital heaven-because we all know information on the web never dies.

Hello Hilo

Hilo is so cool to sail to because, overnight, with a moon lit backdrop, we steam past  Kilauea,the  active volcano lava rivers  spark and spill into the sea, and leave its aftermath of molten rock at the waters edge.  Only the view from Maui's Haleakala offers such a once in a life time view of something you probably never have seen before.


Hilo is artistically bohemian, and in terms of authenticity, is the real deal-papayas, homemade jams, roasted macadamia nuts and koa wood carvings. The Banyan trees are worthy of a hug. It's the type of tree that moved me to tears of joy (For Real).   I've often biked to Rainbow Falls too. That whole area-the nature, the land, the people speak, and it's easy to listen. They seem more resigned to the way they have to live than New Yorkers like me do.

In fact, I  often  took my bike (that I stored on the ship-You could have a surf board or a bike-cool!) I soon realized  the terrain on the Big Island  is  a bit like the moon with all that  razor-sharp geo-volcanic rock. 

 I never asked myself "Am I there yet" on a bike, except for Kona and Maui--It only took  one time to  catch  a sliver of black volcanic rock and flat tire or  in Maui, it's these prickly seeds mixed in with the red clay sugar cane dust that get you.

I upgraded to flat-resistent tires and was good to go for the season and I was back to living happily every after in King  Kamehameha's Kingdom-Don't worry Be Maui...and in the tune of Happy Birth Day to you I sing ...Happy Kona to you,Happy Kona to you,Happy Kona to you,Happy Kona to you,

The Tour

The glamor of being a sailor had me concerned. "Repaint your entire house every month" Buy a Dumpster and live in it for 6 months" But this was going to be a cruise ship-It  was on America Hawaii Cruises. I just wanted a different experience, and I took the first job I could get, which was a deck hand. We sailed for seven  days and each day we had a port of call.

Starting off with an embarkation day at Aloha Towers in Honolulu, then a sea day, and we hit Kauai, Maui(Lahina and Kahalui) Hilo and Kona. It was the best! 

The weather was always temperate and I had the most energizing and spirtually uplifting time, enjoying the weather, the people, the food, the culture and the OHANA-family atmosphere of Hawaii. I have been hooked ever since on these beautiful islands.
The definition of ecstasy is that you are not doing your ordinary everyday ho-hum existence. Shoveling sunshine in Hawaii beats a day at the office.

 Travel by proxy is a surrogate achievement, like feeling athletic and going to a sports bar for a few drinks. Then taking a victory lap. A legend in your own mind. The unpardonable sin is not greed, Gekko says,”greed is good”. The unpardonable sin of inadventure-a life sentence of other people’s ideas and thoughts, traditions and faith-That’s bad. An adventure is nothing more than bad planning. The holy grail is what we attain by living out our dreams and our own authentic life. If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.