moonin' my honey: three coconuts pass

on our first island excursion, we went hiking with our guide heinrich in the opunohu valley and up "three coconuts pass". the views were beyond gorgeous.

heck yes i wore my garmin.
i'd zoom in, but it'd just be a green blob, this way you get to see the island.

looking down to the southern coast

moua roa/mt. bali hai

no one has yet to climb to the top

cook bay off to the right

we saw a tree, "aura", that was like aiwa (the tree from avatar) except people/avatars don't live in it obviously. roots grow down from above and the polynesians will "feel" the tree as they walk by it by grasping the roots for a second (according to heinrich anyway, and he always grabbed them). we also saw flowers that were very similar to the avatar tree angel things. i wasn't a big avatar fan, but at least james cameron knows where to vacation!

in front of the aura tree

an "avatar" flower

we learned about the kava kava drug plant (he related it to the indians and the peace pipe) and many different types of ferns. heinrich whacked off a vine with his machete and we drank it's fresh water. then he pointed out a vine right next to the one he cut and said "but don't drink this one, it is poisonous" (not deadly, but you won't be feeling good). we saw an endangered green pigeon of sorts and a humongous red centipede.

bamboo forest

mad photography skills

this looks like a 5 yr old took a picture of weeds, but it's a kava kava plant

heinrich having some fresh water

big red centipede

garmin stats: 4.35 miles, 3:23:17 (we stopped to look at stuff a lot)

later in the afternoon, we rented bikes for about $38US that you could have gotten for free on craigslist. mine was pink with a basket, and the seat swiveled with every rotation of the pedal. we tried to find somewhere to eat off-resort but most places were closed (it was around 2pm). we rolled up to le martinez in the town of pao pao and they stayed open a little longer for us.

pricey (but delicious) tuna lunch at le martinez

after lunch we picked up a few “necessities” (aka wine and potato chips) at the pao pao supermarche. i couldn't resist some anana (pineapple) juice. after the previous night's confusion, we figured out when the crepe bar (la toatea) was open and had crepes & cocktails for dinner – i had la toatea (pineapples, coconut, chocolate) and josh had one with bacon, egg and cheese. so began my love affair with crepes...