First, we stopped for a bathroom break at the local public beach since we were going on a drive on the road to Hana. There's not many places to stop on that road. Lawyer and I headed for the men's bathroom. As we turned the corner, we caught the distinct smell of someone smoking weed. Lo and behold, three guys were sitting there, playing guitars and smoking weed in the open at a public beach. One of the guys saw my shirt and said, "Hey, Missouri man!!!!" followed by a giggle only a pot smoker could make. Nice guy, but severly stoned and it appeared he wasn't a newbie. I later asked our guide who those guys were playing guitars and he said they were beach lifeguards. Note to self: Don't get caught in a rip tide at that beach. The lifeguards might be too stoned to rescue you.
We headed out on the drive on the road to Hana. For the uninitiated, the road to Hana is a very narrow, curvy road that snakes for 54 miles around the base of a 10,000 foot volcano on the island. There are a total of 618 curves and 54 one-lane bridges. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or those that get motion sickness.
We passed a small grove of trees that appeared to have rainbow colored tree bark. We were told that they were Australian Eucalyptus trees. Our guide told us that for many years, they had no idea how those trees even managed to get on the island. A few years back, they finally got their answer. A tourist from Austrailia who had relatives who used to live in Hana took a tour. He saw the trees and asked if they were Austrailian Eucalyptus trees. The guide said they were and that it was not known how they got on the island. The tourist responded that he knew. His grandfather had moved from Australia to Hawaii and took his possessions on the back of a truck on the road to Hana. At one point, his grandfather turned the corner too fast and a chair made of Australian Eucalyptus fell off the truck and down the hill. There was no way the chair could be retrieved, so they continued on to Hana. The catch is that even after these trees are turned into furniture, they continue to secrete an oil. If that oil gets into the ground, a new tree can be created. So a chair falling off a truck ended up introducing an entirely new species of tree to the island.
Speaking of species, we were told by our guide that 98.5% of all of the species of both plants and animals on the island are not native to Hawaii. Many were introduced as crops, brought over by birds and animals, or introduced to remove pests from the island. There are no snakes on the island. Our guide mentioned one guy who decided to pull a prank on his friend by dragging a rubber snake through an area in front of his friend. His friend freaked out and called the police. An all-out hunt for the snake was done by the local authorities. For weeks, they looked for the snake, all the while the prankster knew that there was no snake. At some point, he admitted that he pulled a prank and there was no snake on the island. The prankster is now serving 5 years in prison. They take that kind of stuff seriously.
We finally got to our hike location and set out on our first portion of the hike. We went to see a large waterfall (200 feet high) in a nearby valley. The waterfall was made famous by the movie 'Jurassic Park'. The valley you see in the picture is where the helicopter flies in and lands in the opening sequence of the movie. The picture was taken from one of the 16 camera locations that surrounded the valley during the filming.
Next, we hiked 500 feet down the mountain to a 40 foot waterfall. The water was very cool as it was a mountain stream in a rain forest. The waterfall also 4 jump points (5, 10, 25 and 48 feet). I took a jump off the 10 foot jump. Mrs. Lime climbed up to the 25 foot jump (where the lady was paralyzed in my previous story a few posts back). Thankfully, Mrs. Lime had the good sense to actually jump out away from the rocks and did just fine. Our guide climbed up to the 48 foot jump. You can see him standing on the rock at the top of the picture. He jumped from that point, which was very cool to see. It wasn't that big of a deal for him. He was originally hired for the guide job after he was seen by the owner of the business doing cliff jumps from 80 feet. He told us that the valley we were in was very dangerous when it rains. The water in the valley can rise over 15 feet in 2 minutes after a rainstorm. Thankfully, there was no rain the day we were there.
Finally, we went down to a 30 foot waterfall. Both Mrs. Lime and I went up and jumped from the point you see in the picture. It was a 32 foot jump. We made the jump and it was a lot of fun. We actually ended up doing it a second time. We got to eat lunch at the base of the waterfall and then made the hike back up the 500 foot hill to head back down the winding road back to town.
