Secret salt water pool!!!!  

First Week of Unemployment!

Not working is like a mini vacation for me, since I've always worked so much!  Now I get my days mixed up! 

This is our new kitty, Miki, she's only 4 months old!  We found her at the no-kill shelter in Hahai'one.  Cute!

This is my cat, Nalu, sticking tongue at the camera!  It cracks me up every time!

I went surfing at a secret spot the other day with Ryan and the tide was so high!  I took me forever to capture the waves hitting the wall....Ryan actually took this picture, he's the real photographer!

My brother got baptised yesterday!!!!!!!  I'm so happy for him!  Here he is with Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, New Hope Christian Fellowship!

Washed Ashore!

Pirates of the Caribbean!!!!!!!  I saw the set when we were driving by the day after my team got back from Kaho'olawe!  Too bad  I didn't get to see Captain Jack Sparrow!!!  :)

Last Week with HYCC

These past 7 weeks have flown by like crazy!  I've had so many fun experiences and have gained so much knowledge!  And for the first time in 5 years, I am now unemployed  :(  But not to worry, I've already started job searching and applying to some cool positions!  All I gotta do is wait now!  :)

For the last week at HYCC, my team worked at Kaiwainui Marsh in Kaneohe with Na Pohaku o Hauwahine and Ulupo Heiau State Historic Site.  Check out the pictures!

This marsh is huge!  This only shows part of it, is'nt it beautiful!

The marsh is nowhere near the ocean shore anymore, but it used to!  See the way the rocks are cut out?  They were eroded this way by waves from the ocean.  A huge landslide occured, which filled in this entire marsh area, all the way to the shoreline where Lanikai is.  Cool yeah?

This is the famous heiau, Ulupo, which is the largest one on the island and it was built with rocks from all over, all the way from the east side to Ewa!

Our team helped build these muddy walkways, so that people can navigate around the marsh.  Carrying buckets of mud all day is hard work! 

We also dug a small pool next to the spring to rinse off in!

Both of these sites are free and open to the public, go visit them!  :)

Kaho'olawe

Ok, so I finally have some time to post my pictures from Kaho'olawe!  We caught a plane to Maui, and then a boat to Kaho'olawe.  Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) is awesome!  They took care of us well!

This is Kaho'olawe from the plane.  This island is a lot bigger than the map makes it seem to be.

Approching the shores of Kaho'olawe!  The ocean was so glassy!  It made our boat ride nice and smooth!

This is our boat, the Ohua!  There's no dock on the island, so the only way to get on and off the boat is to either drive up to the beach, or swim if the waves are big!  They also can drive the Polaris's onto the boat to load supplies.

This is what happens when the ocean is choppy, the wind is strong, and you are sitting on the port side of the boat on the ride back to Maui:  SOAKED!

Everyday, dolphins swim into the bay to rest!  They were doing flips and jumps too!  But, my only picture of them jumping is kind of blurry...

Kaho'olawe is mapped into grids that show how safe an area is.  The island was bombed for 50 years, but was only cleaned for 10 years, so there is still a lot of unexploded ordinance everywhere.  Red is bad, green is good, yellow is just OK because it's ony surface cleared.  Our base camp is located at the bay in the SW corner of the map, where the green line starts.

Welcome to base camp!  It used to be a military base.

These are our hale's!  Our bunks, the kitchen, and the cafeteria!

Ordinance display, check out the huge bombs behind the board!

This is on the top of the summit, Moa'ula.  This site was very sacret to the Hawaiians and was also used as a navigation studying point.  Lana'i, Moloka'i, Maui, and the Big Island can be seen from up there!

This is a ko'a, built to call rain to the island.  We came up here one morning to do the sunrise chant - it was AWESOME!!!!!! 

The sunrise over Haleakala, Maui:

Want to see the beaches?  They're unpopulated!  And there's a little point break too, although it wasn't going off while I was there!  :)

Wanna see some sunset pictures now?  :)  We also learned the sunset chant and the wind chant while we were there!  We learned so much culture and history!  Of course, we also did a lot of work: invasive species removal and erosion control.  (By the way, shovels, machetes, and pick-axes suck for removing the invasive Koa Haole, use loppers, a chain saw, and herbicide).

Kaho'olawe was an amazing experience, everyone should volunteer to help out, because the island is crying for restoration, with with KIRC, or the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana (PKO). 

Mt. Ka'ala

I just went to upload the pictures from my camera and I can't!  :(  There's so many good pictures from Kaho'olawe!  I just realized that I don't have the USB connector to get them off my camera and onto my computer!  I think Ryan has it...I'll have to pick it up today.

In the meantime, here is the view from the top of Mt. Ka'ala, the highest point on O'ahu!

This environment is called a bog, because it's always super moist.  There are a lot of mosses and plants that can tolerate wet environments.  It was beautiful!  And the coolest thing about that area is that 95% of the bog is native Hawaiian species!  Did you know there's this one light green moss that is invasive to O'ahu, but native to the Big Island?  I had no idea a native Hawaiian species could be invasive to an area in Hawaii!

Peacock Flats

I just got back from camping with my team at Peacock Flats.  It was so fun!  I have so many pictures and so much to write about!  I think I'll post them later though, my computer is super slow.

Tomorrow we're going to the top of Mnt. Ka'ala, the highest mountain on O'ahu!!!!!!  I'm really excited!  And then next week we're going to Kaho'olawe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Milo Swell

Working on Kane'ohe Marine Core Base has been so much fun!  I've never been on base before, and now I've been able to work in restricted coastal environments and wetlands!  I've seen native and endangered 'ohai, 'akulikuli, milo, hi'iaka, 'awikiwiki, kuluha, Hawaiian Stilt, 'alai'ula, 'alaike'oke'o, and so much more!

We've been removing the invasive California Grass for the past two days.  I hate hate hate California Grass!  It grows super fast, and all the work we did is only temporary.  Our before and after pics are epic though! Check them out!  And don't forget to visit my teams blog!  :)

Here's a picture of a swell that I found in a Milo leaf!  Shoulder to head high!  :)

Here's a picture of a beach that we got to eat lunch at that is located in a restricted area.  I swam in a tidepool and I felt like I was the first person to step foot in it!  I also found some amazing shells (I'll have to post pictures of them)!

And last but not least, my Ryan is finally home!  :)  I love his new mohawk!

Restoration in Haiku Valley

This week at Papahana Kuaola:  cleared invasive species (California grass, hau bush, octopus trees), propagated and outplanted native Hawaiian species (pu'uka'a, kāhili, 'uala, kalo, Hwaiian carex, 'uki'uki, 'ākia, hāpu'u, ti, 'ala'ala wainui), weeded 7 lo'i patches, built one lo'i patch, picked ti leaves to make 800 lau lau's, carved rocks, swam in a stream pond, and played Makahiki games.

This is my first hole I dug for the hāpu'u plants!  Hāpu'u is a native Hawaiian tree fern that only grows one foot in ten years!  So it is important to save these ferns since they take so long to grow; wild pigs like to dig them up to eat the roots.  Kapaliku Shirman was teaching us how the Hawaiians used the fern.  They could use the stems to make hats and the fur, pulu, to make pillows.  In the kumulipo, the hapu'u tree fern is related to the hapu'u grouper in the ocean.  It was my first time digging holes like this!  We used an 'o'o, a digging stick, to soften up the ground.  We had to dig the holes a foot to three feet deep, depending on how big the tree fern was.  My team and I, about a dozen of us, planted 75 hāpu'u in just under four hours!  Isn't that amazing!?

I forgot the name of this fern, but it's edible!  It just tastes like a plant to me though...

This is a Hawaiian slipper, made from ti leaves!

I carved this rock from the river myself!  I gave it to Ryan as a welcome home gift!

This is Mahi, he works at Papahana Kuaola, showing us how to use the Hawaiian sling!

We played lots of Hawaiian games!  This is me playing 'ulu maika.

Team Oahu Fire!  I always manage to stay clean!  They had a mud fight in the lo'i and I ran away as fast as I could!  I also am very good at protecting myself from the sun, I have buggy sunglasses!  :)

Papahana Kuaola

This week has only begun and my team and I have been working so hard! We are working at Papahana Kuaola in Kane'ohe this week. The native plants we've been working with are pu'uka'a, kahili, 'uala, kalo, akia, and 'uki'uki. We've also been clearing the invasive hau bush, ginger, and other grasses and plants.

In the lo'i, clearing out all the weeds so that new kalo can be planted.  I love my hat, it keeps the mosquitos away!  :)

Why am I so clean?  I rinsed in the stream water!

This is the stone they found when they were restoring this site.  The ancient Hawaiians put this stone here.  It represents Kane, the god of agriculture, and stands at the entrance to the lo'i.

I learned another native plant today!  This is akia, and it has poisonous berries!