Capturing the Moment

Well, I thought I would put this up here to keep for the blog. Pretty nice footage of what I do out in Hawaii for work.

  Long exposure of the dense rainforest and stream of Iao Valley. Wow! What an amazing few weeks in Maui. There are many adventures, both on and off the beaten path, that are so worth it. It may seem like after a long flight you might want to just sit at your resort pool with a mai tai in hand, but if you are the go-getter type, then the island adventures are just waiting for you, as they were for us. Most of the resorts, and our condo are on the dry side of the island. This means maximum sunshine and calm waters for snorkeling and whale watching. Which we did a lot of! You can whale watch from your balcony even, if you are there November thru April. But I would suggest getting over to the wet side of the island at some point. This is where you find lush valleys, beautiful exotic flowers, rocky rivers, and beautiful waterfalls. Iao Valley is the easiest valley to go explore, only minutes away from the airport. I often send people here on their last day, especially if they have a la...

  Almost every night, manta rays come into a few select bays on the west coast of the Big Island, to feed in the shallows on plankton. Snorkeling with the manta rays has become one of the 'must-do' adventures here in Hawaii. However, it is not for the feint of heart. You have to wait for darkness, and be willing to jump into the ocean at night, and share it with creatures that are bigger than you. Luckily, these manta rays are gentle giants. They don't have teeth or stingers, which is nice, because as you will see, they can swim very close to you! Tonight was extra special, as it was the total lunar eclipse as well as our manta snorkel night. We took our boat to a little bay in front of the fancy, Mauna Kea resort. We anchored in about 17ft of water, put out surfboards with special underwater lights in them, and waited. The lights soon got crowded with plankton, and different fish coming in to feast on the plankton. But after thirty minutes, that is still all we saw. Everyo...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI0QXtm22DQ Today I explored a new part of the island of Lana'i. While there are two fancy resorts on the island, there are very few people that ever travel here. There is a small town of about 3000 people, who live near the top of the island in Lana'i City. It has a plantation ghost town feel mixed with a burgeoning artisan community. The island itself used to be the world's largest pineapple plantation under Dole, but now is mostly empty fields and untouched adventures. I've explored some of these hard to reach places by mountain e-bikes, but today it was time for a hike. We drove from Manele small boat harbor, up through town, to the Lana'i Adventure Center. It is nestled under the high forest, just past the fancy health retreat called Sensei Lanai. Here we met our hiking guides for the day, Jerryan and KC. We loaded up into some cool all terrain vehicles, which reminded me of Jurassic Park. Then we blasted up the ridge to the star...