Ocean Vodka - What's In a Name?

Ocean Vodka. Say the name slowly, pausing after each word. Then ask yourself, why that name in particular? Ocean – the organic farm and distillery operations are not located near the ocean, but upcountry, along the slopes of Haleakala Crater. So why ocean? The next word: vodka – that’s what they make, but this is vodka produced from an untraditional source: sugar cane, not potatoes. It is even described as delicious, unlike traditional vodka. Then go back to the first word, ocean. It makes sense once you find out that desalinated deep sea water is used in the making of this special vodka. Not just any ocean water, but the super pure, mineral rich deep sea water off the Big Island of Hawaii. Water that is so pure that Hawaii biologists use this same deep sea water to raise seahorses, which are sensitive to pollution and cannot thrive in contaminated waters.

If you’d like to read more, I invite you to read the rest of my guest post about the Grand Opening of Ocean Vodka on A Maui Blog. This is a teaser post.

In the meantime, here are some pictures to enjoy:

Swimming with Wild Dolphins

This is a follow up post from D is for Dolphins because there was more that I wanted to share about dolphins in Hawaii. 

Where do dolphins swim around Maui? Where can dolphins be seen?
These are not dumb questions, even though dolphins can swim anywhere in the waters of Hawaii. 

Rumor: dolphins hang out at La Perouse Bay in the early morning, like 6 or 7 am. Ah, one of these days! They also like the waters between Lanai, a nearby island, and Maui. At a Trilogy Blue Aina reef clean up event, we saw them swimming in Honolua Bay, on the far northern section of the West Side (Lahaina, Kapalua). My friend Jennifer, jumped out immediately and swam with them around 11 am that morning. I wanted to share her video but since the privacy is limited on Facebook, and won't show to everybody,  here's another short amateur video I found.

If you haven't done a Trilogy blue aina clean up or other snorkeling tour, it's highly recommended. (No, they are not giving me a kickback.)

On Oahu, the dolphins used to love Makua Bay on the Waianae side. They would swim back and forth across the bay a few times, like a jogger on her rounds, and then disappear. A friend who was very knowledgeable about the dolphins there, once took me out with her to experience meeting a pod of wild dolphins. They circled around me a few times and it was one of the greatest thrills of my life. 

The feeling while in the center of a magic circle of dolphins - how to describe?
I was "high" for the rest of the day, and several days later.
But the experience, as fleeting and exciting as it was, was also incredibly peaceful and calming.

Source: waynelevinimages.com via Courtney on Pinterest

It’s rare to see a pod of dolphins swim later in the day, unless they’re near a boat or playing with a whale, but it’s not impossible. Look for groups of curved fins in the water.

As mentioned in my A to Z post, it’s illegal to swim with wild dolphins, but if you happen to be in the water and they happen to cross your path, that’s okay. The law is designed to protect wild dolphins from human harassment, including tours “to swim with wild dolphins.”

Also to be clear, this post is not about stalking dolphins. It's about improving the chances of a positive interaction (from a distance) with dolphins in the wild. It's not about helping people harass or disturb dolphins. It's a beautiful experience to see them up close in the wild and one you will remember forever.  Also, there are places like Sea Life Park on Oahu which have guided swims with dolphins in their pools.

To increase your chances of a close encounter with wild dolphins in the water, here are a few tips that a friend gave me:

If you're not part of a snorkeling or boat trip, and are doing it on your own:

1. Be prepared to get up early. Be in the water by 6 am.
2. Know which beaches or areas dolphins frequently visit. Some suggestions include the locations above.
3. Swim really fast - fins are a must.
4. A body board is super helpful. It can be very tiring to swim that far out, that fast. The body or boogie board can support your weight if you need to take a break.
5. A snorkeling mask is very helpful too, unless you're a free diver.
6. Watch how the pod of dolphins is swimming. Try to see how quickly they are moving versus how quickly you can move. If you can somehow be in the middle of their path so that they are swimming towards you, you may see them up close. 
7. Do not try to outswim dolphins. They are too fast. (Ok, other people may have different experiences, but I'm talking about the average swimmer.) If they are moving fast, you will never be able to catch up to them with fins. 
8. Don't splash a lot - dolphins don't seem to like it.
9. Do not try to touch them, keep some distance from them because you don't want to be cited for "harassing" dolphins. Also, it's not polite. 
10. Don't make loud noises, like shouting. They may avoid you.
11. Dolphins seem to like children more than adults.
12. If you see dolphins moving towards you, stay quiet, don't move. Let them be curious and want to explore you.

If you are part of a snorkeling or boat trip, watch along the rail to see if dolphins show up while the boat is moving. You won't know if dolphins will be where you're going, but with any luck, there will be some. There will be lots of other people in the water, so watch where you're swimming. You don't want to knock out other people with your fins, and if you clump with other people, dolphins may be more interested in visiting the lone swimmer than the big herd of humans splashing in the water.

This is another short video (2 minutes) of the dolphins we saw along the boat on the way back from the Trilogy Blue 'Aina reef clean up that day. Here is more info on volunteering for a Blue 'Aina clean up. 

The more time you spend in the water, the more chance you have of seeing or encountering wild dolphins.  Be respectful.

Reflections and Rants about the A-Z Challenge

My A to Z challenge posts are dedicated to GM, who once upon a time asked me to write an article on Hawaiian culture. My head said yes, and my heart said no. For various reasons, I didn’t do it, and it was a big “shoulda coulda woulda” in my life.

When I first decided to participate in the A to Z challenge, I was going to write about anything connected to life on Maui, but this old ghost surfaced from the past, slithered into my writing and took possession. It’s not the right format and is many years later, but life is like that.

Some rants during the A-Z challenge:

1. My theme of Hawaiian cultural symbols, fact vs. fantasy, cliché vs. reality was a bit like a corset, squishing everything into a very tight-fitted theme. I discarded two entire posts because they didn’t fit the theme as well as other topics.

2. Comments – I had a tough time keeping up with comments and still have some comments and blog hopping to follow up on. The difficulty with comments was compounded by Disqus, a plug-in to moderate comments. Some people didn’t see Disqus on their device or computer, but saw the blogger default commenting instead. So I had several comments lurking in the blogger comments section, and discovered them days later. Also, some people had difficulties with Disqus in general. I thought about removing it, but was afraid to open up another can of worms. Ironically, I originally installed disqus because Wordpress bloggers had a difficult time commenting on the default blogger platform!

Some people never saw this Disqus comments screen.

3. Time – Keeping up with the posts played havoc with my life especially in the third week. I managed to do some posts ahead of time for the first week, was keeping pace in the second week, and getting snowballed in the third week.

@damyantig on twitter had strongly suggested to write and schedule all posts ahead of time, so that April could be only for commenting, but I couldn’t write fast enough. My husband has since requested that I talk with him first before agreeing to any major blogging endeavor.  He was very supportive though, once he knew why I was living in the computer cave and he joked about my “square eyes” from the square computer screen. His great idea was to get ahead on my bread-and-butter job, then take a day off work to write as many posts as I could. This turned out to be a lifesaver. Other parts of my life fell by the wayside – the garden… hmmm, what garden?… the moving of the chicken coop… squawk squawk… I did still manage to participate in a few local events, usually with running out of the house with my hair all mussed up. There were an insane number of good festivals on Maui duringApril.   

4. Twitter – I’m still new to twitter and wanted to keep up with my twitter feed. That turned out to be pretty time-consuming and distracting as well, but also really exciting and fun. I’m really grateful to the following tweeps who did not participate in the challenge, but were very supportive: @teraeuro, @zen4zoey, and @yojudidoll. I also had some very strange conversations on twitter towards the end. 

 While this very strange "fried shave ice" twitter stream has nothing to do with the A to Z Challenge, I doubt I would have had this conversation without having participated in the challenge, which did increase my twitter followers by about 120 tweeps. On the other hand, I am also following about 120 more tweeps too. Go figure!

Part II of my very strange fried shave ice twitter conversation.

5. Keeping it short. I am the worst offender, although not the only one! I had longer posts and accepted the trade off of longer posts and fewer comments.  On the other hand, if I had had more comments, as delightful as they were, I would have felt really bad for not being more responsive.

Some great things I learned doing this challenge:

1. Inspiration from other bloggers. From Jennifer Poppy’s use of pinterest embedded images, I was able to incorporate some photos and still give credit to the original source. I also checked in with a couple of local photographers about using their images via pinterest, and they were supportive.

2. Using Wikipedia creative commons images, flickr creative commons images, and finding other sources of creative commons images. While I do have a lot of my own photos stashed away, often I couldn’t find one that really spoke a “thousand words.” So I relied heavily on outside sources.

3. Just asking people I know for information. I prodded two people about the fiber used in “grass skirts” and plumbed @swianecki for information on the native yellow hibiscus. The internet is great, but so is asking people who might know… you never know what you’ll find out. Even roaming on Facebook turned out helpful for research.

4. The value of being kind on twitter. Retweeting links for other A-Z challenge participants was often reciprocated and created a general feeling of camaraderie.

5. The more links and pics you have, the longer it takes to futz around with each blog post. 

I was also awarded the Liebster Award, um, I think twice, um three times. It’s exciting to get an award from a fellow blogger, and I will write a follow up post or posts sometime, but am wondering if that means I get to give the Liebster Award to 33 other bloggers? Mahalo to Ruby Wilbur, Rinelle Grey and Vicki Paulus for the nominations. 

It takes a global village to make the A-Z challenge happen.

I’d like to thank the following bloggers who were very supportive and left lots of comments or retweeted often:

• Dan Miller of Impression Evergreen - Beautiful nature photography and animal lore. @danfmillerart.
• Rinelle Grey who did both A –Z and Camp Nanowrimo - Highly readable blog about fiction writing and self-publishing. @rinellegrey.
• Ann Hinds of Completely California - a fun California travel/info guide
• Su-sieee Mac who I think is crazeeee for doing two A –Z blogs: Take 25 to Hollister (pics and short blurbs about Hollister, CA) and Don't Be a Hippie.
• Barbara Bos of Chica de Rock - I loved her Spanish village vignettes, @chicaderock
• Tui Snyder of Mental Mosaic - fun and quirky Texas blog @mentalmosaic
• Jennifer Huber of SoloTravel Girl - the ideal traits of a solo travel girl, though I was intrigued by her other posts. @solotravelgirl
• Jocelyn Rish - Mindbending contronyms (the same word with opposite meanings). @jocelynrish
• Ruby Wilbur - wordless, beautiful art posts on the fairy tale/storybook theme. @rubywilbur
• John Wiswell of Bathroom Monologues - an intricate fantasy fiction world @wiswell

Also, Arlee Bird was thoughtful to include me in the Quick Let's Do Something Now! A-Z post, which really did increase my Google Friend Connections. I’d been wondering about whether to remove GFC completely. @AprilA2Z was also very kind on twitter.

Honestly, I'm still catching up on comments and blog hopping, but my life is winding back down to normal.

Epilogue

As an aside, when my husband and I had the first real chat about this crazy blogging thing I was doing in April, he shook his head at my theme. I was explaining that I wanted to pick stereotypical Hawaiian images, and talk about what people associate with them.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Grass skirts, or hula or…”

“Sex.” he said.

“What?!!?”

“Sex. Grass skirts. They’re seductive. People think about sex.”

“Well, what about surfing?”

“Sex.”

“What?”

“Yeah, surfer boys are sex symbols.”

“Ok, what if I had written about taxes?”

“Yeah, sex.” He nods firmly.

“What?” I ask again. I’m stuck on this one syllable word.

“Sex. See, taxes are about paying money on earnings, getting money is about being able to take care of one’s needs and have status, to be more sexually desirable.”

“Ok… great, so you’re saying my entire Hawaiian theme was about sex.”

“Yes.”

“Thanks honey.”

“No problem. Glad I cleared that up for you.”

May 2013 - Event Listings - Happy May Day!

After April, I feel like May will be a month of recovery from the A to Z Challenge. Just kidding! It was a great experience, and maybe my life will get back to normal. 

We've had a lot of voggy days recently plus Kona weather which brings in wind from the South, the direction of Kona on the Big Island. For some people, this means more headaches and sluggishness. Today, there's a great breeze and it's May Day (or Lei Day) in Hawaii. This list will be updated as I have time and inclination!

Hula dancer with maile lei. 
Original art by Suzy Papanikolas, at Viewpoints Maui.

Now through 5/12 - Art of Trash exhibit at the Maui Mall. Annual art show of trash. Great fun. I'm totally biased because I usually enter and volunteered yesterday. Here are a few posts from last year: Is this really trash?, art of trash overview, and art of trash Buddha. 

Also ending 5/12 - the Art Maui annual exhibit. This is often considered the most prestigious art show on Maui other than the Schaeffer portrait exhibit which only occurs every four years. Here's a post from last year about the opening reception. 

5/1 - May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii. Often more celebrated at public schools where the children dance hula and give other performances. The Fairmount Kea Lani Resort is offering a public May Day event with hula lessons and lei making. 

5/2 - Grand opening of the Community Garden at the University of Hawaii Maui Campus
4-6 pm. Tours of the garden, refreshments available, and they are using "earth bags" to create raised beds.

5/3 - 5/5 - St. Joseph's Feast in Makawao. An upcountry local event supporting St. Joseph's Church with bouncy castles, lots of malasadas (Portuguese sugary doughnut-like sweets), games, entertainment. This event, one of the oldest on Maui, started in  the 19th century. 

5/4 - 24th Annual Maui Onion Festival at Whaler's Village. Food event with recipe contests, chef demos, special dinner in celebration of the sweet Maui onion. 

5/4 - Paddle Imua benefit race to help children with special needs. 

5/4 - Haiku Ho'olaulea Star Light Star Bright Soiree, benefit to kick off the Haiku Elementary School Foundation. 

5/5 - Cinco de Mayo Fundraiser for Lahainaluna High School. This fundraiser by Cilantro Grill will support their school garden. 


5/10 - Maui Matsuri Festival begins - a popular festival on Maui highlighting Japanese culture (My mistake, had it listed originally for 5/3 - although there was a kick-off event 5/3 at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping Center.) Some films aired on Friday, 5/10. Saturday 5/11 features live entertainment, bon dancing, food booths, judo and aikido demonstrations and costume contest. 

5/11 - 40th Annual Seabury Hall Craft Fair. The most prestigious private school on Maui hosts its hugely popular annual craft fair, which is always the Saturday before Mother's Day. Often considered to be the best craft fair on the island. 

5/11 - Hana Spring Harvest Dinner at Travaasa Hana to benefit the Hana Youth Center. The twitter hashtag is #hanaharvest. 

5/14 - Maui's First DishCrawl Event, in Lahaina. A foodie adventure to visit four restaurants, while exploring Lahaina. It's also a guessing game, since three restaurants are being kept secret until the event starts.

5/17 - Maui Brewer's Festival. This is a more recent event on Maui, perhaps only in its 3rd or 4th year, but popular. Featuring craft beers made in Hawaii and beyond. Along with beer, there are appetizers from 20+ restaurants and popular food trucks. 

5/25 - Fruit Tree Orchard Design and Care. Two very experienced farmers are running this all-day workshop in Haiku. They are both good speakers and know their stuff. If you have fruit trees and  want to have more and better fruit, this is your workshop. 

For more event listings, check out Calendar Maui, Flyers Up or Maui Time's event listing. 

Z is for Zipline

Z is for Zipline, a tremendously popular activity on Maui. This zipline is North Shore Zipline in Haiku, in my neck of the woods. It's a canopy style zipline, meaning that people climb up to a platform in the trees and zipline among the treetops to the next platform or area. 

Ziplines? What? A classic or stereotypical Hawaiian cultural symbol? [Shrug] I only had two choices for Z and this one has more tourist appeal!

The first zipline on Maui started at Skyline Eco-Adventures a few years ago. It was wildly popular and since then, a bunch of zipline companies have jumped in the fray. Amazingly, Maui gets enough visitors to support the existence of several different zipline companies:

·        Skyline Eco-Adventures – operates two Maui ziplines, the original on Haleakala Crater, up in Kula, on one side of the island and another, more extreme zipline on the West side of Maui. Plus they operate ziplines on the Big Island and Tennessee. They are on twitter and Facebook. 

·        North Shore Zipline – a tree canopy style zipline, which goes from tree platform to the ground, along the forest canopy, the tops of the trees.  Features active braking and some rider control. They are new on twitter and less active on Facebook.  

·        Pi'iholo Ranch Zipline -  To my knowledge, another tree canopy style zipline. Features side by side ziplines, so there’s less wait time and you can zip next to friends. Active on twitter and Facebook.  

·        Maui Zipline Company – at the Maui Tropical Plantation. I’ve heard this one is more kid-friendly, and the lines go up to 900 feet long.  Active on twitter and Facebook.   

·        Flying Hawaiian Zipline – also starts at the Maui Tropical Plantation but one line is 3600 feet. Claims to have one of the fastest, most extreme ziplines.  I could not find them on twitter, but they are quite active on Facebook. 

FYI: the video below has an ad and is a little over 3 minutes long. 

What is the best zipline?

Don’t ask me… I think they all feature different things. Some are faster and scarier. Others are pricier, have longer zips, or more lines. Others are better for all age groups because they are not as extreme or physically demanding. Some ziplines let the rider have some control, others are just fun rides. Some ziplines have lots of walking and hiking and are a real work out!  They are located on different parts of the island with different scenic views.  

Is a zipline a “must do” activity?

Some people say yes, others no. You can spend hours looking at online reviews on Yelp, Trip Advisor, or talking with people.  (Just a note, yesterday Yelp showed all the zipline companies on Maui and today is only showing four, with the same search criteria: zipline, Maui.) Some friends loved their zipline rides, and another friend found it a bit tame compared to kitesurfing, but she was also on one of the gentler ziplines. DH and I had a great time on ours.

Are they safe?

I have not heard of any accidents on Maui, though have heard of two accidents on the Big Island in 2011, not by any of the companies listed above. There's an element of risk, but the tendency is for the companies to be excessively safe. I've even heard visitors complain that they felt there was too much safety!  Since ziplines are wildly popular, it would be foolish for the zipline companies to get careless on maintenance or safety.

The path up to the platform.

Do any of these ziplines have discounts or special pricing? Doesn’t everyone want to know? Ziplines usually start at $100 per person. Sometimes they have specials on twitter or Facebook, but almost never on their websites. Skyline Eco-Adventures has a special rate for Zip for the Trees, a nonprofit fundraiser in the fall.  I’ve noticed that Pi’iholo Zipline has specials once in a while, around holidays.

Oh, there is one other way to get a special zipline rate, and it’s tricky. In Hawaii, a common sight is the activity booth or kiosk, usually located in a high-traffic area. There will be a sign with activities like snorkeling, sunset cruise, lu’au, horse riding, hiking, ziplining, etc. with low or ridiculous prices next to each item. The catch is, to get that ridiculous rate, one has to attend a three-hour time share presentation. If you’re a couple, then both of you must attend. 

Source: mauihawaii.ca via Sandi on Pinterest

An example of a discount activity booth in Lahaina. 

In effect, by trading three hours of precious vacation time, driving time, and possibly becoming the proud new owner of a one-week timeshare once a year ($10,000+), you could get a $29 zipline ride. For some, it’s worth it. For others, caveat emptor.  Enough said.

So far I've only been on one zipline tour with Northshore Zipline. It was extremely scary on the test zip, because it requires jumping off the platform. The first leap is the hardest. Then it got easier and less scary. I never got the hang of the active braking, using my arms and gloved hands to control the speed of the ride. Our guides were funny and entertaining, especially when two people dropped gloves and they had to jump down and get them. I took five million video clips and posted a few on youtube but never got around to editing them in any manageable way. Moreover, my zipline footage could make a sailor seasick. DH and I had a great time and my arms were sore later on. 

There ya go!  End of the A to Z posts for 2013. Ok, well I might do a follow up post on lessons from the A-Z Challenge.


Just remembered! There's a Facebook contest on best eco-tour guide. Please consider voting for Joe of Skyline Eco-Adventures.

Aloha and mahalo (thank you) for reading!

If you are commenting from the A to Z challenge, please include a link. 

I'm doing my best to keep up with commenting, but do sometimes get behind. Mahalo for understanding!

Y is for Yellow Hibiscus

True or false?

The state flower of Hawaii is a yellow hibiscus.

True, but a trick question. It’s not just ANY garden variety yellow hibiscus in Hawaii. Like other Hawaiian cultural symbols in this A-Z series, there’s more to the story.

Source of original photo: Forest and Kim Starr. Creative commons licensed.
Image has been altered, with text added. 

Growing up, I thought the state flower was any hibiscus, especially the red hibiscus, which grows practically on every street in Hawaii. I was not the only one. In 1988, the state legislature made their selection of state flower very clear: Hibiscus brackenridgei, Hawaiian name ma’o hau hele, roughly pronounced like “mah oh how hell ey”.  Still yet, even this week, I have visited other websites which simply state that the yellow hibiscus is the state flower. It’s just not completely true.

Hawaii’s state flower is a very special native hibiscus with vivid yellow flowers that only blooms once or maybe twice a year, usually in the winter and/or spring. It’s endangered too, but is becoming cultivated in local gardens, although it is susceptible to white flies, Chinese rose beetles and excess moisture.  I won’t try growing them where I live in Haiku, where plants need to have a wet suit, snorkel and mask to thrive! If you do want to grow them, this is a helpful link on cultivating and propagating the native yellow species.

This native yellow hibiscus is not the only indigenous hibiscus either, as I have seen exquisite white native flowers at Fleming Arboretum.

According to Shannon Wianecki, a knowledgeable free lance writer and conservation volunteer, the state flower is:

“easy to grow at home (minus the bugs) but it's endangered in the wild, where very few individual plants remain. Feral ungulates such as deer and goats like to nibble it to the ground. It thrives in full sun, in the hot dryland forest areas. It's endemic, which means it evolved here in Hawaii and exists nowhere else on earth.”

Will the real state flower of Hawaii please stand up?
Source: Forest and Kim Starr. Photo is creative commons licensed.

Native yellow hibiscus is not exactly a needle in a haystack, but it's hard to find in the wild. The Native Hawaiian Plant Society’s April service project was a trip to a special “exclosure” of H. breckenridgei in the wild. I haven’t heard back from them yet, but imagine a fenced in area of blooming yellow hibiscus with hungry deer and goats pacing outside looking for a way in. If NHPS goes again next April, I’m putting it on my calendar.

The name of the native yellow hibiscus is also intriguing: ma’o hau hele which refers to how the plants “travel” to reproduce.

The native Hawaiians, according to Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, made a blue-gray dye from the flowers, to color their tapa bark cloth (what ancient Hawaiians wore in the days before the “grass skirt”).  The state flower’s bark could also be made into cordage or rope which was extremely useful at a time when nails and hammers didn’t exist. The native yellow hibiscus is blooming now at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, though I had to laugh at  MNBG’s sense of humor, and I found out the flowers do not open up all day. 

What’s important about native or indigenous Hawaiian plants is that they are part of the ecosystem on the islands. Many native plants are rare or endangered, by habitat loss or other introduced species. They have important cultural traditions associated with them and when they disappear, certain genetic and cultural information is lost too. 

In writing this post, I’d like to highlight some of the organizations that promote the preservation and cultivation of native species. For the most part, they are off the beaten track for tourists, but if you’re reading this post and eventually come to Maui, please consider a volunteer stint or field trip with one of these places:

• Maui Nui Botanical Gardens – many native Hawaiian plants in this garden, with volunteer opportunities every Wednesday morning. They organize some great local events like a “Hawaiian style” Earth Day and native plant sales. Active and responsive on Facebook.
• D.T. Fleming Arboretum – a fabulous native plant arboretum tucked away in Keokea (past Kula). Out of the way, with beautiful scenic views and plants. Once a month service project and occasional tours.
• Native Hawaiian Plant Society – a group that educates people about native plants, often during field trips and community work projects. Has a Facebook page. 
• East Maui Watershed Partnership – dedicated to protecting Maui’s watershed. Offers educational hikes into rare native habitats. Also has a Facebook and twitter account.
• West Maui Watershed Partnership – like EMWP, but on the other side of Maui.
• Hawaiian Islands Land Trust – dedicated to conserving land throughout the state of Hawaii. Many volunteer opportunities, especially on Friday mornings. Active on Facebook and Twitter.
• Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project - research and conservation of native Hawaiian bird species and ecosystems, with volunteer projects. Active on Facebook. 
• Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership -  Usually there is a once a month all-day service project to restore the Auwahi district on the slopes of Haleakala Crater. Has a Facebook page. 
• More volunteer and restoration projects can be found at Volunteer on Vacation's website.

If you are elsewhere in Hawaii (not just Maui), check out:

• Preserve Hawaii. Volunteer opportunities ALL OVER HAWAII, not just Maui. On Facebook and Twitter.
• Hawaiian Islands Land Trust – dedicated to conserving land throughout the state of Hawaii. Many volunteer opportunities. Active on Facebook and Twitter.
• The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. Most of their hikes/volunteer work seems to happen on the island of Moloka'i. On Facebook and Twitter.  

Just found these photos of the native yellow hibiscus on the Facebook page of Flyin Hawaiian Zipline,
which is involved in restoration efforts on zipline land. These are all fairly young hibiscus plants.
I love that these photos show the leaves and habitat of the native hibiscus.
I've collaged some of their FB photos together. Mahalo for their conservation efforts!

Special mahalos (thank you’s) to the sources involved in researching this post:

• Shannon Wianecki who writes fascinating articles on Hawaii and provided this excellent link on native hibiscus and photo sources by the Starrs. Follow her on twitter at @swianecki.
• Maui Nui Botanical Gardens – a botanical resource of native plants on Maui, which I have been wanting to blog more about. Feel free to like them on Facebook – they consistently post a lot of plant photos and info.
• Forest and Kim Starr who have many great photos of indigenous Hawaiian plants, that are creative commons licensed.
• Flyin Hawaiian Zipline for their photos above.  

Surprisingly I thought this would be the easiest A-Z post to do, and it turned into one of the more complex. Yellow hibiscus… not as simple as it looked. 

Aloha and mahalo (thank you) for reading!

If you are commenting from the A to Z challenge, please include a link. 

I'm doing my best to keep up with commenting, but do sometimes get behind. Mahalo for understanding!

X is for XOXOXO (or Love)

Yes, hugs and kisses, romance, sunsets, love, honeymoons and weddings. Hawaii represents all these things as an international romance destination. Granted, XO is a bit gimmicky, but there are not a lot of things that start with the letter X.

Now for a silly romance poem:

Ah, Hawaii, how do I love thee as a symbol of romance? 

I love thee for the depth and breadth of your sunsets on which to gaze along my fair love's sunburned cheek.

I love thee for thy promenade of weddings on the beach, the exhausted conch shell blower barely able to muster a breath after the fourth wedding of the day.

I love thee for thy champagne toasts and romantic beaches as couples walk dizzily hand in hand looking for lost car keys in the sand.

I love thee for thy beautiful waves that have stolen my honeymoon sunglasses and beach hat from my head as we embraced in the water.

You get the picture. I'm being a bit tongue in cheek. 

Weddings and honeymoons and romance are a major part of Hawaii's tourism culture. 

Source: tripsofwonder.blogspot.jp via Courtney on Pinterest
A "malihini" by the way is a newcomer.

Romance is a tricky business though. There are stories of couples who come to Maui for the first time. One variation is that half the couple comes back to Maui with a different partner the following year. The other variation is that next year, the same couple comes back for their honeymoon or wedding. The year after, they come back with a baby. Then there's a gap, and they come back with another baby. Hawaii is a great place to start a family!  Some tourists may not even see the outside of their hotel room! 

I'm going to give a favor to some Maui bloggers and include a few links, to view at your own discretion:

• Top Wedding Vendors on Maui (one person's favorites, though there are MANY to choose from)
• Gorgeous Maui Weddings (highlighted by A Maui Blog)
• Anna Kim Wedding Photography - I'm always blown away by her pics. I can't say the photo below is one of her most romantic, but it's delightful and that phrase in the sign is a classic Maui kind of thing, "Just Maui'd."

Source: annakimphotography.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Yes, "Just Mauid" or "Maui'd" is a sign you'll see here. 

Aloha and mahalo (thank you) for reading!

If you are commenting from the A to Z challenge, please include a link. 

I'm doing my best to keep up with commenting, but do sometimes get behind. Mahalo for understanding!