Maui, Hawaii, Haleakala National Park

Aloha again, its been a long time since I posted and I apologize for that.  I have been keeping very busy with work and traveling around the island of Maui.  Well, its coming up on 2 months since moving here and I still have until mid September.  Its been a great time so far and I have several excellent experiences to share, and hopefully some decent pictures.

My weekends with the National Park Service fall on Thursdays and Fridays and are therefore the best time to get ahold of me.  As you can see from the above pictures that I don’t just like to sit around housing at the park.  I have made several trips on my weekends with friends down to different beaches around the island.  The sun is magnificent here and if you know where to go, its not uncommon to find a very secluded and peaceful beach to relax on and swim from. I just bought some snorkel gear and can’t wait to use it soon, because lets face it… it’s a lot of fun just floating around looking for fish.  I did get to do a little of it while cross-training with Inventory and Monitoring a few weeks ago.  We were doing fish counts and I had a great time looking for the little natives hiding in the rocks.  That was a fun couple of days and I learned a lot. Because I only get down the mountain once a week or so, my friends and I make the most of it.  We eat lunch and sometimes breakfast at different places each time, get our groceries for the week, and try to explore all the shops that are around the immediate area.  The towns on Maui are not large at all and easily walk-able.  We usually bring our beach stuff and try to find a spot that is new.  I have eaten some amazing seafood here and most of the fruit is locally grown and fresh if you know where to buy it.  It isn’t hard to find fresh fruit or vegetables though, all you need to do is take a ride down a back road and find a private stand, off the side of the road.  There are a lot of farms around and all are trying to make a living on this expensive island.

Maui, Hawaii, Haleakala National Park 1

Aloha everybody. Well I’m now residing on the island of Maui in the state of Hawaii! I’m working as an SCA (Student Conservation Association) intern with the NPS (National Park Service) for the U.S. Department of Interior. My internship is in Haleakala National Park and I live at an elevation of 7,000’ in housing provided to me by the park. The volcano I am living on is actually just over 10,000’ in elevation and the road up from the base is a series of winding switchbacks and serious turns. The view is amazing, every morning as I walk to work (about a mile from housing to the Headquarters Visitor Center) I can look down the mountain and over most of the island of Maui. I can follow the shoreline along until it goes around the other volcano in West Maui and then as it picks up again on the other side and past the biggest town/city on the island: Kahului, where the major airport is.

It is not uncommon to see a series of rainbows as the saturated clouds like to hover around the elevation of where I live. Because of this, the above elevations where I commonly work is very dry and is actually considered a “cinder desert”.

The thin air at the top visitor’s center is usually very clear and I can easily make out the big island of Hawaii from the summit. I have been in training these last 5 days of work and probably have another couple weeks or so before I’m let loose to teach on my own. I have learned a TON in this short time but I feel like I have just scratched the surface. The Hawaiian culture alone is so amazing and add to that the island’s unique animals/vegetation/weather and geology… there is a lot to learn in order to sufficiently answer the public’s questions. I’m enjoying the challenge however and am enjoying the ride thus-far.

The housing is very nice here and nearly everything was provided when I moved in. I share a kitchen and living room with a cool SCA intern (Jake) who works for Vegetative Management under a different park department.

My first three days of work flew by and before I knew it I was having my “weekend” on Thursday and Friday. This will typically be my days off and already I have been making them count. On Thursday I drove down the mountain with another SCA intern whom I work with in interp. (Rebecca) and enjoyed a day at the beach: swimming, lying around in the sun, driving around and eating. Afterwards that afternoon we met up with a couple other friends and saw a few other places on the island.

There has been a lot of other things going on but they are too numerous to go into any detail… suffice it to say I have seen some amazing views, learned some fascinating information, and have had a great first week. I want to thank my family and friends who have been in contact with me one way or another and keeping me posted with what is happening back home in NY. Thanks for all the well wishes I have received as well, I am truly lucky to have such a great group of people following and supporting my travels, so Mahalo! I have created a picture album on Facebook with more than what I have posted here in this blog post so please feel free to take a look! You will have to add me as a friend to view them however as I do not let just anybody have access to my pictures. In my opinion though, these are the best of what I have taken so far so I hope you enjoy. More to come as my adventure here on Maui progresses… I have a couple training hikes and backcountry orientations coming up that I plan on documenting with photos. These will take me down into the crater and also on the other side of the island in the tropical zone so I can’t wait for that. Thanks for following and remember to check back for more to come.

I know what your thinking… and I agree… Cool Ferns!