Chapter 3: Hawaiian Life-O

Sorry about the massive delay in updates! I can partially blame it on getting settled in, setting up internet and dropping (eh hem, yep) my computer. The other part is pure avoidance.

So time warp to the beginning of March (remember March? It was a good month...). Following Vancouver, we hopped on over to Honolulu. Ok, flew. Confession: Until I got to Hawaii, I didn't realize that Hawaii is on the island of Oahu, not Hawaii, aka Big Island. I just assumed it was on the biggest Island. It is not.

Before I get into the adventures and happenings of Hawaii, I want to give a little educational lesson for the equally ill-informed, courtesy of Wikipedia, the authority on life.

Hawaii is actually fairly fascinating. Although it WAS NOT split down the middle and given to Canada (thanks for that, Cathy White), it does have some questionable island politics.

There are 8 islands (and a bunch of other tiny ones) that make up Hawaii, all of which have more vowels than a Scandinavian adjective. The islands are as follows. I hope you are all staring at your screen attempting to pronounce these. Out loud. And embarrassing yourselves in front of coworkers.

Hawai'i (got it)
Maui (easy)
O'ahu (pshh)

Lana'i (okk...)
Kaho'olawe (yipes!)
Moloka'i (Molo, what?)
Kaua'i (not even attempting)
Ni'ihau (isn't that Chinese for hello?)

Out of the eight main islands there are two "rouge" islands. One, Kaho'olawe (say it with me now, Ka-hoo-a-la-we) is uninhabited for good reason: it lacks freshwater. Actually, in the beginning of World War II, it was used as a training ground and bombing range by the US. Bombing ourselves, lovely. Kaho'olawe wasn't even a part of the Hawaiian islands until 1994! After much protesting, the navy ended live-fire training and the island was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Today, the island is only used for native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual and subsistence purposes.

Ok, on to the more mysterious island, Ni'ihau, also know as the Forbidden Isle. Ni'ihau, as it's nickname implies, is "forbidden" to the common tourist. You can only go there by invitation! Pish posh! Ni'ihau is actually privately owned by the Robinson family (No relation to Robinson, Swiss Family). In 1864, Elizabeth Sinclair-Robinson purchased Ni'ihau for the whopping price of $10,000. (I know it was ages ago but, can you imagine buying an island for 10k?) She had the option of Ni'ihau, Waikiki or Pearl Harbor. I guess she wanted an entire island, not part of one. In 1915, Elizabeth's grandson closed the island to most visitors. Even inhabitant's relatives had to have special permission to visit. I wonder what sort of secrets that island holds... Ni'ihau has no phones or cars. The residents can't own radios, cell phones or TVs and visitors can't bring them to the island, even for themselves. They also don't have electricity! Apparently, these are all Robinson family imposed rules - maybe to keep the island in a more natural state? A forbidden island would be a bit more difficult to live on without modern luxuries. Regardless, I still want to go.

One other important piece of Hawaiian culture is not really a piece, but rather, a man. A very large man. A 770 pound man. Iz Kamakawiwo'ole was a large man with the voice of an angel. Really. Youtube him. There's the wonderfully cheesy video of Iz singing "Over the Rainbow" and playing a ukelele. It's a bit humerous to see such a large man with such a small instrument (he plays, of course, the ukelele.

On to the last little factoid. I'm sure there are plenty more but I'm sure this is enough for now. Hawaii's tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, located on the Big Island (Hawai'i), is actually taller than Mount Everest if measured from it's base almost 20,000 feet below sea level. Pretty cool, really. It's actually only 13,796 feet above sea level.

I do believe that's about it on the facts. On to the events...