Chaos: complete confusion and disorder.

Yep. Sounds about right. Prior to beginning this venture people would ask me if I was nervous. Nervous? What for? I had nothing to be nervous about, everything was going to go smoothly.. I would meet awesome people all of the place, easy living. Well guess what it’s only day 5 and I was wrong. Heck, I was wrong day 1.

Let me just take you on a journey through my first 5 chaotic days in Hawaii. By no means have they been bad, and I have learned from each experience so far.. But I have to say I’ve had A LOT of experience in a very short amount of time.

Day 1:

So, here I am on my 6 hour flight thinking to myself hmm… I wonder how hard it’s going to be to hitch hike from the airport into town. Is this even safe? Plane lands, airplane mode off. I have a text from a friend of a friend who says she will be waiting for me at the airport. YES! I have a ride. She swoops me up at the Kona airport and we head into town and grab acaí bowls. SO GOOD. We then head out to Kua Bay to a beautiful white sand beach. As we are pulling up we see whales breeching (I don’t actually know if that’s how you use that term).

We are at the beach for awhile and the girl who picks me up has friends join us. These are people who work on farms on the island that originally are from ‘the mainland’ as everyone here would say.

After hours of beach time her friends offer to take me to the trail so I can hike into camp. I hop in the back of their truck with my HUGE bag and as we are driving the traffic into Kona is too much and the guys ask if I mind just staying at the yurt that they live in on a coffee farm. I agree and end up in the back of the truck for over 2 hours, instant dreads.

After random things for the next couple of hours we finally head to yurt. I walk in and an egg is on the couch I am about to sleep on. Apparently that’s an everyday thing. Anyways the guys fall asleep and I lay on this little couch without a blanket and freeze to death while listening to a rooster every to hours. Regardless, I woke up in a yurt on a coffee farm which is really pretty amazing.

That was all day one.

Day 2:

They showed me around the farm and I learned all about the way they pick coffee and the entire process it has to go through. I also learned of a beatle that is infecting many of the coffee trees on the island and they showed me how to know if the coffee cherry has been infected. We then drank 100% Kona coffee and chatted for a couple of hours.

That afternoon we went cliff jumping at The End of the World which is also a historic battle ground on the island, and later went body surfing at Magic Sands beach where I learned that the swell of the season would be coming Monday (today).

 
After hours of more errands they drove me to the road that would take me to Makalawena Beach camping. They said it would be a 30 minute walk and all I needed to remember was take the first left and stay left.

As I was walking down the road I saw a path veer off to the left and figured it must be my turn. I went off and as I was walking the path began to disappear. Here I was in a huge lava field with many thorn trees and the sun was almost down. After 45 minutes of trying to bushwhack my way through I began to panic. I didn’t think I would make it before sundown, I was bleeding badly, and I began to consider my options.

I decided I had three choices. Head toward the sun and hope I made it to camp. Head away from the sun and hope I made it to the road to hitch hike. Or I could set up my tent on the sharp rocks and find a way out the next morning. Quite honestly I was beat down. I began to pray and decided to push forward. I told myself I would work as fast as I could to get out before dark and if I didn’t make it I would just have to make camp in the rocks.

After another 45 minutes later I made it out and jogged with my pack until I hit camp right as it turned pitch black out. As I walked up to the camp area a family had a fire and saw me and the mom ran up and asked if I was okay. I had forgotten about my legs, oops.

I cleaned up my wounds and set up camp which turned out to be quite incredible. Two guys at camp next to me cooked me a steak on the fire and made me try prawns. I feel asleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

Day 3:

I packed up camp and again considered how in the heck I would get out. I walked along the shore until I hit the beach. I met some guys who told me about fresh water ponds just a little further down so I found them and cleaned up my legs some more.

 
I was debating whether I should camp another night or try to hitch hike out when I met an australian guy. He said his friends were scuba diving for the day so he came to the beach to hangout. We swam a bit and he offered me a ride into town and to grab some food with he and his friends.

We went to Annie’s burgers which was incredible. They offered me a place on their couch at the resort they were staying at. THANK YOU GOD. It turned out that the two friends were doctors (little doctors in training, but on their way) and they put dressings on my cuts and mentioned I may need stitches but they thought I would get along without them just find. They chatted all night and argued back and forth about sports and abilities etc etc, guy things.

Day 4:

We went for a morning swim which was lovely.

We then went to a pub and watched the NFL games, with a beach background of course. We were literally at the pub for 8 hours. It was wonderful. I so badly needed to rest my legs.

We grabbed entirely too many snacks and went back to the pool and spa and relaxed for the rest of the evening before they told me I was like Tweak from South Park due to my love for coffee. Thanks guys.

Day 5:

They left and I rented a car. I decided it would be much better for me to have a car here and I am SO happy with my decision. I went to a coffee shop and planned out some more of my week before heading to Hapuna Beach, Waimea, and then Spencer Beach Park to camp.

Life is good. Hawaii is chaotic.

This is only the beginning.