So i've been doing some fun things about Maui over the last couple of days. I have also come up with this idea for a song I really like. It's called "Little Bird". Kind of nursery rhyme style of writing. One continuous melody over a chord progression and then the same again with different lyrics. Kind of "She'll be coming round the mountain" but not at all! I've written about 3 cycles. Going to try and finish this one before I leave Maui on Sunday which will give me 3 songs. Whoopdedoo!
The day before yesterday, the lovely Liam and Luis took me down "The Road to Hana" (from Huelo, where I am). It's a really beautiful, twisty ride along the northern cliffs, through rainbow eucalyptus, waterfalls and the odd coconut stand. Here's a clip of Liam manfully breaking into a big nut.
We all had one each and drank up the coconut water then opened it further to eat the flesh inside. mm mmm.
Arriving at our destination, a beach in Hana, Luis and I promptly got our kit off to put some smaller kit on and went body surfing. Liam, chilled on a towel. The waves were pretty large. We got "boiled" quite a few times by them. Basically slow spun about in the wash of the wave before it was ready to spit me out. When you got it right though it was hard not to gulp a load of water from laughing at how much fun you were having! It was lovely being on the waves as they upped and downed around us. It felt like being lifted up as a small child by an adult over their heads. There were these kids on the beach with their boards doing something called "Skimboarding". They launch off the beach into the waves and skim for a bit then, somersault off in mid air as the wave hits them. Looked great fun. I'm sure I would have broken my neck trying it though so i just watched.
Small interlude...If none of you have heard this...it's bleedin' great! I really like this guy, he's called Back Ted'n'ted. He did this fantastic remix of Goodnight and Go that i just love. Please listen and send him kisses.
Yesterday, my new friend Bobby, took me out on the ocean kayaking.
We headed off into the blue and very soon, in the distance, the dark specks of mammal, protuding out of water before splashing their way back in. We kept on kayaking. A wave took us by surprsie and we capsized. It was pretty funny. Slow motion action. Nothing we could do but go with it. We managed to save everything but a bottle of water. So if someone on the nearest beach, clothes optional it turns out off Turtle point discovered a floating 2 litre water bottle, that was mine. Please, go ahead. It got us into the water which was lovely and warm. After a couple of chewy snack bars and a tuna wrap we continued our search. This time...we could hear them breahting through their blowholes. Pshhhhhh....in the distance. We paddled up to get closer. Bobby said "You want to get go in and swim with them?"...erm....YES! So flippers on, snorkle tight, check. Slip into the water and off I go...paddle paddle paddle...hmmm....where are they? Bobby's signalling me from the kayak, over there...with a paddle action from his arms...off this way I went...this time I was pretty darn close. The waves were a little choppy so it was hard to get a good look from the water. Then I lost 'em again. I went under and tried to hold my breath for as long as possible. The Whales! You could hear them "singing". Amazing sound. Here...listen for yourself! This website have them coming through 24/7 from pretty much where I was in the water. Go searching in the archives and find the one recorded at full moon. Who's going to be sampling this!? I wonder...So once i'd attempted to sing with the whales, Bobby was signalling again. They were really close this time. I swam as fast as I could to catch them. A baby and it's mum. 20 feet away from me! This is I was so out of breath I couldn't go under for long enough to see them swim about ahead of me. I'm definitely going to be doing this again. Beautiful creatures. Incredible to be right there with them. Completely at ease.
This is Bobby doing a much better job at getting down there with them a couple of weeks previous. Great shot!
Big thanks to the guys taking me out here. It's really so nice to be shown about by people who live here rather than being on a boat with 100 other people scrabling for a glimpse of a whale or going to a busy beach from not knowing where the little cute ones are.
More soon! Big love. xxx i xxx
