A Zipline in Hawaii
byJimmy
A little late but Happy New Year! For my winter break, I returned back home to Hawaii. Now, many of you were probably thinking that I was really lucky to have escaped the cold of Japan and returned home to lots of sunshine, and much warmer weather, and spending lots of time on the beach getting a good tan. Unfortunately, all of that didn’t happen, well, only the “warmer weather” part is true, where the temperature ranged between 20°C to 28°C everyday. But pretty much, almost 80% of the time while I was home, it was raining, which actually is very typical of the winter season in Hawaii. And being that I haven’t been home for a long time, my time was mostly spent meeting and catching up with lots of friends and family and attending lots of holiday parties, so time at the beach was almost non-existent. However, I was able to find some relax time with a very short trip to Maui, and tried out an outdoor activity that I didn’t know about, and thought it would be good to share it with you all as a possible alternative on what you can do in Hawaii should you ever have the chance to visit there.
The activity I tried out is called a zipline tour. I’m guessing maybe some of you may have heard what a “zipline” is, but in case you haven’t, it’s an activity where you get fitted into this harness looking jacket with lots of buckles and straps hanging from it. You then climb up a very high tower to get strapped up to a little trolley cart, with wheels, that sits on top of a steel cable that crosses over a deep ravine to a landing area on the other side, which is usually about a 1000 feet (~300+ meters) away. Once strapped in, you just put your feet up and fly across, or rather, “zip” across to the other side while just hanging by the straps connected to the trolley cart.
Now, for those of you who are afraid of heights, or are afraid of speeding over deep gulches, then this is definitely not an activity for you. But if you are the type willing to have a little adventure and wanted to know how it feels to fly over a rainforest, then this is something you should definitely try out if you can.
The place I did this at is called the Pi’iholo Zipline Tours. Here’s the website if you are curious (www.piiholozipline.com). But if you were to do a Google search on “zipline Hawaii”, you will find A LOT of different places that offer this same activity. The guys at Pi’iholo Zipline were really cool and offer you 2 different courses to choose from. One is a 4-Zip Line Adventure where they take you across 4 of their moderately long ziplines. The other course is a 5-Zip Line Adventure, which of course, gives you an extra zipline to ride, but that additional zipline is special in the sense that it is currently the longest one on the island of Maui at 2800 feet (over 850 meters!). Unfortunately, I was only able to do the 4-Zip Line Tour since it was high season and fully booked, but I still had a great time trying this out, and am hoping to return there someday to try the really long zipline that they have.
So, if you ever get a chance to go to Hawaii, and want to try other things to do besides lounging at the beach and getting a nice tan, check out the zipline tours available on the island.
What's Coming up...
Burning of Mt. Omuro
A grass burning ceremony in the middle of February, in Ito City, with over 700 years of history
Bishamonten Festival
Held in Fuji City in the beginning of February, the Bishamonten Festival is on of Japan’s largest Daruma (Buddhist doll) Markets.
OMG It's Winter!
Well, it appears winter has really arrived with low temperatures, stiff winds and even some snow. But at least we aren’t on the west side of Japan, where they get a meter of snow a day.
Mt. Fuji from Susono afternoon of January 17—courtesy of Brian
Outside my apartment in Daito on the morning of Monday, January 17.
Fun Video
A great skit about the funny names in technology these days…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI
(or you can search Youtube.com for: “My Blackberry Is Not Working! - The One Ronnie, Preview - BBC One”
Thanks to Jimmy and Brian for their contributions. If you have an article, pictures, comments, or pretty much anything, you can submit it to fiappcom@yahoo.com
From February, my co-conspirator, Dale, will be taking over for a few months, so don't forget to send your submissions - Chris
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