Month: March 2013

Cross-posted and hot-linked from Andy’s Kaua’i Blog:

About the same time that we moved back to Kaua’i, some friends of ours moved back from the Big Island. Derek had been working over there building a zipline course for his boss, and he was coming back to Kaua’i to build one for himself. So for the past two years, I’ve been hearing stories about him and his workers clearing the forest of 100′ trees, building platforms, stringing cables, and hiring guides. And last August, Koloa Zipline finally opened.

But none of us had never actually been on a zipline before, so when he offered us a tour we said “yes, please.” I’ve been rock climbing and hanging on plenty of ropes (yeah, because I fall a lot), but Sonja and Leilani weren’t sure what to expect. They weren’t scared, just weren’t sure they’d enjoy the sensation. However, the guides were great and by the 3rd or 4th line, they loved it.

The day starts with a close-up of the Koloa sugar mill, where the zipline “baseyard” is. The zipline is partnered with Kauai ATV to run tours on the private Grove Farm land between Koloa town and the Ha’upu mountain ridge. Since the Lihu’e and Kekaha sugar mills are being torn down, this is the second to last of Kaua’i’s now-closed mills, and the only one you can get close to. It’s actually very scenic, in a Mad Max sort of way (they still use it in movies).

First, we all got fitted with harnesses and helmet, the same for kids as for adults. Both of them adjust to give a snug and safe fit.

The harness includes the pulley that everyone has to carry around–this was the only thing that was a bit hard for Leilani, and I often helped her carry it (the 10 and 12 year-olds on the tour carried their own easily). Everyone then gets hooked up to a test line to feel what it’s like to hang from the pully and sit in the harness. Here one of the guides, Jesse, helps Sonja. The handles on the pulley are optional, you can use them to “steer” your body, but you don’t need to hang on. Then we all climb aboard the Pinzgauer 6×6 military transport. These were developed near Sonja’s hometown in Austria, and I’ve seen several on Kaua’i. I think Kaua’i Backcountry Adventures uses them to take customers on the dirt roads as well.

The rough dirt road leads across the former sugar cane fields and into the forest at the foot of the Ha’upu ridge.

Soon you arrive at the first zipline. For those that don’t know, a zipline is a cable strung between a higher starting platform and a lower landing platform so that you glide by gravity down the cable as you hang from the pulley. Some ziplines are attached directly to trees, but this forest is mostly fast-growing and brittle Albezia trees. My friend Derek is replacing some of the invasive species with native plants, and then he built all the platforms on erected poles with guy wires solidly anchored in the ground. Part of the fun is climbing up the various ramps and catwalks.

The first line is relatively short so you can get a feel of zipping through the trees, as well as the clipping in, launch, landing, and unclipping. Here the first guide gets ready to go across and help with landings:

Since you’re completely buckled in to the harness, you can hang in any direction. On the second line, the guide shows off his upside-down bravado:

The second line is already an impressive length through the canopy above a small ravine. As invasive as it is, the tall vertical trunks of the Albezia are really photogenic:

This line is already long enough to pick up some good speed, and in the photo above, you can see the guide holding a line tied to a traveler on the cable that will catch and slow down the rider. Ziplines are based on physics: adults are heavier relative to their size and build up more momentum to overcome wind resistance.

Sonja was a bit worried about the landing, either coming in too fast or too slow, but she quickly got the hang of it. Here she’s steering her body straight to reduce wind resistance and keep her speed up.

Then the guide slows her down with the braking line, and she lands perfectly to stand up and unclip the pulley from the line.

The third line starts from a tall structure and skims a few trees before crossing another small ravine. The road on the right is the same that we drove up, but closer to the mountain. In fact just after the curve in the photo, the road goes through a tunnel to the Lihu’e side of the mountain. Grove Farm had sugar fields on both sides and needed a shortcut to get the cut cane to the Koloa mill.

After a short but steep hike uphill, we get to the start of the 4th line, the longest so far and the 2nd longest of the course. It stretches an impressive 1700 feet (520m) to the next ridge. The guides hand out water bottles and we take a break after the short climb.

Koloa Zipline allows children as young as seven, but they aren’t heavy enough to go by themselves. So Leilani was attached to the line in front of me, each on our own pully, and then we were clipped together. Here’s the procedure:

As with rock climbing, the guide make sure everyone on the exposed platform, including himself, is clipped in to a safety line.

The safety line holds Leilani while the guide puts my pulley on the line behind hers. By this point in the tour, she was excited at every start and really wished she could go by herself.

And here we are all clipped in safely and attached together, ready to step off the platform.

Oh yeah, this is fun! You launch and then you pick up speed and you’re flying over the land:

Later on, Leilani asked me to flip her upside down, and she loved that too. I managed to flip over myself, but that’s one thing that was inconvenient when doing the tandem zip. By now, Sonja was comfortable in the harness and could trust the equipment to do the backward falling launch on the 5th line:

After the long 4th line, the platforms are more out of the forest and give you some great aerial views. Toward the Ha’upu ridge:

And toward Waita reservoir, the largest man-made lake in Hawaii. Beyond, you could see the deep blue of the ocean stretching to the horizon. We take a snack break up here on the ridge with all the great views:

Then we continue on line number 7:

For every zip, there is one guide at the launch, and one at the landing. But if you’re thinking about these things, how does the first guide to cross slow down, since there is no-one there to catch him? The answer is: the old tennis shoe trick, just like on a bicycle without brakes.

And finally, we get to the BIG ONE. The guides have been dropping hints about the grand finale, and now we can see it–sort of. It’s the longest zipline in Hawaii at 2600 feet (790m), that’s half of a mile. The cable crosses the marshy end of the lake and ends at a 100-foot ramp you can barely see in this picture:

Needless to say, we’re loving it:

I love this picture of us, so I’ll post it again. It looks like we’re just taking off over the trees and lake, as if we’re old pros:

And if you squint, you can see us, the white dot, as we reach the landing platform:

According to my camera, this zip is a whopping 48 seconds long. Doing some quick math, that means we average 54 feet per second (16.5m/s), or 37 MPH (59 km/h). That’s why the landing ramp is so long, so you have space to slow down if you come in fast.

Here’s the view of the landing area, and you can almost see the red starting platform way up the hill.

This view was taken from a different angle and shows the length of the line across the swamp. Again, the launch platform is barely visible in the upper-right corner.

While we were waiting for the others to arrive, I wandered down by the lake where there are nice views that you don’t see every day with Ha’upu summit and reservoir in front of it.

Then we were taken by regular van back to the baseyard to return the gear and chat with the guides. Thanks to their help to make everyone feel safe and comfortable, nobody got scared, and everyone was pumped up from a whole morning of adrenaline. They really love their jobs, and in the end, I really envy them.

Even before we got back in the car, Leilani started asking: “when can we go zip lining again?” And she hasn’t stopped for the past 2 weeks. No hesitation, no apprehension, she just loved it, and so did we. Let’s see–whose birthday is next, hers or mine?

S: “Stop that!!!! They call it echolalia if people mindlessly repeat what other people say, it is annoying and …”
L: “Hahahah… They call it echolalia if people mindlessly repeat what other people say…”

I’m in San Francisco again for work. The office is right next to one of the hills with a great view of the city. I suppose I can’t complain about being in SF, but I was working all week and didn’t didn’t get out sightseeing until the weekend.

In fact, I didn’t really go sightseeing, just walking around local neighborhoods, sometimes with a desination in mind, sometimes not, but never in a direct path. I like to discover the many little interesting nooks and crannies of the city.

First of all, I’ve noticed a proliferation of public gardens in the city. These are usually vacant lots that get transformed with plantings, either edible or ornamental, but usually both. There is often a bench and some garden decorations as well.

I did get to walk past the ever-impressive City Hall on my morning walk from my hotel to the bus and back in the evening. I would even take different routes to see it from different angles, and take lots of photographs. I can safely say this is the most impressive angle. The neighboring buildings, small formal plaza, and wrought iron gate make it chateauesque:

You’ll notice those impressive ornamental lights in the previous picture, and I continue to be fascinated by these. San Francisco holds its own:

On what I think is the Opera building across from city hall.

On a courthourse on Mission Street.

Not far from my hotel in Hayes Valley, the oddly revitalized Octavia Boulevard has a nice park with a great playground (not pictured) and a cool art structure. I’m not sure if it was lit in green as part of the vegetation theme or as a decoration for the imminent St. Patrick’s day:

I say oddly revitalized, because while the central freeway was torn down, the vacant lots remain and are sparsely filled with unusual venues. Here an authentic-looking Biergarten, very popular on a Friday night, there a stack of shipping containers disfunctionally converted into a what is probably a design studio:

You might be tempted to guess that the large mural lettering in the photo above says HIPSTER, but it actually says BRIGHTER FASTER. Right around the corner are some old-school graffiti murals:

The destination was the Embarcadero, the conveyance was one of the old cable cars on Market Street, the wait was cold and windy (and the prose inspired by David Foster Wallace and 2 free Mai-tais at 10am local time on the Alaska flight home):

It says it was originally in service in Cincinnati. My father, Jim, grew up there and maybe rode this very same car before:

The goal was to see the new lights installed on the Bay Bridge and find the best place to view/photograph them. The answer is anywhere between Cupid’s Span and the back of the ferry building, with a secret spot on a staircase next to Sinbad’s. Though if you want a view of the ferry building itself, the next pier to the north, Pier 1, is best:

The lights on the bridge create abstract shapes and lines that move and pulse across the 4 towers of the bridge. Some look like shooting stars, others like fish swimming around, and often it looks like clouds or fog blowing by. It’s hard to see the effect with my little camera’s long exposure, but some of my pictures turned out nice:



For more picutes, do a Google image search.

On Saturday, the day before St. Patrick’s day, I headed downtown to watch the St. Patrick’s day parade and scope out some camera stores. On the way there, I found yet another garden, within spitting distance of the big dome:

The art was, obligingly, recycled and whimsical:

Just like the children’s mosaics in the Powell Street BART station (I am assuming this is children’s art):

On my way to the parade, I detoured along some back alleys, not a half-block from San Francisco’s Champs-Elyséeian Market Street.

At one intersction, I happened to look up and see daylight all the way through the Grant tunnel. You can see the bus coming about 10 blocks away, right through the hill.

Off of 2nd Street, I peered into the huge construction site for the future Transbay Transit Center. Someday, hopefully, high speed trains will traverse this underground space.

Then I found myself a spot on Market Street to watch the Irish-American St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It wasn’t a big showy parade with real floats or even much music. I suppose a lot of Irish immigrants ended up as laborers and tradesmen in San Francisco, so the local unions were well represented, especially the firemen. So it was a parade for and by people mostly, with lots of good cheer from marchers and spectators. There were a few decorated trucks, mostly those ubiquitous motorized-cable-cars, and one U2 tribute band. And what parade would be complete without flags, lots of flags:

There are clearly lots of Irish-Americans in San Francisco, and even more Irish-revellers-for-a-day, but a distinct lack of genuine Irish imagery. In addition to all the plastic green decorations, there were only 2 costumed St Patricks, and a fife and drum corps. I could be wrong about it, but bag pipes and kilts like these are Scottish. I do think the name of the shop behind, Piper’s Jewelery, is quite apropos:

There were a few Irish dance ensembles, but I only saw one of them performing Irish dances. But these kids were having a lot of fun doing a gym-like performance:

The Sinn Féin marchers were the only overtly political part of the parade. It reminds me of the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese factions at the Chinese New Year’s parades. Though I doubt any Northern Irish groups were invited or allowed in this one:

A few other acts deserve an honorable mention:

The big truck with green decorations that reminded me of a Hawaiian truck in a grass skirt.

The Thomas-like version of the BART train. I didn’t recogize the Thomas-like face at first because it’s been so long since Leilani has been interested in those books.

The Irish wolfhounds were a big hit with the crowd.

This was a spectator, but he could’ve marched in the parade if he wanted to, he would’ve fit right in.

And finally, way at the end of the parade, 2 horse ensembles. The only thing Irish about them were the green decorations, but everybody loves horses:

After the parade, the street cleaning crews went to work, but the roads remained closed even after that. So I walked up the center strip of a mostly deserted Market Street. Here’s looking back at the Ferry Building:

The party contined at the Civic Center plaza, with musical acts, Gaelic activities, and Irish ales, I imagine. I went to the public library nearby and got a good view of the festivities–and the ubiquitous dome.

On Sunday afternoon, I climbed the hill to St Mary’s Cathedral for their weekly organ concert. Sitting at the peak of “Cathedral Hill,” this landmark is visible from many areas of the city. I still think it the architect botched it. The outside is nice enough, though not particularly pretty:

But the inside is oppressive. It has some nice religious art, but the huge cement beams holding up the roof are angular, exposed, and resting on relatively tiny pedestals (one of which is cracked). Must lead people to pray there is no earthquake during mass. It’s like everybody has given up trying to build a prettier church than the Ste. Chapelle in Paris.

Fortunately, I’m just there for the music, and the organ is the best part of the church. It looks neat and sounds even better:

Near the church, an elementary school was getting into gardening, they even had a chicken coop:

And finally, some fancy, elegant, and simple Victorian homes in the Hayes Valley neighborhood.

I really liked this row of houses:

The exercise was to add the hands to the clock to show the course of the girls day. Kind of gives us away…



Ipad Art
Princess Leilani

Princess Sonja

Our Family

Leilani wrapped a gift, and decorated the parcel