Sir Edmund Hillary
1919-2008
A truly sad day in history today as one of the most well-known and respected New Zealanders in the world has passed away. Though he will best be remembered for being the first to conquer Everest, arguably his most important accomplishment of all has been helping the people of Nepal. While he will be missed, his legacy shall continue to live on through his family and the Himalayan Trust he established. May you rest in peace Sir Ed. Your life has been an inspiration to me and many others.
Hi there! I promised an update to fill you all in on my many activities last month so here goes. There are a fair few holes in the timeline but I've pretty much nicked all the photos off friends (thanks!) so what you see is what you get.
Just before the Holiday season began, I went out to Castle Rock for some outdoor rock climbing with Daniel, Julie & Richard. Here, Daniel & I have scaled this rock. As sunny as it looked, it was bloody cold!
The weekend after that, I headed home to HI to enjoy Christmas w/my family & friends. Good times. Here we are, Kurt, Myself & Ryan (Traci took the pic) riding on the Waikele Trolley after enjoying some yummy Jurison's Inn (and their popular Mochiko chicken) on Christmas Eve Day.
On Boxing Day (day after Xmas for those of you not in the know), we headed out to Waimea Bay to get some climbing done. Brian, Me & Grant (Neil & Jenna were in the front of the car). As you can see by the rain on the back windshield, it wasn't a very dry day.
Hanging upside down on an overhang route at Waimea Bay. That's Grant's hand on the bottom right. Shortly after taking this photo, he said something that made me laugh and I subsequently fell and knocked my foot against the rock. Ouch.
Here's Grant climbing the overhang problem that I was just hanging upside down on. In the background, Jenna is trying out another route between the rain showers.
After the climbing, we headed out to Kahuku to enjoy some Giovanni's Garlic Shrimp. Soooo good. Pictured: Neil, Brian, Me, Jenna.
Continuing the 'round the island eating tour, here I am a couple days later at Boot's & Kimo. Darren and I are shown here with the sign thanks to Cat's creative framing.
I went with the corned beef omelette (with fried rice) while Darren opted for the simple but tasty portuguese sausage eggs & rice. Ryan copied my order and Cat got an egg white omelette.
We all split their super delicious banana pancakes smothered in their famous Mac Nut sauce. Mmmmmm....
We were pretty full afterwards but Darren, Cat & I had just enough room for some Waiola Shave Ice!
And on my last day home, what did I choose to do? Why go to Waimea Bay and boulder of course! Here I am back on the rocks on a much prettier/sunnier day.
Though he's a newbie, Grant did really well.
We got to the top of this rocky part and took a picture with the beautiful blue sky. I'd just like to point out that I climbed this one w/o my shoes ;-)
And with that, I had to head back to the Bay Area. I opted to head back in time for New Year's Eve so that I could spend that time with friends up in the city (San Francisco). So, here we are: Travis, Kim, Dorothy & I seeing in the New Year at Kim's party.
And there we go! Not a whole ton of pics, but certainly enough for you all to get an idea of what I've been up to recently. I definitely was happy to have been able to make it home for the first time since the summer and, seeing as it will probably be my last trip for a while, I tried to see, eat & hang out with as much as I could. Thanks to everyone who made my holidays enjoyable. Family, friends & good times is what it's all about. Cheers to 2008!
Howdy Everyone! I'm back in the "Bay" after a nice side trip out to HI for Xmas. Pics to come, but I thought it'd be nice to start the year off with a quick little post to touch up on "important" (heh) things like New Year's Resolutions. First, let's recap my resolutions from last year and whether I felt I achieved those goals (feel free to evaluate me in the comments if you feel so inclined). Here goes!
1)More frequent blogging (+more pics)
Hmm...not so much. Looking at the # of posts for 2007 (23) vs. 2006 (41) or 2005 (50) reveals that I failed. There are a few positives though, as I did notch up 2 posts featuring 95+ pictures EACH! So, every cloud has a silver lining....
2)More trips: Hawaii or International (wishful thinking?)
Wish granted (emphatically). Seven trips home, one to Paris, one to HK and a long overdue journey to China. Plus, a few road trips around California tossed in for good measure. How can I reach these heights yet again now that my flying privileges are no more?!?!
3)Become a better rock climber (new hobby)
I think this one went well. Started climbing in plain old sneakers a year ago at USC to now going to a dedicated climbing gym every week. Stoney Point, Castle Rock & Waimea Bay have been visited and climbed! I've even gotten some friends to give it a go! What an awesome hobby! Definitely more to come!
4)See my friends/family more often (that means YOU)
This pretty much went hand-in-hand with #2. Numerous trips home meant I saw HI friends and my family quite a bit. Road trips in Cali meant I got to visit lots of friends in-state (including a trip out to Fresno). My bro's Punahou grad meant family & friends were in town in addition to my uncle, aunty & cousins dropping by the month before. I even went long distance to see friends in Paris & China! Not to mention moving up to the Bay Area and seeing some peeps I didn't get the chance to spend the last 5 years with on a regular basis!
5)Graduate & get a job I don't hate! (it's time)
Done and done. Masters Degree in hand AND a job at FoxHollow! I'm most relieved that I have accomplished this resolution. It was honestly the hardest of them all and no doubt the one I'm most proud of.
So, that's all well and good but how can 2007 be topped??? Here are five ways:
1) Blog More (for real...since I didn't do this last year)
2) Spend more time outdoors (camping, climbing, hiking...all on the to-do list)
3) Top rope (climbing higher...different than bouldering [like a marathon to a sprint], which is what I've mostly done to date)
4) Find out how I can spend a few years overseas (preferably through employment...just need to figure it out, don't need to do it just yet)
5) Learn to do something completely different (I'll figure out what when I do it)
I wish you all the best for 2008. I hope your New Year has started out well and will be filled with joy and prosperity. Let's hope that fewer cool people die (R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut, Don Ho, Luciano Pavarotti, Marcel Marceau, Benazir Bhutto, my pet goat...to name a few). Also, on a less serious note, let's hope NZ sport recovers from what can only be called a truly disappointing year (Valerie Vili's accomplishments aside). Take care all and I'll be back soon with a big picture post to fill you in on my December. Cheers!
Santa Monica circa May 2007
The family goat passed away yesterday down in NZ. It was an extremely sad time for the family as she's been with us for so long (since the early 90's). She lived a very full and long life (for a goat) and was very loved by us all. She was in real bad shape this past week or so and it was the right time for her to leave. We'll miss you.
Hello. Just a couple more weeks of work before the holidays (time off that is...it's already the "holidays" as evidenced by the caroling and cold weather). Can't wait to go home. Until then, I've got plenty to explore around the Bay Area. This past sunday, I journeyed over to the Skyline Ridge Open Preserve for a short hike and, possibly, a bit of rock climbing...
So, here we are at the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve (and there's the sign to prove it). Ticks, Poison Oak, Rattlesnakes and Mountain Lions are the dangers of the day (and the odd runaway mountain biker).
Julie (née Inouye) & Richard on top of a boulder at the beginning of our journey. They climbed up the easy side...
Here I am trying to climb up the other side. It was a junk boulder to be honest. Thing was made of sandstone and part of it crumbled away when I tried holding on. I got as far as a hold or two beyond what you see in the pic before I stopped wasting my time. I'll be better served next week when we (hopefully) make the trip out to Castle Rock for some REAL climbing.
Daniel spotted these in the bush and we were all wondering whether they were cranberries. Anyone know?
Myself, Daniel, Julie & Richard in front of Horseshoe Lake (more like a pond if you ask me). It was nice and warm in the sun but once the rays ceased shining upon you, it was cold as.
A view from above Horseshoe Lake. There really weren't any good places to be able to see the shape of the lake but it honestly looked like a horseshoe.
Apparently the Inouyes are a bit camera shy.
That wooden beam make a huge *CRACK* sound when it broke. Dan, I think you gotta cut out the burgers and lose some fat. Oh, and work on your catching skills cuz it's pretty appalling when you drop as many catches as your sister does.
Thankfully we all made it back to the cars and here is the "after" pic: Myself (+Hippolyta), Dan, Julie & Richard.
Thanks to those guys for coming out. Hopefully more of you can come along to Castle Rock next week for our (at least for me) last Bay Area outdoor adventure of 2007! Cheers.
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