Aloha

Aloha! What a word. A greeting, an attitude, a way of life for a whole culture that has had an outsized influence on the rest of humanity. Aloha is love, peace, and compassion all rolled up in 5 letters and thousands of years of history. I can’t think of anything the world needs more of right now than more Aloha. 

We had a tail wind on our journey to Hawaii this year, and made it in two flights and a total of 11 hours instead of the usual 13. I love to watch the Earth transform below me as I cross time zones and climates. - HP

As a tourist in Hawaii, you might get a sense of the Aloha spirit as a friendly islander places a lei around your neck at the airport, or from the talkative cab driver, but it takes a closer look and some more time here to get a deeper sense of it. My first glimpse of Aloha happened in a grocery store parking lot in Kona, here on the Big Island of Hawaii. An elderly man was having trouble getting from the store to his car with an armful of bags and a package of toilet paper under his arm. Two heavily tattooed young guys in a big pickup truck saw this and jumped out of their truck, one grabbing the bags, the other locking arms with the old guy’s. I heard one say “we’ve got you, Uncle” as they got him settled into his car, and off he went. I was pretty sure none of these people were related to each other. 

I’ve since learned that the elderly in Hawaii are Uncles and Aunties to the younger generations, and are treated as such. Age discrimination isn’t as pervasive here - you see people in their 70s and 80s working in all kinds of jobs and treated with kindness and respect. 

The Aloha spirit also shows in the way Hawaiians treat children. The first time I went surfing here, it became apparent that the kids are given a special place in the lineup, and are afforded more space to make mistakes and work on their skills. 

SwimVacation employs two local professional lifeguards on our Hawaii trip, Ryan and Kekau. Ryan has been with us for a decade, and Kekau joined us for the first time last year to help with a group of guests that swam at very different speeds from one another. We kept him around for this year’s trip. These two have become family to us and bring the Aloha every day.

After a day of acclimation and prep work in Kona, we pick up our second rental car and make the drive up to our Hale at Waialea Bay. This stretch of the Queen K Highway, with its stark lava beds softened by tufts of golden grasses and Mauna Kea rising in the distance is my favorite stretch of road on Earth. - HP

This morning I walked through the gate from our Hale (house) to the beach, and discovered that the path had been terribly eroded from some recent storms, making it  almost impassable. Ryan and Kekau weren't planning on joining us until much later in the day, but when we texted them about the path, they scrambled up here with rakes, shovels, buckets, and machetes, and made quick work of restoring it. 

My partner in SwimVacation, Heather, and I made the first round of guest pickups around noon at the airport and at a nearby resort (Ryan and Kekau would pick up the remaining 3 on a later flight in the afternoon). All 3 are new guests, Mary Anne, Bridget, and Kristen. We can tell right away that they are seasoned travelers by the size (or lack thereof) of their luggage. We got them settled into their rooms, and chef Clare served us a lovely chicken and noodle salad with liliquoi dressing. We gave them our welcome talk, settled them in and agreed to meet up around 3:30 for a swim. When that time arrived, no guests were in sight. We found them in the ocean already, caps and goggles on, ready to swim. This is a good sign.

Later we were joined by Luise, Charlie, and Debbie, SwimVacation alums and old friends. For dinner, Chefs Clare and Dan produced what they lovingly refer to as Fish in a Bag, but it is actually a much more sophisticated Mahi-Mahi with julienned vegetables steam-cooked in parchment pouches. There, that’s better. Green tea ice cream with local strawberries topped it off. 

Wind in the Kiawe trees lull us to sleep, and I dream of a world with more Aloha.

Hopper