Every Lookout Is Climbable, Even If It Seems It Is Not

by Tetyana Simchuk (Ukraine)

A leap into the unknown USA

What do you think when you hear about Hawai‘i? The place where someone invented surfing…? The tastiest poke (Hawai‘ian diced raw fish)…? The only American state that grows tasty coffee…? A place that has 10 of the world’s 14 climate zones.…? Or one of the most beautiful sunsets on this planet…? Well, all of those are surely true: the poke (it sounds like poʊˈkeɪ, just in case you do not know) is fantastic, the coffee is surprisingly great, and this is surely the happiest American state with all those different climate zones, I believe. However, this is not it. Hawai‘ian monarchy that was recognised by other monarchies of the world was illegally overthrown by the United States (and some locals believe that one day they will get their independence back). Everyone in Hawaii is a minority (no matter if you are Hawai'ian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, African American, or Ukrainian, like me). The Hawai'ian state fish is the Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa (aka reef triggerfish, no matter what it means). In 2018, I had a fantastic opportunity to get to know these facts during my month-long fellowship on O‘ahu. Oh, I wish I had more time there! Then I could have even more adventures. ;) In this story, I would like to tell you about one unexpected trail, or a non-existent one, to be more precise. My friend Maria and I decided to go to the Makapu‘u Lighthouse during the weekend. So, here we were on the bus and Maria told me that she had met a local (but originally Russian!) lady who wanted to go with us and show us the best way. I'm an open-minded person, so surely I didn't mind. We met the lady, who was between 70 and 80 years old, I guess. From the first moment, I had the feeling that she is a few bricks shy of a load, or, in order to be polite, I can say that she was definitely extremely eccentric. When we reached the place, we noted that all people were going along the road (as we have got to know later they followed Makapu‘u Point Lighthouse Trail), whereas, as Robert Frost whispered to us, I suppose, we "took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." In reality, the lady told us we should turn left and climb up, she said she went there many times before. And you know what? We believed her :). As you can guess, there was no trail, I mean it: NO TRAIL, NONE! Just see the mountain – climb the mountain principle. And we climbed… On the way, the thing I was mostly afraid of was that this lady will have a heart stroke or something like that. Several times on the way, while noting that there is no trail, she said: "probably, the rocks fell off since the last time she had been here". We didn't know to laugh or to cry, being half-way on the top… And then… Then we made it! I recall myself standing at the Makapuʻu Lookout (or whatever this peak was) and shouting "I'm the Queen of the World!!!", hugging the enormous wind and absorbing this unbelievable beauty of the island… The water was shining with all possible hues of blue and emerald, the mountains seemed striped by shadows of giants, and the snow-white lighthouse was almost smiling at us from the other side… Implausible feelings, memories that every time feel my heart with joy… Going down on the other side seemed a piece of cake on these fantastic emotions. We saw two groups that tried to follow our 'trail' and… came back :). And, despite the stress I am so enormously grateful to this insane lady for this once-in-the-lifetime experience. So fun, so scary, so crazy good! If you read until the end, thank you very much, I truly wanted to share this story, if you just skipped to the last paragraph – I do not blame you, we all lack a bit of time nowadays. Just remember to follow your dream no matter what ;) and enjoy the Aloha spirit to the fullest!