Ben Oostdam's |
 page 38 |
 MAUI, April, 1962 |
We visited the island of Maui for one week in April and tested our logistics.
To save on excess luggage charges, Herb and I wore our weightbelts underneath our Hawaiian shirts. Dr. and Mrs Shepard
gracefully stopped fieldwork around 17:00 every day and treated us to a Mai Tai before dinner. At 20:00 sharp we started our data-processing, summarizing data for each profile onto a 3 x 5 card, drying samples and preparing for the next day, with 7:00 a.m. breakfast.
On this first "outer islands" tour, there were just the four of us; Elizabeth acted as Fran's secretary, while I drove our rental car. Herb was the rod-man. wielding the rod with extensions to over 12 ft length to enable surveys to extend to waterdepths over 6 ft and he also took the sand samples; Fran and I alternated working from the Bench Mark at the one end of the baseline or shooting sextant angles from the other end.
 - but did I really see this pretty girl at one waterfall? |
My recollections of this first visit to Maui (no-ka-oi = than which nothing is better) may have been overwhelmed by those of the second, 1963. I distinctly remember the delight the Shepards took in the winding road to Hana with dozens of waterfalls - |
 - and I do not think we went further south than Makena, so probably did not see La Perouse Bay this time. Of course, we did admire Haleakala! |
Other fine memories are of the Iao Needle and the old whaling town of Lahaina, but those of sugar cane burning and making out as kamaainas with malahini wahines are rather hazy. A fresh 2002 update of the beaches of Maui surfed on the WWW is given here, together with links and acknowledgments.
