Not as Scary as it Looks

It was his idea to go zip lining.  I didn't really know what it was.  When he first mentioned it I was thinking it was something like bungee jumping and I said no way.  I've been sky diving before but I honestly don't know if I can ever do anything like that ever again.   It was that scary. 

We made reservations with Sky-Line Eco Adventures, Maui.  It got good reviews on Trip Advisor and it was only a few miles from our hotel.  The office is located in a strip mall.  We had to sign the pre-requisite form that I didn't actually read but I'm assuming said something like if you die or become seriously injured it's not our fault and you can't sue us.  We were all given cool water bottles which I thought was a nice touch. 

We were handed helmets as we piled into a van and took an extremely bumpy ride to the zip-line site.  So bumpy I was launched into the air a few times and bounced my head off the top of the van.  That only happened once.  Now I know why they gave us helmets for the drive. There were 2 cool guides and they were both cracking jokes the whole time.  After we got out of the van we were lead over to a covered area where we were given our gear.  We had to put on these heavy duty vinyl straps and told to clip our water bottle to it.  We each got this pretty heavy silver thing that turned out to be the piece of metal that holds us to the zip- line.  They set out  a giant rubber-maid bin for us to place our belongings in and it was locked with a padlock for safe keeping.  They also provided fanny packs if you had items you wanted to carry while zip-lining.  Our DLSR camera went around our neck and it wasn't a problem while zip-lining. 

We walked to the first of 8 lines.  I was really nervous.  I had the same kind of out of body experience that I had when I went sky diving where I knew I was there and that I was doing it but didn't really believe it and was kind of wishing I could back out.  By that time there are no refunds. I wasn't wasting my money so there was no turning back.  The guide explained where to put our hands and told us step by step what to do.  One by one each person zipped across.  Mj went before me.  He wasn't scared at all.  I went dead last getting more and more nervous as it got closer to my turn.  When it was my turn oddly enough I still didn't really believe I was about to jump off even as he grabbed the silver thing from me and started to hook me up.  Basically, you walk down a set of stairs to nowhere and when your feet leave the ground you are zip-lining through the air.  That's it.

Half way through we stopped for a snack that they provided and there was a bathroom stop.  They gave us a chance to take pictures and took pictures for us.  There was some hiking in between each jump site but nothing too crazy.  The whole thing took about 4 hours.  I read way too many reviews.    So many people complained about the red dirt and how it stained so I was all worried about ruining my clothes but it really wasn't that bad at all.   I brought my old set of tennis shoes that I didn't care about and they turned red but not as bad as people made it seem. Unless you fell down and rolled around in the dirt none of it gets on your clothes.  I like all this adventure stuff but I'm kind of a girly girl.  I think I was more worried about my clothes then flying through the air on a metal wire.

As we went along the lines got longer and longer and I wasn't afraid anymore.  If you start to twist then you turn your wrist into the direction that you are twisting to straighten up.  My first landing was a little rough but after that I learned to keep my feet in front of my body and got better.   It was so much fun!  I just had to trust those guys that they knew what they were doing when they hooked me up and it was fine.  There was always one person to send you off and another person at the other end to slow you down and catch you.  They were very reassuring.  The views were spectacular.  I really tried to look around and take in everything in on each zip.  They told everyone that we had to jump off backwards at the second to last zip.  We didn't really HAVE to but everyone did.  Our guide said we really lucked out on the weather too.  It was clear but with just enough cloud cover so that the sun wasn't blazing down on us the whole time.

After that we shared a meal at a place in the same strip mall.  We stopped at our favorite grocery store again to get something light to eat for dinner.  I realized that we had been there every single day sometimes twice in a day since our arrival.  There was still time for the pool and it was happy hour so we changed, ordered drinks and spent a few hours there.  That night we tried to watch a movie but fell asleep on it.

We really needed our sleep that night because the next day we were going to Hana.  And the road to Hana starts ridiculoulsy early.

The Road to Hana