The Ultimate Ultimate SpaTreatment

Your Spa wish is my service.

My sophisticated spa connoisseur created her custom heavenly foot to head pampering, by enhancing our already "Ultimate Foot Treatment" with foot masque and scalp treatment.

She began with a warm salt foot soak infused with ginger and turmeric, as she reclined for a relaxing neck and shoulder massage. Followed by a stimulating foot scrub with volcanic ash, passion fruit and orchid extract, then a pumice stone buff to soften the rough areas of her feet. Traditionally, this treatment would culminate with a 25 minute foot reflexology treatment.

This guest requested an additional clay foot masque of Hawaiian sugar cane, jasmine and gardenia essence, and an upgrade of a stimulating bee propolis scalp treatment and hair nourishment. As her masqued feet and conditioned scalp warmed with steam towels, I massaged her hands and forearms.

After, the guest floated on rejuvenated feet as far as the waterfall room for warm tea. Eventually she was able to float out of the spa, with the relaxation effects to last throughout the evening.

What a blast I have working in a world-class spa at a five-star, five-diamond resort! I provide traditional and eccentric spa treatments using nourishing and exotic products. Any given shift I perform a variety of treatments.

My favorite spa treatments to offer are many. The Ayurvedic Massage is a drizzle of warm herbal oil on the body, sprinkle with powdered herbs of sandalwood and calamus. The Ceremonial Lomi is a transformational journey via an embracing 4 or more hand lomi massage. Cocoon treatments are in a warm flotation bed with gentle rocking, stretching and massage. Our scrubs and wraps are showered off with a 7 head vischy shower, simulating laying under a waterfall. Massage is not always with my hands. I may massage with a Thai Herbal Poultice, cocoa butter, hot stones or hot shells. Traditional Hawaiian Lomi Lomi I use my forearms, Backwalk I walk on the body and apply Shiatsu with my feet, and Thai Massage I stretch the body using my knees and feet.

Our venue may be in the relaxing award winning spa with soothing sounds of water, or Oceanside in our authentic open-air thatch roof huts nestled in the fragrances of the tropical foliage while listening to the lulling sounds of the waves below. We even offer an ocean treatment, bundle the guest in a wetsuit as we use the gentle motion of the ocean to release and undulate the floating body.

Doesn't that make you want to schedule an appointment? I am making that phone call now! Actually, my call is to confirm my shift and appointments for the day! What fun will my schedule hold for me today?

Eye To Giant Eye

My kayak and I were bobbing about in the channel between Kaho'olawe, Molokini and Maui. Since there appeared to be no whales nearby, I was frolicking in the water, diving down to listen to the whale song, joyfully watching the sun rays dance in the azure depths. Very close, I heard the blow of a whale, looked over in that direction and found myself eye to giant eye with a 1 ton baby whale, inquisitive to see this creature who was flailing on the surface. Mom was just beyond, allowing baby to get a close look to satisfy it's curiosity. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared, with one flick of their fluke they blended into the deep.

Out of respect for the whales, and legally, one cannot approach a whale within 100 yards. Yet, if the whale comes toward you within those 100 yards, you need to stop forward momentum and remain in place. Remain in place I did, I was frozen, unable to move and unable to breath!

Wow! What a feeling to be up close and personal with such a magnificent creature! Funny, but the baby appeared massive and small simultaneously. I somehow thought seeing a whale underwater I would feel dwarfed. I did not, yet it's presence was bigger than big!

From December to April, the Humpback whales are in our Hawaiian waters to mate and to give birth. The babies are born in our warm water with a low birth weight, so are fattened through the winter months with rich yogurt like milk from mom. After they grow and gain some fat, they can survive the journey back to the cold Alaskan waters where they feed all summer on krill.

The gestation period of a female is 12 months. Those who mate this year will return next year to give birth to a bouncy 1 ton, 10-20 foot baby humpback.

Dancing Bubbles

After a week of cold, northerly winds preventing all kayak and boat adventures, the Maui Pink Cap Swimmers were happy to have a few windless hours for our Sunday morning swim. The temperature of the water had dropped in the past week, so the swimmers took off on a sprint to warm up, with no slowing or stopping lest the cold would creep under the skin. Thus, I had my wetsuit on, so I was able to spend time with a Spotted Eagle Ray, Green Turtle and dancing bubbles.

A few of us headed into the deep, deep blue waters. It was lovely to be immersed in the azure water which was vibrating from the loud whale songs.

Dog Paddle

Hi, I am Ginger Hokule'a, but, please call me Gigi! I had lots of fun at the beach today with mom, dad and Auntie Lynne. I was having a great time swimming, but dad needed some help, so I hung out with him for a while to make sure he was OK.

On the beach, I made dad do those silly human tricks where he holds his arms like a ring, he's really getting good with that one! Then I love his trick when he lays on his back on the grass. I just have to jump on him and kiss him when he does that!

This is a huge day for me. I played the lead role in "Gigi" the movie, plus sang the title track "Huatoa", you can see the clip below. Just click the arrow on the movie.

Today the magazine finally came out, hot off the press! My modeling career is taking off! I am on the cover, in the middle, of Hawaii Pet Magazine spring edition, with an article on me and my friends on page 9. Click highlighted HPM to see my issue, and read my story.

Ants In My Pants

I tackled the 2 foot tall weed patch in front of my house that was thriving from the winter rains. As I was making great progress on the weed botanical garden, I was scooting along as I cleared new patches of gravel. I ended up sitting on fire ants I had disturbed. And disturbed they were, expressing their rage by biting me. They are called fire ants for a reason, their bite packs a heated punch! It was the worst case of ants in my pants I have ever had.

I jumped up to do a bit of a jig in my driveway to clear the buggars from my shorts. Good thing it was a weekday, not many neighbors were in the 'hood.

I uncovered an archaeological find. Stonehenge of Maui.

Home Sweet Fragrant Home

The sweet fragrance of Night Blooming Jasmine welcomed me when I arrived home from work tonight.

This "Queen of the Night" plant is strategically planted at my entrance, to greet me as I come and go, to waft the sweet fragrances into my home, or to lure me outside at night. The blossoms open and scent the tropical air only at night. During the day, the blossoms close and are fragrance free.

In the "olden days" these plants were planted near outhouses to mask the odor! It does send it's scent out far and wide! At times, I can smell the plant from the bottom of my driveway. Or, when the plant in the back corner of my yard is blooming, unbeknownst to me, I learn its secret quickly by following the scent to the recesses of my yard.

Spinner Dolphins!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I got to play, dance and sing with a pod of over 30 Spinner Dolphins today!

Dolphins hunt at night, and by day come into the shelter of sandy bottom, clear water bays to play, socialize and sleep. The well fed dolphins today started a bit playful and interactive, with eye contact and teases to dance with me, belly tickling each other and the leaf game. Throughout my time with them, I noticed the pod begin to tighten and swim closer together, their breath became synchronized, with 2-4 breaths at the surface as a group, then group dive to swim deep and close in a hypnotic pattern. While a dolphin sleeps, 1/2 the brain will shut down for the rest, and 1/2 the brain will continue voluntary breath and predator watch.

The Dolphin Fun video show the rambunctious rascal teasing me into a dance, by circling around me, enticing me to follow. Notice when they are deep, the playful one is upside down under the other, tickling his friend's chin. Now comes the leaf game. They begin to circle around the leaf, and he picks it up with his right fin, the next group come in, with a leaf on the left fin. They love the leaf game, picking it up with, or transferring it to and from forehead, pec fin, tail, drop it and circle to pick it up again. Good fun!

They love to make me do silly human tricks. To pick up the leaf after they drop it, then I dive it down for them to pick up. This gets a giggle out of the dolphins!

Going Going Gone

Be on the lookout for this suspicious gang of pink cap, pink suit clad people, last seen in this "group" photo prior to heading out to sea. Beware, when cold, the suspects can out swim even persistent followers. This winter phenomena, when the water is ccccold, as today, people tend to swim fast, not stop and chat, or play with unusual sea creatures. Silly me, early in the swim I got distracted by a camera shy Zebra Moray Eel, and a stealth octopus, so I lost the gang.

This endangered Hawksbill Turtle did unite about 5 of our swim gang. We are joyed to identify the rare turtle by the unique beak shaped nose, and scalloped rear shell. The red algae on his shell is also indicative of Hawksbills.

Maui plays an active role to aid propagation of the endangered Hawksbill Turtle. During summer nesting season, a "Dawn Patrol" group would walk each known nesting beach, 7 days a week. My charge of sand was Oneloa Beach. On Thursday mornings I would walk the length of the beach in search of evidence of female crawl tracks up the sand to a possible nest of eggs. When nests are located, after a 2 month incubation, people would camp for many nights to ensure all the late night hatchlings evacuate the nest and make it to the ocean safely.

This past summer, Maui had 6 known Hawksbill nests. Over 800 hatchlings safely made it to the ocean, headed out to deep waters. One of 1000 hatchlings will come back to Maui as a juvenile in 7-10 years. At sexual maturity about age 25 years, the female will make her nest on the same beach she was born on.

Bruce, our friendly White Tip Reef Shark was home in his cave today. Lovingly named after Finding Nemo Bruce, the 12-step shark who pledged off of eating fish, we can be assured he has not eaten any of our recent Hawksbill Turtle hatchlings.

Dream House

Stepping over the stones of the Koi pond, I entered my dream house, into the octagon living space, centered by a cylindrical floor to ceiling fish tank, then open to the dramatic view of the black lava shore contrasted by the vivid turquoise ocean, with islands beyond. I came in, not carrying a bag a groceries as if I lived there (in my dreams), but carrying my massage table (in my reality).

Pure Maui, a luxury vacations provider has contracted me to massage their guests staying in this exquisite private home, catered to with private chef, adventure guides, yoga instructor and myself, offering massage.

It was a pleasure to be in this home, it hardly felt like work. I set up on the balcony overlooking my favorite reefs of Ahii Bay, rich with turtles and varieties of fish. Strong 50mph wind gusts were kicking up the waters in the channel, creating drama, whales breaching, adding entertainment and a sweet client made the moments appreciated.

After work, more like pleasure, I took a walk in the gusty winds down to "Dumps", a local surf break. I love to watch waves when the spindrift, the spray of the cresting waves, is kicking off the backside of the waves. What entertainment the ocean can be!

Full Moon Outrigger Paddle

We launched from Wailea Beach and paddled our 6 man outrigger canoe straight into the line of moonlight on the dark water. A loud thwack! in the distance indicated a whale breach as the whale played in the moonlight. We turned to parallel the shore as a whale escort who was unseen, yet the breath heard, followed the same route. The soft light of dawn began to illuminate our world.

A small pod of spinner dolphins broke the surface of the lightening ocean. Interesting to hear the difference of breath between the two cetaceans. The whale has a loud, quick, forceful and strong breath, the spinner dolphin a gentle, relaxed breath.

We paused to take in the sunrise behind Haleakala Crater, The House of the Sun.

Footprint Stepping Stones

Following a group of quick paced, jovial Humpback Whales I felt as if I was jumping from stepping stone to stepping stone as my kayak glided over each footprint they had left behind.

A footprint is the smooth water imprint a whale leaves on the surface of the ocean after he goes under water.

I began my morning kayak following one small pod as they did a mellow meander moving out toward Molokini Island. I observed another pod, toward Molokini Island, moving in toward us. As the 2 pods came together, they got lively, rambunctious and performed many antics. Human (my) interpretation: they became playful when the 2 groups merged. They had lots of surface blows, some spy hops and tail dives as they moved quickly down the coast. They were moving so quickly, I was at near full kayak pace and they continued to stay one footprint ahead of me. Thanks for the workout!

They played and frolicked for some time, and some distance. It was such an enjoyable whale show. I was holding my breath, not to miss a single sound of their loud breaths.

Then, slightly apart from the group came a breach. I heard the whale come up out of the water, caught the view of full body out of the water, white belly facing me, then heard and felt the reverberation of the loud landing in my belly. Those 2 whales came right by me, semi-circled me, then headed out to sea, away from their friends they had left behind.

Human (my)interpretation for the breach: This was the farewell salute to the pod as the 2 decided to go on their separate way, on their original journey off toward Molokini.

Nature's Fireworks

Delightful entertainment is waves of the turquoise ocean exploding on the black lava coast, throwing showers of white water up as fountains, geysers, veils, and waterfalls, to peak high in the blue sky, then descend and fade again into the black lava and blue ocean. This is a continuous thrilling show, causing me to gasp! oohh! and ahh! as much as any pyrotechnic man made fireworks display. It is even more enchanting since nature is the mastermind.

Spinner Dolphins eluded me today for a swim together. That's OK, they were on their own wild cetacean agenda. I hope to catch them for a swim next time.

Treaure Chest

We thought we found hidden treasure from a Spanish galleon when Doug dove to uncover something shiny in the sand and come up with a silver spoon! The Pink Caps Sunday swim continued to reveal more and more treasures along the route.

Turtles, as usual, gracefully escorted us. Better still was a baby octopus, who gave a great show, strutting his changing colors and textures as he swam over sand, then onto a coral, camouflaging along the way. This photo shows the octopus "hiding" on left of coral!

Yet even better was a nudibranch, Latin for "naked lungs", often with their lungs on the exterior of the body. This guy must have his lungs retracted. What a curious creature!

Better, better yet and best of all was a Frog Fish, first seen while he was swimming awkwardly over open sand, then he nestled in coral and stayed for us to observe and be amazed at such a wondrous creature! He is hanging onto the coral with his pec fin, and grasps each coral knob to move about. His fishing pole was stashed away, but this species has a lure he hangs over his enormous mouth to lure prey of any size.

Dolphins Turtles and Polar Bears. Oh My!!

I dream of Queensland! The Sunshine State! And the Great Barrier Reef!

I entered a video application for "The Best Job In The World" as Island Caretaker of Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia.

My assignment, which I playfully accepted, was to submit an 1 minute video stating why I am the best person for the job, in an entertaining and engaging way, and to show knowledge of the Barrier Reef Islands.

Much, many and more heartfelt thanks to all my furry and warm blooded friends (not in that order) who participated in this video!

Check out latest about the job at www.islandreefjob.com

Baby Whale's First Breaths

There was lots of surface activity with the whale pod I observed from my kayak. A few mature whales and one baby were up, down, breath, mellow roll, breath, tail, baby spy hop, breath, mellow back, baby spy hop...

Human Interpretation: I believe I was witnessing a whale birth and the first breaths of a 2 1/2 ton baby Humpback whale. There were about 3 mature whales, I would call them midwives, and a mom and a small baby. It appeared the little spy hops of baby could have been the first breaths as assisted by a nudge from mom below it.

Warning! Do not open video if you are prone to motion sickness! This video is low quality, far distance (legal 100 yards), but due to subject matter, I had to publish it. Sorry, I completely got camera off mark while I was exclaiming to friend next to me. Yet, it is all interesting video, if you can get past the rolling waves and rolling camera person (me). Next time I will pay more attention.

Fallen For "The Fall"

The Fall had me enthralled well before a favorite, M. C. Escher 's artwork came to life with black soldiers marching up white geometric patterned steps. The DVD, The Fall has absolutely stunning cinematography, scenery and settings. Spectacular nature scenes are artistically interwoven through the film. I particularly enjoyed seeing many international locations I've visited and events I've experienced portrayed so exquisitely. The Balinese Kecak Monkey Dance entranced me once more, I retraced my footsteps wandering palaces, the Blue City and Jantar Mantar, an astronomical observatory in Rajasthan, India, and I again dove the crystal waters and warmed on the silky white sands of Fiji.

Alexandria is endearing, an adorable little girl. Many characters are juxtaposed between the real life story and the fantasy story. Ingenious film! I give it a five star rating. Director Tarsem Singh, 2006. Let me know how you enjoyed it.

Humpback Karaoke

High wind gusts, up to 25-35mph, and small craft advisories keep my little kayak off the water yesterday and today. I'm content to listen to live internet broadcast of the whale song, click on www.whalesong.net. The hydrophone is set in my neighborhood waters off Cove Park in Kihei.

Whales have many sounds; social sounds, which cannot be heard by humans, a feeding siren, which I heard from the Alaska whales (I described it as a trumpet), and the whale song. Whales do not have vocal cords, the sound is made by pushing air within the respiratory tract or thorax.

The whale song is believed to be sung only by males, only in breeding waters and waters while in transit from their feeding grounds. Because males sing only during mating season, it is believed they sing to impress females, to rid other males, or as sonar for location of others.

The song is a string of different sounds in different pitches, humming, snoring, groaning, sighing and chirping. Themes of songs develop over the years. Males in the beginning of this breeding season are continuing the song from the end of last breeding season. The current top hit song will now develop and change through these coming months, to be picked up where they left off next season.

While singing, males are motionless, with their head down, usually at 45' to 130' depth. It is said the song can travel in unobstructed, noiseless waters for up to 100 miles. No wonder I can hear a whale song underwater, and not a single whale is in sight nearby! Wow, they can be singing to me from beyond the Islands of Lanai and Oahu!

In water, sound travels 5 times faster. Researchers working together in Hawaii, Mexico and Japan observed a change in the Hawaiian song, and within days, the Japanese and Mexican song changed the same, to match the Hawaiian change. Amazing!!!!

Whalesong.net brings the song to your home. To hear the song in the water, get away from the shore and the sound of the waves. Dive under water, keeping your head at 1' or more depth and clear your ears. Stay down and quiet your body and be amazed! I like to hang motionless with my lower legs "kneeling"on the surface, my head straight down, like a male singer.

When I take my 5 and 9 year old nephews and 6 ("Almost 7" she would say) year old niece into the water to hear the sound, they have trouble diving down and staying down. But they still come up all excited saying they heard the whales singing! They believe they hear the song as much as I believe in the healing energy of the vibration of the sound waves.

Manta Ray Day

The water was ultra clear today for our Pink Cap Sunday Swim.

Turtles came in all sizes, medium, large, and extra large. Even if I was trying, I would have lost count at more than 10 Green Sea Turtles

Whales were howling out their happy song, keeping us entertained and tapping our fins.

A manta ray came in for a bit of a dance. Turned out he was a distance manta. First spotting was toward the beginning of our swim, in the middle of the bay. Next swim by, he was out at our final turn around point. He wanted to stay with us, he knows where the fun is!