Oahu in December

Posted by Rae Schwarz Dec 19, 2006

I had the great fortune to be able to take a trip to Oahu, Hawaii this December, spending a week on the leeward side of the island. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it's the drier side of the island that has a somewhat desert range of climates. The windward side is very, very wet and tropical.

It is the wet season in December, and we did get rain every day for four or five days out of my week there. But it ranged from a one minute burst, to a good solid five minutes where we considered having to move some shelters and easy-ups that we had standing by for real rain, to the one huge rain that happened one night for four hours when everyone was asleep. We did get really strong winds, some up to 25 mph, and we had one communal tent/shelter that was the bane of the weekend. It had to be shored up three times to make it through the weekend, but that was the worst of it.

The only bug I really had to watch out for were centipedes, and I saw none of those. I was tenting, and with a ground tarp, and another for shade and extra rain protection, I was completely temperature-comfortable and dry in my single wall, exo-skeleton tent with a 50 degree sleeping bag.

I am, however, sleep-deprived from much dancing and drumming late in the evenings and even all-night. I think many naps over the next few days are in order.