Art La Flamme

The kids and I made one last Mini adventure today: Ka’ena Point Satellite Tracking Station.

Me, at the far point.

If you remember, about a month ago the kids and I went to ride bikes at Ka’ena Point State Park and had an awesome time. When we were doing that, I noticed some odd structures up on the ridge above the point itself — one of which looked like a giant golf ball.

Look for the golf ball.

Today, we went to that golf ball, and to pretty much all of the other stuff up there. A guy I know works up there, and offered to show us around.

The shimmering Pacific.

Nice drive. I think it’s probably less than 2000 feet climb, on a government maintained road (meaning, not so good). The drive was pleasant, but wow, from up there the view is stunning.

The drive up.

I uploaded some of what I took, here. I also made a Google Earth file, with embedded photos (here). The ocean was smooth and silky, and the clouds were breathtaking.

More of the ocean.

And the wild pigs? Cute.

The wife and kids and I went to MINI to the Max at Aloha Tower on Sunday morning, here in Honolulu. It was a mix of a Mini car show, toy drive, and sales event for the local Mini dealership. It was sponsored by the dealership, the local Mini club (Hawaii Mini Motoring Club), and a few others.

One thing I did get a chance to do there was talk about my Mini, and Minis in general. Not hard to do — I love my car, and I love the Mini. And I love my Mini adventures — I put a sheet of paper on the dash, encouraging folks to ask about driving the Alps, or the Ring, or across America, or the Dragon.

I spent some time chatting with a guy who was there with his family. Not a Mini owner, but he is considering one. The dealership invited him to come down – and he was very pleased that he did. At the show, there was just about one of everything — Coopers, Cooper S’s, supercharged, turbo charged, Clubmans, stripes, stock, street racers, etc.

He isn’t in a hurry to buy a car. But he did have a million questions. Gas mileage. Stock / OEM run-flat tires, vs. after market.

I encouraged him to:

Read. Rummage around the Mini website, and check out all of the things.

Ask questions of owners. Find some Mini websites (like NAM, or Coopernation, or a local Mini Club, like the Tar Heels or HMMC) and join in their forums; they’re always receptive to questions from prospective buyers, and the forums probably have questions to answers you haven’t even thought up yet. And go to Mini events in the area — Mini owners tend to be social, and tend to enjoy talking about their cars.

Consider used Minis. Motoringfile has great buyer’s guides, for 2002-2006 Mini Coopers (R50) and Mini Cooper S’s (R53). With 2007 came new engines (turbo, not supercharged) and slowly also some other changes. Nothing wrong with a good, used Mini.

Test drive EVERYTHING. If you’re going to buy new, try one of each. See what heated seats actually feel like, if you’re considering buying them. See how noisy a convertible is at highway speed. Put your foot into a 210-bhp John Cooper Works monster. Make the dealer earn their money, and leave no question unanswered. And if you’re considering used, find the local Mini club and ask folks to take you out for a drive, or to let you try theirs, too.

K and the kids and I headed off this AM for coffee with the Hawaii Mini Motoring Club. I’d been in touch with some of the gang online, so it was a chance to say hello and put faces to names, and to ask a ton of questions.

Today was, apparently, the smallest gathering in known history. We counted maybe 15 or 18 Minis. Last month, they did a drive across the island — 51 Minis.

While there, a few of the folks said, “Oh, you should go drive up to Tantalus. It’s really pretty.”

So we did.

K fired up the GPS while I drove, and plugged in Honolulu and then Round Top Road. That worked. The area was described as Tantalus, but they were specific — the road is actually Round Top Road. It goes up through a residential area, and then into Puu Ualakaa State Wayside Park (here).

And it is beautiful. The drive is on a mediocre road, but it gets up into thick foliage — very jungle-like, the kids told us. And the view from where we had lunch was wonderful.

That’s Diamond Head across the way, and then the city of Waikiki below.

I make a Google Earth file (here). The orange route is the one we took to get there. It leads across Oahu and up to the park and where we had lunch. The purple route is the rest of the drive — what we took to come back down off of the mountain.

Nice drive to get there. Great view. Great picnic areas. Good bathrooms, too. Easy to get to. We packed our lunch for the trip, but hey, I’d go there just to eat a sandwich from Subway. This is worth visiting, and worth taking visitors to.