Good advice, but I wish you could see where I am. I’m lucky to have an oven. Tropical island. No Amazon, no brick and mortar store that sells meat thermometers. 

Where are you located?

Have been living on Moorea for nearly 6 months, snorkeling and hiking prettymuch every single day. My only point is that for some people, you can enjoy hiking and snorkeling indefinitely. So perhaps there’s another type of vacation you would enjoy more than remote islands? Trying to be helpful, not rude. 

Do you want to message me? That might work out great.

Yes it was, as the bakery reserves some for each pension and Maupiti Residence. Maybe if you get there early enough there’s some extra, maybe not. I was honestly very surprised the first time I was standing next to a rack of 200 baguettes and told I couldn’t have one.

Also, stores are often closed. Bring some bottles to fill at filling stations.

Oh man. I spent an hour a day for a week making the rounds of the grocery stores. You are not gonna be ok if you are planning to make three meals a day from what you can buy at the stores. I could barely make a petite lunch for two non-finicky adults on a good day (bread, cheese, cashews, can of corn). 

Bottled water is readily available but that is not a problem— there are public drinking water fountains (filling stations) spaced every so often along the main road.

Are you not staying at a pension that provides breakfast and dinner? If not, I would (a) contact a pension ASAP and see if they will provide meal service (b) bring as many groceries with you as possible from Papeete — there are no “import restrictions” or anything (c) bring enough cash to eat lunches at one of the two lunch restaurants almost daily.

Super helpful, thank you!

I don’t go for burgers unless they grind the beef on-site. So for me, it’s Cook’s Bay Resort.

I know the Fare Canadian is popular, and since there menu is almost entirely burgers, I assume they are good. But have not tried them.

So what’s actually happening is that we have friends coming to meet us at the Bear Creek / JMT junction. Thinking to share a base camp there and maybe show them the best stuff within a one or two day radius. They don’t have a ton of time so it might just be day trips from a base camp but not sure yet.

Yes, I grinded one hard against a curb at my in-laws house. Looking for a replacement in the California/Oregon area if anyone has an extra.

Forget the “rest” part, sorry if that confused things. You have a favorite of the places you mentioned?

I’ve only heard bad things about the food at the Sofitel. Sorry to be negative.

Yeah totally get that. But some people reading this they may not have experience and instincts like you and I.

You probably have the experience and intuition to know that something is probably wrong if you're hiking downhill for a long time (on a trail to a lookout!) but not everyone has that experience.

PS last time I hiked Three Pines, a man asked me if he could take that turn the other way on the way back and still end up at his car. His family was convinced they could and he was looking for any support in talking them out of it :)

Just for the record, the beginning of the trail out of the parking lot is not very well marked, and the first right turn you have to take (or you'll end up way downhill and not at all where you want to be) is not marked as to which way to go.

Ok so this was helpful.

Kudos, I think your self-appraisal of your abilities is actually quite accurate. You have the physical ability but not any experience with route-finding harder than Hanakāpīʻai. Whereas Hanakāpīʻai has prettymuch no unsigned turns and zero intersecting trails, these trails have unsigned turns and intersections. So I would say that my comment (and the similar one by the other commenter) saying it will be "easy to find" isn't really correct for you.

So at this point, I'd suggest one of two paths:

1) Keep aiming to find a guide. If you're excited at the idea of a guide, go for it. Personally, I find that a guide detracts from the overall experience (particularly the mental challenge and feeling of accomplishment that's core to this whole discussion) and avoid them unless absolutely necessary (i.e., by law). Other people may feel differently, and that's ok. PS if you want to message me your trip dates, I can try to help.

2) You learn some introductory routefinding skills and tools and you do it without a guide. Here is some advice on this:

a) You want to combine two things generally, your personal senses/intuition/memory and a piece of technology (specifically a GPS app on your phone). Neither should be relied on 100%, as both are fallible. Remember that when hiking, you want to be able to find your way home if either one fails.

b) Before you go, download "Gaia GPS" on your phone (the free version is fine, but you can also pay for extra features). Find the start of the hike and the end of the hike on the map. Think about the start of the hike: how will you find the correct trail (that's actually important for this hike as there are two trailheads on opposite sides of the parking lot) and how might you get confused right on your first step? Where is the endpoint you'd like to reach? Follow the trail between those two points on the map and see any confusing points, particularly intersections. Make relevant notes that you think might help such as "take the trail left (facing uphill) out of the parking lot. Take a right at the first trail junction I come to (looks like maybe over a creek?), take a second right at the next trail junction. When I get to the lookout, be sure to take the same trail back and not the other two!" [PS those are actual instructions for Three Pines]. Doing this ahead of time will make you more confident on the trail and you'll have some info in case your phone fails.

c) When you get out of your car to start the hike, hit the "Record Track" button on the app. This is like the digital equivalent of marking your trail as you go. Your app will draw a track as you walk, and you can very easily see when you try to come home if you have deviated from the way you came. Using this tech, you can actually get pretty confident in exploring, but don't forget to use your memory too. You might get so confident that you start exploring off-trail but that can get dangerous if you're not using your memory and intuition too. This stuff comes with time, so stick to trails for now. Consider practicing this "follow my track home" thing before starting your first hike (even like a walk around your neighborhood) so you're very familiar with the technology.

Sorry if this question seems annoying or patronizing, but I think it might help here to ask: when you're in other places in the world, what do you do to avoid getting lost when hiking?

Or if Hertz is out of cars.

The trail is open. But are you sure you want to hike three coconuts and not three pines? Either way, the trails are not hard to find. I don’t know what your level of experience is, but for moderate hiking ability/experience, a guide is not needed. Message me if you need specific help.

Agreed. Definitely learned that fact from this discussion. See top comments.

Agree on there being five modes. After having learned more, it appears that in NONE of the modes, is it operating as a Series hybrid. That is to say, in all of the three hybrid modes, the engine is delivering power directly to the wheels. Am I misunderstanding? Could you identify which of the modes you are referring to? 

Thanks! I also found this video based on your comments that I found helpful: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o3-wGOyT2-I