Maverick's the one in the bunch that can always find a way to get up onto a high surface (he's the one in my avatar, on top of the door). He justs loves being up high!
Whoa, freaky - your kitchen set up is almost identical to mine, except I don't have a space above my cupboards - the rest is just the same - including the type of cupboard door, placements of the stove and where the wall is.
Our kitty has been jumping on the fridge lately, and I'm sure if we had a space like that, she'd be regularly hanging up there as well.
Junior would do the same thing by climbing from the counter to the range hood to the top of the cabinets, scratching the front of the cabinets along the way. Coming down was much more precarious but he would manage it. I finally gave in and built a 30-degree sloping ramp up so he can now walk to the top of the cabinets. Of course, now he rarely goes up there.
Abby discovered that if she jumped on the counter by the fridge, then onto the fridge that she could get to the top of the cupboards and walk around the wall surrounding my kitchen and have a high view of everything.
Unfortunately she couldn't figure out how to get down and either I had to get her, or she would slide down the wall onto my deep freezer.
One day I stood by the fridge and bribed her to the part of the cupboard above the fridge. She jumped down onto the fridge, then the counter, and finally the floor. After that she managed to get up and down on her own. She just needed me, her meowmy, to show her what to do.