Hawaii : July 14 - 22

Honolulu : Friday, July 14, 2006

Labelling today’s entry was quite challenging. We left Auckland on Saturday morning, (July 15) after some delays and had a long flight to Honolulu. The plane wasn’t completely full, so we were able to stretch out a bit and that made the many hours in the air bearable. The only unfortunate part of the trip was that there were serious audio problems with the entertainment. So I gave up watching the movies. At least the difficulties were with the sound systems and not something important in the plane! We landed at about 10 pm on Friday evening in Hawaii.

Luck was definitely with us at the airport and not with the New Zealanders. Just as we all arrived at the customs and immigration desks, there was a loud speaker announcement. It stated that their computer systems for processing visitors had just gone down and that they were only able to take Americans and Canadians until it was working. Yeah!!! We moved to the front of the line and whizzed right through the entire procedure. As we arrived at the baggage carousel, we spotted our luggage making its way around on the belt. Within ten minutes, we were through all the bureaucracy and at the taxi stand.

Brennan was grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire Cat. He couldn’t believe how lucky we had been. He was smiling even more when he discovered that the car at the front of the taxi line was a limousine and it was our turn. We drove to our hotel in great comfort and style. Too bad the hotel was just okay but it was only for one night. For any one considering the Aqua Palms Hotel in Waikiki, I wouldn’t recommend it for a vacation place. It wasn’t close to the beach and it was noisy. However it was probably still better than the choices available near the airport which received exceptionally poor ratings on tripadvisor. As well the staff was very courteous and friendly.

The kids liked having over 80 television channels from which to choose. The only problem was that we had to put out the lights almost immediately. We had a 7:40am departure on Saturday morning to Hilo, Hawaii. We spent about seven hours in the hotel.

Saturday, July 15, 2006: Hilo, Hawaii

After a quick departure from the hotel, we arrived at the airport at about 6:10 am to discover that the lines weren’t too bad. However our Hawaiian luck wasn’t holding this morning because even though we got to the self-check in counter relatively quickly, we had problems reserving four seats. For whatever reason, the computer would only give us two confirmed seats and there wasn’t any human staff around to help us. So we headed to the exceptionally long security line at the gates.

By this point, we were all frustrated and having incredibly slow and dull-witted people in front of us made it even worse. Our nerves were all on edge and I think it was probably due to severe lack of sleep and food. Finally we made it to the counter at the gate and we managed to secure two more seats. It was a very full plane so we were fortunate not to be displaced because of overbooking. We were at the airport very early so we would have been furious to have been left behind because of a computer glitch. Oh the joys of traveling……..

We landed at Hilo airport without any further commotion. Brian and I couldn’t see anything because of seats ended up being at the very end of the airplane and we didn’t have any windows. When we discovered that Sierra had pulled down the blind on her window much farther up the plane, we could have screamed. It probably wasn’t a clear view because it was raining as we arrived. That’s what we told ourselves. I was hoping to see a volcano from the air.

The town of Hilo, located on the eastern side of the big island of Hawaii was known for being much wetter than the Kailua-Kona side and thus not as popular a tourist destination. We weren’t concerned about the precipitation levels because our main interest in Hawaii was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The park was only 28 miles from Hilo but 96 miles from Kona. After all the driving we did in Australia and New Zealand, we tried to avoid extra miles especially on slow speed highways. Considering our interests, our destination choice wasn’t so odd after all.

It didn’t take us long to get our rental car and soon we were on the road to Hilo. The big question was to where? We had an address for our hotel but the small map we had of Hilo didn’t have this street marked on it. No problem; I spotted a visitor information center downtown so I thought we should be able to get directions from there. It turned out to be closed on the weekends; so no help there. Across the street from it was a gas station, so off I went to ask for help. The attendant had only lived in the area for a month and didn’t have a clue where the hotel was located. Then I noticed another visitor center on the map and thought maybe we might have more luck there. It had even more limited hours than the first one and was also closed. Another gas station attendant wasn’t any help either. The first attendant said that there was a bay with the same name as the address just up the highway and maybe that was where the hotel was located. So we thought we’d drive a few miles up the road to see if we could spot it. It didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t the right way because the town evolved into rainforest very quickly. By this time, Brian was fuming because I had said earlier “that Hilo wasn’t that big a place, how hard could it be to find a hotel?” We finally found a telephone number and a payphone to make a call to the hotel for directions. It really wasn’t that far from the center of town and once we had instructions, we made it there with ease.

The Dolphin Bay Hotel is a small, motel style complex a few blocks from the main part of Hilo. It was definitely not luxurious but it turned out to be quite comfortable. It certainly wasn’t expensive and the other options in Hilo weren’t reviewed favourably. Brian was concerned because this hotel didn’t have air conditioning and we were in “freaking hot Hawaii”. We needn’t have worried because between the fans and the breezes through the open windows, we had plenty of cool air. The only real problem was the thousands of frogs serenading us each night. They had as much volume as a symphony orchestra without the ability to carry a tune. However, I am getting ahead of myself.

When we arrived at the hotel, it was too early to check in. So we left the car and then walked back into town for their weekly Saturday morning market. We perused stalls selling everything from fruits and vegetables to Hawaiian clothing and ukuleles. After testing a sample of white pineapple, we promptly purchased one. It was utterly delicious; not acidic or tart like yellow ones. Hilo also had many art galleries and we wandered through most of them as well. By this time, it was getting close to lunch and being back on US soil, everyone else decided that we had to have Mexican food. We tried a little hole in the wall place where the diners pick up their orders and bus their tables. The food was delicious but served in huge quantities. It was a quick reminder of American serving sizes. After eating, we returned to the hotel to plan our stay on the Big Island.

Historically Hilo was a sugar town and many of its remaining buildings reflect that. The best way to describe the style and condition of this unique town would be shabby chic. Many of the buildings found in the downtown area were more like factories with corrugated siding for their roofs and sides. Others had a distinctive art deco style from the 1920s. After the 1946 and 1960 tsunamis wiped out most of the bustling waterfront, the main shopping areas shifted and left the town in disrepair. Nowadays there is continued revitalization of the city center and preservation of its historic character. Besides tourism, this area is the seat of island government and a university town.

As we didn’t have enough time to do all of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park or the drive north to Waimea and Parker Ranch this afternoon, we opted for a few of the local sights. There turned out to be more than we could fit into the time we had. Brennan was still very tired from our flights, so he decided to stay behind and take a nap. Brian, Sierra and I headed up the coast to visit the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden and Akaka Falls State Park. Now Brian wasn’t excited to see a bunch of flowers but he was a good sport and let us drag him through the grounds. The gardens were started by a group of individuals who wanted to preserve the unique rainforest vegetation of the area. They are set in a deep ravine that drops down to the sea. The designers enhanced the gardens by adding plants from other tropical areas of the world, waterfalls and birds. It was overpriced but I still enjoyed seeing all the unusual species of flowers and of course taking lots of photos. I never knew there were so many types of ginger. They produced the coolest flowers. The bromeliads and orchids were also spectacular. Sierra loved feeling all the flowers because they were so thick and waxy, they almost felt plastic. Because of all the rain and warm temperatures, Hilo is a huge flower center and exporter of tropical flowers all over the world. Plants that grow like weeds here, we can’t get to survive indoors in Calgary.

Next we turned north up highway 19 to Akaka Falls State Park. It is located about twenty minutes off the main road and we had to pass through a small “blink and you will miss it” town called Honomu. It looked like a relic from its sugarcane past with ancient storefronts and wooden sided buildings. There was supposed to be a good coffee shop and art gallery in the town but we continued on to the park. There are actually two falls at the park; Akaka at 760 ft and Kahuna at 800 ft with an uneven and steep but relatively easy circular path connecting them. Even though Kahuna was the taller of the two, Akaka was certainly the most spectacular and possibly even one of the best we have seen on our trip. It was special not just because there was an enormous amount of water spilling over the moss and fern covered cliff face and landing with gigantic splashes into the pool below but that it all seemed to be encircled in a green bowl. I didn’t get a picture that really captured it. Another treat on our circle walk was being surrounded by groves of massive bamboo trees covered in layers of moss and fungi and other large trees swathed in giant philodendron vines. The surprising thing about the walk was that even though it was a very green and lush rainforest, it wasn’t extremely humid and sticky. I suspect it was because of the altitude (over 3000 ft) and the trade winds.

Upon returning to Hilo, we did some grocery shopping at a local supermarket. In hindsight, we probably should have continued our sightseeing with a visit to the nearby Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory and/or Big Island Candies and to the Coconut Island Park area near the town’s central beach. I don’t know if we will fit it all in!

Sunday, July 16, 2006: Hilo, Hawaii

When we awoke it was drizzling and we were very concerned about our trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We decided to give it a try and hoped for better weather “down the road”. As we covered the 28 miles to the park, the conditions didn’t improve. In fact as we arrived at the visitor’s center, it was pouring. People were putting on extra clothes and raingear. As it was only a ten dollar entrance fee valid for seven days, we thought we’d at least go into the information area.

Formed in 1916, this park has delighted visitors for decades. We certainly had a great time exploring all of its wonders today. As we left the visitor center after a quick stop at the adjacent Volcano Art Gallery, we turned onto the 11 mile Crater Rim Drive that encircled Kilauea’s summit caldera. Even though Kilauea Volcano (4000 ft) isn’t as high as its neighbours Mauna Loa (13,677 ft above sea level) and Mauna Kea (13,796 ft), it still attracts millions of visitors each year because it is one of world’s most active volcanoes. We were just hoping to get a decent sighting of it because of all the mist and drizzle.

Well our Hawaiian luck was back because not even a mile down the road, the sky started to brighten and the clouds disappeared entirely. We had warm, sunny and breezy weather for the rest of the day. What a difference it made; we could actually see the immense size and bleakness of the caldera. As we continued our drive on the Crater Rim Drive, we stopped at various highlighted spots to get closer looks at long rifts or faults, lava tubes and smaller but still huge craters inside the large caldera. It was all so amazing especially the sheer quantity of lava piled layer on top of layer and the surrounding expanses of barren desert. We observed both the ropy, smooth pahoehoe lava and the jagged aa lava. Sierra really liked the first kind when it cooled in blobby shapes. It was incredible that any type of vegetation could grow in the caldera. But we saw hardy ferns, flowering shrubs and more making valiant attempts at colonization.

Brennan particularly enjoyed scrambling along the bottom of the rift corridors. It often meant going through short lava tubes and over boulders. I wasn’t sure if we were going to get him to come back up to the top. All of us were suitably impressed as we walked through the incredible Thurston Lava Tube. It was formed by slow moving pahoehoe lava cooling in a hollow circular shape while hot molten lava was still running through the hardened cylinder. Eventually the hot lava emptied and left an unfilled center. It was enormous in diameter as well as length; much bigger than anything we saw earlier in the day. We all got a chuckle at a young tourist’s expense when she blurted out her sighting of icicles hanging from the roof of the steaming cave. They were actually fine tree roots.

As well as the geological history of the area, it is a sacred place to native Hawaiians because it is the home of Pele, the goddess of the volcano. We spotted some recent offerings to Pele left at the edge of the craters and on the fault lines.

Our original plan for the day had been to continue south on the main highway to visit Punaluu Beach Park, a black sand beach. Then we were going to return to the park for an evening viewing of the flowing lava. However a number of factors conspired against us. First of all we spent more time in the park then planned. (This was very easy to do.) Secondly we forgot our flashlights in Hilo, forty five minutes away, and the Jaggar Museum shop was all sold out of them. Lastly, due to eruptions in other parts of the famous Ring of Fire volcanoes, the lava production in Hawaii was in a slow part of its cycle.

Instead we opted to drive the 20 miles down the windy Chain of Craters road to the ocean. Originally this road continued along the coast to the southeast corner of the island but eruptions in 1983 covered the road. A hardened lava shell blanketed the road for miles and the highway was gone. From miles away we saw continuous towering plumes of steam created as lava flowed into the ocean. It was here at the very end of the western portion of the road, that it was possible to walk out to the flowing lava. We knew this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park but it was much more strenuous than I was expecting. We had to hike about a mile from the parking area to the trailhead on a closed road. That was simple. It was the next two and a half miles scrambling over loose, hilly, slippery and uneven cooled lava flows that were so difficult. As well, we had to set a blistering pace because we had to cover those five miles before sunset. It would have been impossible to cross the lava without light. As it was, spotting the six spaced poles acting as trail beacons in the sunlight was hard. Our efforts were rewarded with some spectacular views of the slow moving lava, hissing steam and the most beautiful black sand beach that I have ever seen. At the last beacon, there was a large barricaded area stating that this part of the lava could fall in to the sea at any time. We walked around the right side of the rope to get our best view and we had it all to ourselves. Later as we returned to the car at a more leisurely pace, we told anyone who asked about “our spot”. I imagine it was a busy place in the evening with all the hikers going out to see the night show. We were all very thirsty and tired when we reached the car about three and a half hours later but very pleased with ourselves. From here, we still had almost two hours of driving back to Hilo; so it was a long but satisfying day.

Monday, July 17, 2006: Hilo, Hawaii

We thought we’d start off our day a little differently with a pancake breakfast at a local institution called Ken’s House of Pancakes. Unfortunately so did half the population of Hilo; the parking lot was jammed and the line-up at the door was even longer. Who would have thought that it would be so busy on a Monday morning? As soon as Brian saw the crowds and was stuck in the parking lot, his first thought was to escape the madness. So our wonderful pancake breakfast was history and we had to settle for a McDonald’s takeout instead. What a let down…..

With one day of volcanoes behind us we still had more to see. With our breakfasts on our laps, we headed west out of Hilo to the center of the island. Today we drove the sometimes treacherous Saddle Road, an interior shortcut from east to west across the high valley or saddle of the island’s two largest mountains. We passed through many different climatic and geologic zones as we climbed to 6000 ft before turning off to the observatories on Mauna Kea. Today we were lucky because about one quarter of the way into the drive, the skies once again cleared for us and we had dry, sunny conditions. (In extremely foggy conditions the roads can be very hazardous. Some rental car companies don’t even allow their clients to drive on this road.) As the clouds dissipated, we suddenly saw Mauna Loa, the world’s largest volcano. Up until this point, it was hidden in the mist!

Mauna Kea means White Mountain in Hawaiian because when they first saw it nearly 2000 years ago, its summit was covered in snow. There are still times today when people go skiing on the volcanoes slopes in the morning and then swim in the ocean in the afternoon. Some Hawaiians claim that it is the tallest mountain in the world because if Mauna Kea was measured from its base on the ocean floor it would be 32,000ft high.

We ascended to 9000 ft to the Onizuka Visitor’s Center, named after the Hawaiian astronaut who died in the Challenger explosion. As there weren’t any signs at the highway marking this site, we were happy to find it and to know that our long climb wasn’t in vain. In the evening there are sessions of stargazing for visitors but this morning we arrived as the staff was setting up for the day. We checked out the displays on the observatories and then decided to keep going to the summit. At the visitor’s center, the rangers recommended that all vehicles continuing on should be 4WD. We had a spectacularly clear day and it was still a difficult drive with steep grades, gravel roads and low oxygen levels for the truck’s engine. Brian was flooring the gas and we only had a top speed of twenty miles per hour. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to drive in snow or foggy conditions. We didn’t see any snow today even at the summit.

At its top, Mauna Kea was 13796 ft tall and it was here that at least 14 telescopes in large buildings were located. Almost as soon as I started walking around to take some photos of the observatories, I felt dizzy and nauseous. Altitude sickness hit me that quickly. It also affected Brennan in the same way but Brian and Sierra seemed more immune to it. It made me wonder how we would have handled the heights in Peru if we had followed our original schedule. Brian being a big star buff was particularly thrilled to see the largest collection of big telescopes in the world. I was amazed at the landscape; barren rock dotted with white domes and cylindrical buildings. It was such a remote place to work yet scientists fight for their time on the equipment. It was very cool to visit but not for everyone.

Also at the visitor’s center, I walked through an “exclosure” made to protect the endangered Hawaiian silver sword plant. Apparently they are like candy to grazing animals so the fence was made to protect the plants from them. Only found at high altitudes, silver sword plants almost become extinct. They were beautiful bright silver gray spiky plants and it would have been awful to have lost such a lovely specimen. Many Hawaiian quilts have stylized versions of this plant on them.

After visiting Mauna Kea, we continued heading west on Saddle Road towards Waimea and Hawaii’s cattle country. This area is home to the Parker Ranch, one of the largest cattle ranches in the United States. It dates back to 1809 when John Palmer Parker, a sailor from Massachusetts first landed on the islands. He befriended King Kamehameha, married a Hawaiian princess and started domesticating the wild horses and cattle that roamed the slopes of Mauna Kea. What I noticed most was the huge expanses of dry, grazing land which was so different from the green lushness of Hilo. It was perfect for raising animals. There was a visitor center and historic houses to explore but we opted for the beach instead.

Back on the main east west highway, we drove another ten miles to Hapuna Beach State Park. It was reported to be one of the best on Hawaii and was located in the Kohala area. Unfortunately every one else thought so as well and it was exceptionally crowded. None of us felt like hassling all the people as we have been so spoiled with all of our solitary beach experiences. We did a quick turn around and headed east again to Waimea and on to Hilo.

Without the beach stop, we arrived back in Hilo earlier than expected. So I convinced everyone (okay, really I bullied everyone), into visiting the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory just east and south of Hilo. I am the only one in the family who likes them. Even though macadamia nuts originated in Australia, they really have become synonymous with the state of Hawaii. Every store offered them for sale either as nuts in a variety of flavours or in cookies, coffee, chocolates, butters and more. I was definitely in gourmet “mac” heaven. I did get a chuckle from advertising promotions where it was proclaimed that macadamia nuts were low in cholesterol and carbohydrates and that they contained the “good fats which fight the bad fats”. No where did they state that each nut had gazillions of calories. I offered up a visit to the Big Island Candies but the kids weren’t interested so we returned to our hotel.

It was still early enough for a trip to the laundromat and a wander around town to get a few photos. The building housing the laundry area turned out to be a corrugated roofed shed with chain link fencing walls. It wasn’t a pretty place but it was big enough to do all three loads at once. I left Brennan in charge of guarding the clothes and I did the fast dash for photos. As well as not wanting to leave Brennan for too long, I was also trying to outrun a rainstorm by this time. In one of the storefronts that I passed, I spotted about a dozen young girls learning how to do Tahitian hula dancing. They were shaking their hips and moving their feet like little professionals and some of them were as young as four years old. These “keiki” were so adorable.

Later in the evening, we spent some time packing and wondering from where we got all of this stuff. We made the decision back in New Zealand to carry home the last of our purchases instead of mailing them. It has made for some very full and heavy bags. We loved shopping in New Zealand! The only thing I didn’t get was the blanket I loved from the first day in Auckland. It was sold by the time I got back to it. (This sounds so familiar.) Maybe I’ll do some shopping here in Hawaii……..( NEXT PAGE )