Tag Archives: Hawaii

Hawaii

Guidebook

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Our guidebook has some controversy about it. I won’t be able to fully explain it all here, but here are some words.

While in Maui, we read a book called Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty. It turned out to be a fantastic book, slightly funny and with lots of great tips that you could pick apart very easily. When we got to the Big Island, I saw the BI version of it on the shelves of our first place, and decided I wanted a copy for our trip.

Since we left Volcano, this book has been (in my mind) a god-send. Clear directions, with useful information about things you might care about, genuinely interesting to read. I don’t think our vacation would have been the same, or as filled with great sights, without it.

While at the Waipio Wayside this morning, we mentioned the book to our host. She was shocked that we would use it – apparently the author has a bad name with the locals, and when interviewed blurs out his face and has promoted practises that have caused heated issues with landowners in the Waipio Valley.

As visitors, we have no idea about this. But as responsible people, we care about this.

Everything that our host had said makes sense, I think she was entirely correct. The edition of the book that we’re reading even says and all but apologizes for causing some issues in the Valley.

We Google any controversy with the fellow and find a long and well written TripAdvisor post on the book. Talking about more landowner issues, promoting trespassing, etc. This, again, doesn’t surprise me. Particularly since, again, in the 6th edition has a section specifically saying do not go against any signs, this road is public, the land on either side is NOT public.

I feel a little betrayed, as I love this little book. But I also completely appreciate these peoples opinions and desires to not have some strange author promoting irresponsible behavior.

The only thing I can say is…that within the framework of two responsible adult human beings, this book has been amazing. If you were blindly following previous editions, maybe you should buy a less risque book.

But the next problem is…now I feel like I can’t talk about this amazing book, for fear of getting someone angry with me. How can you tell the difference between the responsible adults and irresponsible ones? You can’t, except by getting to know them.

Hawaii

From Hilo to Honokaa

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We left Hilo (thankfully) and drove north on the 19 highway towards Waimea and Honokaa. This is the wet side of the island, Hilo averages the most rainfall of any city in the USA, and consequently there is a lot of water and a lot of it falls.

We found a couple notable waterfalls from our guidebook (remind me to write about the guidebook later) and boy howdy, did that water fall. This is Akaka Falls, with a drop of about 410 feet. There is a concrete path that loops around it and another smaller fall and it’s pretty damn cool.

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This was our first place-of-residence where we would meet the owner, all the others we had walked in with a key hidden somewhere. We drove back and forth numerous times trying to find the place, as the street numbers were going in the wrong direction. Went back to town for gas and directions, and it turns out that we needed to go past where it looked like the town ended and look for a pineapple sign.

Found the place and walked in, and our host was sitting in the living room as we opened the front screen door. She offered us tea and coffee, which was nice, and we settled in with some conversation.

That night, Miranda and I spent the evening playing some Agricola and chasing the house cat.

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The place was called the Waipio Wayside. Nice place. LOTS of frogs at night. It was so bad that Miranda had to turn on a white noise generator on her phone, and I had to sleep with earplugs. Not a great sleep. In a smaller double bed. I think we’ve both been really tired recently because of bad sleep, and this didn’t help. But it was a decent place, with a pleasant host and breakfast made for us in the morning.

However, I was thankful when we left in the morning. Over breakfast and at night, certain things had been said that caused me to not really want to converse anymore with this lady. Nothing really bad, but the sort of thing where I just wanted to be quiet for a while. Horse riding in the morning in Waipio Valley provided that quiet time!

Hawaii

Hilo

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Today was a disappointing day until about 3:30 this afternoon.

It started with our helicopter tour being pushed back to the afternoon. Which meant finding something to do for the morning. We drove around to find some waterfalls.

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Soooo… no waterfall. Rainbow Falls is apparently pretty nice after it’s been raining, but no rain so no water and no fall. We head back.

In our first night in Volcano I had scraped the front bumper “a bit”… We had discussed getting it repainted in Hilo since letting the rental company deal with it is invariably a bad idea. I looked up a place, called them and set up a meeting to survey the damage. It’s more money, and we’re on vacation and it’s time and… bleh.

Back to the hotel, food and off to the airport. Seconds upon reaching the airport, the lady tells us that we won’t get the “preferred seats” we had paid for.

After some concern, it turns out that we might not get the seats, depending on weight, which is fair, but it worked out well.

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imageNo doors, no glass between us and the world. Awesome. I had my 100-300mm lens on. Which was terrible for taking “expansive” photography, but great for trying to get some closer ups.

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The flight was simply amazing, done with Paradise Helicopters. Miranda, again, has some great photos.

We left and dropped the car off. If you’re ever in Hilo and need some auto body work done, this evening I can highly recommend Aftermath Painting. A really friendly guy, quoted me a decent price and adjusted to my vacation schedule. On top of that, he dropped us off at our hotel. I hope his work is as good!

Feeling a hell of a lot better about the day, we met up with a friend of Miranda’s who randomly happened to be in Hilo as well! A few drinks later and we’re back at the hotel.

Watching “Bar Rescue”. Good show. Tomorrow we pick up the car and head north to Waipio valley.

Night!

Hawaii

Heading to Hilo

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We started the day by deciding to visit a winery in Volcano. As Miranda texted that day – ” I’m at a winery by 11 am, it’s a pretty good day.”

We had an 8 wine tasting and bought a couple bottles of wine and the ladies serving were fun and obviously loved their job. They had this honey/tea infusion wine that I was certain I was going to love… but it needed milk. 😛

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Went for a drive for the rest of the afternoon. Drove down to the County labs viewing spot only to find that it didn’t open until 3. Drove up the coast and took a few photos of some intense waves.

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Found a farmer’s market just outside of Pahoa and wandered around. Lots of neat things to see, and some great eats. Lots of hippies.

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More driving. Our guidebook claims that Sunday isn’t a great day to visit these beaches, as the locals aren’t as friendly, so we just drove by with the occasional stop.

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The County lava viewing area opened and we went for another short hike.

The lava in this area flowed through in 1990 and covered a community called Kalapana. You can still see houses standing, and we’re told that people still live here. Hard to imagine. As Miranda said ” oh yeah, that’s where Suzies house used to be”… Rough.

The guards here wouldn’t let us walk past a certain point, which was to far away to see much of anything. As we arrived we saw a couple walking towards us from outside the viewing area. When we asked about that, the guard said that these people had now received a $5,000 fine per person. Don’t screw with the County.

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Drove to Hilo. Here’s our hotel. No kitchen is weird. And it turns out that the airport is… Right there. And crying babies in the room over.

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imageToday we have a helicopter tour of a volcano. Hopefully we see some lava…

Writing this at breakfast, so now I’m caught up again!

Hawaii

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

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This was an awesome day!

First, another photo of the residential areas of Volcano that we were staying in. It’s like someone built a town in the middle of a jungle and cut it all away for roads, as close as possible.

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After putting our laundry in the dryer we drove over to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to check out the visitor center and see our first real stop – the Halemu’amu’u Crater, which has been erupting for a few years now. It’s a bit of a smoking crater next to the Jagger Museum, and pretty cool looking off in the distance.

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We picked up the laundry and went back to the park. Our first stop was supposed to be the Thurston Lava Tube, but we saw some people wandering through a crater on our way there and decided to do that hike instead. It was about a 4 mile (it’s all in miles…) hike, taking us about 2 hours. You start with a switchback down through a jungle.

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And continue until you hit the crater floor, where you hike across the crater. This is the Kileaua Iki hike, apparently a moderate to challenging hike, possibly because of some heavy uphill and some uneven volcanic rock.

That was a long and exhausting hike, from two folks who don’t hike that much. We stopped at the air conditioned car for a bit and had some food. Then drove to the Thurston Lava Tube, 5 minutes down the road. This place is pretty badass. Apparently created when the top of the lava cools faster than the flowing bit, which eventually creates a tube when the lava stops flowing.

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After the tube, we went to another shorter hike up to Pu’u Huluhulu. A 30-40 minute hike through some volcanic rock up to a steeper green and switchbacked hill. At the top of Pu’u we were treated to a pretty nice view of many of the surrounding craters. (for some reason I don’t have a photo from there…). While at the top we spoke with a gentleman who was pointing at a nearby smoking area and noted that it was probably only a half hour out from where we were. At the bottom of the grassy area, Miranda and I decided to do the hike. It was a little uphill, but gently sloping and easy to follow out and back.

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Once at the top, we were treated to an amazing view. I’m hoping to find some panorama software to stitch these photos together when I get home. Apparently 500 feet across and 400 feet deep, the Mauna Ulu crater is an amazing site. Also surrounded by tons of smoking vents, which were warm and wet when you put your hand near them.

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A longer walk back down than we had expected, but well worth it.

We went home and had some food and showered from our hikes. We gathered our photography items and bundled up in jackets, long pants and shoes and headed back to the park for some photos.

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It turns out that Halemu’amu’u is super pretty at night. And you can see the stars with no troubles, since there is no light pollution around. Miranda got some even better photos today, hopefully I’ll be able to share them. 🙂

Hawaii

Friday!

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We started Friday early – lots to get done and a hard deadline in the middle.

The four of us had a desire to go surfing one more time so we found the first van we could find on the beach, grabbed 2 boards and Sean and I went out while the two girls sat on the beachish area and watched and took photos. We had less success than the day we took the lessons, but it was great to get out and try again. Would do it again!

Got some more shave ice, gathered our things together, sat by the pool and then by the road waiting for the shuttle to take Miranda and I to the airport. It was a tiny tiny little plane with a single propeller, and I took a few aerial photos.

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imageimagePicked up a Nissan Ultima and started our 3-ish hour drive to Volcano, HI.

imageimageDrove into Volcano just as it was getting darker. This town is a little weird…the side of it with our place on it is 14 streets, by 10ish streets in a perfect grid, with 1 (maybe two) houses per lot with a lot of jungle trees on all sides. It’s very claustrophobic. And when driving in the dark, it’s a little creepy.

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imageWe found some food at the “best restaurant on the island” (according to our guidebook) and it was great food at the Kileaua Lodge and Restaurant. We had breakfast there as well, and the dinner leftovers for dinner the next night.

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Saturday was very exciting with lots of awesome mountain and lava rock photos to come!

Hawaii

Driving!

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Thursday we had decided to not do a third day of diving, and instead to do a lot of driving. We made pancakes and bacon and eggs and then took off to drive “the nub” of Maui, which is the north west section of the island. Miranda and I had previously tried to do this, but got as far as Lahaina (which isn’t that far around).

This is a gorgeous drive, with only a few minor issues. A narrow, one lane road runs for about 9 miles of it, with a small town in the middle. Scary miles. Rain was an issue for a bit, but we got over it. The town in the middle is hilarious, with a number of small huts and houses selling food and/or random art and jewelry, etc.

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We came out, grabbed some quick food at the Maui Tacos in the mall (surprisingly good) and then drove off to see the top of Haleakala, at 10,000 foot elevation.

It didn’t work out. Clouds at the top! And seriously cold up there.

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On the way down, the clouds cleared a bit and we got some awesome views!

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We came back down and drank some more. Sean and I almost managed to finish off the 60oz bottle of rum that we bought earlier that week. 🙂

Hawaii

Dive Day Two

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I’m officially a day behind…lots of great photos and stories from today. But dive day two has some absolutely fantastic photos from it.

I’ve learned that when I import photos to my tablet, that the time on them is set to the import time, which serves to completely mess with the order of them. And the tablet has no facility to re-order, and I can’t brain enough (particularly after some amount of rum…) to order them manually.

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