Day 1:
We took our plane in the morning, went to the airport with a cab as we realized it would be cheaper than shuttle services, and after 5-6 hours landed in Maui. From there we took a plane to Kona on the west coast of the big Island of Hawaii. We picked up our rental car and drove tou our Bed and Breakfast, a local coffee plantation on the volcano slopes above Kona. There was enough time left for us to rush to the beach, swim a bit and enjoy a great sunset.
Day 2:
We woke up early to go scuba diving, but actually I think we were up at 6 pretty much every day of the week so we had quite some time to go around. It was our first time scuba diving since Israel and I was a bit nervous. It ended up being great and simple: the organizers were taking care of absolutely everything we just had to put the gear on and dive. As usual M spent her air about twice slower than me and got a lot more bottom time, I am so jealous. Anyways we had some great reef diving with quite a lot of nice fish species floating around. We saw a turtle and I think my favorite are butterfly fishes.
M took a little nap after our 2 dives, and in the afternoon we drove south to Kealakekua bay where Captain Cook is burried. We looked at the monument across the bay, played with black crabs hiding on black lava and continued to Honaunau National Historical Park. There we visited archeological remains of Hawaiian culture and some reconstructions of the traditional houses and temples. I especially like their statues with big smiles :).
We had yet another great sunset on the beach and I opened a coconut for M. It was her first tasting of a fresh one and it was well worth the effort (when you do it with a miniature swiss army knife it is really a lot of effort).
Day 3:
We had a nice relaxed breakfast at the b2b, and chatted for quite a while with the owner that explained us how he started his organic coffee farm and how complex it was to develop and manage it. It was very interesting for when we'll get tired of high tech. We stopped at the Kona Blue church on our way out and enjoyed the view on the surfers.
We drove to South Point (southernmost part of the US) and stopped at various vista point, fruit stands, chocolate macadamia stores on the way. I was a bit worried as there was a hurricane alert for the same night and we were going to camp in Volcano National Park, on the side of the island the most touched by hurricanes usually. After enjoying the landscape at south point we drove a bit east and then hike to the only green sand beach of the island.
The sand is made of olivine so it is actually more khaki than green, but it is still quite original. I played with the waves and swam a bit but undertow and currents were strong and waves started quickly to be bigger than I could handle so we left.
On our way out we heard the radio saying that the hurricane warnings were lifted, what a relief ! We headed to the Volcano Park and set camp.
Day 4:
After a nice night of sleep under the tent we visited most of the easily accessible center of interest of the Volcano National Park. It was my first time seeing active volcanoes and even if I didn't see molten lava close it was still impressive. We toured museums, museums, sulfur vents and fumes, Kilauea caldera,
Kileauea Iki crater hike,
chain of craters road, hike on the recent lava flows,
lava arches, view of the current Pu'u O'o flow arriving in the ocean, Petroglyphs (ancient traditional carvings in Lava),
and drive to a viewpoint... in the fog. Another night under the tent but this time under the rain: no leak yay !
Day 5:
We started in the morning by a lava tube exploration, and a short hike on devastation trail, then left the park and drove to the southeast of the island in Pahoa region.
We started by the visit of Lava Tree State Monument, a park set in a jungle like forest where a long time ago a lava flow ravaged the forest and petrified a large number of trees. It is interesting to see this mix of lava constructions (what remains is the lava that surrounded the tree like a shell, not the tree themselves actually) in the middle of this green forest with gigantic trees.
We stopped on the coast to snorkel in tide pools, the corals there were really pretty. I then tried to do 4x4 with a compact rental to reach the Champagne Pools (some bubbling thermal pools) but the road beat me (and the car) and we had to back off with a few scratches (on the car) when the road started to be too difficult.
We went to another thermal pool made of mixed salty and fresh water (brakish water) and dipped for quite a bit there.We headed then for our first black sand beach who was also the local nudist beach.
Along with another thousand of people we went by night to see the current lava flow that ends up in the sea. I was a bit disappointed because we ended up being blocked quite far from the action, it was raining and packed with people. Still we saw a few explosions, bombs projections, glowing red fumes etc... A little more than a barbecue, a little less than if you try to barbecue bacon ;). I didn't have a tripod so enjoy the blurry, cropped, noisy night shot...
Day 6:
After a night at Hilo we visited the Onomea bay botanical gardens a little north of town, in a spectacular area of the coast. The landscape in this region had completely changed and was clearly showing that it receives like 20x the rain of the western shore. The botanical gardens were the best I had ever seen, it was luxuriant with species from all over the pacific, most flowers were blooming and dripping water. It would have felt like heaven if not for mosquitoes: despite tons of deet on M and none on me, she still got machine-gunned. We took literally hundreds of pictures of flowers, but if you want to see more than this one you'll have to go see our Zenfolios.
We stopped at a delicious smoothies stand on the side of the scenic highway, had some nice healthy local food, headed to Akaka falls (must resist to tell the bear and the little white rabbit joke, must resist...), then Laupahoehoe point state park and finished with Rainbow falls.
We went shopping and discovered that Wallmart has actually a food section, well not really by my standards so we moved to the next store. There we bought ingredients for our only self cooked meal of the trip besides sandwiches (won't resist, gotta eat a lot of sandwiches on the Sandwich Island, ah-ah-ah). It was with local original ingredients and quite tasty: purple sweet potatoes puree, Japanese eggplant ratatouille, seared Ahi Tuna.
Day 7:
On our way to saddle road we stopped at Peepee falls and hiked in the Kaumana lava tube. This time the tubes were quite untouched and rougher to explore. It was quite fun.
We drove up Mauna Loa up to 11000ft and got a nice view on the fog, storm and clouds that surrended us and the gigantic lava fields. Then we drove up Mauna Kea, did not listen to the ranger warnings saying we needed a 4x4 to go up to 14000ft (he was wrong this time it was easy). We arrived late enough on top for the clouds to start settling down. This gave us some quite spectacular views.
We spent some time on top hiking around the crater and looking at the impressive observatories. The air here is more pure and perfect for star observation than anywhere in the world. This is due to Hawaii being alone in the middle of the sea with no air pollution, light or even anything causing turbulences within 2500 miles. On top of that there is a natural trend for clouds to cover the lower parts of the island, blocking away the light they produce by night (and they use some special lighting to disturb less the observatories which is pretty cool). The top is litteraly covered with observatories and antennas, way over 10, I stopped counting.
On our way down we caught another very pretty sunset.
We went down to the ranger station and spent the first part of the night stargazing and listening to the great tutorial that some astronomer gave. After M froze, we headed to our tent that we had hidden not far behind a bush so the rangers wouldn't spot it :). We camped at 9000 feet and didn't even get cold, great new tent.
Day 8:
Early morning we drove down Saddle road back to the west coast. We had booked a night at the Hilton resort to see what most people see of the island and rest a bit, but decided to do a small loop in the north of the island before in order to see the landscape there. It is actually quite different, the land is drier, a few cacti here and there and is occupied mostly by ranches, actually mostly one ranch: the Parker ranch.
We passed Waimea, Hawi and reached the north point where after some morning ice cream we had a very nice view on Maui in the clouds. We stopped at Lapakahi park to see some archeological remains and old Hawaiian houses. The beach was windy but very pretty.
We then checked-in at the Hilton resort, spent the afternoon in the pool doing nothing but playing in slides, drinking cocktails, and doing more nothing. We finished by fine Japanese dining experience, our guess was pretty good as a good half of the resort occupants were Japanese: the Japanese restaurant was good :).
Day 9:
We mostly just flew back home.
