39. Hawaii – Part 3

Month: December 2017

Location: O’ahu & Big Island

Up and away

I was glad that I had booked a day flight to Hilo because the view was just spectacular.  First, it was the blue ocean, and then as we flew over the islands of Moloka’i and Maui, it was just one incredible sight after another.  The flight attendants went around handing out prepackaged cups of juice or water, and before we knew it, we were over The Big Island, or its real name, Hawai’i.  It was overcast as we landed and there was rain in the air.  The airport itself was very small and I went searching for the rental car booth, which was outdoors.  The lady was nice and she not only upgraded me to a SUV, but when I told her that would be driving to Kona tomorrow, plotted the route and the stops.  The car was parked right behind the booth – this was literally on a median – and after spending some time trying to figure out how to open the trunk, I was ready to go.

Trail to 'Akaka Falls'

It looked like all the hotels were located next to each other, around a curved road and mine was called ‘Castle Hilo Hawaiian Hotel’.  After checking in I stopped by the concierge to discuss some sightseeing options for this afternoon and she gave me a few suggestions, including printed directions with maps.  I dropped off my bags in the room and set off for my first stop, ‘Akaka Falls State Park’.  It was approximately 16 miles away and a beautiful drive, part of which was along the coastline. I finally felt like I was on a tropical island.  Plus, it was drizzling on and off, showcasing the greenery even more.  I turned off the main road and drove along a narrow path to the gates of the State Park.  I saw a lot of cars parked by the roadside and so I did the same.  As I entered through the gates and into the parking lot, I saw that there were plenty of parking spaces.  A guy was sitting there and he said that I could pay $5 to park in the lot, or as many people had done, leave my car outside.  That made sense to me and so I left my car outside, paid the $1 entry fee, and set off on the trail.

'Akaka Falls'

There was a fantastic 1 mile path – paved all the way - leading to the falls.  I got the feeling that I was entering a tropical forest and it took me through the foliage and across streams, till I reached the viewing area, with the falls in the distance.  The falls themselves weren’t as impressive, but I had enjoyed my walk getting there.  It was a loop, meaning there was a different route to get back and soon I was back in my car, ready to head back.  It was starting to get dark and so I decided to skip the “Botanical Gardens” – one of the places my concierge had suggested – and decided to make a quick stop at ‘Rainbow Falls’ instead, since it was located close to town.  I arrived at the park and it was threatening to rain any moment.  There was a short path leading to an elevation, which was called the “Rainbow Falls Lookout”, and it really was stretching the limits as a tourist attraction.  You could hardly see the waterfall and after taking one look I returned to my car, just as it started raining.

and 'Rainbow Falls'

There were a couple of places in downtown that I wanted to visit and so I found a parking spot.  Well, downtown was being extremely kind to it since there was a main street with some business’s, all of which looked closed.  After all, it was Christmas evening, and sure enough the places I was looking for were closed as well.  So I drove back to the hotel and saw that the parking lot was full.  I was lucky to find a spot in the basement of a garage and the reason for the crowd was that the restaurant in my hotel was hosting a “Christmas Dinner”.  I had booked my seat a month ago and was lucky to get a table at 8:30 pm.  As I came inside, I saw lot of people gathered outside and since it was still early, I went to the hotel bar, ‘Wai’oli Lounge’ and had some colorful looking cocktails, one of which was called “Saddle Road Sunset”.  The bar was attached to the restaurant and so many of the dinner folks were bleeding into the room, carrying their buffet plates that were filled to the brim.  It was disheartening to see that many did not bother that most of the things on the plates were left untouched and going to waste.  The bartender asked if I wanted to eat at the bar and I said that I would come back for my table later and so went back to my room to wait for an hour.

The bright colored drinks
of 'Wai'oli Lounge'

I returned back to ‘Queens Court Restaurant’ and the rush had started to subside.  Having a later seating may not have been the best idea since they weren’t keen on refilling some of the stations, especially the desserts.  In fact, the people before me had done a number over there and there was mess all over the place.  There is something about a buffet that brings out the worst in people, especially the holiday specials.  I mentioned to the staff that they should be more diligent in refilling, especially if they are going to have late seating’s.  However, this was a stressful evening for all of them and it should not be forgotten that this was their Christmas too.  I called it an early night, knowing that I would have a long day tomorrow.

Breakfast at 'Ken's House Of Pankcakes'

It was bright and sunny the next morning as I checked out and headed to the nearby ‘Ken’s House Of Pancakes’ for breakfast.  It looked to be a popular diner that did traditional breakfast food, and they did it well.  This would probably be my only meal till dinner and so I did it justice. Then I left for ‘Volcanoes National Park’, which was 30 miles away.  It was a nice drive to get there and even though I had not spent enough time in Hilo, this was one of the main reasons that I had come here, well one of the 2 main reasons.  I arrived at the entrance to the park and as I paid the fee, the ranger told me that today was “cruise ship day”, meaning that the park would be full of visitors.  The first test of that would be the “Visitor’s Center” and sure enough, the parking lot looked full.  This would be one of those days where finding parking would supersede every other challenge.

The magnificent 'Kilauea Iki Crater'

I made my way to the main building to talk to a ranger and even though there were a few available, there was a queue in front of each of them.  After what seemed like a long time for a family to understand how to read a map, I finally reached a ranger and he looked like he would rather be anywhere than here.  Having to repeat something over and over and answer pointless questions is not a very enjoyable task.  I asked for things to do and depending on the amount of time one was here there were several activities, including a twilight show where the glow from the lava was visible.  I wasn’t going to able to see that, but I could definitely do some hikes.  One of the more fascinating ones was called ‘Kilauea Iki Trail’ which went through the rain forest around the ‘Kilauea Iki Crater’, descended into it, and then after a 2 mile hike inside the crater, you emerged out on the other side.  The total distance was a 4 mile loop and this would take most of the morning.  This sounded fascinating since you would actually be walking on the surface of a volcano.  That’s just brilliant.  I immediately decided to go on this trail, and then proceeded to make one of the dumbest mistakes of all time.

Through the forest... 

Before starting, I went to the gift shop and asked if they had any bottled water.  They did not, but were happy to sell me a water bottle, which I could then fill up with water from a fountain outside.  The bottle was branded and expensive, plus it was bulky and since I was already pushing the limits of my baggage, I decided not to purchase it.  As I would soon realize, that was just stupid.  I drove to the trail-head and fortunately there was parking.  I walked up to the viewing area and the sight which greeted me was breathtaking to say the least.  I was looking down into the crater and it was huge.  I could see a path running across it and tiny specs, which I assumed were people.  It was a long way down and I had no idea how I was going to do that.  But one thing was clear, this would be closest feeling to walking inside a lunar crater…well if I ignored the forest in the distance…and the blue skies…and the people.

...and down the steps

The first challenge was finding the entrance to the trail and even though I asked several hikers, no one seemed to know.  I made my best guess and started through the dense forest, with the crater to my left.  It was going downhill, though not as steeply as I would have anticipated.  Every now and then I would stop and find a clearing to look at the crater down below and it was amazing each time.  There are some sights which leave you speechless for no reason other than their scale and to think that I would be walking on this “magnificent desolation” – well, with caveats – was a bit intimidating.  I imagined myself down there on the wide open grey surface with no hint of vegetation and the elevated forest in the distance on all 4 sides.  But first, I had to get there and so I continued down the long trail.  At one stage there was a fork in the road, one leading to the visitor’s center and the other continuing down to the crater.  It really was a long hike and I thought that I had gone several miles, when in reality it had been less than 1.

The jagged lava rocks at the base

I finally reached an opening through the forest and I had walked the entire north face of the crater and now it was time to decent down the western slope.  The way that would happen was through a series of winding steps…a lot of winding steps.  Plus, this wasn’t a well-constructed, uniform stairway, but steps of stone, which were sometimes just slabs of dirt and some of them, were quite steep.  I was fairly tired by the time I reached the base and then I realized how much further I still had to go.  Before I could even get to the opening of the crater, there were sharp and jagged lava formations to navigate and that would take some balancing.  That stretched for a long distance and once I had safely passed those, I would need to cover the miles long crater to reach the eastern face.  Then I would have to climb back and up and complete the loop.  But the biggest problem was that I had gone just over a quarter of the way and the lack of water was catching up with me.  So I made a decision to turn back.  I knew that I was missing out on a special experience, but I wasn’t sure if I would have the strength to climb once I had walked through the crater.  I mean, I barely had enough stamina left to do it now and by the time I had reached the top, I was exhausted.

The interior of the lava tube

If I had forgotten how long of a walk it had been on the way here, I was reminded as I went back to my starting point.  Plus, now I was going uphill.  I arrived to the spot where I had parked my car, but I knew that this was my best bet to find parking.  So I decided to continue on the trail to ‘Thurston Lava Tube’, another tourist attraction.  It was a short trek through the forest and as I arrived there, I was glad that I had left my car behind.  There were tourists everywhere and rangers were on hand to guide the traffic.  I found a water fountain, which was lifesaving to say the least, and now refreshed, headed town towards the lava tube.  As I approached the tube, it looked like a tunnel that had been bored into the mountainside.  The main difference was that this was a natural formation, caused by lava flowing through it hundreds of years ago.  It was a surreal walk through the tube, especially since it was pitch black in places and quite wet, making it difficult to find your footing.  It also made me appreciate everything that miners do, since I had enough of being there after just 2 minutes.

The caldera of 'Kliauea Crater'

The next step was to head back on the trail towards my car and after one last look at the crater, I headed back to the visitors center.  By now the place was truly busy and I had to drive around the parking lot for a bit before I could find a spot.  I still wanted to spend some more time in the park and so asked a ranger for options.  He had just finished telling a gentleman about this 13 mile trail which was only accessible via bikes and from the sounds of it, they were planning to be their well past sunset.  Speaking of trails, there was one called ‘Devastation Trail’ and I suppose the name was enough for me to skip it.  I had 2 options, either drive down to the coast, a 20 mile drive with multiple scenic stops on the way.  One of them was called ‘Kealakomo Overlook’, which was a cliff with a precipitous drop and the ocean in the background.  The view was supposed to be amazing, and people could see the vast lava field that formed this island…and is still forming it.  The end of the road was the viewing area for ‘Holei Sea Arch’, which was a naturally occurring arch that had been cut into the cliff hundreds of years ago.  Getting there would take over 45 minutes and so rather than do a 90 minute round trip, I decided to choose the second option, go and see the ‘Kilauea Caldera’.

It is still an active volcano

I started driving on a road called ‘Crater Rim Drive’ and on the way saw a bunch of cars parked on the side and some steam rising up through the ground.  I pulled over and walked up to something called ‘Steam Vents’, where steam was billowing out like it was a sauna and smell of Sulphur was in the air.  If we needed a reminder that we were on an active volcano, this was it.  A little further away was my first look at the ‘Kilauea Caldera’ and this one put the earlier one to shame.  Not only was this massive, there was a giant opening through which steam was rising, as if the entire thing would blow up any minute.  I got back in the car and continued on to a better viewing area, which was named…well, ‘Kilauea Overlook’, and once again the sight of the crater gave one a sense of the scale of devastation that was possible.  The ranger had mentioned that no one, not even rangers, were allowed down there, let alone anywhere near the steaming opening.  The geologists would sometimes go in a chopper and lower some instruments for sampling, but that was it.  Nearby was a place called ‘Jaggar Museum’, which told the geological story of this place and it also had pictures of how spectacular the erupting vent looked at night.

At this stage I could leave the park and drive to Kona, but there was something about the view from ‘Kealakomo Overlook’, and I knew that I would regret if I never saw it.  So I decided to go up to that spot, which was halfway to the arch, and then turn back.  I started driving on the ‘Chain of Craters Road’ and boy, was that an extraordinary route.  There are roads that are pretty because of the scenery, but this was unique because it was carved through remnants of lava flow.  There were several mounds of tall and jagged volcanic rock on either side, along with signs having dates on when that had happened.  Most of them were from recent past, meaning that lava had been flowing like a river on the spot where I was driving.  Soon I arrived at my destination and even before I had reached the overlook, I knew that the trip had been worth the effort.  I was on a cliff that was hundreds of feet above the Pacific.  But between the cliff and the ocean was a stretch of black volcanic rock.  What seemed like miles below was a single road cutting through the rock and heading towards the ocean.  I saw a tiny bus on it and I suppose this was the way to the arch, which was the furthest that the road went.  Once again, as magnificent as the sight in front of me was, it was the scale which made it impressive.

The view from 'Kealakomo Overlook'

My drive would take me around the island

I started my drive towards Kailua Kona, which was on the Western shore of the island.  It would take me 2 hours to get there and I had been told that it would be faster for me to drive back to Hilo – which was on the exact opposite side of Kona, on the eastern shore - and then cut across the island.  But where was the fun in going inland, when I could take the solitary road that went south, around the apex of the island and then up the west coast.  It was a single lane road for most parts and I passed through a few sleepy towns on the way.  The most spectacular sight awaited me as I went around the southern apex.  I pulled on the side of the road and soaked in one of the prettiest views that I have ever seen.  All around me was the deep blue Pacific against a different shade of blue sky.  Plus, there was greenery of the lawn near the edge and if there ever was a postcard moment, this was it.  This was one of those sights where I could have stood for hours, just staring.  But, I had places to be and so onward I went.  This was the Hawaii I had heard of, not the glitz and glamour of Waikiki.

One of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen

As I drove up the west coast of the island, the road was elevated and I could see several towns pass by below me.  The numbers of cars on the road were increasing and the dreaded traffic lights were showing up frequently.  Twilight was setting in and even though the tranquility of the early part of my drive was gone, there was a different kind of charm now; with the lights of coastal towns in the distance.  It was almost dark as I saw my exit and pulled in to my hotel for the next couple of nights.  I was in Kailua Kona, and tomorrow I would get to do something that I had waited my whole life for.

To Be Continued…