Big Island:
And ..yes, it’s big. It’s the largest island of the Hawaiian group and its still growing. That’s because the volcanos are still active and lava flows add to the geology of the island. It is actually the youngest of the five. But it is so different from the other three we have explored.
Now we thought Lava fields in Maui were impressive…. well here, there is so many lava flows and fields…..and on our travels we discovered there are two types of lava. One is pahoehoe (pronounced ‘paw-hoey-hoey”) and aa (pronounced “ah-ah”). The first looks like smooth pillows or cooked brownies with fissures running through it, ‘fudge’ as I called I, and the other is jumbled masses of sharp edged ‘clinkers’ where something has blocked the lava’s flow and caused fragmentation. This was something that I had not known before. And yes, of course we stood on it. Photos taken and even though we tried…. you just could not capture the immenseness and vastness of these lava fields…..But back to the beginning of our journey here.
Our flight from Maui was a total of 22 minutes. Short flight you say…. oh yes…but add to that the waiting time before hand and add to that waiting time security and screens. Yes, once again the security process took forever. Lines of ‘sheep like pens and switch backs’, with the Two aussie travellers following the ‘sheep’ in front. Maui airport does not have air-conditioning either as they rely on open air buildings and huge fans so you can imagine with 100’s of bodies moving simultaneously in a snail pace, how hot it was! But USA security is what it is….I am still amazed that once passing through the full body scanner, I was stopped by staff and even had the inside of one of my leg patted down and screened as they ‘thought there was something on the body screen that looked suspicious’. Really?? My undies?? I have no idea what they though I was wearing under my skirt….and only on one side! Pat down completed we continued on. Flight over in a blink…and again the wait… the plane. Luggage carousels were so slow and the wait at the car rental place EVEN slower event though the car was ‘booked’ …. but we were here. Our ‘short 22 minute flight’ from Maui to Big island took over ½ the day to complete but was done.
The resort where we are staying is lovely. Marc was worried that I would not like it…but what was there not to like? It was not a typical hotel room but separate bungalows with two bedrooms (hey Tanya/ Adam/Margie you could have come). One bungalow upstairs and the other down. We scored the upstairs one and it was complete with lounge, kitchenette and outside veranda dining area and air-conditioning. It was lovely. Marc you had nothing to worry about and the best part of all was the sleeping in I could do. I did not have to make breakfast by 8 am as we had to at the B&B …I could sleep past that time if I wanted too…OH Bliss!
Exploring here we come
7am Helicopter flight …nervous Lyndell having to go up in a helicopter ad yes, even though I have completed flights before, I still get nervous as anything. This time was no different. On arrival at the helipad of course I had to rush to the amenities! What was even more interesting this time was the fact that the longer I waited for the flight (we were there at 6:15 am) the more nervous I got. I started to hyperventilate and Marc, my darling wonderful sweet husband, had to actually growl at me to tell me to stop it. That part I have never done before (at least not since Route burn Track in New Zealand but that is another story) …and yes the good meek wife that I am, I stopped! But no-the bladder was not as compliant.
Unfortunately, our pilot sat us down and with a concerned look, told us that our flight plans would have to be changed. The weather had settled in over the ‘active’ volcano and the waterfalls ..even though it was bright and sunny where we were and hard to imagine it any different, the weather patterns on the island are considerably different for different parts of the islands! So we had the choice to cancel or defer to a later date with no guarantee of a flight happening or take an alternative route. I had conquered my nerves now, why subject myself to doing it all over again. We chose to go.
So instead we flew over HULALAI, a dormant volcano 8,200 FEET up. We could see MAUNA KEA to one side but at 14000 feet or helicopter could not get that high. Then around the north end of the island in the pouring rain and low cloud. Starting to question whether we should have just taken the refund and cancel our flight when given the chance earlier. What view would we get through the rain and the cloud? Well, the rain never let up but that just added to the number of waterfalls. The north east part of the island had sustained a major landslip millennia ago leaving tall vertical cliffs falling from rain drenched lush plateau to the ocean below. These were impressive waterfalls even though we could only view them through the rain haze. So high you could not see the top or the bottom of them without having to sweep your eyes from high to low…cascading down the side of the cliffs into the ocean below. Now that was impressive. Yes, the wind had picked up and the rain was falling making our viewing difficult and the screen more like STAR WARS Movies when you ‘jump into hyperspace’. This makes it quite eerie in a small helicopter, especially when the pilot manoeuvred the helicopter into narrow valleys only just wider then the span of the rotors!!! Even more nerve-racking when the pilot then tells you he had only just within the last couple of months become skilful enough to pull off these manoeuvres. I hung onto Marc a few times…. Nails digging into his skin at times…..not that he could so much to assist me if we fell out of the sky but lets not go there today…..
On arrival back to the helipad in the bright sunshine thinking maybe we should have just waited and gone on a later flight and maybe have seen more … but seeing a large number of people waiting for their turn…. then feeling their disappointment as the chief pilot informed all those waiting that all flights were cancelled for the rest of the day due the deteriorating weather. Puzzled looks from all those waiting since the heliport was bathed in hot sunshine with no clouds above. From my point of view, having experienced the rain and the lurching motions of the helicopter in the wind, I do believe that if the weather for them was going to be any worse than what we had experienced, their sunshine coloured glasses would have been severely distorted not into rainbows, but into mud.
But we were glad we went when we did! Even though we were disappointed too with not seeing Kilauea volcano from the air, we still were greeted with impressive memories to keep of this island with its sheer cliffs and waterfalls and impressive other volcanoes!
Venturing into the Volcanos National park the next day to see Kilauea Volcano by foot was amazing. Even though it was raining, (our first day of rain in the whole trip) we undertook numerous kms of hiking around (in the rain) and into the crater of Kilauea Iki- an inactive part of the volcano. The going was tough, (not so much the terrain but the fact that I had blisters on my feet from the previous walks we had had in Maui) …but I got there. This trek alone was 8 kms round trip – not much you say, but it was down and into and across the crater…and then back up again…. while all the while walking on volcanic rocks and lava! An amazing experience.
I have to admit that the highlight of the day, in fact of the whole Big Island, for me was the viewing of the Kilauea Volcano caldera in person……. walking the 3.5 kms to this piece of nature, now after the eruption only 11 months ago. Seeing ‘before eruption’ photos of what it was and to the ‘today’s photos’ of what we see now, complete with steam vents of clouds of steam billowing towards the skies…. emerging and joining the vapours above…. the magnitude and enormity of this natural phenomenon was undiscernibly breathtaking. Viewing footage of fiery red rivers of hot burning lava, eating up ground, houses, destroying everything in its path and seeing this live, but currently sleeping, volcano in person in front of us was awesome and magnificent. To think that only 11 months ago, this volcano and its river of lava traversed through 30,000 homes on the south-east side of Hawaii before dumping into the ocean. And there was nothing that could be done to stop it. It simply had to stop itself.
Now to explain the Just Add Water title … what was interesting was seeing lava flow areas that looked barren – no or little plant re-growth even though some flows were over 200 years old. Other areas showed quite extensive plant growth even after only 40 years. The difference = WATER. The contrast is quite dramatic on the dry side of the islands(s)
The dry sides of the last two islands are also where the most resorts were built. The resort owners must think that tourists travel to tropical islands to laze in the sun but do not want to put up with the ‘tropical rain’ that makes these islands a ‘tropical paradise’. The resort owners therefore ‘cheat’. They build on the parts of the islands in the rain-shadow of the towering volcanos and then irrigate the land around the resort to create the illusion of tropical gardens of Eden. The result, the lava breaks down and becomes rich volcanic soil supporting lush greenery. The effect from the road is: black/grey expanses of barren volcanic rock extending into the distance to suddenly be transformed into a band of lush greenery stretching to the sky with the roofs of holiday villas/resorts poking through and looking beyond this band, the blue of the ocean. All done by man transforming with water the tectonic forces of nature that made the landscape around it.
Nature does the same process but much more subtly. Gazing up the flanks of the lee side of the extinct volcanos you see the same process. There is the alpine-like scrubby growth on the summits of these mighty dormant volcanos and below this, a band of green as some of the cloud that managed to out-climb the summit was able to provide some rain to the dry side. Below this, a gradual transition to band of yellow less verdant grasses and below this, a further gradual transition to barren volcanic rock that extends towards the blue sea just needing water to make it flourish. The transitions are subtle just like the colour changes in a rainbow. Not harsh lines like the man-made version.
Today, our day of experiencing the American ‘hard-sell’:
Today was a mixture. Part of staying at this resort was having to sit through a 60-90-minute presentation of a Time Share sales presentation. Both of us expected something entirely different! Instead of a room with a screen and a video presentation of the resorts we could ‘share in’, and explanations and the ability to ask questions, we were subjected to a scenario like speed dating. We sat at a table with the salesman – in a room full of many other tables and couples and many other potential time sharers.
What a nightmare!
The view was glaring, we were facing the big windows which of course ensured that you had trouble focusing on the presenter; the room was tremendously noisy with nonstop chatter and believe me, these American people are so loud and brash in their general banter….it was quite infuriating and distracting. Right from the start of the ‘chat’ with a lovely young man, obviously trying to get some money for selling ‘time’…. I had already switched off.
40 minutes into the presentation we had not even looked at any figures or selling of time aspects…it was general banter and finding out about you/us/ stupid boring irritating stuff that I did not want to share with anyone…and oh so tedious …oh so hard…oh so maddening. I kept looking at my watch, trying to give him the hint to hurry up but he ignored it.
50 minutes into the presentation, both Marc and I stood up to go and walk away from this salesperson. He was young and he was doing his best under the circumstances and yes, he was simply doing his job- trying to make money …. but we told him quite early in the ‘chat’ that we were not interested, but he didn’t hear. He had a job to do….and he was going to do it and the result was, we had to sit through this for the time period expected.
65 minutes in, with nothing really explained on what return we would get for the money asked, and me feeling by this time quite exasperated, we stood up once more again to leave. He told us that we had signed up for 90 minutes….to which we replied, the sign said 60 to 90 minutes, we had gone past that mark and we were now leaving. I am not sure he liked it…but I was so agitated with the ranting noise of endless loud chatter and the ostentatious crowd and the ‘not listening ‘aspect I know I was rather rude and cross. WE left. But certainly not before we got our ‘gift’ for attending…. $200.00 gift cards on American Express…..to which we spent most agreeably! Not one regret on that aspect. We deserved it. If I had to sit through that horrible, awful, undeniably horrible presentation aspect of our holiday we deserved every bit of that ‘gift’.
Delightfully we spent it! Wouldn’t you!
And enjoyed doing it!
Retail therapy always helps…It made me feel a whole lot better!
Hawaii for me has been a different experience. A very expensive experience in terms of prices of food and clothing- basically everything is so much more expensive than Australia. Nothing is cheap. You can see there are three classes of people, the rich, the poor and the homeless. We saw many homeless people on each island. But there were also memory making wonderful aspects of the trip here, the friendly people, the natural wonders we saw, the time out for both of us… the different islands from the coast and beaches to the river of rocks…it was definitely worth it!
Tomorrow is our last day. After a lovely dinner tonight and time together, our last day tomorrow will be that of a quiet one. Sleep in, rest and recreation, a swim, spa…. Just time out before we return once more to the world of work and stress.
This is rather like a travel log than stories but it is our story…so
Aloha from Hawaii
Mahalo for listening to me!