Hawaii 2007
After having had enough with Air Canada, rescheduling flights to shorten our vacations 3 times in a row, and generally poor service, we made the decision to cash in our Aeroplan points, cancel our Aeroplan credit cards and switch to an open flight program. Where should we go this time? Turns out the Big Island of Hawaii is available before Christmas, and we haven't been there yet! Booked, now we'll just wait for Air Canada to change the flights before we leave.
Our flights to the Big Island were booked, but where to stay? I contacted the BeBackHawaii.com company again, they found our places on Kauai and Oahu last year. They asked what we were looking for, what our price range was, and when we were arriving, then sent links to photo albums of possible places... a few e-mails and a phone call later we had what appeared to be our perfect accommodation booked. The last step was booking a rental car, and then all we had to do was wait, and wait and wait... until that special day, Christmas Vacation day! Air Canada did change our flights, but only by a 1/2 hour this time, whew!
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
5 minutes up the Hualalai volcano above the town of Kailua-Kona is a small coffee farm and the Cuppa Kona Coffee Cottage. We have our own hawaiian place on Aina na Hoku Kai Farm, complete with a living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a king size bed, and our own pool. Everything we could need is here, except for sugar (we would steal some sugar packets from restaurants). There is a large down quilt on the bed, and we scoff at the thought of using it in Hawaii, but it turns out at altitude on the volcano, it cools down at night... 80+ by day, 65 by night. Saves on AC.
They had an assortment of breakfast foods for us as we arrived shortly before midnight, we would stock up at the Safeway the next day. To round out the experience there was even a small Christmas tree and Hawaiian Christmas CD's for us to enjoy. They even had satellite TV, but we never watched it, ok we watched Independence Day on it once, but that was it for the whole trip.
"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
2 all-night roosters, on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
Our first night on the Big Island, we discover the Aina na Hoku Kai Farm has an assortment of animals... chickens, cows, and even wild turkeys, but none are as hated as the damn Roosters! Unlike all the movies and stories, Roosters do not just crow at sunrise, sunrise would have been nice... 2am, 3am, 5am. All the ways to prepare and eat chicken were constantly in our heads. mmmm Jerk Chicken!
The farm consists of 3 acres of Fields, Flowers and Fruit. Mangos, Papayas, Avocados, Bananas, Oranges, and a few other ones we don't recognize are scattered around the property and free to pick from. Tropical flowers of all shapes and colours are everywhere.
Of course being a coffee plantation, there is coffee trees all over, loaded with red and green berries. Over the course of our week, our host Chuck would show us all the stages involved in making their Coffee. After the berries are picked and stripped, the white beans are dried on the roof of our cottage, and the beans are roasted an cooled in a small electric heater/blower. If you want to learn more about the coffee or the cottage, check out Cuppa Kona's website.
"On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
It is a couple hour drive to see the Volcanoes from our place, so we get up early to hit the road, the Roosters (Chicken Cordon Bleu) made sure we didn't sleep in. An hour into our drive, and Norine notices that a Gecko has crawled over the windshield wiper, and is looking at us through the windshield. Probably crawled onto the warm car last night, and woke up to 60MPH winds. I pulled over and he crawled right onto my hand, and crawled off onto a tree on the side of the road. I hope he adapts to his new environment.
Once we dropped off our stow-away, we passed the Southern point of the island and entered Volcanoes National Park. After a brief overview from a park ranger, we walk to the historic Volcano hotel and Kilauea crater edge. I am struck by all the active steam vents, the hillsides seem like a cold and foggy Irish scene, but it is more like a sauna.
The 1/2 mile wide crater is impressive, and we wind our way around it before heading down the "Chain of Craters road" to the ocean.
This section of the Island is one of the newest on the planet, the entire landscape along the shore has been created by lava flows. It is somewhat unsettling to see the distinct black lava roads coming down the side of the volcano, especially when you see how it flowed right across the road, and imagine the town of Kalapana which no longer exists.
The hardened lava takes on many formations, and the colors vary especially where sections have broken apart. We even have an opportunity to wander through a section of an old lava tube... this was once full of burning hot liquid magma!
After spending the better part of the day exploring this historic area of the Big Island, we complete the circle of the Island. Up the Eastern rain forest side of the island, over the Northern cattle country where we stare in wonder at Mauna Kea's snowcapped mountain and observatories. We head back down the west side of the island to our cottage, but not until we have a gourmet shrimp dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company... Great food, with a patio seat right over the surf.
"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
4 different beaches, 3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
After another restful night of Roosters (Chicken Kiev) crowing, we sleep in a bit, and head north to check out the Hilton resort. It is an example of extremes, a manmade lagoon with sea turtles, and dolphins. Everything including the riverboats and it's own mono-rail are too much.
We heard about a beach called Mauna Lani, where lots of turtles have been seen, so we go there to have a picnic lunch, it is a very rocky volcanic beach, no turtles in sight, but we see lots of mongooses (mongeese?). Every time someone packs up and leaves a picnic table, the magpies and mongooses come in and clean up.
From the rocky beach of Mauna Lani, we head to the very popular sandy Hapuna beach. The beach is beautiful with soft sand and light blue waters warm as a bathtub, but the wind is blowing hard and we escape to a grassy area to avoid becoming human sand castles.
After spending the rest of the afternoon here, we watch the sun start to set, and head back to town to a cute little bar called "Huggos on the Rocks" for dinner, while we watch the sunset.
"On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
fiiiiivvveee hooouuurs at sea, 4 different beaches,
3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
Once again we have another night of the Roosters (Butter Chicken), but last night they were joined by barking dogs, oh the farm life. An early start to the day for a Whale-Watching cruise with Captain Dan McSweeney... it wasn't 5 hours, but it seemed like it, since we had to wait for a family with teen girls, and all we saw was water. No whales, no dolphins, no turtles. At least we had a good view of the Hualalai volcano, and we got a certificate saying we can come back and go for a free tour any time in the future, I guess that will go into storage for another day.
After a rather boring morning we have lunch at the Kona Brewery and head for some sand. Right near the boat harbour is a secret little beach that not many people know about, and it's only a 2 minute walk over lava flows. Alula beach is one of the few beaches on the island that allow dogs. At any time there was less than a dozen people there, and usually 3 or 4 dogs.
Just a few feet of the beach is some of the best snorkeling I have seen... I almost go into cardiac arrest while I am snorkeling, I am following a Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a when something big hits my legs, I turn around in terror to see a black lab has followed me out. After blowing a roll of underwater film I head back into shore, and we spend the rest of the day lazing on the beach and going for a warm swim to cool down every hour or so.
"On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
6 sleeping turtles, fiiiiivvveee hooouuurs at sea, 4 different beaches,
3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
It may be the lack of sleep from another night of Roosters (McChicken) and dogs, or it may just be the unique locale, but we are seeing signs of magic in the cactuses. This little blue church on Kahului Bay is maybe one of the most photographed buildings on the island. Just a few of the picturesque sights we see as we head along the west coast on the way to South Point, the southern-most point in the USA, even further south than the Florida Keys.
This is the wild coastline of Southern Hawaii, looking out towards Antarctica... big waves, and jagged cliffs where the land has fallen away. The waters are so rough that the fisherman use pulleys mounted on the cliffs to pull the fish in. A local dives off the cliff, and comes out 100 feet inland up a water hole... crazy!
After spending some time with the wind blowing in our hair, the winds are so strong and constant here that the trees are permanently sideways... the smart cows know where to get shelter. We head back up the road past the windmill farm, and towards a rare black sand beach.
Punalu'u black sand beach is a unique location created by the volcanic rock shattering as it enters the rough seas. We skipped the green sand beach that was a long hike from South Point, lucky for us we chose to come see this black sand beach instead.
Not only is it a very interesting looking beach, but it's also the resting grounds of the Hawksbill turtles. As we are eating our picnic lunch we notice 3 of them asleep on the black sand.
As we are admiring these amazing ancient animals, we notice there is 3 or 4 more in the waters along the shore. It seems the lack of whales the previous day is more than made up for today.
Our next stop is the ancient Pu'uhonau o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) National Park. As we walk in, the first thing we see is 2 Green turtles that have pulled themselves up onto the beach. In the pools and bays of the area we see many more turtles resting and feeding.
Pu'uhonau o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) is a sacred place in Hawaiian history. During the days of the early Kings, a series of laws or Kapu's were created, breaking those Kapu's was punishable by death. The only way to escape punishment was to make it to the Place of Refuge before being captured, and receive absolution from the priest.
From the bay at Pu'uhonau o Honaunau the setting is a perfect place to watch the sunset.
"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
7 miles of off-road, 6 sleeping turtles,
fiiiiivvveee hooouuurs at sea, 4 different beaches,
3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
Maybe we are getting used to being woken up every few hours by Roosters (Chicken Souvlaki) and dogs, so we sleep in a bit, then head to the remote Mahaiula beach in Kekaha Kai state park. A unique part of this section of the area is the island "Graffiti", the Hawaiians use pieces of white coral and spell out names, words and sayings on the black lava flows. The renewable graffiti starts to dwindle as we leave the main highway and continue down the road to the beach... to say the road is a bit rough is an understatement.
After bouncing down the road in our rental car we come to a spot where everyone has parked, and only the 4X4's seem to be going past this washed out part of the road. I ask a guy walking back to his car what he thinks, and he says it's pretty bad for a car, just as a truck comes the other way, I watch how he drives down this section, and decide to go for it. A few clunks and bangs from rocks hitting the floorboards and we are on our way down the "road" to the beach. I notice that 2 other cars have decided to follow my lead, but the other ones turn around, or park there and walk in. It would have been a long walk in. This is probably why this beautiful white sand beach is almost empty.
From the beach we can see turtles popping their heads up. We eat our lunch while everyone else on the beach put on their snorkeling gear and head out to get a closer look. By everyone else on the beach, I mean about six people. After waiting the required 1 hour after eating, I put on my snorkeling gear and head to the reef 30 feet off the shore. I am alone now that everyone else has gone back in.
The water is a little cloudy, so I am floating along when a huge shape comes out of the cloud, moments before I would defecate my shorts, I notice it is a huge green turtle... I just stop, and he glances at me and continues to swim around, munching on the reef, and coming up for air. I actually have to paddle backwards as he just swims all around me, that's when I notice there is two more smaller turtles doing the same thing. After enjoying their company for a long while, I head back to the beach to soak up some more sun.
A great day at a great beach... it makes it tough to pack up at the end of the day. When we get to the washed out section of the road, Norine has to get out and move a piece of someones car that has been ripped off, before we can continue back to the main highway.
"On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
8 horses trotting, 7 miles of off-road, 6 sleeping turtles,
fiiiiivvveee hooouuurs at sea, 4 different beaches,
3 Volcanoes steaming, 2 all-night roosters,
on a tropical cottage where they grow Kona coffee"
Our last night of Roosters (Chicken Marsala) interrupted sleep, and we got a very early start for the 2 hour drive to Waipi'o Valley. Turns out it only took us an hour, so we are a little early for some horseback riding in this historic spot of the island. Nestled behind a Black Sand beach, Waipi'o Valley is like the Hawaii of old, Taro farming, wild horses, and lush rainforest make up this very different piece of Hawaii. The road into the valley has a 25% grade, and can only be entered using a 4 wheel drive. Surfers float off the black shore waiting for the big waves.
We are picked up at an arts store, and taken by 4 wheel drive van down the road and to the stable in the valley. Due to my extensive horseback riding experience (yeah right!), I am given the only white horse in a herd of brownies, turns out Sally is a bit ornery, and doesn't get along well with the other horses. After some mini rodeos when Sally wants to be at the front of the pack, when we pass some construction using an air gun, and a near broncing battle between my horse Sally and Norine's horse Copper, we had a very interesting tour of the valley through trails and rivers.
After an enjoyable morning of riding trails we leave Waipi'o Valley and head south to Akaka Falls.
It's a short walk through a seemingly pre-historic rain forest to the upper Akaka Falls which drop almost 450 feet.
Almost as exciting as the waterfalls is the bathroom...
we don't stay there near as long as the falls.
According to the guides, the 4 Mile scenic Drive along the coast is a must see, it's a windy road that passes through jungle like forests, tropical gardens and along jagged cliffs... most importantly it passes the "Whats Shakin' Smoothies" shop... Frozen Banana smoothies, awesome!
After completing the scenic drive loop, we head back north, and take the detour to the northern point to the town of Hawi. Our hopes are that we will see big waves at Kapa'a Beach, but the ocean is flat as a pancake there, we do see a pretty Rainbow on the way though.
Our final stop before heading back, to pack up for the trip home, is Mauna Kea Beach. Mauna Kea beach is a nice white sand beach at a hotel that is currently closed due to damage from last years earthquake. They only allow 30 cars to park there, we timed it right as we were coming in for the sunset, and people were leaving. It wasn't a spectacular sunset, but it was a nice way to end the trip. Watching the sun go down on a 80 degree day while sitting on a white sand beach.
It seems to me, that a tropical holiday is a pretty spectacular way to get ready for Christmas. Our first day home, we are having Roast Chicken for dinner.
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaiian for Merry Christmas
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou is Hawaiian for Happy New Year
So once again... I wish you all, Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!