Final days on Oahu and The Big Island

Monday
We had already done just about everything that we wanted to do on Oahu, and so we decided to get all caught up on work. Once we were done, we decided that we would Kayak in Haleiwa. We rented a kayak, and began paddling out in the ocean. We decided that we didn't like paddling in the ocean much because they didn't want you to go too far away from the shop, so we decided to paddle down the river.

While we were on the river, we heard birds squawking super loud, but we never saw them. Apparently, they were peacocks that live up in the trees. It was great exercise kayaking, and we decided to top it off with some Shave Ice. Maybe it was a little too sweet, but it made us feel really gross (even though I LOVED Shave Ice when I was going to school in Hawaii). We had a few hours left to kill, and decided that we'd eat at Subway in Laie, and let me get in one last bodyboarding session at Pounder's.


Tuesday
We had one more day on the island, and decided to take it easy. We hiked Pupukea trail for a few hours, and then went to visit some Hawaiian ruins by Waimea Bay. It's hard to describe, but ancient Hawaiian's built a massive altar out of lava rocks. It had been used for human sacrifices, and today their descendants bring their own offerings (usually beer and rocks covered in Ti leaves). See here:

http://www.mediasense.com/northshore/heiau.htm





We then wrapped up the day by splitting a burrito from a food truck, and some famous Kahuku Shrimp from a different food truck. After eating both, we wish we would have just gotten two burritos. We then packed things up, and got ready for our trip to the Big Island.

Wednesday
We woke up early and headed to the airport. It's weird because the flights are so short between islands, but they still make you go through the full airport fiasco -- kind of a pain. Our actual time up in the air was probably no more than 30 minutes (just long enough to tell you to shut off your phones for take off, you take off, they throw some pineapple juice at you, and then they tell you to prepare for landing after pointing out some of the other islands you can see from the plane).

Here's a picture of our rental car (it's a real gas guzzler -- a real pain when gas is $4.70 a gallon):


Here's a picture of our condo in Kona Bali Kai -- it's very nice, and it's SOOO much cheaper than a hotel:

We went to Costco and got all of our food for the trip. We love Costco. They've made this trip so much cheaper than it would have been if we had gone to restaurants or shopped at the smaller grocery stores. After driving around Kona, we decided we really liked the place. It's a fairly small city, but has all of the amenities you would need (Costco, Wal-Mart, Target, etc, etc). The city is quite clean, and seems much better maintained than most parts of Oahu. The weather is fantastic here. The only thing lacking is that there are fewer beaches than Oahu -- you have to know where you are going to get to a beach. Much of the island is covered by old lava fields that go straight into the ocean.

Thursday
We went to the Place of Refuge:
http://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm

It's a place where defeated hawaiian warriors and those that broke Kapu (taboo) in ancient Hawaii fled. The actual place of refuge is interesting, and is definitely recommended, but it just so happens to have some of the best snorkeling in all of the hawaiian islands. We couldn't believe how clear the water was. We could easily see more than 100 feet in certain areas. Fish were EVERYWHERE here. Unfortunately, our camera broke here, so we didn't snap as many pictures as we would have liked. The coral reef here was amazing, and the colors of the fish, and coral is not something we will soon forget.

After we were done snorkeling and walking around the Place of Refuge we headed off to Kahalu'u beach that is near our hotel. Internet sites, and the guidebooks all pointed out this beach as one of the best on the Big Island for snorkeling. We were underwhelmed when we came to the parking lot. There was a small patch of sand, and the water didn't look anything like the deep blue of the water at Place of Refuge. However, after a short swim, we came to find out what all the fuss was about. There was a huge variety of fish here. We each saw 20-30 different species of fish, some of them very large (20-30 pounds and 3 to 4 feet long), and some of them, small enough that you wouldn't notice them if they didn't move. Just like the Place of Refuge, the coral formations are fantastic, and deeper out the visibility is unlike anything in Oahu. One other highlight of this beach is that Turtles LOVE this beach. In some areas that we swam, there were 4-5 turtles within 20-30 feet of us.

Friday
We drove towards Hilo (the wet side of the Big Island) and drove out to Akaka Falls, and Rainbow Falls. A lot of the guidebooks made Akaka falls seem like it's a strenuous hike, so we geared up with our camelbacks, hiking shoes, and hats. We felt dumb as we got to the entrance and 80 year old couples were strolling around leisurely -- Oh well, the views were fantastic.

Next we headed off to Rainbow Falls. It's very close to downtown Hilo, and you can drive almost right up to the falls. It was very cool, but kind of a let-down after seeing Akaka falls.

We then drove back to our condo, and stopped at Waipio Valley. The view here was stunning -- an empty black sand beach that borders tall, vegetation covered cliffs. We wished that we had budgeted more time so we could hike down to the valley, but it was quite the sight to behold.

Saturday
We woke up early and headed off to Volcanoes National Park. It's a very long drive from Kona, and seems even longer than it is when you get stuck behind tourists intent at taking in all of the sights at the expense of the 20-30 cars behind them. We got to the park, and asked the rangers what were the best things to do -- unfortunately, there was no lava flow in the park, but they gave us the quick rundown on things to do.

We first went to the steam vents -- rainwater seeps to the underground lava, and get's vaporized, and steam shoots out from holes in the surface. The steam was HOT -- much more intense than a sauna (probably not the best idea to stand directly in front of it escaping, but we wanted something to remember after being told there wouldn't be any lava).

We then went to the gift shop, and got some overpriced flash lights so we could hike the lava tube. At least Matt got one of the cool ones that go on your head. The lava tube was the favorite part of our trip. It was neat being in the cave where centuries before Lava had spewed out forming new land. The temperature was perfect in the cave, and it was neat turning off our flashlights and being surrounded by total darkness.

Next we decided to hike on an old lava field that was formed in 1959. They did a great job selling us on this hike describing how you can feel the warmth of the magna hundreds of feet below, and the steam shooting from the vents. It was neat looking at all of the lava formations, but the steam vents that require a .1 mile hike are much better than this one that required a 4 mile hike.

We then drove down the Crater road, where you can see flows from the past half century. These formations were incredible:

At the end of the 15 mile road, you make it to the ocean, where you can see the waves hitting the cliffs (these cliffs are quite unstable, and sections do break into the ocean at times), and tourists getting in the way of your pictures as they risk their lives to annoy everyone else around them:


We started the hike to see petroglyphs, but got bored after 10 minutes and got back in our car to see the world's largest cinder cone. We weren't sure what a cinder cone was, but it had to be cool if it was the world's largest. After a 2 mile hike, we were greeted by this site:

Again, not nearly as cool as they make it sound, but the view was cool.

We then headed home feeling pretty exhausted and hungry after all that hiking. We decided to use our phone to try and find a restaurant on the way home that wasn't diseased. This lead us to the southernmost restaurant in the U.S. (Well of the 50 states, but that doesn't sound so cool in this sign):

There was a cute baby that kept smiling at Rachel, I made a face at him to try to win a smile out of him as well. Unfortunately he didn't like me and would instantly frown whenever I looked over. I tried my hardest to get the baby to like me, but the game finally ended when the baby broke down in tears until his mother consoled him. Whoops! The parents thought it was hilarious though and kept making jokes about it.

The food wasn't very good and we soon learned, the southernmost restaurant in the US makes a mean serving of Diarreah. This will be the last time we will trust food reviews from Google.

Sunday
We took the day off to rest and re-charge. We went to a ward in Kona, and midway through Sacrament Meeting Rachel noticed a 4 inch centipede was 6 inches from her foot. Centipede stings cause similar symptoms to Scorpion stings in Arizona -- it won't kill you, but it can hurt pretty bad, and make you sick for a couple days. Not wanting to cause a fuss, Rachel remained calm, and stayed in her seat, until she could no longer stand it and switched seats with me since I was wearing closed-toe shoes. Even though the speakers were really good today we were distracted during the meeting making sure the centipede didn't get too close.