Pahoa and Waipio (memories fading quicker than my tan)

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Dahna: Ok, I'm going to have to condense this last leg of our Hawaii trip because we have now been in rainy Vancouver for nearly two weeks and the memory of Hawaii is fading as quickly as my tan.

Sooo, here goes my attempt at something between an essay and a synopsis:

With only a few days to go in Hawaii, we realised it was time to get realistic. We were not going to be able to kayak along the Kona coast, mountain bike around the whole island, hike up to Mauna Lowa and Mauna Kea summits, watch big wave surfers and/or an international surfing contest, learn how to use an outrigger canoe... etc. Everywhere you go someone has a suggestion of where else you should go or what else you should do. But with only a few days to go, it was a case of just choosing to do something, and knowing that you just can't do everything.

We decided we really wanted to see the Waipi'o valley and experience the rainforest, having had a taste of the coast and the volcanoes. The idea of seeing huge waterfalls dropping into a black sand ocean with lush rainforest on either side was pretty sweet.

We decided to get to the Waipio valley via Pahoa, which was kind of on our way in a round about kinda way, and we were attracted by the natural thermal pools by the ocean as well as the town itself which had one of the biggest farmers' markets in Hawaii and apparently a bit of an alternative vibe about it.

We hitched from Volcano village to Pahoa in two parts. The first guy to pick us up, Ed told us a bit of a local's story about a hitch hiking Pele. Hawaiians believe that Gods and Goddesses can take human form and intermingle with society, and there are all kinds of urban myths and stories based on this. This one went along the lines of two young local guys (that Ed may or may have not known) who had been driving back from the pub late at night when they saw an attractive woman all dressed in white hitching on the side of the road and stopped to pick her up. A little way down the road one of the guys wanted to light up his cigarette and turned around to ask the hitch hiker if she had a light, (he mainly wanted an excuse to speak to her). She responded by holding out the palm of her hand and revealing a fireball. The two guys apparently just freaked out, dumped the car and ran away.

Anyways, Ed also had time to give us his version of the path to enlightenment and his opinion on what we should do in Hawaii before he dropped us off at the junction that we were headed. I'm not too sure about his path to enlightenment but I would like to go and see the lava that he told us about... next time.

After thanking ED and offering him some money, which he refused, we barely even had time to go to the toilet at McDonalds (the only thing they do well is toilets) before we got picked up again by a guy named Al. We hadn't even started sticking our thumbs out. He'd just seen our packs and assumed we'd be wanting a ride. Nice guy. He is an ex-cocaine addict from New York who moved to Hawaii to live on his brother's block of land. He was incredibly open and had some pretty intense personal stories to tell, but it was good to listen to someone speaking so openly about his life and the trials he has come through.

Al dropped us off in front of some resort where we were definitely not staying, after driving us up and down several roads and streets in search of this organic farm we were planning to stay at.

We eventually found the farm, which, according to the Lonely Planet takes wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) - people who work in exchange for accommodation and food - but also has accommodation and tent sites that you pay for.

There were a bunch of really friendly guys all hanging out there in a makeshift kitchen. I told them we'd spoken to the owner about a tent site, and they asked whether we knew where he (the owner) was. I said I didn't but I thought he'd said something about getting to the farm later in the afternoon. That stirred some serious action. Suddenly there was a dispersion of people heading into town, doing dishes and tidying up... ;-)

There weren't really any tent sites, as such, but plenty of spare land where we could pitch our tent, which we did. The "kitchen" was an outdoor sink full of dirty dishes, a fridge that was not plugged into anything and a rusty gas cooker, but we didn't really mind. We'd both lived in worse share houses. We set up our tent, borrowed bikes and snorkels and went for a ride searching for the tide and thermal pools. We didn't find the tide pools but got to the thermal pool, which was pretty nice. It was like having a natural warm bath, with ocean water spilling over the rock wall, and tropical fish swimming about. It was as good a spot as any to watch the sun set through the palm trees. A cocktail in hand and some music in the background would have been welcome additions.

Ooooh, dear, I'm not being very good at keeping this brief, am I?

The next day, we got ourselves to a hotel in Honaka via a couple of public busses and a lift with an awesome young couple from Portland who invited us to stay with them when we travel through the US. The only room available in the cheap Hotel was their most expensive room, which was pretty nice even though it was more money than we planned on spending. The room had a window looking out over the ocean, and we had our own private bathroom - that got topped up each morning with fresh towels and soaps. Wow.

We decided to base ourselves in the Hotel and get to Waipio from there, so we rented a couple of Mountain bikes from a friendly Mexican guy who also told us to help ourselves to mandarins from his tree ;-)

We rode the 7 miles (ummm... just over 11 Km's) to the top of Waipio valley and then down a hideously steep (I think about a 25 percent grade) 4-wheel drive only road onto the black sand beach. We took lots of photos of the beach that probably look like all the other photos on the Internet, but we couldn't help it. Such an amazing and foreign place. After hanging out at the beach, we went for a ride up the valley and found a not very worn track that led to the base of the two main waterfalls that drop into the valley. The track seemed less trodden up closer to the falls and we had to cross the river a few times, but it was not too hard going. We later read about it in the Lonely Planet, which said you could walk along the track about halfway up the creek to the falls where you get a good view but that only a mountain goat could walk to the base of the falls. Pffft.

The falls didn't have too much water in them as there had not been much rain for a couple of weeks, which is probably a good thing, because we might not have been able to get up to the base of them if there had been much more water in the river. They were absolutely amazing. Beautiful. Haunting. Eerie. Powerful. Humbling. We both went for a quick swim in the aqua pool. I carry an extremely vivid memory of lying on my back and looking up at the water falling onto my face, seeing the emerald moss covered lava-cliff towering over me and feeling truly alive.

At 1200 feet or so, it is the highest fall in Hawaii and one of the highest in the world, I think.

We noticed that someone had left an offering, and I felt inconsiderate for having nothing to offer. As we were walking out Jono left his New Zealand greenstone necklace behind as an offering.

We then attempted to ride UP the hideously steep road that we had raced down. I probably made it about a fifth of the way, if that, but Jono made it all the way. He didn't look too healthy at the top though.

The next day fades in comparison but we did a very steep and sustained 12km ride up to a forest park, about 5Km of which rose from 1000 feet to 2000 feet. It was nice forest at the top, and there was a sustained regeneration effort to grow only native plants. There are great tent sites up there, maybe for next time...

Then it was pretty much just a bit more travel, a bit more sleep and some more food before getting on a plane to Canada.

Mmm… ok, so that wasn't exactly brief, but it could have been a lot longer, so count yourself lucky ;-)

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Comments

[Denise]

Hey dahns - thanks for the stories! Whats the funny marks on your legs??

[Jono Dahna]

Te he he! War wounds! just kidding, they are just from the bike chain;-)