Road Trippin' Hawaii Style

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After the amazing time I had on Maui, The Beautiful Island of Maui, it was time to say goodbye and move on to the last, but definitely not least, Hawaiian island I would visit, The Big Island.

The Big Island is actually the island with the name Hawaii, the group of islands commonly called Hawaii is actually the State of Hawaii, got it, good. The Big Island as it were is a nickname relating to the fact that it is in fact, big :P

I rather bizarrely flew into Hilo from Maui via Honolulu and if you know you're Hawaiian geography, as I do, you will know that this is actually backwards. Strange as it doubles your time in the air yet is the same price as a direct flight. I was staying at a little place called Arnott's Lodge, a rather run down little place which I would recommend only if you're camping as it's $10. I was determined to camp as I have been lugging around a little two man tent since the beginning of my trip way back on May 1st and haven't used it once. Once it was up I surveyed my handiwork and was pleased, time to get on with the day. I then went on a massive bike ride to try and find somewhere to burn my photos onto CD and eventually found a place after about an hour of riding around and getting very hot and incredibly sweaty.

Back at the hostel I was a little stuck about what to do, the Big Island has that name for a reason and I didn't know how to get around without spending an absolute fortune, the lodge ran tours but they cost around $70 a day so I understandably didn't want to fork over that much cash for what I got the feeling would be an awful tour. Luckily though I got talking to this guy Sam who was in the same boat as me, he wanted to rent a car but couldn't afford it by himself, but together... and voila we came up with a plan to rent the smallest, cheapest and most economical car we could.

So the next day was spent sorting out the details for the car with one minor hiccup. Sam had lost his driving license in South America, the rental company told him to go to the licensing centre to get a temporary license or something like that so we went there but they couldn't do it. So it turned out that I would have to do all the driving as I was the only one with any form of driving license😊 We jumped on the net at another hostel to sort a few things out and I bumped into this guy Neil, a Welshman I had met on Maui. He jumped at the chance to come on our little road trip and we in turn jumped at the chance to make it cheaper for ourselves. Thus we had our awesome trifecta Sam, Neil and myself.

Day One

We picked up the car bright and early on Friday morning and were told that we couldn't actually drive the car on Saddle Road, the road that leads to Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii and home of world famous observatories. Technically we could drive there but our insurance was invalid if we had an accident. This kind of sucked as this was an integral part of our plan so we had to come up with something new.

We eventually left Hilo at about 11am and headed out to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, famed for near continuous eruptions and the chance to see lava entering the great Pacific Ocean and the main reason we three had come to the Big Island in the first place. Well first a little story, about a week before there had been a series of rather strong earthquakes in the region. This had in turn cut one of the main lava tubes which transported lave to the sea, so the lava was not flowing, for the first time in 23 years! So for everyday of my life so far the lava has happily bubbled into the sea but, oh no when Dan comes to the island to see it start up the freak earthquakes and once in a lifetime events. As well as this the famous Chain of Craters Road was closed due to the danger of aftershocks so we couldn't even drive down and see the massive fields of black, cool lava. Great!

Despite this little setback we still headed for the park and went for a hike through one of the caldera's. This erupted in the 1950's and formed a massive lake of lava, now the remains of that lake have cooled and settled forming a wide oval expanse of cracked black rock and sharp volcanic stones. Walking across I was in awe that the whole area had once been liquid, it much have been an astonishing sight. As the lava cooled it settled forming large outcroppings of raised, cracked rock which jut up over the landscape and provide nice little viewpoints of the surrounding areas. Near the Caldera is an old lava tube which long ago drained away, you can now walk through it providing a fascinating look under the ground.

We then drove over to the Jagger Museum to have a look at some of the seismographs and learn a little of the history of the park. We saw where the earthquakes of the previous week had hit and they were indeed a lot bigger than usual. The museum is situated on the edge of the Kilauea Caldera, a truly massive hole in the ground that needs to be seen to grasp its scale.

We hit the road again soon as the day was wearing on and made our way towards the Green Sand Beach, down South Point Road, another insurance invalid road😊 We risked it and it was definitely worth it, we didn't find the beach but we did stumble across some cliffs with little platforms constructed on the edge so that you could jump into the sea. I reckon the jump was about 8 - 10m tall with a rickety old iron ladder to climb up. I somehow worked up the nerve to do it, what a massive adrenaline rush, I was so amped up after doing it that I did it another 4 times. It was easily the highlight of the day.

We had dinner at a really dodgy little "campsite" down in a place called Milolii, a place that a guide book described as having a crystal methamphetamine problem! Indeed while we were eating there was this guy just waiting by his truck, we saw him flash his headlights and a little while later this speed boat roared up to shore in the diminishing light onto a rocky beach. Very dodgy, we decided to spend the night somewhere else and got out of there pretty quick. One short drive later we happened across a very comfy slab of concrete, we set up the tents had some wine and fell asleep on the hard hard ground😊

Day Two

I woke up sore and stiff which probably shouldn't have been a surprise but it was pretty miserable. We left our camp as soon as possible and found a nice place to go for a swim and freshen up. The first stop of the day was to see the spot where Captain Cook died, a little bay just off the main road. The actual obelisk raised in his honour is on the other side of the bay and accessible only by boat or a strenuous hike, so we enjoyed it from where we were. Later after a short stop in the tourist trap of Kailua-Kona we made a plan for the rest of the day.

We visited the place where Kamehameha I built his heiau (temple) before becoming the sole ali'i nui (king or ruler) of all Hawaii. We went for a really nice drive up and over one of the smaller mountains on the island, the land was really nice up here with green rolling hills and fresh cool air, we stopped at a lookout and saw much of the island spread out below us. It was a beautiful sight and we sat there for a while just taking it all in. Unfortunately we had to get going again. I drove so much further on this 2nd day than I did on the first.

We stopped again to have a look out over the Waipio Valley, home to some spectacular waterfalls during the winter. Steep green cliffs rose out of the sea and then flatten out onto a hikers paradise, lush green forest full of wildlife and gentle undulating hills.

Last stop of the day were the Akaka Falls, a spectacular waterfall plunging 422ft (129m) into a bowl of rocks and spray, really spectacular and a fitting end to our little road trip.

I was knackered at the end having driven 356 miles (573km) in two days. Not a bad little road trip and easily the best thing that could have happened given how hard I thought it was going to be to see the island when I first arrived.

That night I flew back to Oahu and spent the night in Waikiki before my flight the next day.

Next time New Zealand with friends, snowboarding and adventure awaits.

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Photos

The Posse
Neil, Sam and myself

Beautiful Sunset
Down near the ice capital of Hawaii!!!

Seismograph
You can see the recent "excited" activity

The Jump
Awesome adrenaline rush

The Rusty Ladder
Three separate, loosely connected, rusty steel ladders.

Tent Drinking
The three of us sitting in a tent drinking cheap wine because it was raining.

Concrete
That lovely grey block of concrete to the left of the car is where we spent a very uncomfortable night:)

I'm Outa Here
My plane out of Hawaii

Comments

[Justin]

NZ
Look forward to seeing you... in about 15min!

[Ziggy]

NICE BLOG...of nothing.