Above the Clouds & Below the Waves - the Highs and Lows of Hawai'i's Big Island

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Having recovered from our exhausting hike to the lava flow along the coast the previous day, Yann and I had resolved to hike to the top of Mauna Loa on wednesday (8th May). Thankfully - with the summit of Mauna Loa being almost 14,000 feet (over 4000 metres) above sea level - we would be able to tackle the first 11,000 feet of ascent by car, meaning we would only have to climb the remaining 2000-plus feet on foot! Hoping to beat the clouds that inevitably build up around both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the afternoon, we were up early and on our way to Hilo for a quick breakfast, before turning mauka (inland) and linking up with the previously notorious, but now almost flawless, Saddle Road. Before long we were six thousand feet above sea level, emerging out onto the broad and well-named Saddle that separates the two giant volcanoes in the dead centre of the Big Island.

Incredibly though, despite the fact that Mauna Kea (meaning 'White Mountain'😉 is only one hundred feet higher than it's counterpart, it appeared to be at least twice the height of it's near neighbour, such is the elongated nature of Mauna Loa (living up to it's name, which means 'Long Mountain'😉 which rises so gradually over such a massive area that it seems like little more than a giant, rounded hump; in stark contrast to Mauna Kea which rears up impressively over the surrounding plains, with numerous craters punctuating it's flanks and summit. Having experienced this optical illusion first hand - as well as having seen a distant view of Mauna Loa's enormous girth from the Chain of Craters Road the previous morning - it was no wonder to us that Mauna Loa is considered to be the 'largest' mountain on earth; while Mauna Kea takes the prize for 'tallest' mountain on earth, given that it not only rises 14,000 feet ABOVE sea level, but also a further 18,000 feet BELOW sea level - making it around 32,000 feet tall when measured from the sea floor to it's lofty summit! Having said that, considering that Mauna Loa is still an active volcano (Mauna Kea being considered a dormant volcano), maybe one day it will take that title as well?!?

In any case, the views as we drove up the centre of the saddle between these two brooding behemoths was quite incredible, with many of the observatories on Mauna Kea's summit already clearly visible in the clear, early morning sky. From Saddle Road we turned left (south) onto the Mauna Loa Observatory Road, at which point we were most grateful to have the benefit of Yann's four-wheel-drive, as the road was badly potholed and seemingly in terrible condition. It appeared as though our final seventeen miles was going to be a long, tedious and bumpy ride; but we were soon to discover once again that appearances in Hawai'i can be deceiving - for after negotiating the first hundred metres or so after turning off the Saddle Road, the quality of the road suddenly improved drastically, and would stay that way for the remainder of our journey! The only conclusion that we could reasonably come to was that the road's builders (or perhaps the folks working in the observatory) wanted people to THINK that the road was in terrible condition, so as to prevent too much traffic from turning onto the road - which admittedly is only one lane wide and clearly not designed with large amounts of traffic in mind. And if that was indeed the case, then the strategy certainly seems to be working - for we didn't pass a single car on the way up; and would only pass two or three cars on the way back down!

It was mid-morning by the time we parked in the Observatory parking lot, and with the clouds not having yet made it up to the Saddle the views were nothing short of spectacular - encompassing not only Mauna Kea rising up directly opposite us across the broad expanse of the Saddle, but also Hualalai (another of the Big Island's dormant volcanoes) off to the west, and in the distance Haleakala (House of the Sun), an extinct volcano on the island of Mau'i. Eventually we were able to tear ourselves away from the views for long enough to tackle the hike to the top of Mauna Loa, which as with the day before involved hiking across endless stretches of lava for hours on end, though in contrast to the day before this lava was much older (most of it hundreds of years old) and generally consisted of rough, broken-up a'a lava, with only occasional sections of the smooth pahoehoe lava we had become so accustomed to on the coast.

Onward and upward we walked, all the while watching as banks of cloud came rolling in from both sides of the island to converge over the Saddle, before then rising up the slopes of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Fortunately though, little over an hour after we had started out (and with altitude sickness starting to kick in for the first time, leaving me feeling noticeably light-headed and amusingly unable to follow in Yann's footsteps without first straying to one side of the trail and then the other!) we crested a rise and were greeted by the site of Mauna Loa's massive summit caldera, Moku'aweoweo Crater, spread out before us. Given that it would have taken a further hour or more to reach the actual 'summit' of the mountain - which lies a couple of miles away atop the rim on the far side of the crater - we declined to continue, deciding that the view would be no better from over there anyway (particularly given that by now the clouds were beginning to spill across the top of the mountain) and that, as far as I'm concerned at least, if you're climbing a volcano with a crater at the top, you don't necessarily have to reach the highest point along the length of the crater to say that you've made it to 'the top', but merely the crater rim itself. At least that's my theory anyway.

We certainly didn't regret our decision to turn back when we did, as the clouds almost immediately closed in around us, limiting our visibility to less than fifty metres for much of our return hike down the mountain. Thankfully the a'hu (rock cairns) marking the route were tall and frequent, so we were able to negotiate our way back down the trail even in the low visibility without any real problems; though we did manage to lose our bearings on a couple of occasions simply through a lack of concentration! Soon enough though we were able to just make out the rough outline of the Observatory through the thick cloud, and before long we were back at the trailhead and congratulating each other on another successful hike. (Though I'm still not sure our previous hike could have been considered a success... other than to say we made it back alive!)

The rest of the day was spent relaxing back in Hilo - where we had both checked into the same hostel I had stayed at the previous week - though despite having by now grown accustomed to the chorus of coqui frogs outside the hostel and therefore had no trouble getting to sleep, I was then woken up in the middle of the night by a guy screaming for help at the top of his lungs from the street below... who upon further inspection had been caught breaking into cars and was being 'kept company' by no less than TEN police officers! Nevertheless, with near enough to a full night's sleep under our belts, Yann and I were able to once again get up reasonably early so as to check out yet another of Hawai'i's famous volcanoes - though this time it was Mauna Kea, and we were most definitely going to drive the road ALL THE WAY to the top! (By this point I think it's fair to say we would both have happily thrown ourselves into a boiling lake of lava rather than have to hike one more bloody mile across the solid stuff!)

So after once again taking the Saddle Road to it's crest, we this time turned right (north) and followed the Mauna Kea Summit Road - which despite being wider and handling far more traffic than than the Observatory Road on Mauna Loa was actually in no better condition, though it was much steeper - all the way to the top, where once again we were greeted by beautiful blue skies overhead; though by now there was a pretty fair blanket of clouds far below us to the east. Marvelling at the array of multi-million dollar space observatories clustered around the summit area (the air above Mauna Kea is considered to be some of the clearest in the world), we then agreed to tackle one last hike... the 200 metre trail to the true summit of Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet (4,205 metres) above sea level. And it was just as well the trail was no longer than that - for having had no time to acclimatize on the way up from Hilo (at sea level) we were both gasping for breath and in need of a rest break before we'd even made it to the top!

No sooner had we made it back to Hilo, than I was bidding farewell to Yann and hopping on a bus that would take me up the Hamakua Coast to Honoka'a, before cutting across the northern end of the island through Waimea and then following the Kona Coast down the Leeward side of Hawai'i to the town of Kailua. And although the weather for most of the three-hour journey was pretty bleak, the clouds did part just enough to provide a couple of highlights once we reached the western side of the island - firstly in the form of a partial solar eclipse; and then with the sight of Haleakala's top thousand feet or so sticking up above the clouds over Mau'i in the distance, creating the illusion of a floating island in the sky! After leaving Kailua and heading up into the hills above the coast, the bus eventually rolled into the small settlement of Captain Cook and pulled to a stop outside my accommodation for the next four days: the historic Manago Hotel, which was first opened by a Japanese couple almost one hundred years ago, and - according to the guidebooks at least - had long since become a Big Island institution.

The next day being my birthday, I was up early to take the only bus of the day all the way to Kona Airport on the other side of Kailua, to pick up a rental car for my last three days on the island. I thought I had gotten a good deal when I booked a 'wild car' (ie the rental company gets to choose which car they give you) online for only $50 for the whole three days, only to then discover that there were a further $50 in fees and taxes, plus $50 PER DAY for insurance! But of course by this time, with the bus having long since left the airport on it's return journey down the coast, I had little choice but to part with the cash - though I certainly wasn't expecting to be offered a choice between a van and a Jeep! (Needless to say, I took the Jeep!) Cursing myself for having just forked out $250 but determined to get as much value for my money as possible, I stopped briefly in Kailua for a breakfast beside the sea before heading up into the hills to the north of town on my way to Waimea, and then following the Kohala Mountain Road up along the spine of what was the Big Island's first volcano, but has long since eroded down to form a long ridge with a highest point at just over a thousand metres above sea level.

Meeting up with the coast again at the very northern tip of the island, I then followed the coastal road all the way to it's end at an overlook high above Pololu Valley - which is the last in a long line of spectacular valleys that stretch all the way up the Hamakua Coast from Waipi'o Valley; all of which are completely inaccessible other than by foot, boat or helicopter. After tackling the short but steep return hike down into Polulu (Long Spear) Valley, I then followed the road all the way back along the coast to Kauna'oa Bay, which despite being hidden behind the exclusive Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (hence the beach is more commonly referred to as Mauna Kea Beach) is still accessible to anyone via a public car park and walking trail, thanks to Hawai'i's statewide law ensuring that all beaches are public property back to the vegetation line - meaning that unlike in parts of the Mediterranean Sea (and elsewhere in the world) there is no such thing as a 'private beach' in the Hawai'ian islands. If only the rest of the world would follow Hawai'i's example.

With a snorkel set and flippers in tow, I first went for a refreshing swim at the white sand beach of Kauna'oa Bay, before following the Ala Kahai (Shoreline) access trail half-a-mile south to the equally-beautiful Hapuna (Springs) Beach; and then re-traced my footsteps back to Kauna'oa Bay where I had no sooner slipped into the water for a snorkel than I was confronted by my first Honu (sea turtle)... though this would by no means be the last one that I would see during my time on the Kona Coast. From Kauna'oa Bay I then continued along the coast to Anaeho'omalu Bay, where a traditional Hawai'ian fishpond sits immediately behind the beautiful, palm tree-lined beach. And though the actual sunset was obscured by clouds, there could be no better place to watch the daylight slipping away than from this tranquil oasis, where the whole panorama of sea, sky and coconut palms is perfectly reflected in the mirror-still waters of the fishpond... not a bad way to end a birthday at all!

Arriving back at the Manago Hotel that night - having naturally stopped off at Humpy's Big Island Alehouse in Kailua for dinner and a few celebratory craft beers - I wasn't entirely surprised to find a note that had been slipped under my door by none other than Yann, to whom I had mentioned where I was going to be staying on the Kona side of the island before we parted ways in Hilo the previous day. So after meeting over breakfast in the dining room on saturday morning, we soon set off together to the nearby Ho'okena Beach, where we had been told we stood a good chance of seeing dolphins early in the morning. Unfortunately the dolphins must have been a little shy, but the snorkelling at the southern end of the beach wasn't too bad; and we were kept entertained by the exploits of some fearless young local boys riding their boogie boards - seemingly oblivious to the dangers presented by the combination of strong surf and large, partially-submerged rocks in the sand!

Returning to Captain Cook to each pick up a pair of reef shoes, we then set off north up the coast to Ke-awa-Iki Beach - where a lone plam tree stood silently near one end of the black sand beach - and the neighbouring Pueo (Owl) Bay where we once again saw numerous sea turtles whilst snorkelling. Returning to my rental car through an extensive a'a lava flow, we found ourselves wondering if we had gotten sea water stuck in our ears when we were able to get to within a couple of hundred metres of the coastal highway, where a constant stream of traffic flew by at over fifty miles per hour, without being able to hear anything except the soft rustle of the wind in a nearby grove of palm trees and the distant crashing of waves against the beach far behind us. Whether the irregular shape of the broken up pieces of lava was responsible for absorbing the sound of the passing traffic or not I don't know, but it was certainly a pretty strange feeling to watch the traffic go flying silently by at such close proximity.

Next stop on our 'beach hunting' expedition was Kiholo Bay, where we passed a partially-collapsed lava tube connected subterraneously to the sea, offering a visiting family the perfect, secluded, natural swimming hole! Lacking a flashlight with which to explore the further reaches of the submerged cave, we continued on to the bay itself where an old fishpond had been partially destroyed many years ago by an earthquake, leaving a partially-enclosed lagoon connected to the sea by just a narrow entrance. It would prove to be the perfect haven for sea turtles, as we would discover as soon as we donned our snorkelling gear and entered the water. I lost count of the number of sea turtles I had seen when I got to double figures, and that was before I stuck my head up above the surface of the water and saw another half-dozen sea turtles lying on a shallow sandbank in the entrance to the lagoon! Yann and I would later refer to Kiholo Bay as 'Sea Turtle City'. Of course after such a busy day of beach hunting it was only natural that Yann and I would find time for a well-deserved pizza-and-pale ale session at the Kona Brewing Company's excellent brewpub in Kailua; before we each grabbed one last bottle of beer and sat on the seawall opposite Kailua Pier to watch the sun slip behind the horizon, as the waves crashed against the rocks beneath our feet.

Sunday began with another breakfast downstairs at the Manago before Yann and I set off on our final hike together - the two-mile descent (dropping 1300 feet) to the shores of Kealakekua (Pathway of the Gods) Bay directly below town. Unfortunately the rain had started to fall before we left, and would not stop falling for the next hour as we slowly but surely made our way down towards the bay, leaving us both soaking wet and cursing the weather. In fact Yann was so pissed off that he had threatened to turn around and go straight back up to the hotel without even bothering to go in the water if we couldn't find somewhere dry to leave our bags (which was fair enough considering he had his phone and camera in his backpack). Thankfully we did manage to find such a place just behind the Captain Cook Monument - a large white obelisk that pays tribute to the great Engish navigator who explored and mapped so much of the Pacific Ocean, before being killed in a skirmish that broke out between his crew and some of the natives in this very spot - and with the rain still falling lightly, we each slipped our snorkel masks and flippers on and dropped into the water below... and immediately found ourselves surrounded by tropical fish of every kind hovering above the most beautiful coral gardens I had seen since leaving Australia!

Never have I seen anyone's mood change more quickly than Yann's when he first stuck his head in the water, then instantly looked up at me and exclaimed 'man, there is coral and fish everywhere!'. Needless to say we were in no hurry to get out of the water, and with only three small tour boats in the vicinity - boat being the only way to reach this part of the bay, known as Ka'awaloa Cove, other than hiking down - there was plenty of water for everyone to share. Inevitably though, after we had been snorkelling for close to an hour, the first of the large tour boats (carrying up to a hundred people) rounded the headland at the end of the bay; at which point we gathered our still soaking possessions and set off on the steep trek back up to the town - though not before I sought out a small plaque in the shallows not far from where we had been swimming that marks the actual site of Captain Cook's death.

Our final destination on the coast was the National Historical Park of Pu'uhonua o Honaunau. Though Pu'uhonua literally translates to 'Hill of Earth', the name actually means 'Place of Refuge' - for this was the one place that a vanquished warrior could find healing and respite; where women, children and the elderly could find safe haven from the battles outside; and where criminals could find forgiveness, escaping death for the 'kapu' (ancient law) they had broken. Pu'uhonua o Honauna is regarded as the best preserved of these sites anywhere in the Hawai'ian islands, and features a complex consisting of fishponds, temples and tikis (carved wooden figures) laid out around a small sheltered cove, and protected by the Great Wall - made up of lava rocks, and standing 1000 feet long, 17 feet wide and 10 feet high. With the Hale o Keawa heiau (House of Keawe temple) fronting the bay as it's centrepiece, and surrounded by towering palm trees, it certainly gave the impression of a peaceful refuge - and one that meant the difference between life and death for many early Hawai'ians, as forgiveness was absolute once someone had reached the Pu'uhonua and performed the appropriate rituals as instructed by the resident Kahuna (Priest).

After exploring the Place of Refuge and then stopping for one last snorkelling session at 'Two Step' just beyond the confines of the park, Yann and I headed back to the hotel, before meeting up later on back in Kailua for one last meal (washed down by a few 'last' beers) at Humpy's Big Island Alehouse. We'd only know each other for less than a week, but in that time we'd managed to hike to an active lava flow along the coast; hike to the top of the largest mountain on earth (and drive to the top of the tallest); and snorkel at half-a-dozen different beaches; whilst hiking across more lava than I think either of us would ever care to see again! Though it may be the Big Island by Hawai'ian standards, compared to Australia it's actually a pretty damn small one - but Hawai'i sure packs in a hell of a lot of variety and jaw-dropping scenery for anyone prepared to put in the effort to get there. And the spirit of 'aloha' is indeed alive and well!

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Photos

Palm trees in Paradise
View from the Pololu Valley overlook

Tallest Mountin on Earth
Mauna Kea, seen from the Mauna Loa Observatory

Contrasting Lava Flows
A'a on the left; Pahoehoe on the right

Scenic Rest Break
Yann taking a breather on the way up Mauna Loa

Brothers in Arms
Yann and I celebrating reaching the top of Mauna Loa

Low Visibility
Mauna Loa Observatory barely visible through the clouds

Trail to the Top
The short but steep trail to the summit of Mauna Kea

Head in the Skies
Just below the summit of Mauna Kea - the highest point in the Pacific Ocean

Big Island Institution
The Manago Hotel in Captain Cook town

Scenic Breakfast
View of Kailua waterfront on my birthday

Beautiful Beach
Kauna'oa Bay (aka Mauna Kea Beach)

Secluded Oasis
The fishpond at Anaeho'omalu Bay

Early morning bathing spot
Ho'okena Beach

Black Sand; Waving Palm
Ke-awa-iki Beach

Sea Turtle City
Entrance to the protected lagoon at Kiholo Bay

Monument to a Fallen Explorer
Captain Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay

A Voyager's Last Stop
Plaque marking the spot where Captain Cook was killed

Place of Refuge
Sheltered cove at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau - take one

Place of Refuge
Sheltered cove at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau - take two

Tropical Oasis
Anaeho'omalu Bay

Scenic Curve
Late afternoon light at Kauna'oa Bay

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

We've been following your travels
You are a very good photographer and we enjoy reading about your adventure. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.

[Backpackermatt]

Cheers!
Thanks very much! Unfortunately my Hawai'ian holiday is over now so it's back to reality for the time being, but I've still got another one or two travel blogs to go before I'm up-to-date!