Hawaii - Part 2: Welcome to Paradise

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When we originally got our flight itinerary, we noticed we had a 4 hour layover in Honolulu. Our first thought was, we finally get to Hawaii and now we have to spend the first few hours sitting at the airport? Not the way we wanted to start our vacation, so we decided to squeeze in a quick trip to the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. According to google earth, Pearl Harbor wasn't too far from the airport, so it might just be doable.

Of course, before we jumped in a taxi and headed for Pearl Harbor, we decided to find our next gate, then plan accordingly.

Each terminal in Honolulu is separated by an outdoor lounge area with beautiful gardens and even some man made ponds and water falls.

As soon as we exited the terminal and got our first taste of the Hawaiian sun and fresh air, we began doubting if we really wanted to rush around to get to Pearl Harbor, especially after a local told us that the traffic could be a problem. It's unexplainable, the change that occurs when stepping foot on the islands...it's almost mystical. Within seconds, the world just seems to turn a little easier, there's a sense of weightlessness, and stress disappears...you just let go of everything and breathe it all in.

We decided to stay put and not chance missing our flight to Hilo. Rushing around was no longer an option. You can complete forget you're in an airport, it's unlike anything we have here on the mainland. Relaxing a bit also gave Shane a chance to check in on the Wichita State Shockers game, which afterwards, vowed he would not do for the rest of the trip (though Shanna wouldn't have held it against him if he had).

Honolulu was filled with open spaces and lanais, with plants and flowers everywhere, birds would fly and perch in the different open air airport gates and the mixed scents of exotic plants filled the air. When we got to our gate for Hilo, there was an airport attendant (with a mega sweet rat tail down his back and the swagger of a guy who gets a good deal of tourist action) who asked us to follow him through the tarmac to get to our gate. The folks working at the agricultural inspection booth were more interested in stories and pretty girls than they were in checking the contents of your luggage. (Shane may have mentioned, several times, that this was now his dream job) We sat looking West out over the runways: workers fueling up huge duel turbine engines, getting ready to send us off to our destination: The Big Island.

Relaxing there at the Honolulu airport, we saw our first Hawaiian sunset.

Once we boarded our connecting flight from Honolulu to Hilo (on the tarmac mind you, that was crazy fun!), we were served orange juice with a side of smiles and settled in for a short flight. Considering the extremely small plane, we expected a bumpy, uncomfortable ride, and were surprised how enjoyable this little bird was to fly. Though you might consider our extreme excitement as a key factor to our enjoyment.


If we thought thought Honolulu's airport was cool, the Hilo airport was even better. It was tiny and took only 2 minutes to walk from your gate to baggage claim and all of it was completely open air. One of the biggest reasons to travel to Hawaii is for their fresh, untouched airstream: and the island embraces that. All the open air buildings were a great start to a fantastic trip. The Hilo Airport was nearly deserted, and we both felt refreshed leaving the touristy Oahu behind us.

Let us take a moment to delve into our obvious bias toward The Big Island in comparison with Oahu. Any island in the Hawaiian Islands is a paradise on Earth - you won't find many places like it. Each island provides unique destinations, incredible views, and that same stress-free quality of life. However, some islands have become THE destination, serving far more tourists than other islands. Oahu is almost like the LA of Hawaii (because visiting one time gives us the opportunity to be "experts", right?). Oahu is gorgeous, but parts can be overcrowded. Maui is less overwhelmed, but does draw a considerable amount of wealthy tourists as well. Kauai is by far the least visited among us mainlanders, however probably offers the most gorgeous hikes, waterfalls, valleys, and overall natural scenic wonders. The downfall to Kauai is that it is sacred to many natives, and you may not experience many witty interactions with said natives, they may not like you at all.

The Big Island, our choice destination, is a happy middle ground. Undeveloped is much of the land, and tourists generally gravitate to the west, in Kailua Kona (or just Kona). With their fancy resorts and white sand beaches, Kona traps all that tourist nonsense and leaves the rest of the island relatively untouched...and ready for the adventurer to conquer.

One of the most awesome of perks to the Big Island, is the 8 climate zones (of the world’s 13 climate zones)!! If you wanted to check off your to-do list Rain Forest, Desert, Jungle, Plains, Mountains, Beaches - You can check em all off in one day on the Big Island!

It was at the airport we met Hilo's most recognizable feature: the Coqui Frog.

You can hear their mating call from just about anywhere in Hilo, their low starting belch ends in a high whistle. When we first arrived in Hilo, we thought they were birds but were quickly informed that they are frogs, and very hated because of their annoying call. To a visitor this seems absurd, as their call was exotic and intoxicating...but one can understand how it would grow tiring over time...maybe.

After renting the car, our first stop was the hotel, The Wild Ginger Inn, which used to be a plantation home. Two levels were sprawled out and had a lovely courtyard. We arrived 15 minutes after 8pm and were greeted by a "Closed" sign. Uh oh. Shanna had arranged a late check in, and so we called the front office (which also happens to be the proprietor's home). He checked us in but give us a bit of grief that it was after hours. Again, it was barely after 8pm on a Saturday night. Unfortunately this rude interaction wasn't an isolated event, this guy had it out for us from the start.

There were many options to accommodate at his hotel: You can stay in one of the old plantation rooms, which is more like a normal motel room; Also available is a hostel that had a couple of options, an enclosed room surrounded by bamboo, or you could stay in one of the bunk beds in a community area. There were also camping spots available. Since we got in so late and our plans were to leave before dawn, we decided to stay in one of the private, hostel, bamboo rooms for the first night. The private room was well worth the measly forty bucks (over the dormitory bunk-beds, I mean this is our honeymoon afterall), and after our return to Wild Ginger for a “beach-side view suite” later, I’d say the private hostel room is the best deal there.

This is a good time to mention that Shanna researched The Big Island for over 6 months, her honeymoon bible being "Revealing the Big Island". All along the way we will mention spots that were planned, all thanks to that little golden book. It only steered us wrong ONE time, and put us on the right road countless times.

The Wild Ginger Inn was listed in that precious book (not spotlighted), and it filled the need for our short first night's sleep. However, we wouldn't recommend this stay to anyone else, and would remove it from the book altogether to save some other travelers the unnecessary burden of dealing with the jerk who runs what we consider to be a slave camp, as he houses his employees who work for their stay.

Close to downtown Hilo, is a burger place called Hilo Burger Joint, which Shanna had planned for our first Hawaii meal (thank you, book!). It was very slow for a Saturday night, and it was a bit dive-y, but they had a bar and sports on the TVs, so Shane was satisfied. The 2 staff members were VERY friendly and had a great burger menu. After that night, all week long, we wished we could go back! The owner was playing some great music, dancing and singing loudly around the bar, and she was battling over the volume with the bartender, which was pretty damn entertaining. Shanna stood up for the owner since we were in love with her music selection, and the owner came over with some shots to celebrate our similar taste in the classics! She called the drinks "Happy Half Shots" as they were only half filled. She claims that she invented them so people wouldn't get too messed up draining shots and therefore could party longer.

"All you need is a little happy half shot!"

she would yell out. We had a blast hanging out, and had we not planned an early start for our expedition the following morning, would have had happy half shots till we couldn't see straight. Driving back to our hotel, we took in the sights around us, but it was too dark to really take in where we were, so we just proclaimed our jubilation with every palm tree we saw.

When we got back to our bungalow, as soon as Shanna's hand hit the door knob, a 2-3 inch red cockroach came scurrying out of our room. But hey, you’re in Hilo! We immediately buried our food deep within our luggage, and trying to elevate all our belongings. Of course, this didn't matter, as cockroaches can fly in Hawaii! This was really our only big bug encounter, but we weren't feeling too assured as the room came equipped with mosquito netting around the bed (however, that was kind of romantic). We went to bed early as we were exhausted, and had a big day ahead of us. The frogs outside were no help and neither was our neighbor who didn't stop coughing all night! Shane even said at one point in the night "He's going to make me sick again and I'll kill him!!" But we were so excited about our upcoming adventure that we actually woke up a few minutes before our 4am alarm.

Just knowing we were in Hawaii, and having not seen the sun yet since our plane landed, we were moving like the Flash!

Up to this point, we still hadn't been able to really see anything, aside from the airport, as we arrived in Hilo at night. When we walked outside, we were greeted by a massive, gorgeous full moon to illuminate our journey. We've seen a lot of full moons in our lifetime, but nothing compares to the one in Hilo. Everything around us was illuminated with a soft glow worthy of an Argento film. The moon led us nearly the entire drive to our first stop, the the North part of the island, to the sacred valley call Waipio. During the drive, Shanna shuffled through the radio stations and we were pleasantly surprised to find out all the stations were filled with Hawaiian music or reggae, instead of the pop or rock that filled the mainland's airwaves. Bliss. During these 9 days we fell in love with many tunes brought to us by Hawaiian radio, and when missing the islands those songs take us back instantly.

This was one of the most exciting drives we had ever experienced, inching closer and closer to our destination through the darkness, awaiting the first rays of sunshine to illuminate the beauty we traveled over 4,000 miles to experience.

The road to Waipio wraps around the base of the big volcano, Mauna Kea on Hawaiian Belt Rd (Highway 19). So the road climbs up and down all these gulches along the coast. It was a nice preview to our up and coming journey to Waimanu, we just didn't realize it at the time. The highway was only a double lane but they do have huge shoulders and were the smoothest roads we have ever been on. The speed limits are really low and if you stick with what the signs say, you'll be passed by the locals every chance they get, and you rarely have to hit the gas. We followed the moonlight all the way to Waipio as if it were our own personal guiding light. It was a sign that we were on a very special adventure and that Hawaii was going to help show us the way. We ran into a lot of that "luck" on this journey, we'll get more into it as we go along, but it was truly magical how the island opened it's arms to us and led us on our journey.

As soon as we turned off the highway to Waipio Valley, the sun began to rise as we came closer to our big hike. We took a second to take it all in, our first sunrise in Hawaii. All 9 days we were in Hawaii, we made sure to see all 9 sunrises and sunsets, each one a memory we will cherish forever. We pulled the car into the Waipio Valley Artworks, a local arts and crafts store that allows overnight parking for campers hiking into Waimanu. We had done thorough research before (as mentioned) and therefore already had a parking spot reserved. There were chickens all over the place, we thought they belonged to a local farmer who lets them run around, cage free. It wasn't until we got back that we learned they were feral and the Big Island has a huge stray population.

We quickly changed into our hiking books, secured everything to our packs, and left the car (and all of our belongings) behind us....to venture into the unknown, Waimanu Valley.

Next up - Part 3: Waimanu Awaits

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Photos

Airport Palm Trees
And now it feels like Hawaii!

Honolulu Airport
Birds EVERYWHERE!!

Honolulu Airport
I can think of worse places to kill time.

Honolulu at night
Leaving Honolulu to our final destination: The Big Island.

Our Car!
Gotta love the freedom of a rental car!

Waipio Valley
The starting point for our journey: The sacred Waipio Valley.