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Published: July 19th 2013
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Aloha!
We have had an amazing 10 days in Hawaii, so much to see and do, much more than I had expected! Our adventure started on the big island in a cute wooden cabin up at 1500m in volcano national park, this is the home of the remaining active volcanos on Hawaii. Following a drive up though jagged lava fields we spent our first evening watching sunset from the top of the road at about 10'000 feet up Mauna Loa, a 15,000 ft volcano, overlooking its craters and the pacific ocean with a picnic dinner. After sunset we donned our head torches for a walk through the scrub under the star filled sky to see the glow of bubbling lava from one of the active craters, a pretty amazing start to our Hawaiian adventure! We spent the next day exploring the volcano national park in our fancy hire car, (thank goodness for air con! ). We crossed lava flows from as recently as 1986 and followed them down to the sea where the road had been cutoff by the flowing lava a few years back. We did a quite a few walks, across a mile wide crater, still steaming: to
see ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs ( rock art) and wandered through an extinct lava flow tunnel underground where the lava used to flow through and then the top had solidified more quickly leaving a long tunnel. One of the most amazing evenings was spent on a guided 4 hour hike across lava to the site of a current lava flow entering the sea, we sat on warm rocky cliffs for over an hour from dusk until dark watching the molten lava spewing out of the cliffs into the sea sending up huge clouds of steam and gas into the air and leaving newly formed lava rock floating in the waves. For a pair of pyromaniacs it was an awesome sight! On returning to our starting point, a small sleepy village on the coast, we were surprised to find it had transformed into the site of a small festival with a rock band playing, numerous food, drink and craft stalls, with lots of locals and hippies off their heads dancing and fire twirling! It was a bit crazy! We retreated to our tent in a campsite further along the coast for our first night camping. It was like sleeping in a sauna.
I awoke dripping with sweat and actually gasping for fresh air. Goodness knows how we are going to survive camping in the deserts of utah! However it was worth it to have breakfast on a black lava beach watching the locals surfing on the wild waves. The native Hawaiians camping on mass for Fourth of July holiday kept Donald amused with their rather colourful "conversations"! ( he will be delighted to tell you some stories later, mum not for your ears, or a lady's in fact!) Whilst on big island we also visited the volcanic summit of Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in Hawaii, an awesome moonscape of sandy craters high above the clouds. Our fancy SUV decided to overheat and conk out on the way up so we hitched a ride with a ranger to the top and were astounded by the views and the huge telescopes situated at the top. Our car disaster had us stranded for a few hours which unfortunately cut into our time to explore the town of Kona, the venue for the Ironman world champs, I'll keep dreaming of my chances to compete there and who knows, might be back in the future......haha! We
went on an awesome snorkelling trip which included a visit to the bay where Captain Cook was murdered. The water was incredibly clear, 100ft visibility. Apparently this is because the island's rock is so porous that there are very few rivers, so fresh water oozes out into the ocean, making it much clearer than usual shorelines which are full of silt from rivers. The snorkel spot is the no.1 in hawaii and apparently one of the 20 best on earth! It was quite small though as the islands rise steeply from the ocean so a few yards offshore they continue to dive hundreds of feet down, making for incredible views as the fish swim around the drop-off. We saw lots of amazing fish, coral and a green turtle swimming by, later we also saw a couple of quite large green turtles on a Black lava beach we stopped at. Next stop Honolulu on Oahu for 4th July celebrations! The buzz of the beach, shops and high rise hotels lived up to our expectations and the whole place was alive with families barbecuing on the beachfront all day in anticipation of the evening beachfront firework display. We found a spot amongst
the crowds to watch which was pretty cool but we reckoned that the Edinburgh festival and Baxter park fireworks outclass them every time. The smaller island of Kauai was our last and in my opinion best stop. Famous for the filming of Jurassic Park, Lost and many other films, the scenery here was breathtaking. We found the most amazing secret beach where we spent a lovely couple of days and were visited by a pod of dolphins. We treated ourselves to a helicopter ride over the island which was incredible! Flying over the lush forested ridges, up to remote waterfalls, through the red Waimea canyon and along the stunning Na Pali coastline, the views were unforgettably breathtaking ! The next few days we did a lot of hiking firstly along the famously isolated Na Pali coast to an isolated beach and up a valley to a beautiful waterfall for a lovey but chilly swim. I could just imagine us on a scene from Lost (filmed here) on the beach then hiking through the forest. Then we drove up to the volcanic plateau following the Waimea canyon, an awesome mini version of the grand canyon, to the Kokee national park where
we camped for 2 nights. We hiked across an extinct volcanic crater on an old decrepit boardwalk across the Alakai swamp, which claims to be the wettest place on earth (450 - 800 inches rainfall per year) to a viewpoint where we could see stunning views of the north coast of the island. Legs still feeling a bit achy we did another 8 mile hike the following day which led out through the forest along one of the many ridges that remain jutting out along the coastline, from the end point we had stunning views right up the isolated coastline of the national park with beautiful turquoise water and could see the isolated beach we had walked to a few days earlier. Kaui really must be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen I would definitely recommend you to visit it one day. Donald was delighted that there were very few reptiles, snakes specifically on the island, due to the fact that it grew out of the middle of the Pacific 5 million years ago, so everything there had to fly there! However, I was not so delighted with the fact that the islands wild life seems
to consist predominantly of wild chickens. Everywhere! Cockerels appearing all over the place and waking us up at the crack of dawn! I must add, especially for Tweedie's information that Donald has kept up his habit of tripping up on morning runs, falling flat on his face again on the Hawaiian coast this time! Takes the tally to 4 falls, all sober! Some of you will be delighted to know that Donald has also shaved off his rather fuzzy beard! Hopefully the white skin underneath will tan by the time we get home. That's the last of our sunbathing time. Next stop America! Looking forward to our road trip, a visit to Vegas, perhaps engagement ring shopping, but no little white chapel wedding! Only 7 weeks to go.......yikes, will be home and back to work in no time! Check out all the extra photos below too, look forward to hearing from you all soon. Enjoy the summer sunshine back home!! Mahalo!Lots of loveKirstin and Donald. Xxxxxx
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