big island
So I'd better write down my big island experiences before I forget em all.
First things first - I booked my tickets 3 or 4 weeks prior to leaving. I was all excited because the only flights direct from Maui to the big island are the little propeller-driven commuter planes. I show up to the ticket counter and apparently Go Airlines has a problem. All their commuter flights were contracted through Mokulele airlines, and there's some sort of recent dispute between the two. The ticket guy says the people they've been sending to Mokulele were being rejected because the flights were booked through Go. The guy spent probably 15 minutes calling around to make sure there's no way I'm getting on my schedule flight, and finally gets confirmation. So he books me tickets on regular Go Airlines flights - only problem is now I have to stop off in Oahu. So what started off as a potentially big problem gets resolved. Note: the guy at the counter was extremely helpful in smoothing over the mess. Thanks Mr. ticket man!
After that things went well - picked up my car, drove to the campsite where I'd be staying and signed in. My first stop was about 15 minutes down the road. There's a beautiful valley called Waipi'o. The guide book talked about the trail that leads down into the valley - how steep and treacherous it was. Only 4-wheel drive vehicles are allowed on the trail because 2-wheel drives can't handle it and go plunging off the cliff. I decided to hike it, but I was a little nervous before hand. When I got there my fears were abated. The road the whole way down was paved, it turns out, and while the grade was steep it was no problem on foot.
The other thing I worried about was the sort of people in the valley. Because getting into the valley is hard, and there's basically no electricity or telephone or other modern conveniences, it's a haven for the homeless and the scary.
I left early enough in the day that I thought I could hike across the valley, up the other side and at least get a glimpse of the valley on the other side (which is supposed to be even more remote). So I hiked along the trail for a good hour or so. The main road was crossed several times by rivers that I waded through, but the road was still followable. It seemed I was getting close to the far valley wall and was looking for the trail up the side I could see earlier in the day, but it had disappeared. The road got less and less defined as I went along, until I was trudging through forest and wetlands with some scary-looking shanties and stuff set up around the way. At that point I decided I must have missed something and turned around.
My first strange experience was when I ran into a group of horses. I've always been a little scared of horses. At first they seemed scared of me and kinda of ran ahead of me. But after I had passed them they started following me. One of them followed pretty closely (like within a couple feet of my back) and it freaked me out a bit, 'cause horses can smell fear right? I just KNEW they'd get a whiff of that and just all gang up on me, beating poor defenseless me with their hooves. Luckily, I escaped. (Not all facts about horses in the above paragraph are true.)
My second experience was running into a guy about the time I turned around. He looked rastafarian with his dreadlocks, and was wearing only a pair of pants. In one hand he had a fruit and in the other he carried a gigantic machete. I hadn't seen another person since the beginning of the hike, and for the first time in a long time I feared for my life. But I tried to keep my cool and I said "hey" as we passed. He said "hey dude" back and I live to tell the tale.
On my way back out of the valley I noticed a fork in the road I had missed earlier, and this trail led to the beach and to the trail to the other valley. Next trip I'll have to finish the hike I suppose.
Anyway, the valley was beautiful and I was glad to have spent some time in it.
Amy and Clay arrived in Kona early the next morning so I went to pick them up. We had nothing planned for the day, but I had a couple things I thought about doing so we headed out.
First we dropped by the City of Refuge. We wandered about the city for a while then hiked around on the lava rock and tide pools that surround it. Things were going good until Amy stubbed her foot on the rocks. I could tell she was hobbling a little after that, but it wasn't until we got back to the car and inspected the damage that we could see he foot was in bad shape. She had hit the ball of her foot right under her toes, and it was turning her foot purple and there was quite a bit of swelling going on.
Before the incident I had recommended we hike the back side of Waipi'o valley, and that was out of the question now.
We drove back to the campsite and got Amy and Clay all signed in, and Amy was kind enough to let us do a quick hike on our own. So Amy hung out around the tent to read and Clay and I went to do the hike real quick. Of course we got to the trailhead and the hike was closed for some reason. Bummer. So we headed back to camp and came up with a plan B.
We had all wanted to see some flowing lava that evening, so since we were headed over that way anyway we decided to see some of the waterfalls around Hilo. First was rainbow falls, and I don't know the name of the other one.
Then it was off to the lava flow. The county had a parking lot all set up and reflective strips on the rocks as a trail. man, it was beautiful. we got there as it was getting dark, and throughout the hike you could see the orange trail of lava coming down from the mountain. at the end there was a viewing area set up and we just sat and watched where the flow hit the ocean and sent up a huge cloud of steam. The steam was lit from beneath by the lava - it was so cool! Unfortunately we were only allowed to go to within 1/2 from the lava. Maybe sometime soon I can go back and hike from the other side - get a little closer, eh?
saturday was temple day. We had a good 13 or so people from the branch show up. We did baptisms and confirmations, sealings, and then a session later on in the day.
After that a lot of people went to the Big Island Grill across the street from the temple for an early dinner.
Then Clay and Amy and I walked around Hilo town until it was time for them to fly back to Maui.
The next day I was originally hoping to have some time to check out a beach or two, but my tickets got changed so I was headed back earlier in the day than I wanted to. There was a church about 10 minutes down the road from the campsite (Hanako'o ward), so I decided to attend the early meeting there. Wow, they must never get visitors there. The first question they asked was, "Are you lost?" Then I was almost swarmed by everyone that came in. Someone would walk in and whoever I was talking to would stop them and ask, "Hey, have you met Jeff?" I still can't get over how friendly they were there - so cool. Either that or they were just couldn't stand me and were passing me off to whoever they could.
Anyway, that's the end. Overall it was an awesome trip. I took about 100 pictures, so you if you really want you can download them here.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/114454/templetrip.zip
And I almost forgot - some guy hit my car from behind while I was waiting at a stop light my first night over there. That's 3 times in 2 years I've been hit in Hawaii. He was going slow enough that there was no damage, which is good because he didn't even stop. Crazy.
First things first - I booked my tickets 3 or 4 weeks prior to leaving. I was all excited because the only flights direct from Maui to the big island are the little propeller-driven commuter planes. I show up to the ticket counter and apparently Go Airlines has a problem. All their commuter flights were contracted through Mokulele airlines, and there's some sort of recent dispute between the two. The ticket guy says the people they've been sending to Mokulele were being rejected because the flights were booked through Go. The guy spent probably 15 minutes calling around to make sure there's no way I'm getting on my schedule flight, and finally gets confirmation. So he books me tickets on regular Go Airlines flights - only problem is now I have to stop off in Oahu. So what started off as a potentially big problem gets resolved. Note: the guy at the counter was extremely helpful in smoothing over the mess. Thanks Mr. ticket man!
After that things went well - picked up my car, drove to the campsite where I'd be staying and signed in. My first stop was about 15 minutes down the road. There's a beautiful valley called Waipi'o. The guide book talked about the trail that leads down into the valley - how steep and treacherous it was. Only 4-wheel drive vehicles are allowed on the trail because 2-wheel drives can't handle it and go plunging off the cliff. I decided to hike it, but I was a little nervous before hand. When I got there my fears were abated. The road the whole way down was paved, it turns out, and while the grade was steep it was no problem on foot.
The other thing I worried about was the sort of people in the valley. Because getting into the valley is hard, and there's basically no electricity or telephone or other modern conveniences, it's a haven for the homeless and the scary.
I left early enough in the day that I thought I could hike across the valley, up the other side and at least get a glimpse of the valley on the other side (which is supposed to be even more remote). So I hiked along the trail for a good hour or so. The main road was crossed several times by rivers that I waded through, but the road was still followable. It seemed I was getting close to the far valley wall and was looking for the trail up the side I could see earlier in the day, but it had disappeared. The road got less and less defined as I went along, until I was trudging through forest and wetlands with some scary-looking shanties and stuff set up around the way. At that point I decided I must have missed something and turned around.
My first strange experience was when I ran into a group of horses. I've always been a little scared of horses. At first they seemed scared of me and kinda of ran ahead of me. But after I had passed them they started following me. One of them followed pretty closely (like within a couple feet of my back) and it freaked me out a bit, 'cause horses can smell fear right? I just KNEW they'd get a whiff of that and just all gang up on me, beating poor defenseless me with their hooves. Luckily, I escaped. (Not all facts about horses in the above paragraph are true.)
My second experience was running into a guy about the time I turned around. He looked rastafarian with his dreadlocks, and was wearing only a pair of pants. In one hand he had a fruit and in the other he carried a gigantic machete. I hadn't seen another person since the beginning of the hike, and for the first time in a long time I feared for my life. But I tried to keep my cool and I said "hey" as we passed. He said "hey dude" back and I live to tell the tale.
On my way back out of the valley I noticed a fork in the road I had missed earlier, and this trail led to the beach and to the trail to the other valley. Next trip I'll have to finish the hike I suppose.
Anyway, the valley was beautiful and I was glad to have spent some time in it.
Amy and Clay arrived in Kona early the next morning so I went to pick them up. We had nothing planned for the day, but I had a couple things I thought about doing so we headed out.
First we dropped by the City of Refuge. We wandered about the city for a while then hiked around on the lava rock and tide pools that surround it. Things were going good until Amy stubbed her foot on the rocks. I could tell she was hobbling a little after that, but it wasn't until we got back to the car and inspected the damage that we could see he foot was in bad shape. She had hit the ball of her foot right under her toes, and it was turning her foot purple and there was quite a bit of swelling going on.
Before the incident I had recommended we hike the back side of Waipi'o valley, and that was out of the question now.
We drove back to the campsite and got Amy and Clay all signed in, and Amy was kind enough to let us do a quick hike on our own. So Amy hung out around the tent to read and Clay and I went to do the hike real quick. Of course we got to the trailhead and the hike was closed for some reason. Bummer. So we headed back to camp and came up with a plan B.
We had all wanted to see some flowing lava that evening, so since we were headed over that way anyway we decided to see some of the waterfalls around Hilo. First was rainbow falls, and I don't know the name of the other one.
Then it was off to the lava flow. The county had a parking lot all set up and reflective strips on the rocks as a trail. man, it was beautiful. we got there as it was getting dark, and throughout the hike you could see the orange trail of lava coming down from the mountain. at the end there was a viewing area set up and we just sat and watched where the flow hit the ocean and sent up a huge cloud of steam. The steam was lit from beneath by the lava - it was so cool! Unfortunately we were only allowed to go to within 1/2 from the lava. Maybe sometime soon I can go back and hike from the other side - get a little closer, eh?
saturday was temple day. We had a good 13 or so people from the branch show up. We did baptisms and confirmations, sealings, and then a session later on in the day.
After that a lot of people went to the Big Island Grill across the street from the temple for an early dinner.
Then Clay and Amy and I walked around Hilo town until it was time for them to fly back to Maui.
The next day I was originally hoping to have some time to check out a beach or two, but my tickets got changed so I was headed back earlier in the day than I wanted to. There was a church about 10 minutes down the road from the campsite (Hanako'o ward), so I decided to attend the early meeting there. Wow, they must never get visitors there. The first question they asked was, "Are you lost?" Then I was almost swarmed by everyone that came in. Someone would walk in and whoever I was talking to would stop them and ask, "Hey, have you met Jeff?" I still can't get over how friendly they were there - so cool. Either that or they were just couldn't stand me and were passing me off to whoever they could.
Anyway, that's the end. Overall it was an awesome trip. I took about 100 pictures, so you if you really want you can download them here.
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/114454/templetrip.zip
And I almost forgot - some guy hit my car from behind while I was waiting at a stop light my first night over there. That's 3 times in 2 years I've been hit in Hawaii. He was going slow enough that there was no damage, which is good because he didn't even stop. Crazy.
posted by heeble at 6:21 PM
3 comments
