Volcano National Park

We had allocated a whole day away from the hotel for the visit to the Volcano National Park (VNP). The concierge told us that it would take us about 2 to 3 hours for the drive across the island to Hilo (we were literally on the opposite sides of the island), which is the 'other' city/big town on the Big Island, and then from Hilo, another hour to the VNP. She suggested that we leave the hotel at about 6.30am so that we could take the 'scenic route' which she had plotted out on the map for us. It would take us to a few points of interests, such as a waterfall, gardens, markets, etc. She also said that it would be best that we left the VNP by about 4.30pm so that it doesn't get too dark on the drive back. I am totally not used to having highways without streetlights!

We decided that we didn't want to be awake so early in the morning, so decided to leave at 7.30am instead. The drive out to Hilo wasn't too bad, but we didn't take the scenic route - thought maybe it would be better to get to the VNP and then take a look at other things on the way back. So we got to Hilo - looks too much like a New Zealand town! - and drove through it. Got side-tracked coz I had put in 'Akaka Falls' into the GPS unit, but forgot all about it. So even though we were already on the way to the Falls, we turned back. Well, Rod was driving so I didn't really have a say in the matter.

We were about 10 minutes out of Hilo when I saw a sign for Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Farm and I called out "Turn left! Turn left!" to Rod. Did he turn? No. We were to go on our way back from the VNP. At this point, the sky is looking rather ominous and we still had the top down ("Why get a convertible if you're not going to put the top down?" says you-know-who). I'm starting to get goosebumps coz there's no more sun (Hilo is on the side of the island where it rains most of the year - is that the leeward or windward side?) and when you're driving along with an open top, it gets rather cold ("It's not cold, don't be silly!" says you-know-who). Then I see drops on the windshield ("Maybe we are driving away from it" says you-know-who). Then I feel drops on me ("As long as we don't stop or slow down, we won't get wet" says you-know-who).

This is getting me more and more pissed off, so by now, I'm in a huff and totally ignoring Rod's monologue about how the sky seems to be getting brighter, and that the rain seems to be going away and how the temperature is not that bad. I think eventually he thought that it would be wise to pull over and put the top up after all - thanks to the wonders of modern technology, putting the top up involves just hitting a button, and there's no need to struggle with canvas tops and clasps and buttons. It turns out to be a wise move, because 5 minutes later, we're driving through pouring rain and the windshield wiper is going a million miles a minute! I'm now changing into my jeans and putting on my jacket and it's more comfortable in the car.

We finally get to the VNP, pay the entrance fee (which is good for re-entry up to a week later!) and then drive to the visitor's centre. There's a small cinema hall that shows the 20-minute video of how Hawaii is formed, the flora and fauna and how the Polynesians came to the islands. It was interesting, but I would have gladly watched an entire video on the volcanoes. We got a map and listened in on what looked like a park ranger doing a tour. It was really interesting listening to him, as he seemed really passionate about volcanoes and was giving good information that we probably wouldn't have known. Like how the volcano that's most likely to erupt sooner rather than later is the one nearby Waikoloa Beach (the Hualalai), which is on the Kohala Coast. Apparently its cycle is about 200 to 300 years, and the last known/recorded eruption was in 1801. On top of that, it's got a very steep slope, so if it were to erupt, there would be a lot of trouble for all the hotels on the Kohala Coast. It's obvious why all the top hotels are on the Kohala Coast (with about 360 days of sun per year!), but you'd think that someone has an evacuation plan thought out if they're built at the foot of an active volcano!

The volcano that is currently spewing out lava - well, it's kind of 'leaking' out into the sea, rather than spewing up in the air - is called Kilauea. The Big Mama of them all is called Mauna Loa (yes, the mac nuts are named after the mountain) and the ranger says that it could spew up enough smoke, ashes, lava in one day (or week?!) than Kilauea does in a year! Anyway, Rod wanted to trail behind the group, but I was worried that they had paid for the ranger and were in a big tour group who may suddenly turn round to us and say "Who are you?" So we ended up driving and walking around on our own.

It was really cloudy the day that we were there, so we couldn't see the 'steam stream' clearly coz the it blended with the grey sky. While looking on the VNP website, I found out that what we were looking at was an eruption of a new vent at Kilauea! And there I thought that we were looking at something 'ordinary'. Apparently there was a small explosion (the first since 1924!) recorded in March, with two more recorded in March and April, so we just missed them.


Here's what we would have seen if it had been a clear day (took it off the VNP website!) and here's what we actually saw when we were there. Vast difference huh?
















The lava flow had also changed direction recently (in the last few months) and was no longer flowing within the park area, and we actually would have had to drive out of the park and drive some distance to the cliffs to see the lava flowing into the sea. I guess we were really 'half-hearted tourists', coz we didn't do that. But if we did, here's what we would have seen (also taken from VNP website).


We did walk from the Visitor's Centre to the Steam Vents (here they are) - looks like Rotorua! On hindsight, we should have taken the car and driven around the Crater Rim Drive, but Rod wanted to walk, so we did.

It was a 15- to 20-minute walk to get to the Steam Vents, and then there was a signpost that said that there was the Jaggar Museum in 2 miles and the Military Camp in 0.6 miles. Rod says that 2 miles isn't very far, and that we could walk to the Museum, no problem.

I was rather dubious (and I'm the one with a better judgement on distance and time!), but he insisted that it was walking distance. So we started walking. And walking. And walking. And walking. Rod kept saying that it's just round the corner! I think we must have walked another 15 to 20 minutes before I said that I had had enough and that I was going back to the car, as there were other things to see.

We turned back and took a different path and ta-daa!!! The Military Camp! We had only walked 0.6 miles!!!! And he wanted to walk a further 1.4 miles because he could 'see the museum and it must be just round the corner'!!! All I can say that it's a good thing I decided to turn back...imagine walking all the way there. AND BACK!

This is Rod with his hand over a steam vent, even if you can't see the steam.

Anyway, once we walked back to the car, we drove to see the Thurston Lava Tube, which is a lava tube (basically a hole in the mountain that was 'melted' by hot lava and then froze when the lava flow stopped) and was discovered by some guy called Thurston. I thought that it would be a long walk, and that there may be guides taking people along the way and explaining 'interesting facts about lava tubes'. But there wasn't. We had to walk down a path and then enter the tube.

It's lit and wet, but basically you walk through it on your own, take some pictures and you're out again! But on the way out, I heard voices coming from another part of the tube that was gated.








The signboard said that that part of the tube was not 'developed' and would be accessible, but advised carrying a torch. It also sounded like a guided tour was taking place. Unfortunately we had no torch and no guide, so we walked up again. I look a real bawheid in this photo!

We actually still had the Devastation Trail to walk - which is an old lava flow from the previous eruption. But it was getting late, the weather was crap and we were tired. So we decided to call it a day and left the VNP. On a good day, I'm sure we would have enjoyed everything a lot more (and I may have even walked the 2 miles to Jaggar Museum!). We were awed by the site - the experience was quite like going to see the Grand Canyon, not that it was similar in what you see, but in the scale of it. We stand at any one point on the walk and you can see the smoke plume but you can't see anything else on the 'other side' of the crater. It's impressive and we wished that we could have seen more of it on a clearer day.

On the way back, we only managed a stop at the Mac Nut Farm and not at any other 'points of interest'. We did spend $100 on nuts and chocolates though! And we were glad to be back on the sunny side of the island.

Hawaiian beaches

We only managed to get to two beaches while in Hawaii. You'd think that being on an island with loads of highly-rated beaches, we'd manage more than that, but unbelievably...only two.

We went to Anaeho'omalu Beach (shortened to A'Bay by locals/tourists) on our second day on the island. I really liked it coz it was very calm and relaxing, it's not very wide but clear, clear water. The sand is not the white, powdery kind of sand, but like salt and pepper, much coarser. That's okay though, coz it means that it doesn't stick to you as much. I've taken a REAL close-up of my foot with the sand...just for fun (it's in sepia tone, so it's not really the right colour, but anyway...that's the texture of the sand). Rod doesn't like non-white beaches - he thinks that they look mucky. We spent about two hours on A'Bay before going back to the property for the usual 'owners update tour' thing.

There's just something relaxing about being on the beach listening to the sound of waves, either crashing or lapping at the beach. We fell asleep in no time. Here's the proof. He's wearing his new Oakley sunglasses which he bought on the first night - very pleased with them.

We didn't get to another beach until another day or two, as we went to the Volcano National Park the following day. And of course, the big UEFA Cup Final was on the morning after that, so no activities were planned for that day. Speaking of which, Rod managed to listen to the game online, as we couldn't find anywhere that would be showing such a non-American game as 'soccer', and it wasn't on the four ESPN channels that they have in the unit.

So after the game, we wanted to go to another beach (a non-mucky one) and I had found another three beaches close by to the property. Close in Big Island terms would mean about a 10- to 15-minute drive, including a two-mile drive out from the property to the main road! That's how spread out everything is. Anyway, we decided on going to Mauna Kea beach - apparently one of the best beaches for snorkelling, with powdery white sand, and voted by Conde Nast as one of the World's Best Beaches twice! We knew that they controlled access to the beach by handing out only a limited number of parking passes each day. Still, we thought we might have made it when we drove in, but apparently not. We missed getting in by ONE car. Can you believe it! ONE CAR! So we then chose to go further down the road (another 5 minutes by car) to Spencer Beach, which is also supposed to be good for snorkelling.

When we get there what do we find? "Spencer Beach Park is closed for annual renovations and cleaning!" ARGH! How is this possible that you're on an island and you're locked out from TWO beaches?!?! This is unbelievable. So we went to the third choice - Hapuna Beach. This one isn't that good for snorkelling, but still got pretty good write-ups. As you can see, it's not very calm, so obviously not so good for snorkelling. It's a long and wide beach, with clean white, powdery sand - just the kind Rod likes. We thought we should have brought the beach pod just for shade, but it wasn't too sunny. There was a lot of cloud cover which is quite a relief every now and then.

The water isn't very deep, except when the waves come over. So I kept to a safe depth of about waist-high, which sometimes came up to shoulder-height if a big wave comes in. It's obviously a popular beach with families and 'newbie' surfers. We saw a group of them with their bodyboards, waiting for a 'mini-wave' to come in so that they could surf it. We walked from one end to the other - not as big a beach as Karon in Phuket, but still a nice walk.

We had another free afternoon a couple of days later after our snorkelling trip and thought we could give Mauna Kea beach another go. We drove up expectantly - after all, it was nearly 3pm in the afternoon. Surely people would have left by now...but...noooooo! The sign "Beach Parking Full" was still up. But wait...there are cars driving OUT from the gates! Which I indignantly pointed out to the guard and he laughed at me. Said that they were just 'workers'. Yeah right. So no go on Mauna Kea again. And we're leaving tomorrow, so I guess we wouldn't be able to visit Mauna Kea beach this trip. We head back to Hapuna Beach, which is really quite a nice beach. We were just disappointed that we couldn't visit another. Anyway, here's a photo of our car just before we left Hapuna Beach. It's in sepia tone again, but it's a white car so it'd still look pretty much the same in colour.

We'd have to go back to the Big Island again to give the other beaches a go!

Arriving @ Big Island

When the plane came in to land, it looked like we were going to land on a strip of volcano rock, it was strange. Everywhere around the tarmac looked like old lava flow, but it could be my imagination. After listening to Rod complain about Japan Airlines for the last 16 or more hours, I was so relieved to finally get to Kona airport. It's got to be the smallest international airport I've ever landed in, not that I've been to many. But seriously...we landed, walked across the tarmac, walked into a TENT, got stamped and walked out, collected our bags, and we're done! That's got to be a lot easier than going through LA airport for one. Anyway, we had rented a car so we get on the shuttle that takes us to the car rental office, and we get stuck behind a Japanese couple who were being spoken to very slowly and loudly, and behind an American Chinese-HK couple who were only able to make decisions when they are at the desk, have about 5 minutes discussing every question that was asked to them, with American Chinese girl hemming and hawing about whether they should rent the car for one day or two. ARGH!

Eventually, we get served and got the usual up-selling question of "I noticed you've only booked a compact car. Would you like to upgrade this to a bigger car (even though I can see that there are only two of you and the size of the car is irrelevant but I have to ask it because it's in my customer service manual)? I can give you a really good deal on a convertible?" Being the practical person that I am, I opened my mouth to say "No thanks" but got beaten to it by Rod who said, "Yeah sure!" So girl says, "Which car would you like? I have a Ford Mustang or a Chrysler Sebring for the same price of $XX!" Rod looked at me and said, "Well, Chrysler is our Client (even though we've not done any work for them for the last year) and they were going to bring the Sebring into Singapore..." and then turned to the girl to say "We'll take the Sebring". Err...okay...nevermind what I think! We end up paying about $200 more than what I had estimated because we also rented a GPS unit.

But to be honest, when we got to the car...it is GORGEOUS...and I've never really been in a big convertible before, so I suppose it was a good decision after all. And as everyone keeps saying "The US$ is soooo cheap now!". We struggled to put our cases into the boot because most of it is 'saved' for the hood, so we ended up having the two big suitcases in the back seat. It's about a 20-minute drive from the airport to the hotel on a straight road, and it's a bright sunny morning, so down goes the hood and we're off! It's pretty cool to be in a convertible, I must say! Here's our view from the front of the car...although some days it did cloud over later in the afternoon/evening.

We got to the hotel pretty early, and as expected, room's not ready for check-in yet. Sigh. I thought we might get away with being 'elite'...which Rod thinks is the answer to all things. Anyway, we managed to get two loungers on the lawn area near the pool, so we went to sleep for about an hour. But what with being in the shade and with the wind blowing the whole time, it got just a bit too chilly to be comfortable. So we eventually got up and walked to the Hilton Hotel down the road to warm up. We were told that the hotel is on over 60 acres of land - I don't know how big that is in metric terms, but I know that 1 acre is big, and so 60+ acres must be huge. Well we got there and they have a tram AND a boat that takes you through the whole property, so there you go...huge.

We took the tram to one end of the property for some lunch and then took the boat back to the reception. It's much nicer on the boat - they have both covered and semi-covered boats. Very relaxing. There is a lagoon for swimming and snorkelling, as well as a Dolphin Quest on the property. They have about 4 pools, and numerous restaurants that are supposedly very good (based on reviews on TripAdvisor!). This is the lagoon, from the reception area just after we got off the boat. The property is so big that we never even got to explore the other half of it by the time we left! Apparently they have an Asian-Polynesian exhibit along the corridors of the entire walkway from one end to another that is worth about US$8million!!! Anyway, by the time we finished lunch and got back to the reception, we figured that our room's got to be ready by now, so we went out to wait for the free shuttle that runs from HGVC to the hotel and the shops. And waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually one of the valets asked us what we were waiting for, and then told us that we were at the wrong entrance for the shuttle! ARGH! So we walked back.

By now, our room or unit is ready for check-in, so we finally manage to get into the place, and WOW! It's really, really nice! There are two bedrooms (wasted on us), one master with ensuite and a double with a common bathroom. The kitchen was even better stocked than mine! So this is what they mean by being 'well-appointed' in their brochures. I said 'well-appointed' so many times that Rod was getting annoyed. The ensuite was huge with a tub (again, wasted on us) and a huge shower stall with double sinks. We really do need to get that if we ever get our own place! There's a huge deck big enough for two sun loungers and a round table with 4 chairs, and we can see the pool from the deck. This turned out to be a good thing because they had a couple of performances during the week that we could see and hear from the deck without having to crowd with the plebs. Haha.

We chill on the deck for another couple of hours - well, Rod chills while I unpack (okay, it doesn't take long, but still!). I had initially planned on going to the Hard Rock for dinner - stick with the tried and tested, right. But somehow we ended up going to Bubba Gump's (of Forrest Gump fame) for dinner instead, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I even managed to save room for dessert, which was a HUGE choc chip cookie that was served in a mini pan about 6" wide, a huge scoop of ice-cream, whipped cream, peanuts and drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce. I wish I had taken a picture of it...it's got to be one of the BEST desserts I've ever had. Obviously I could only manage like half of it, it was so massive! I'll have to try to do this with my own cookies in future.

Of course I was the designated driver back. Not only do I have to worry about driving on the other side of the road, the drive back from Kona to HGVC is about half an hour on a stretch of road with no street lights. I think I've been spoiled with having lit highways back home, but it's kind of freaky with no lights in complete darkness. We did make it back safely of course.