Hawai`i - day 5 - lava boat and Mauna Kea

This morning we woke up at 3.00, but we did it for a good reason: we were going to see the LAVA FLOW!!! We were meeting with the group and the captain of the boat at 3.45 in a village called Pahoa. From there they were taking us to the area were the lava from the Pu’u o vent enters the sea. Just one mile before the entrance of the village, Mihai, bored of driving after a car pulling a boat, decided to pass it “ignoring” the double line painted on the road. Well, the police car that was driving behind us (and that we had obviously not noticed) chased us and gave us the sign to stop: another unbelievable experience in the States, just like in the movies!!!! After all the police officer gave us a fine of 90$… ONLY 90$!!!! That was even more unbelievable!
We finally made it to the lava boat trip. We went in the night along the coast, everything was dark and suddenly, we saw it, a red bright glitter descending from the land and entering into the sea. We came closer and closer… so much that we were into the cloud of steam and felt the heat of the lava. It was amazing!!!! Definitively it worth the money.
When we went back to the harbor it was 7.30 and so we still had a long day to enjoy. We drove to Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the Big Island and then we move north to the region of Kohala. We stopped for lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant in Hawi were we ate really good and then continued to Polulu Beach. Despite it was cloudy we liked it a lot because of its smooth black sand, fresh water river and many palm trees.

Hawai`i - day 4 - around Hilo

Today it was our forth day in the big island. It was still raining when we woke up, so the expectations for the day were not high. We first went to see a series of waterfalls – Rainbow fall, Pe’epe’e fall- but after seeing Iguazu falls last year, these were a joke. The only worthy one was the Akaka fall, with its 80 meters. For lunch we stopped at a very funny restaurant called “Back to the 50s”, full of pictures of Elvis and Marilyn. We had the typical meal at this side of the island: the “moco loco”, a plate of rice with some meat and a fried egg on top, everything covered with brawn sauce. It was good actually, although a little heavy!
In the afternoon we went to visit the Lyman museum, where we freely used their phone to arrange out boat trip to see the lava flow entering the sea tomorrow at 5 am!!!! After more than half an our at the phone, we finally visited the museum, and we did it half price!!! Very nice people.

by Aponte

Hawai`i - day 3 - volcano park Napau trail

The third day was a little bit disappointing. We planned a long hike Mauna Ulu – Napau – Kealakomo (~18 km) to the closest point (currently open to public) allowing a view of the smoking Pu`u `O`o crater. The hike was nice at the beginning but soon the rain started and didn’t stop during the whole hike. On the way we have seen some old craters (Pu’u Huluhulu and Makaoouhi) and hike through the lava flows …and Cris was using her head to open the path through the rain forest. However, once at Napau we couldn’t see anything because of the low clouds and rain. Although forbidden, we could have hiked a little bit more towards Pu`u `O`o but the weather did not look to improve so we decided to go back. We finished the whole hike in 4 hours and then we hitchhike back to our car. By the way Napau campsite is a joke: 3-4 small clearings in the middle of the wet fern forest and a pit toilet. Don`t plan to use it except for an emergency.
In the afternoon we went to the coast and had a warm swim at Ahalanui in the volcano heated tide ponds and stopped also at Kapoho tide pools (not too impressive). Since it was raining a lot we decided to spend the night in Hilo rather than in the camping as planned.

Hawai`i - day 2 - volcano park

The second day started with a "turtle" swim (at 6.30 AM) .... we were complaining not seeing anyone and suddenly one appeared 2 meters away swimming along :)))...it was cooooollll. Then we have seen a second one feeding in the small tide pond in front of our tent. After a quick breakfast we packed and went to visit the Kiluaea volcano park. We drove along the Crater Rim to see the sulphur banks (earth cracks from which gases from the magama chamber rise to the surface), the steam vents (rain water going down earth is heated and evaporates trough the cracks) and a general overlook on Kiluaea crater and its smoking Halema`uma`u vent. The views were nice and impressive for my first volcano experience. Kiluaea Iki hike was also nice providing the experience of walking on the crater floor and trough the lush forest.
We drove the Chain of crater road to see old craters some of which were already cover by the luxuriant rain forest and we finished at the sea level viewing the distant smoke of lava entering the sea.
In the evening we went to Kalapana to see the lava flow entering the sea. Although we were quite far away the experience was unique…. the binocular helped a lot . It was a peak point of a very good day.

Hawai`i Big Island - day 1

After 26 hours traveling we finally arrived on the big island and went directly to sleep. The first day begun with some snorkeling at Two Steps beach. Lots of fishes feeding around the corals. Can`t really compare with Mediterranean which in comparison seems like a desert. Then we visited Honahau National Historical Park and learned some things about the Hawaiian history.
The second part of the day turned to be a complete fiasco. We took the so called "Road to the sea" which is quite hard even for a 4x4 and it takes a lot of time to see a quite usual beach (except the sand which was a mixture of green and black). The second beach (located 1 mile further) was better (bigger and with some vegetation) but the road was very bad and it damaged our 4x4 which now makes some strange noises each time we turn right. The end of the first day we spent it in South point which has nothing special except being the southernmost point of ht island. Finally we went to camp in Punalu beach park. A very nice black sand beach with palm trees and a small lagoon next o the sea.