Hawaii Bound - Sunday

May 18, 2008


Up early again since we were Mountain View bound! We left the condo by 7:15 and headed north. We passed a lot of cyclists on Queen K. They must have been training for the Half Ironman at the end of the month. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. Before we got to the turnoff for Waimea, Matt was surprised that you could see Kohala and that it was still the Big Island. He thought it was another island. We got to Waimea and thought it looked a lot like Upcountry Maui. There are a lot of farms and ranches. Hard to believe you are in the tropics. There was still snow on Mauna Kea. Once you get the the east side of the island it is amazing how different it is from the South Kohala area. Where South Kohala/North Kona is very dry and rocky the east side is lush and tropical. We made a detour off the highway to Laupahoehoe Park. This is such a gorgeous place. The road down was a little hairy but Matt aleady had practice drving on roads like this on Maui last time! There is a camping area here and a memorial to tsunami victims. Just the contrast of the tall black lava cliffs, the green of the plants and the blue of the ocean all together is amazing. Next we stopped at Akaka Falls. We planned ahead and had our hiking boots in the car. For $10 each and 3 trips to Hawaii this has been the best money I have ever spent. The walk the the falls is short on a paved trail so you could do it in flip flops. The falls are 420 feet tall and spectacular. Back on the road to Hilo where we topped off the gas tank. Gas was pretty much the same price as at home. We made it to Mountain View and found Gramma's lot. She had asked us to take better pictures than what her Real Estate agent had sent her. She said that all she got was pictures of trees. Well I didn't know where to start since that is all that there is! I couldn't tell where one lot ended and the next began. We ended up taking pictures of the neighborhood and tried to get the best pictures of the lot we could. I wouldn't even know where to start prepping the place for a house. This would be a huge undertaking. There were a couple of newer houses either at the end of the block or across the street so that is a good sign. We did get the stink eye as we first drove in from the locals but there are haoles in the neighborhood. Back on the road to home. We passed Volcano National Park and could actually see steam from what I believe is the lastest eruption on Halemaumau Crater. Matt said we could go back on Monday. We stoppped at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach for lunch. I had packed us sandwiches so this was a good place to pull off. This area was so cool. There is a black sand beach with lava points on either end and a little bay with a boat ramp. Behind the beach is a row of palm trees and a small pond. There were turtles swimming about but none on the beach. Great place to stop and stretch the legs after being in the car for awhile. Back in the car for what seemed like forever. The drive from Punalu'u to Keauhou was boring. You can only look at so much dry grass and rock. I told Matt I did not want to come back this way so we decided that maybe we would save a visit to Volcano for another trip. Once we got back to the condo we decided that we needed to go swimming since we had been there for 3 days and had not touched the ocean. First we checked out He'eia Bay but it is way too rocky to try to get in. We decided to drive to Kahalu'u Beach since Matt had run past there the day before and he thought it was promising. The place was packed since it was the weekend. We put our things on the seawall and I was just ready to jump over to the little bit of sand on the other side and I realized that there was a rather large turtle sleeping there. We decided we better walk around to the end of the seawall to get in. It looked like it was going to be easy going entering here but there are large slippery rocks. Matt made it in but I didn't. We got out and walked to the other end of the wall where there is a sandy spot. Then another turtle swam right in front of me. I had to wait for it to move. Matt stayed at the shore since he said there were a lot more turtles right there and he didn't want to disturb them. I had to keep an eye on where the turtles were so I could get out but that is hard to do without glasses so Matt had to spot for me. I was really scared I was going to step on one or kick one. I told Matt the only reason there were so many turtles there was because we didn't have the camera or snorkel gear. After drying off we went down to Snorkel Bob's to rent gear. The guy there was telling the group before us that at Honaunau there had been White Tip Reef Sharks. This got me all excited. First thing out of Matt was "we are not going there". Yeah, right! Back at the condo Matt went for a run while I went back to the grocery store to get something for dinner. We went to watch the sunset. This was the first day we could actually see the sun! The vog was breaking up a little. We had hamburgers for dinner with beer and mai tais to wash them down. We sat on the lanai after dinner and watched the clouds and the moon. What a pretty night after a long eventful day!