Robot Claw

The next five days of our trip were spent on the largest of the Hawaiian Islands, known as Hawai’i (and often called ‘The Big Island’ to avoid confusion with the state name):

< Hawai'i Our hotel (located at the yellow star on the above map) was called the Outrigger Keahou Resort, and was the best hotel of our vacation. Not for amenities or the beach, but for the fact it was located on tidal rockpools that contained a wealth of sea life. You can see the extent of the rockpools in the image taken from Google Earth:

One could look down from the patio into the pools and sea all manner of brightly coloured tropical fish, as well as more exotic creatures such as eels and turtles. Every time we passed through the open air lobby we made it a habit to see what was there (a large puffer fish seemed to resident just south of the patio) and during low tides we’d clamber over the rocks for a closer look.

Hawai’i was the most laid-back part of a trip. If I were to characterize the island in terms of tourism, I’d say it caters to the tourist more interested in getting out-and-about. While the area we stayed in (near Kona) had it’s fair share of tourist oriented attractions (such as snorkel cruises or helicopter rental companies) Hawai’i also has a great deal to offer to those who rent a car and hit the road. As we did.

On our second day we visited Volcanoes National Park (red star on the map). Before you ask – no we saw no actual flowing lava. But the evidence of recent flows (and I mean ‘recent’ in the planetary sense) was impossible to miss. The landscape in the park is alien, with large sections devoid of any vegetation (or apparent life). The scent of sulphur is in the air, and a feeling of imminence – these volcanoes are not extinct, after all – lingers.

The middle and rightmost images show the crater believed by Hawai’ians to be the home of their fire god Pele. The lei, placed on the edge of the crater is an offering to her. Believers also leave piles of rock around the park in offering. If I recall correctly, Pele’s caldera has not had molten lava in it for about 30 years (which is no time at all in the geological scale).

The volcanoes are still spewing lava, but the current flow is not near the tourist locations. Determined hikers can potentially see lava though, but as you can see one must be very prepared (including for disappointment):

< How to see lava Also in the volcanoes park we visited an ancient lava tube, which is a tunnel left behind by an underground lava flow. Thursten Lava Tube is located in an area of dense tropical jungle (mostly ferns), heavily populated by various types of birds. It was a strange contrast to the dead lavarock plains of only five minutes away.

A company called Atlantis Submarines offers submarine cruises on each of the three main Hawaiian Islands, and we went on one while on the Big Island:

We went down to 107 feet during the hour-long cruise, and it was really, really cool. Absolutely one of the highlights of the entire vacation. If you are ever in an opportunity to do this (they run subs at 14 locations worldwide) then I recommend it highly!

We also drove up around the north coast to the town of Hilo. The scenery on the northern side (blue star) of the island reminded me much of the Australian country (such as around Maitland). This is where the Hawaiian cowboys live, and much of the land is taken up with enormous cattle ranches. Furthermore, eucalyptus trees are to be seen in this area, and the warm climate is not as tempered by the sea breezes as closer to the coast.

The main reason we drove over to Hilo was to see some notable waterfalls (green star), and even though the rainfall had been low we weren’t disappointed. The rightmost image shows Akaka Falls, over 400 feet in height, and the leftmost shows Rainbow Falls (considerably shorter):

< Falling water Here's some shots for my parents benefit, of a very famous (and very tiny) catholic church just a couple of minutes walk north of our hotel:

The lavarocks next to this church harbored a colony of tiny black mice…

Sometime in the 19th Century, mongooses were introduced to Hawaii in an attempt to curb the rat population (rats themselves being unwanted invaders that originally immigrated to Hawaii via the European ships). However the mongooses are diurnal, and the rats nocturnal, and never the twain have either met. The mongooses apparently took to Hawaii, and they can now be seen in the wild with about the same frequency as we see squirrels here in the northeast. (To put an Australian slant on that, they are about as common as…um….er…..galahs maybe?)

And last but not least, here’s a shot of a really, really fat dog:

The Big Island was great. For us, it was the best of the three island, perhaps because it was the most relaxing, perhaps due to the amazing breakfast buffet put on by our restaurant (and for which we received ten free tickets, covering our entire stay). If I was ever going to go to Hawaii for any significant length of time (such as to live), my destination would be The Big Island.

The first five days of our vacation were spent on Oahu, one of the northwestern Hawaiian islands. Oahu is home to the capitol, Honolulu, and the famous Waikiki Beach, which is watched over by the dormant volcano Diamond Head, slightly to the southeast. Here is the island as seen in Google Earth:

Our hotel was the Royal Hawaiian, and is positioned directly on the best part of Waikiki beach. The hotel is old and famous, but as a five star establishment is not at all inexpensive. It’s easily the most upper-class hotel we’d ever stayed in.

Waikiki is a tourist mecca – a strange mix of very high end shopping and the sort of surf lifestyle I remember from my days as a youth. A high percentage of tourists on this island were Japanese, and the city welcomes them openly (for instance, virtually every restaurant has Japanese menu’s, including the fast-food joints). Everything centers on the beach though, and every day the sand is thronged with people enjoying what is the most impressive beach I’ve ever been to.

The far right image above is the view from atop Diamond Head, which can be seen in the distance in the middle photo. The climb was somewhat torturous, given that a good deal of the height is climbed via steps, but we were lucky to have a misting rainfall during our ascent (which miraculously cleared once we got to the peak). If you are ever in Waikiki, you must do this climb because the views (both from the path and the peak) are great.

< Birdwoman of Waikiki The above photo shows a local who appeared to be doing some sort of maintenance to the local pigeons. It seems the pieces of pumice she scattered around her attracted the flock, and they had trust in her enough that she could pick them up and 'check them out'. If you look closely you can see she is holding one in the picture. I regret not asking her what she was doing... During our stay in Waikiki we visited many attractions (such as the zoo and an aquarium), saw a magic show, went shopping and of course went to the beach every day. It was a go-go-go five days, in keeping with the energy of the area, and distinctly different from the laid-back atmosphere of the second island of the trip. The weather was great as well; although it was in the mid 80's every day the ocean winds cooled us off. Later in our trip we would experience some punishing heat... Our last night was spent at the luau, which is a traditional Hawaiian feast including Polynesian dancing and singing. We went to the one hosted by our hotel, and it was a lot of fun (even though the fire dancer at the magic show was superior to the one at the luau...) < At the luau I liked Waikiki a lot. If I ever return to Hawaii, this island would be my number one destination.