Well the honeymoon in Hawai’i is now over. It was lots of fun and we did lots of stuff. Since everyone is going to ask me what all we did, I’m blogging the trip and all the events that others may want to read about. Pictures will come later.
Saturday
We get married on the same day that the Pope dies. Doesn’t really have so much to do with the honeymoon but I thought I’d mention it. The ceremony went off pretty much without a hitch as far as we’re concerned. Certainly way better than those kinds of things could have gone.
Sunday
Daylight Saving Time begins (stupid missing hour). We have to get up at what feels like four in the morning. See my previous post for more on that. So we’re up well before the sun and board an airplane headed for San Francisco. This is about a five and a half hour flight, in an Airbus A320. Our single-serving friend for this flight was a guy going back home who works for a public relations company (firm?). They do lots of PR for San Francisco area (i.e. Silicon Valley) companies, including some video game developers. He’d been to GDC and was excited about going to E3 and apparently has developer’s versions of all the major consoles and he can get copies of games still in development sometimes. So that was pretty cool.
After a short wait in San Francisco, we boarded a flight to Kailua Kona, Hawai’i. This flight was on a Boeing 757. For future reference, the Airbus A320 was much more comfortable (it’s amazing how much an extra inch or two between you and the seat in front of you can make). So that was another five and a half hours, but seemed like twenty because all you could look at was ocean. As the plane is landing we see this pretty ugly black ash field that we’re pretty much landing in. Picture a fireplace (wood not gas) after a huge fire. It was something like that. We were like “where are the palm trees...”. Turns out you have to go about ten miles south of the airport and you’re in super tropical paradise land. Scattered all over the island are ashy looking places (volcanic rock actually.. it takes a few thousand years for the lava rock to get eroded enough and covered with enough dirt for plants to grow on it).
When we get to the resort it is only four in the afternoon but we think it’s ten o’clock and I’ve never traveled more than one time zone away so that was really new to me. Oh before I go on I should mention the airport. This airport had a very open architecture. By which I mean, it didn’t really have walls. Birds would fly through. Since it never really gets below 60 degrees there (that’s in a really bad cold snap) and they only get about 20 inches of rain a year, they can get away with that. Really made up for the first impression given by the land around the runway (they did landscape the terminals of course). Speaking of the weather, every afternoon if you would look mauka (toward the mountain) you would see these heavy, gray looking rain clouds, but if you would look makai (toward the ocean), the skies would be clear, and it would never rain (it kinda misted a few days). Once the clouds come over the mountain they’ve had all their rain squeezed out of them on the rain forest side, leaving the dry side of the island.. dry.
Anyway, due to jet lag, we ended that day by falling asleep about the same time as the sun, about six thirty.
Monday
We woke up super early (at like five thirty) and went out and watched the sun rise over the mountain. Well actually it was taking too long so we ended up going back inside before it actually rose. We pretty much got up before six o’clock and went to bed before nine all but the last two days of our trip. Anyway we went to an island orientation thing at the resort that had free food and we met lots of nice people. Next we went swimming at Kahalu’u Bay, and decided we needed to rent snorkeling equipment to really enjoy it. Now, a word about the beaches in Hawai’i: they are not really anything like the beaches in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida that I am accustomed to. For one thing, you’re on a mountain in Hawai’i, even though most of it is submerged, so the coastline is pretty steep for the most part. No continental shelf, so to speak. And most of that coastline is made of rocks or reefs. There are not that many beaches as far as stretches of sand are concerned, and where there are they are not the six mile long stretches I’m used to. On the other hand, the water is less salty and a lot cleaner. I was actually able to open my eyes under this water, something I wouldn’t dare to attempt off the North Carolina coast. Plus, you could be in water up to your neck and still see your feet. That being said, I learned very quickly that reefs and lava rocks are really sharp when I made a cut about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide in the bottom of my right foot. Fortunately, most of what was cut was that thick skin on the bottom of your foot so it wasn’t too terribly bad (which I suppose is why you have such thick skin there anyway..).
So after doctoring my foot, we went to a lu’au type thing at the resort (not quite a lu’au because there was no pig cooked in a pit, just light refreshments). Everyone learned a hula (yes, even Hawaiian men did hula dances.. they just aren’t as sexy so it’s probably not quite as familiar to you). I guess that was most of that day.
Tuesday
Stephanie got up early and went to a short sarong-tying class at the resort while I went to rent snorkeling equipment. Turns out that they have to fit the masks and fins to your face and feet (I was accustomed to the Wal-Mart variety of masks and fins that are one size fits [some]). So I had to go get Stephanie and bring her down there, but it was just down the street from the resort so that was okay. The people at Miller’s Snorkel And Surf were very nice people. In fact the only people we met on our whole trip who weren’t really nice and friendly were other tourists.
Next we headed north about thirty miles to go on a helicopter ride with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. We got to see Kohala Mountain valleys and waterfalls, which were really pretty and we got some great pictures and video. However, neither of us feels the need to go on a helicopter ride again. By the end we were just waiting for it to be over with because we were getting pretty sick.
After that, we headed up the road a little further to Hapuna Beach, voted #1 in the world by some travel magazine last year (I’ve been told). Very pretty beach, we did some snorkeling but this was a beach that was actually not all that rocky or reefy, so there wasn’t much to see. But the beach was really nice. Another thing I’m not used to is getting out of the ocean and not having the place I’m staying at right there, so I can rinse off but still feel sticky all day until I get back to the resort to take a shower.
Anyway we next headed to Waimea. This town is also called Kamuela because there are three Waimea’s in Hawai’i and the post office wasn’t cool with that so they made the one on Big Island go by Kamuela, but it was still marked on the map and on my signs as Waimea so that’s what I’ll call it from here on out. It wasn’t a very touristy town, up higher on the mountain so it was pretty cool and damp. There were lots of little shops there and we looked in several of them but didn’t really find anything we wanted to buy. Then as we were leaving I spotted a music shop and decided I’d go in there to see if they had ukuleles. I had been planning on getting one as a souvenir while I was there, since they are pretty cheap as far as musical instruments go. We got to talking with Paul, the shop owner, and it turns out he is from the same town as Stephanie (Coffeyville, Kansas; population: 11,021). As an interesting aside if you just go to Google Maps and zoom in almost all the way, Coffeyville is the town the map is centered on. Anyway he was a really nice guy (like I said, the only rude people there were other tourists) and I said I wanted a cheap ukulele and he obliged, giving me one that the school kids use there (lots more fun than a recorder I’m sure). So after we get back to the resort and I start trying to play it, I find that the intonation is terrible on it. More on that later.
Wednesday
We intentionally didn’t plan too much this day to get a break. We decided to go back to Kahalu’u Bay (where I cut my foot on Monday) since we now had snorkeling equipment. When we got there, there was a sea turtle just hanging out on the beach (which was really cool). When we got out in the water we saw all these fish that we had no idea were even there on Monday. I even saw an octopus! He was blended into the rocks until I got close to him, them all of a sudden the “rock” jumped up and sped away, leaving a trail of ink in my face. Scared me because I didn’t even know he was there in the first place! When we got out of the water I saw another guy with a bloody knee and elbow, and a kid with a bloody foot, so apparently I’m not the only idiot who underestimates how sharp rocks and reefs can be.
Next we decided to go back to Waimea to see Paul again so that I could spend a little more money on a nicer ukulele. I got one that actually had proper intonation and he didn’t have any problem with that. Not much else to say about that trip..
When we got back to Kailua Kona we decided we would eat out that night, and we went to the Kona Inn Restaurant. If you ever go there, I’d highly recommend it. Especially at sunset. It’s another one of those places that doesn’t have walls on one side of the building. In this case, the west side, that overlooks the ocean where the sun sets. It was a really nice place to eat and the food was great. I had Hawaiian Chicken and Steph had the Scampi & Calamari. It was a little pricey but I can’t complain too much.
Thursday
This was the day for our trip to O’ahu. That’s the island that Honolulu is in (and eighty percent of the people in Hawai’i). We went to see the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor (since you really can’t go to Hawai’i and not go there). It was a really nice thing to see, except that it was hindered by post-nine-eleven security restrictions. Almost as bad as the Statue of Liberty, except they weren’t making people take off their belts. And while the memorial was free to see, you couldn’t bring any bags with you, and you had to pay three dollars for a locker thing to store them in while you went out to the memorial.
After that we headed over to Waikiki and decided to go see the Honolulu Zoo. It wasn’t exactly the best zoo I’ve ever been to. But like the sign said, it was the best zoo for 2300 miles! All in all it was a kind of rushed day because of the traffic in Honolulu, and we’re both glad we opted for a stay on Big Island instead of O’ahu.
Friday
Day started with an awful timeshare presentation that we had to attend. Not quite as bad as I had expected but still they were pushing pretty hard for me to spend money that I simply don’t have or foresee having in the near future. After that we headed off on the two and a half hour drive to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. On the way we stopped at the Punalu’u Black Sands Beach for a picnic and some swimming. This place was really really cool. I had never seen a black sands beach before (they don’t have them in North Carolina, obviously). There are all these cool formations where lava has poured into the ocean there not too long ago (the black sand is actually eroded lava rock that fell into the ocean and washed back up there). You’ll have to check out the pictures whenever I get around to posting them. The beach is also a place where sea turtles like to hang out. A wave nearly threw one into my face at one point! There was definitely no snorkeling here (too many waves), but it was amazing.
Once we were done there we made our way on up to the currently erupting volcano. If you’re picturing something like a second grade science experiment you’re a little off, and if you’re picturing something like Mount St. Helens or Pompeii you’re also a little off. In Hawai’i, it’s more like a slow and steady flow that occasionally changes where it is flowing out of. The current eruption has been going on continuously since 1983. So anyway when you get to the end of the road that is now covered by lava rock (I got a great picture of a speed limit sign that was swallowed by lava rock) you have to hike for about two and a half hours to where the lava is at right now, and that hike is over extremely uneven lava rock and there’s not really a trail. We ended up getting there just before sunset and I think I got some great pictures and video of the lava pools. If you ever go, I’d suggest bringing marshmallows and some sticks. Everyone there was like “I wish I had thought to do that.” As far as I know there are no regulations against it (but I could be wrong). We didn’t get to see any lava pouring into the ocean, but at least we got to see it as the sun set.. after dark it glows orange and it is really cool. I don’t think my camera could quite capture the orange color correctly though. But then when we were about to leave it started raining, and it was already pretty cool and windy (this isn’t the desert side of the island). And that volcanic rock gets very slippery when wet, as a cut on Stephanie’s leg and my elbow can attest to. Fortunately we got flashlights, because once the sun is down it is pitch black out there.
As an aside, I should mention that all of the street lights on the Big Island are yellow. Part of an effort to reduce light pollution for all the telescopes on top of the mountain (which was still slightly snow-capped). No businesses are allowed to have lit signs (not even the Wal-Mart!) and there are regulations about all kinds of other lights I’m sure.
Back to the volcano- after the long wet cold and dark walk back to the car, we had to drive two and a half hours back to the condo which was really really difficult because I was really close to falling asleep. Oh and there was a sign that read “Donkey Balls Factory Outlet” on the way but I didn’t snag a picture of it and I’m kicking myself for it now. Apparently “donkey balls” are chocolate covered macadamia nuts.
Saturday
Last day. I’m getting tired of typing all this so I’ll be a little more brief (that’s the plan anyway). I wrote up an outline for this blog post last night during a three hour layover in San Francisco.
Anyway, Saturday morning we went on a snorkeling trip with Dolphin Discoveries. This was really fun. First we went to Kealakua Bay (which we were told is a top 20 snorkeling location in the world and the best in Hawai’i). I can’t really describe it very well, but we bought a waterproof funsaver camera so I’ll eventually get those pictures online. Next they took us over to Honaunau Bay (a.k.a. Turtle Bay). This place had lots of sea turtles. They come to this bay to get cleaned: these little yellow fish will come up and eat the algae off of the turtles’ shells. It was pretty neat, and it was a huge reef area. At one point I got pictures of three turtles together. Can’t wait to see how they turn out (since you can’t really preview on a non-digital camera).
Finally for our last excursion of the honeymoon we went on a sunset horseback ride on the Kohala mountain (the oldest volcano on the island and hence the smoothest and most green) with Paniolo Adventures. This was another really pretty sight, and I got a few great pictures of the sunset. The only problem was that it got pretty cold when the sun went down, and it was misty the whole time, which didn’t feel so great (I didn’t expect to be cold so many nights in Hawai’i!). But overall I’d still recommend it.
Sunday
Flight home. Left at noon. Yadda yadda yadda got back to Charlotte at 7:30 Monday morning.
Pictures coming soon!
