Category: Hawaii

Okay, just to prove that we’ve not just been drinking cocktails!!!

We got up at silly o’clock and did the Diamond Head Crater hike (early, so it was still cool – sort of!). Quite a workout on the legs as lots of stairs but not far distance wise. You enter the crater via a road tunnel and then hike up the inner wall to the summit where there is an old Fire Control Station that was built between 1908 and 1910. Thankfully, there are now handrails the trail originally didn’t!!! There’s also a tunnel you need to get through – not too bad as it is lit and it was worth going for the view (and to say we’ve hiked a volcano!!!!).

The crater was used by the military in the 1900’s for training and to defend Oahu during WW2. The crater is just over 1/2 mile wide and thought to have formed from a single eruption. Le’ahi tends to be called Diamond Head now after traders in the 1700’s mistook calcite crystals there for diamonds.
Oh, and in case you’re thinking of doing this, your time slot has to be reserved in advance along with car parking, although we just got the number 23 bus.

So, I guess if you’re coming all the way to Oahu, Hawaii, one of the key sites to visit is Pearl Harbour. This is the site of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, which led to America entering WW2. There are some interesting exhibitions about the attack, before and after accounts, an informative film and of course the poignant trip across to the USS Arizona memorial which still lies beneath the water with 1,178 souls still aboard.

Andy also went off to visit the USS Missouri (site of the final Japanese surrender signing on 02 September 1945, thus bringing an end to WW2) and also the aviation museum on the same site. You can visit the memorial for free but must book your trip to the memorial in advance on line (or take pot luck when you arrive – there is a standby section and your chances depend on time of day). The other exhibits, such as the aviation museum, USS Missouri, and the USS Bluefin (submarine), have an additional cost.
You can take an organised tour there or just jump on a bus (number 20) like we did!

We took a round island tour to see some of the other Oahu sites, including the Dole pineapple plantation (gorgeous pineapple icecream or Dole whip as it is known here),

the beautiful North shore with its lovely sandy beaches (but be careful snorkeling and surfing here – the sea is not as friendly as it looks) and yummy fresh shrimp dishes, Highway 3 – apparently the most expensive road in America, which cuts through some stunning scenary, Jurassic valley as it is known due to some filming here (!), and also the Byodo-In Temple – a replica of one near Uji, Kyoto and which stands within the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park which is a huge multi denomination cemetary.

We also got to see more green sea turtles swimming near the shore.
It was a good snapshot of the rest of the island if you don’t want to drive but it’s not cheap (although we did get a fair amount of discount for sitting thro a timeshare presentation – well it was the middle of the day in an air conditioned room so nothing was lost there!!!! And no, we don’t own a timeshare now🤣🤣).

And just for you Hawaii Five-O fans, we had to go and find the King Kamehameha statue seen in the series. In actual fact it stands outside of the Capitol of the Kingdom of Hawai’i and home to the Hawai’i State Supreme Court – you can go on a tour but sadly not when we visited – court was is session.

Instead, we crossed over the road and went on an interesting tour of the Iolani Palace. It was built in 1882 and is the only royal residence in the United States. It was the home of Hawai’i’s last reigning monarchs before they were overthrown in 1893.

So our Hawaiian trip comes to a close – it’s been interesting seeing how different the 3 islands we visited are; Big Island is very brutal with its huge lava fields, Kaua’i is stunning beautiful and green and Oahu is a real mixture of scenary, history, music, surfing and commercialism. If you are water babies, love surfing and snorkelling, then these islands are for you – even if you’re not, then there is still lots to see and do. The food has been great, lots of fresh fish (Poke bowls are delicious) and fruit, we’ve had yukele lessons, learned a little Hawaiian – goodness, it’s a hard language and only has 13 letters in their alphabet, and enjoyed some stunning scenary. However, it is VERY expensive, especially on Oahu. Would we come again? Probably not, but it is worth visiting once in your life, at least if you can.

Chocolate, shaved ice, yukeleles, and gorgeous scenery – what more do you need?

We spent a week on Kaua’i, the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and the greenest – it is known as the Garden Island and you can see why – towering pleated cliffs and mountains all covered in verdant greenery – it’s also one of the wettest places on earth and yes, we experienced that as well!

We’ve driven the length of the island as far as you can in a rental anyway – the centre is pretty much off limits and there is no road on the west coast due to the huge imposing Na Pali coastal cliffs – best seen by boat or helicopter apparently. We’ve visited the Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii) and driven up to the Kalalau lookout (avoiding major pot holes but worth it).

It is best to go there first before the fog or rain comes in, and we were lucky enough to make it just in time. Stunning views, and you really do expect to see Dinasours (well, Jurassic Park was filmed here!). We didn’t get a chance to do any of the hikes because it bucketed down, but there are lots here of varying different lengths and difficulties.

We made a major error with places to visit here as you really do need to book up about 30 days in advance, so we didn’t get to any of the botanical gardens (although our AirBnB has such a stunning garden I’m not sure we missed anything!!) or the Haena State Park at the very top of the island – although we did drive up there – gorgeous scenary, valleys of taro farms, lovely beaches and lots of surfers and windfoilers riding the waves. We did get to Kilauea lighthouse,

now a wildlife refuge where we saw Shearwater chicks, Great Frigatebirds and the elusive Nene goose.

We saw (and heard) the Spouting Horn

and watched sea turtles swimming, explored tiny old towns like Koloa and Kapa’a, visited an old sugar plantation house, saw the Wailua and Opaekaa Falls and generally chilled.

We visited the Lydgate Farms Kaua’i Chocolate, where we were treated to a very informative talk about how cocoa is grown (each tree can grow for about 50 years with its prime harvest being up to about 20 years), whilst also tasting their delicious chocolate. I personally am not keen on dark chocolate, but I found their 70% was lovely, not at all bitter but still with a wonderful depth of taste. Needless to say, we ended up buying some, along with some chocolate covered mac nuts! They had harvested some beans about 3 weeks ago, but we could still see the tiny flowers and small pods growing on the tree trunks.

It’s definitely worth the trip, and you can also do a 3 hour tour if you have a chance.
In the lovely little town of Kapa’a we sampled our first shaved ice, which, although I was sceptical about, turned out to be delicious (watch out for brain freeze tho!!).

Then we came across a yukele shop, and were given a demonstration of various different techniques by a very knowledgeable gentleman.

It’s a lovely island which needs a car to explore, is slightly more expensive than Big Island but maybe because there are some high-end resorts and golf courses here. Oh, and there are hundreds of roosters here – the forest reds and, accordingly to local lore, a Hurricane enabled domestic chickens to escape, and now they’ve interbred. All are protected!!! There is no need for alarm clocks here!!!!!

Hawai’i or Big Island is the youngest and biggest of the Hawaiian Islands and famed for its active volcanos, so our first visit was to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park for a day. On the way, we stopped off at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach – very aptly named as the sand is indeed black.

It’s a favourite for the Hawaiian Green turtles who often bask on this beach, and along with rarer Hawksbill turtles may lay eggs here, too. We spotted 2 turtles in the sea but thanks to Hurricane Dora (a fish hurricane, one that necer makes land) some 400 miles off the coast, the waves were incredibly fierce (as was the wind) and they struggled to get to the beach.
We drove through vast areas of black lava to the park and then drove along the Kilauea Crater Rim drive. It’s hard to describe the vastness of the crater and how much it sank after the last big eruption in 2018. There are no eruptions at present, although there was one in June this year, and a new cone has formed in the crater from that.

We also saw the Kilauea Iki Crater, which you can walk across. This erupted in 1959 and continued for over 30 days. Columns of lava spouted higher than the empire state building during this time and eventually formed a new mountain.
Then, we had a short walk through the Thurston lava tube to finish the trip.

You can hike around the park (subject to conditions of course), and there is also another drive – chain of craters – but we didn’t have enough time for this.
Nature is pretty awesome, and this area is proof of that indeed. Our photos really don’t do it justice.

Thursday we visited two different cultural sites here in Hawai’i. Firstly St Benedicts Catholic Church, aka The Painted Church. It was built in 1899 and painted by Belgian Father John Velghe with no artistry training. It is quite something inside. It is a practising Church and whilst many Catholic churches preach fire and brimstone depicting hell – this is not the case in Hawaii as they already have their own “god of fire” in Pele and the volcanos! There is a small cemetery here with beautiful gardens. All graves are above ground due to the difficulty in digging through lava!

Then we visited Pu’uhonua o Honaunau – a temple of great powers. However, beyond the great wall that surrounds the Royal Grounds is a place of refuge. This is where those who broke the kapu or sacred laws and beliefs could seek refuge if they could elude their pursuers by foot or swimming through the reefs. In wartime, this area was also a sanctuary for the elderly and children.

We saw lots of yellow tang fish in the clear sea waters around this beautiful site.

Friday – rain stopped play (well nearly!). It was the first rain we’ve seen properly since April!!!
The day started well and we headed off down Saddle Road, which runs through the middle of the island between the two huge volcanos – Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Whilst not terribly photogenic it does make you feel very small and humbled by these amazing mountains. We took the side trip up 9200ft to Mauna Kea Visitor centre, which, although small, has an interesting display about the observatories and telescopes on the summit. You can hike there (the air is 40% thinner so you need to be wary of altitude sickness) or drive in a 4WD but the top is 13776ft, can be snowy and cold but is also considered a sacred area. The visitor centre gets busy at sunset as it’s a good viewing spot.
Then we headed towards Hilo and into pouring rain! The plan had been to visit the Botanical Gardens and Akaka Falls but there was no point. We did manage a break in the rain to quickly view the huge 6 mile long Waipi’o Valley, also known as the Valley of the Kings – communities used to farm taro here but most left after the 1946 tsunami.

Then on back to Kona to sample the local Ola beer and watch a stunning sunset after all that rain!

Next we ventured to the North of the island to the tiny town of Hawi, once a busy sugar town. We were amazed that you can see the island of Maui from this coastline.
We travelled up Highway 250, the Kohala Mountain Road, with amazing views back across the island. Here, it is very pastural land with ranches and cattle everywhere. We passed the Parker Ranch/ Camp Tawara memorial for the 2nd and 5th marine division, who returned here to recuperate and retrain during the second world war.
After a coffee and cake stop we ventured back on the coast road and stopped off at the Kawaihae harbour for a paddle – this was formed by a 120 ton aluminium ammonium  nitrate explosion (under Project Plowshare, to normalise the “friendly atom”! This explosion creates something close to an atomic boom!). It created the harbour but did no damage to nearby Heiau (temples).

We then visited Pu’ukohola Heiau – a historic temple to the war God Ku and where King Kamehameha established his kingdom. There were some very interesting videos here of the hawaiian culture and history which tied in all the other sites we’d seen throughout the week. Then back through varying landscapes of old lava flows (cinders and smooth) to our AirBnB.
But before we left the island, we had to visit our two favourite local breweries, here in Kona!! Kona Brewing and Ola Brewing.

We’ve enjoyed Hawai’i. You definitely need a car to get around as the buses are not terribly reliable and the distances, whilst not huge, take a while to get around due to road conditions and speed limits. A very chilled island.