Hawaii part 2 - the Big Island

For our final week and a bit in Hawaii, we flew out of Maui into the Big Island, in Hilo on the East coast.

Manual crosswalk haha

While we were there we stayed at a Hostel that had outdoor "glamping" - glamourous camping. We enjoyed it so much that we stayed outside for the rest of our time at that hostel. The room walls were made out of bamboo with an open ceiling and outside our window opening we were next to a little rainforest. At night we could hear frogs that sounded like crickets and it was relaxing to hear the stream of water passing by.

Checking out our gorgeous hostel!

On Sunday we went to a Baptist church nearby and they had some hymns and meaningful scriptures. And one man played a special instrument. Becky thought it was cool sounding. The people there were really friendly and welcoming. Becky felt at home there, it was a smaller church which she liked very much. That afternoon we walked through a nice scenic park and Coconut Island with beautiful palm trees and other unique looking trees.

Even trees with beards! (Banyan)

The next day we went to Walmart and picked up camping equipment and later that day we hiked to some fairly long caves. In them we found dried red lava.

As we walked to the Rainbow Falls we enjoyed looking around the area

 
and also found some pools of water called the boiling pots and another waterfall behind it that was pretty.

Above the falls! (no, we didn't look over the edge)

Then we went for a walk and bought some ice cream on our way back to the hostel. The next day we bused (almost got on the wrong one!) our way west into the south-middle of the island to Kilaueu, one of the world's most active volcanoes, in the National Volcano park. We went to the volcano and watched it illuminate the sky into an orange glow!

A better one that I didn't take

They're elusive to take pictures of!

We camped at a park that night, and shivered through an unprepared cold and damp night at 4000 feet elevation.

The following day we hiked on the Crater rim trail and along the way we saw hot steam fields rising from deep underground (They were nice to stand in)

We hiked along the forest, visited the volcano museum, watched some volcano eruption movies, and hiked alongside hot Sulphur fields - stinky and colourful!

The rural buses come once a day, and there are no bus stops, you just flag them down. We continued west to Hookena Beach Park on the West coast, watched a sunset

Can't resist those sunset pics

and set up our tent and ate dinner in the dark. It was an absolutely gorgeous, very hot park to spend a few days at with very friendly people.

The next morning we relaxed on the beach, swam in the big intense waves. While Aaron worked, Rebecca blogged and read her book. The third day we relaxed, tanned, cooked, packed. Since it was our last night we were looking to sell our camping equipment, and we actually did to a local! She was an elderly lady who also gave Aaron some traditional Tamali: corn husk wrapped beef.

We hitchhiked up the steep and long hill to the bus stop and made our way north to Kona.

Hitchhiking on the back of a truck (Becky was inside) on a roller coaster road!

The next day we hitchhiked to a down town beach area there. In case you're wondering, hitchhiking is a normal and accepted part of culture in Hawaii. We found a nice modern church there. We visited a traditional dance competition, and Aaron went for a walk through the YWAM base in Kona (University of the Nations). That night was between our 1.5 halfiversary and valentines so we had a nice dinner around the downtown beach area with an ocean view. We took the trolley back home. The following day we waited and waited at the bus stop to get to the airport...and it never came because it was Presidents day! Thankfully we managed to hitch hike with a nice young couple to the airport. The girl was from Alaska and the guy was from Poland. A pit stop in Honolulu to pick up and repack our luggage, and we said goodbye to Hawaii. Now we're headed off to New Zealand!

Enjoying Kona

Hawaii part 1

A quick and chilly goodbye and we were off to 11.5 hours in the air. (Toronto airport has some iPads to play with?!) By the time we were at the Vancouver airport, we didn't have much time to spare, we ate and boarded our next flight to Hawaii. Becky however got really sick on the plane with flu like symptoms.

 

Hawaii - Oahu

We got on a shuttle to our first "Polynesian Beach hostel" in Honolulu at what felt like 3am for us. Needless to say we slept in. Our first walk for groceries was much to long.

We've gotten pretty good at buying the exact amount of groceries so we don't have to travel with food. Becky was still not feeling well. After we were rewarded with our first afternoon at the Waikiki beach and a bbq at the hostel.

We went on a North shore tour of the island with our hostel. It included watching a practice for a surfing competition (Volcom Pro Championship)

Yea Aaron took it (the picture, that is)

eating at a shrimp farm, (but not Becky), some beautiful mountains including the set of Jurassic park

and (to Becky's delight) the Lost TV series,

The ocean and its beauty

including the "China man’s hat", one of the locations for "50 First Dates" (among others)

 

Through out our time we've enjoyed meeting some really nice people at the Hostels, and sharing advice about the places we're gonna go to.

(modern) "Buddhist" temple

We spend most of a day at Pearl Harbour, saw a submarine and a couple museums, and the war memorial.

We used the city bus to get around Honolulu a lot. Waikiki is very commercialized and touristy area with its many tourist and designer stores. Everywhere else we went to was small local shops.

Also went on a West coast tour. We drove past the beach where surfing was invented. Went on  a bird reserve hike, did some whale watch along the coast. Went to the Disney resort and swam and snorkeled there. We saw tiny little yellow and black striped fish. That night we watched the weekly fireworks from the end of the pier.

Western point of Oahu

Aaron has been working in between and during travels, and has sort of been able to keep up. Still working on it. Aaron's long time cracked-screen cell phone (from his brother Adrian), broke a few days into the trip, so he bought a used smart phone off off craigslist (without cracks!) and bused across the city to get it.

We rented some leisure bikes and biked to the Diamond Head Mountain and then climbed up. Gorgeous ocean and volcanic crater view, with an army outpost carved into the top of the mountain.

 

That night we saw a free hula show around the area on the beach.

On Sunday we extended our bike rental and biked early to Manoa Falls,

with a nice walk through a jungle kind of forest.

 

It was a very long bike ride. On the way back Rebecca was riding on the road and was switching to the curb (at Aaron's suggestion) when she caught a small edge and went flying off the bike onto the curb. Luckily she was wearing a helmet. Someone called in Emergency services who came in full force (5 police cars, ambulance and firetruck). Becky was limping for a while but did not need a trip to the hospital, but resulted in us missing church.

February 2 we packed up, stored our suitcases in Honolulu, spend a few hours at Magic Island Beach (We also saw wedding pictures taken there. It's common for lots of weddings to take place in Hawaii).

Goodbye, Waikiki

Maui

Then we bused to the airport and flew to Maui and bused to our second hostel. Aaron installed a new door lock for the hostel owner and worked a bit. Our first day was a bit rainy so just went for a walk to a nearby beach.

The owner of the hostel took us to Maalaea. There they had crafts that we looked around at, then went for icecream and walked a few kms down the beach.

When we rested Becky went for a walk around the area and stepped on thorn twigs that pierced through her flip flops!

We went to Kihei onwards to a nice beach in Wailea where we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

Becky gets asked a lot to be a photographer

We also went to Lahaina and went whale watching on a big boat.

We saw a lot more of their bodies then that...they're just elusive!

Also checked out a museum, historical prison and the black rock beach.

Snorkeling with Gopro at Black rock beach

Aaron bought shave ice (Hawaiian specialty) which is basically like a slushy but...shaved ice.

Our best day in Maui was a Roberts Hawaii tour bus on the Road to Hana, following it all the way around the lower part of the island.

There were only 4 other people, and the tour bus took us through cliffs, the ocean side, lots of waterfalls

Really really cold water!

lava tubes, irrigation tunnels and to a sampling winery.

There are 600+ turns, 50+ one way bridges on the Road to Hana

...and a few celebrity homes such as Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks. That night we went to a block party that was up the street from our hostel and we listened to the bands play their music.

And that concludes the first 2 weeks of Hawaii. We've been having a blast! Subscribe for more.