Day 6 - Wednesday 9th October 2019
A big breakfast in the
condo, followed by getting our gear together for a day out on the Big Island, Hawaii.
Snorkelling and volcanoes. Hopefully not in one go… It was my first time
heading south on Ali’i Drive, past Magic Sands beach, past St
Peter’s-by-the-sea church, and into the Kahalu’u car park. It was still only
around 10am but there were quite a few people in the water. And, as usual, it
was scorching. The trend seems to be that the morning is cloudless, calm, and
hot, and then as the sun rises and the land and sea heat at different rates,
the air starts moving, clouds form and it gets windier in the afternoon. But no
less scorching.
We were ready to do it
(snorkelling, that is) ourselves in the water at Kahalu’u, but there was a
converted camper-van thing offering advice and equipment for rent, so we headed
over. We ended up renting a few bits and pieces, and found out a bit about the
reefs, the marine life and the effects of pollution. Would we see turtles, I
asked? Possibly but not very likely was the reply.
Maybe we would see a turtle after all
Suncream on, t-shirts on,
and into the water. I had my underwater camera. What a difference compared to
the pier. There, there were a reasonable number of fish and a few bits of coral.
Here there were fish of all kinds, everywhere, and loads of coral. It wasn’t
exactly calm, with swells coming in, but it was really warm, and really
brilliant just cruising about and admiring the underwater scenery and life. We
had bodyboards and floatation noodles which made things much easier for the
non-ironman-level swimmers.
It was unreal. Like
swimming in a tropical fish tank. The fish were happy enough if you stayed on
the surface, but if you dived down to get closer to them, they would dart off.
I didn’t want to get too close to any of the coral or rocks: I was happy enough
with small benign fish, but wasn’t too keen to provoke an eel out of its hole.
We got some great
photographs. Even just looking back to the shore and seeing the palm trees was
brilliant. Natalie had a proper snorkelling face mask and suggested I try it
instead of the goggles I’d been using up to now. She said it was a game changer. And it was unbelievable.
Breathtaking. Like the difference between a massive, high-definition,
all-singing all-dancing, pin-sharp modern TV and a crappy old TV from the
1980s.
We could have stayed in for
hours but time was passing, so we headed to shore. As we approached the rocks,
we saw a turtle feeding. So cool. Munching away on whatever was growing on the
rocks, not a care in the world, no care for any of us. I wanted to get a few
photos but wanted to respect its space as well. Sometimes the current would
sweep me towards it, or it towards me. Eventually I left it in peace and we
went for a cold shower.
Quite well camouflaged
We paid a visit to the shave ice van. These are
delicacies found in Kona – giant bowls of ice cream topped with flavoured shaved
ice. I can’t say it was the nicest thing I’ve ever had. Full of sugar and
chemical flavouring. But something I was happy to experience once and once only…
We made the short walk up
to the church. A small, white-painted wooden building, with blue trim. I was a
bit disappointed that it was locked. It was peaceful though, among the palm
trees with the ocean just below. Next to it, what looked like a big, rocky,
open stage. The Hawaiian sacred ground. I wandered up onto it. We were soon
told we shouldn’t stand on it. My mistake. My naivety. Hopefully the Hawaiian
gods wouldn’t punish me.
Mark Allen came to this
very spot just before he won his first Ironman world championship. One of his
immediate family had taken an interestingly-shaped piece of lava from Hawaii on
a previous visit, as an ornament. Nowadays, there is quite a lot in the news
about not taking sand or rocks from where they belong. Airport security personnel
are catching and fining returning holidaymakers with sand and pebbles in their
luggage. Worse, taking something like this from Hawaii invokes Madame Pele’s
curse, as was the case with Mark Allen.
Madame Pele is a sacred
Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, fire, lightning, wind, and dance. She is the
mythological creator of the Hawaiian islands. Offend her at your peril. Her
winds will blow you off your bike on the Queen K. Her heat will kill you on the
marathon. Her hair can be found as glass-like volcanic strands of lava. Her
tears can be found as small pieces of solidified lava drops fused into volcanic
glass. Mark Allen didn’t win the Ironman until that piece of lava had been
returned to Hawaii and the curse lifted. Deirdre had bought me a small jar, on
which was painted “sand from my favourite beach.” We couldn’t take any from
Hawaii for fear of Madame Pele (and airport security). We were heading for
Madame Pele’s domain. To Volcano National Park. Aloha Madame Pele. Mahalo for
being gentle with us…
Volcano was maybe 80 miles
away. The road wasn’t great. Hilly and winding. Some great views but not great
for making quick progress. We were getting hungry. We stopped in Punalu’u
bakehouse in a small town called Na’alehu. Supposedly the bakehouse was world-famous.
It stank of sugar and frying dough and it was boiling hot and full of tourists.
Not where any of us wanted to eat. We did a quick U-turn out of there and found
the nearby Hana Hou restaurant (the most southerly in the USA). It was decent
enough, and we finally got back on the road. Time was passing…
It was getting on for 4pm
by the time we got to Volcano. It would be dark in 2 hours. You could spend
days exploring the national park. We had 2 hours. We went into the visitor
centre as we needed toilets and more food and drink. At best we’d have 90
minutes to explore. We hadn’t planned this too well… The visitor centre
overlooked a huge crater, and just as we headed out to look at the view, it
clouded over and started to lash with rain. This trip wasn’t looking so clever
now…
We drove past the "great crack"... which inspired discussions
about funny turns of phrase
A huge crater, just before the rainstorm
We couldn’t go out in such
rain, so we tried to look at the various leaflets and work out what we could
do. We got chatting to a park ranger who recommended we drive down the “Chain
of Craters” road. It was about 20 twisting, turning, descending miles down to
the ocean. We wouldn’t have time to drive all of it, but there was plenty to
see in the first 5 miles or so. Hopefully as we descended, the rain would ease.
It was pretty much
rainforest for the first few miles, punctuated by a few smaller craters. We
made a few stops. The scenery was amazing. Even the smaller craters were maybe
20-30 metres deep. One of the bigger ones looked a few hundred metres across
and maybe a hundred metres deep. Mother Nature is a powerful force.
We passed various lava
flows, signposted with "1968 lava flow", "1987 lava flow" and so on. Hopefully no lava flows or eruptions on Hawaii for the next week... The further down the chain of craters road we went, the better the
weather got, and eventually it was blue skies again. The trouble was, there was
only about 45 minutes of daylight left. We stopped the car at Mauna Ulu. There
was no-one else around. It was a little bit eerie out in the middle of nowhere,
in a volcanic wilderness, with darkness not far off. Mauna Ulu is a volcano
whose recent eruption cut off one of the roads crossing the national park.
Nature is a ferocious beast to be able to create crater this size
How life takes hold in the middle of barren volcanic rockscapes is amazing
There was a trail around
Mauna Ulu. We improvised – we didn’t have a lot of time and didn’t want to get
caught out by darkness when we weren’t anywhere near the car or the road. We
wandered along the flat volcanic plane, marvelling at how plants have managed
to spring up in the desolation. There was a magnificent silence. A world away
from the hustle and bustle of the ironman on Ali’i Drive.
We climbed up on the lava
flow. Some of it was brown and rocky and sharp, and looked solid. Some of it
was black and smooth and looked still soft. Pieces of lava were lying
everywhere. It sounds obvious, but it literally looked like rock which had been
melted down viciously (which is exactly what it was). We cleared the lava flow
and followed a big fault line crack away from the peak. Again, how had plants
managed to colonise it? We had to avoid various holes and cracks and chasms.
Fall in, and you’re not coming back. Help is miles away. Unbelievable
landscapes. With the sun dropping, we took a few self-timed photos. I had to
run to the group to get in the shot before the camera clicked. Obviously I had
to concentrate hard on this task, as the photo below will show…
A piece of lava, with air bubbles
More great cracks
Fall in and you are in trouble
Sunset rainbow
We couldn’t wait any longer
and had to head back to the car. We could go back the way we came, the longer
way, or we could cut through the rainforest. For the purposes of exploration,
we cut through the rainforest. It was amazing because all the birds had started
there evening chorus. It was surreal. You couldn’t see them but the cacophony
sounded like continuous whistling. Primal. Natural. Real. Fantastic. We got in
the car and headed up out of the national park.
Rainforest made a change from endless black lava and blue sea
The silence of the Mauna Ulu area was incredible. Until the evening chorus started.
Which was even more incredible. Sound needed for this video, but it doesn't truly do it justice..
Then what to do? Get home
as quickly as possible and get to the shops and buy food to self-cater? Get
home and go to a restaurant? Eat on the way home? Which way to go home? Back
the way we came on the twisty, slower roads, or up over the Saddle Road which
goes through the middle of the island and climbs to something like 8000 feet?
The first concern was to
get fuel as quickly as possible. We had no idea what time the rural gas
stations would close. So we headed for Volcano village, a few miles away. It
took ages to figure out how to use the pumps, with pre-payment authorisation
and foreign credit cards and it not even being clear what fuel we were actually
putting in. It was getting quite late. Too late to spend over 2 hours driving
home and then eating. So we headed for Hilo, the big town before the saddle
road. We’d find something there. We drove round for ages trying to find
somewhere good. It was worth the wait though as we found a really good place
which did great pasta, pizza and fish.
It would be very late
before we’d get back. The Saddle Road was a hell of a road, bisecting the
island and topping out at 8000 feet. But it was straight, open and wide. Steve
was driving and he got a move on. I was in the back, tired, so I put my head
back and half-dozed. At the highest point of the saddle road, the Mauna Kea
access road turns off, leading up to the top of the highest volcano on the
island. This access road climbs another 7000-8000 feet up to the summit, where
there are a few observatories and telescopes. You can’t drive normal cars up
there due to the road condition. It’s one of the best places in the world for
stargazing, and one excursion we had been looking at was the trip up to the
peak for sunset dinner, and then some stargazing.
I’d investigated this, and
found out that the access road was closed indefinitely. A big new
telescope/observation post had been proposed, which the locals were extremely
opposed to. They saw the summit of Mauna Kea as sacred ground. So they’d
blocked the access road, and no-one knew how it would all be resolved. We
zoomed past a big camp of locals blocking the road, and some police vehicle
lights. Then we zoomed down the far side and back to Kona. It was late. The
Underpants Run was early the next morning. Suitable underpants and other bits
and pieces had been procured in advance. There was no question of missing the
underpants run. So we went straight to bed with the alarms set early…
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