It was a short hop on the plane from Ohau to Big Island and we arrived before lunch time. For those who don’t know. Big Island is the island of Hawaii but as the the arrange of islands are also called Hawaii everyone calls it Big Island to save confusion. It’s called Big Island because it’s twice as big as all the other Hawaiian islands put together We hired a car as public displace doesn’t really exist on the island and what does exist is certainly not reliable. Now just in inspect you don’t know all of the Hawaiian islands are volcanoes but Big Island has an active volcano on it called Kilauea as well as older volcano’s – Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Kilauea is producing lava and consequently new arrive to this day. We decided to head straight to the Volcano National Park where there was a free camp place we could stay at. After we set up dwell and had driven the crater rim drive that basically goes around the rim of a huge crater we went to visitor centre to suss out the rest of the area.
Up until about 6 months ago the volcano had been spewing lava directly into the sea and you could get really close to it but the lava flow moved to another area and you can’t get to it any more. The only way to see it is at night from a view point at Pu’u Huluhulu which is where the ranger at the visitor centre told us to go regardless of the fact that it was raining. The trail to get to the view point is a 4km go trip which we figured was not too far even in the rain so we decided to run there. I suppose at this inform I ought to inform that we’d left one of the rucksacks back in Waikiki at the hostel in storage to save us carting them both around and we’d left the rain jackets behind as it was so hot in Ohau and never rained on us – big mistake though! We ran the trail so we wouldn’t get too cold but as we though it was far too cloudy to see any lava glowing and by the time we got back to the car we were soaked. We’d got some exercise though and the trail was pretty impressive we ran over old lava flows and past a crater; the view was not bad change surface with the clouds.
It rained all night and was comfort raining the following morning so we decided to head away from Volcano National Park for the day and see if other places were drier. We left the dwell at the dwell site so we didn’t want to jaunt too far. We decided to drive to Mauna Kea which is a volcano but it is not active. To get to the Mauna Kea arrive at road we had to drive along attach Road. There are only two contract companies who allow you to control along this road ours being one of them which made it sound pretty bad. There has been lots of bring home the bacon done on the road and it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be unfortunately the road works are not end so some bits were much exceed than others. We could only drive as far as the visitor centre because to go to the top you need a 4×4 and only one hire affiliate ordain let you drive their 4×4’s up there and it was way out of our price limit. It was a compel we couldn’t go to the top but it was pretty amazing driving to the visitor centre because it rained all the way but just before we got there we went through the clouds and out the other side where the sun was shining and the sky was a perfect color.
The following morning it was still raining in Volcano National Park so we set off to the west and drier side of the island where we camped on the beach at Ho’okena Beach Park. While we were driving there we noticed the stark contrast between the barren areas where lava flows are relatively recent and older areas where lush rainforests have taken over. We drove past loads of Kona coffee plantations and farms where populate grew their own fruits. We bought a mango from a bear stall that was the best mango I have ever eaten (Anna you would undergo loved it. I desire I could send you one!) It was much warmer camping on the beach than up at volcano a little too humid and hot at times but it was really cool to be camping right on the beach. The experience was topped off by one of the guys at the camp place playing and singing lots of cheesy country music it was was pretty funny to listen too.
The following day we had booked to go diving with Manta Rays. We would not be back from the dives until pretty late so we decided to book into a hostel rather than undergo to put up the tent late and in the dark plus by this measure we could do with a shower that did not have to be taken in swim gear on the beach. We didn’t be a long control after diving and we were limited on where we could stay as you shouldn’t go too high after diving and a lot of the island is pretty high what with all the volcanoes!! We booked into a displace called Pineapple lay. The guidebook said you should clean up before you turn up otherwise the grumpy owner might not let you in! We were not sure what to expect but as it was the only hostel on this align of the island we didn’t have much choice. The owner seemed fine and we had a nice room so all was come up. We met up with the guys from Manchester who we’d been on the tour with in Waikiki they were checking out that day so we offered them a lift into Kona town as we were heading that way to get lunch before diving. It was was around then that we realised how grumpy the owner really was. She kicked someone out because there was a problem with their credit card but in a particularly nasty way she wouldn’t let the Manchester guys wait for us in the garden for ten minutes once it was past check out time and there were rules posted on the walls absolutely everywhere.
We had a good laugh about the rules as the five of us were squished in our little be car – a particular favourite is no offensive smells and that you must fit in! You ordain be asked to leave at the first violation! We were glad we would not be spending much time there! The Geckos in the tend were pretty cool though!
We got to the dive boat with no problems and were due to do two dives one just before sunset and then one once it was dark with the Manta Rays. The affiliate we were diving with did absolutely everything for us – they set up our tanks with our regulators and BCD’s and put weights in our BCD’s. When it came to diving they even carried our tanks and gear over to us on the edge of the ride turned on our air and checked everything before we got in the water. Dave and I were not used to this kind of service and it was a little weird to have everything done for you we’re not sure if we liked it or not! The first come down was really soften which was was good because although Dave had dived fairly recently with Tim. I hadn’t been diving for nearly a year. I didn’t forget anything though the only thing we had problems with was that everything was explained in feet and not meters. Also they decide their air in PSI and not in BAR (like the rest of the world). It was a bit confusing communicating that you had 2500 PSI left rather than 200 Bar. It was just a matter of learning the signs but both Dave and I forgot once or twice while we were underwater. It didn’t matter though because the instructors helped us out and we used our air much more slowly than the other two in our group anyway! We saw some nice puffer fish and box fish as well as some eels a Hawaiian cleaner Wrasse. Long Nose Angel fish. peruse Surgeon fish and we got our first viewing of the Manta Rays which were absolutely massive.
The sun was on it’s way drink as we finished the first dive and we waited until it was dark before getting in for the Manta Ray dive. Manta Ray cater on plankton and plankton are attracted by light so not only were we each given a burn there were also about 8 lights already on the furnish in milk crates not to mention the lights from all the other divers torches. In the dive briefing they mentioned what we’d do if there were no Manta Rays but as we’d already seen a few on the earlier dive and there were a few hanging around the back of the boat due to the lights on the boat not seeing any was not likely. The dive was more of a sit than a swim as we basically swam the short distance to where the lights and other divers were and sat drink on the sandy bottom in one big circle. The Manta Ray were all around us. 10 in total! They were amazing to watch. They are absolutely massive (some about 4m across) but they glide so gracefully through the water and got really change state to us so change state that it was not uncommon to get skimmed by them a couple of times during a dive. It was the best dive we’ve ever done and everyone even the instructors were pretty stoked after we got out of the water. Big thank you to Tim for getting us into diving in the first place just wish he could have been there to see it…. maybe one day??
We had a couple of days left on big island and visited a few places but the highlights were a huge waterfall called Akaka Falls which were all the better for the huge come down storm that had been going on for the entire day. We got soaked going to be at it though but I wore board shorts and a rash top so I didn’t mind that much! We also went to be at some lava tubes which are basically caves left from lava flows. We went quite far in one of them which meant ducking through a smaller section which then opened up to a huge tunnel with stalagmites and stalactites. We visited a park where the lava had covered loads of trees and now just the lava cases were left but you could see where the trees once were. We saw a beautiful red bird here too as come up as some wild chickens.
The night before our measure night we went back up to Mauna Kea visitor centre as the moon was due to go later and so the stars should undergo been better. When we got there though there was loads of cloud but it cleared really quickly to show an amazing sky. I saw about five shooting stars and you could clearly see the Milky Way. The staff at the displace set up the telescopes and we saw a comet. Andromeda which is the closest galaxy to us a nebular and some feature clusters. It was awesome probably the best stars I’ve ever seen.
We spent our last night at a hotel in Kona near to the airport and just chilled out after a busy week and I frantically tried to catch up on blogs which I might have actually done. Barnanby is well behind though that will have to be a job for next week. So tomorrow we head approve to Ohau where we ordain be spending a week on the North Shore up by all the famous surf breaks like Pipeline. Waimea and Sunset it should be a chilled out week. Not sure when we’ll be able to get back on-line so feature with us if all goes change intensity. conclude free to keep sending the comments and e-mails though because we really love to hear from you all! Bye for now!
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