Hawaii Day 6

Day 6 of our Hawaii trip was a Sunday. Fortunately there is a church not too far from our rental. It was a fun experience attending a Sacrament Meeting on the big island. The architecture of the building was unique. There was a normal chapel, but it was small with window A/C units. It was pleasant to be able to give full attention to the talks. The speakers were a younger couple with 5 small children. They were originally from the same ward in Oahu, but ended up going to BYU together and eventually got married. They went to dental school and shared about their financial struggles getting through school with so many children. One way they were able to survive was preforming hula and fire knife dancing in the mainland. Their talks were on unity, and I remember thinking they were really good. (I am surprised how much I remember from these talks. :) )
The wife's talk in particular had a lot of great tips about unity--of course I can't remember them. But I do remember that she shared that her father gave a FHE lesson where he took her and her siblings out crabbing. They gathered the crabs into the bucket. Even though the crabs had the ability to climb out the buckets, none of the crabs ever made it out, because the other crabs would pull one down in their attempts to climb out. They were working against each other so much that they were making it impossible for any crab to succeed. It was an interesting image, especially after having seen so many of those beach crabs the last few days. All I remember about the husband's talk was that it was uncomfortably self-effacing. He was a little too honest about all of his weaknesses. Humility is good though.

After Sacrament Meeting we headed via the Saddle Road over to the Kona side of the island. This is the drier side; so it is much more grassy than jungly. The Saddle Road had lovely views and we saw Mauna Kea (the tallest point on the island) and Mauna Loa (everyone made a big deal about how Mauna Loa is the largest mountain on the Earth).

We listened to Piano Guys music that we had on the phone, which was enjoyable. But by the end of the day, during which we drove a LOT, we were pretty done with that music. I think it was about 2.5 hours to drive there, but a little longer to drive back because we went around the south side of the island. It had a lot of pretty views though!

Our first stop on the Kona side of the island was Kaloko-Honokohau Nat’l Historic Park. This is where the native Hawaiians centuries ago built fishponds. They made these large walls of lava stone and cultivated the fish inside the enclosure. This allowed the people to survive.

We ate lunch there among the crabs and also the families playing on the rocky shore.

Next we drove by the Kona Temple. Pretty cool. There was a chapel next door and some people asked if we were visiting because of the convertible. :)

These photos are a little out of order. Two stops later was the Captain Cook Bay. This was definitely something that we should have researched better so we could have had clearer expectations. First we thought we would drive to the monument. Nope, you either have to hike in (like 5 miles or something) or boat across the bay. Also, apparently the best snorkeling is on the side of the bay with the monument. It had rave reviews about snorkeling with dolphins and amazing fish. Here's the thing--the bay is way too big to swim across. Basically you need to hire a company to boat you over to that side and stay in the boat while you snorkel. It is illegal to touch a boat to the shore on that side of the bay. So it would be impossible to keep your kayak or whatever with you if everyone wanted to snorkel. That's assuming you have a kayak with you. :)
Annnyway, we just ended up driving down a long twisty road to get to the public side of the bay. It was a little stormy, but we snorkeled anyway.

See those rocks sticking out of the ocean? Yeah, they had a ton of coral and interesting fish around them. It was really amazing. The only problem was that they weren't in protected tidepools. That meant that there were big waves that kept coming. I got kind of nervous that were were going to get dashed to pieces by the waves on those sharp lava rocks. Also, we had flippers for our feet, but neither of us had used them before, so they might have been more hindrance than helpful. It was amazing, but definitely less relaxing than the tidepools. Overall we much preferred the tidepools. If we ever go back though, we are definitely setting up a reservation to check out the other side of the bay.

So pretty. I wonder if we would have had a better experience if it hadn't been a little stormy--calmer waves and pretty colors in the water??

Hey, we snorkeled there. There is cool coral under the water everywhere it looks like shadows.

Handsome John standing in the rain for a photo before we head in the water.

After Captain Cook Bay we took the southern route back to Pahoa. So pretty, but it got dark as we were driving.

That view is amazing!

At one point the road separates from the coast and heads inland and right by Volcanoes National Park. Our first clue to this was the orange glow reflecting on the clouds above the lava lake. That's right, the GLOW on the CLOUDS from the LAVA LAKE!!! I feel like it was so much cooler than what I can describe. But I have to say, it made me nervous. We were driving right towards the top of a volcano!! The survival part of me was definitely saying we should have been driving away from that, not towards. It also really hit home that we were on top of a volcano! Turns out we weren't on top of a volcano just at that location, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Check out that glow on the clouds and the steam. So cool!

Earlier that day we stopped at Pu’uhonua O Honaunau Nat’l Historic Park. Yeah, I don't know how to pronounce any of these. I felt like John was actually doing a pretty decent job of it by the end of the trip. Apparently this was a religious sanctuary of the natives. 

I don't know that we took time to fully enjoy the historical significance, but it was cool to see the ruins/foundations of old walls and buildings. There were some weird stories that we read about--how one of the kings wives had displeased him so in order to escape his wrath (and certain death) she dove into the ocean and swam here. Because she made it the whole way, her life was spared, and she was pardoned. Yeah, women's rights were pretty abominable back in the day.

There were some pretty interesting carvings. I was sheltering one from the rain. Don't you love these big umbrellas our rental had for our use? So nice. 

More beautiful views from the drive that night! 

"Honey, let's pull off and take a picture. No, I don't need shoes. Ah, I should have put on shoes, can you carry me back to the car??"

So the reason that we should have been more nervous at other times because of the volcano was because just a few weeks ago (on May 3rd) Kilauea (the active Volcano on the island) had a pretty big eruption. It started at the top with some boulders getting thrown out. Then fissues started opening and spilling out lava and a lot of toxic sulfur fumes in the very neighborhood that we were staying in--Leilani Estates! Check out some of these photos. It has been crazy watching these events unfold and knowing we were just there. I hope our cute rental house is okay. I am just devastated for these people. It just seems like the middle of the jungle there, not the top of the volcano. Also, if lava comes out on your street/yard, it is not something that can just be cleaned up and life can move on. It is like that land is just reclaimed by the volcano, and the people need to move on. Yikes! We were just there!


















Okay, that is probably enough photos, but it is crazy. So far there have been 40 structures destroyed. We just keep saying we're so glad that didn't happen while we were there. I feel so bad for the people who are living through it.

Hawaii Day 5

On day 5 of our wonderful trip, we started out at Lava Tree State Monument. This is where an old lava flow cooled around trees and made these awesome pillars of lava rock. They are hollow and now are coated with moss and other plants. I think it is crazy how tall some of them are. I can't imagine that much lava flowing past.
This was a fun walk around the monument. It is also where I saw the biggest snail I have ever seen. Maybe 6 inches long? Yikes! John said, "We should touch it!" No, we should not. It was also interesting to see that among the jungle plants there would occasionally be a pit or crevice from hollow areas beneath the ground. It really made us think about being on top of a volcano.

Next stop was perhaps our favorite activity of the whole trip. We snorkeled in the Kapoho tide pools. To actually get there was such a headache. Navigation was directing us to take only private roads that you had to get through a gate to access. We finally figured out where to drive, then we found the parking area, which was well signed. What we didn't realize was that we had to park outside this neighborhood and then walk through the whole neighborhood to get to the beach. Yeah... The walk there wasn't so bad, although I think I got sunburned again. But the walk back was painful with wet sandals. Our feet were killing us by the end with blisters. 

Then when we finally got there, we were a little underwhelmed. The pools that we saw were not deep enough to swim in. In the end we just ended up going to where other people were swimming. And it was jackpot. Even though it was surrounded by shallow pools with not that impressive marine life. There were a couple of large pools that were stunning! 

They seemed to go on and on once you were in the water. This fish and coral were spectacular. I wish we would have been able to take a picture underwater, because I can't adequately describe it. But there were all kinds of large colorful fish and brightly colored coral. 

The water was a little cold so we were super glad we had our wet suits. I think my favorite fish were the delicate angel fish. There was only one time when I got freaked out. I was swimming around in a little offshoot where there was an overhang with a bunch of larger fish. Whenever I would get very close to the fish they were just swim away, but I looked around and saw that my leg was right by coral that had an EEL coming out of it. I kind of jerked when I saw, but instead of darting away at my movement the eel, with its large, sharp teeth just kept coming closer. Its head (and teeth) was just a few inches from my leg! Needless to say, I got out of there in a hurry! 

One other cool feature of the Kapoho tide pools was Champagne pond, which I didn't get a picture of weirdly. It is a yellow colored pond (like the color of champagne, get it?) that is naturally heated to a nice soaking temperature. It was super comfortable, but for some reason the yellow water kind of grossed me out (pee in water? or maybe just germs growing??). So we didn't linger there.

We stopped at MacKenzie State Park for a fun picnic lunch and more wave watching. Once again I have to include the splash/no splash picture to get the full effect. 

Cool, jagged coastline.

That blue water that goes on forever. 

No splash and...

Crash!

Huge wave crash and the after effect rainbow. :) 

The last stop of the day was walking to this beach park at the end of the Kalapana-Kapoho Road. We reached more of the lava cliffs, but in the middle there was a fun smooth stone beach. I can't even imagine how much erosion/force has to occur to take these sharp cliffs and turn them into the smooth large pebbles. That lava rock is so hard and sharp!

The baby coconut trees growing in the lava field. It looks like they were planted there by people trying to reclaim the land. 

Don't stand too close to the cliffs edge!

Beautiful black sand. We thought about stopping by the famous black sand beach, but after my family learned that it was a nudist beach on our last trip, we decided not to risk it. Not to mention we saw some people hiking down there that seemed a little too happy/high. 

These pictures are out of order. It was beautiful day so we rode with the top down a lot and loved listening to our favorite tunes via the bluetooth to the car. Yeah, we felt cool. :) 

The previous day we stopped by a fruit stand and tried some local fruit. These spiky red fruits were recommended to us. They are rambutans, and they are delicious! Unfortunately when we arrived at our rental the night before, we discovered a note saying don't eat any of the fresh local fruit unless it had been washed thoroughly because of little slugs on it that carry rat-lung disease. Great. And of course we already had tried some of the fruit without washing it. So we're still hoping we don't have that in our systems. 

But back to the rambutans. They are easy to peel and have a clearish white flesh underneath that are absolutely delicious! There is a white seed too, but man, I would love to eat some more of those. We also picked up some other fruit that I don't remember the name of, but seemed to be a sort of mix between a grape and blueberry? They were awesome too! 

Too bad that they have crazy strict laws about taking anything organic/fresh off the islands. Or we would have loved to take some home!

Earlier that day we also tried two other naturally heated pools. So fun! The larger one was Ahalanui Beach Park. It was a naturally heated swimming pool (95 degrees!).
The next was a fun natural hot tub that we had to ourselves at Isaac Hale Park. It was surrounded by fun foliage and perfect for making out. :)
That night we headed to a yummy restaurant in Pahoa--Kaleo’s Bar and Grill. It was the only place we went out to eat there twice. It was that yummy!

I didn't mention it in this video, but we loved the sound of the water on the pebble beach as opposed to the sand beach. It was quite distinctive.