Eia Au, Eia 'Oe Hawaii

Major highlights from each day of the trip

Day 0, Friday 2 June

The flight over to Kona was 6 hours....6 long hours. The 15 hour flight to Sydney a few months ago seemed to go by faster than this on. Of course on that flight I didn't have to be a referee, entertainer and baby holder . When we landed it was gray and overcast, not the typical vision of Hawaii. All flights to Hawaii should get in before noon when it is typically sunny and bright. And all the flights should have somebody meeting you at the bottom with leis.

After getting the car we set off for Hilo. It is interesting the mentality when you live on an island. I think it causes your world to shrink. When I told the lady at the rental counter that we were driving to Hilo that night she looked at me incredulously and said "You are going all the way to Hilo tonight?!? That is over a hundred miles!" Granted it is a slow hundred miles, taking over 2 hours to get there but not outrageous.

We got to the Kilauea Camp at about 8pm, got inside and Truman promptly threw up.

Day 1, Saturday 3 June

We all slept very well that first night and woke up hungry looking for breakfast. We came to our first sticker shock of the trip when we went in the cafeteria. Breakfast was $10 a person for the buffet or $7 a person for the "Continental Breakfast." We decided to just get milk and cereal at the general store but that wasn't too much better.

The next event of the day was exploring Volcanoes National Park. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we were all excited. We saw the Halemaumau Crater, the Devastation Trail, and Chain of Craters. Our favorite part of the park was the Thurston Lava Tube, which was a little rainforest in the middle of the crater and in the middle of the rainforest was a tunnel to the center of the volcano. Very cool.

After traipsing around volcanoes we started the drive back to Kona. Along the way we found the coolest beach. The sand was all ground up lava rock so it was all jet black on the beach. It was quite a sight. Tennyson's first experience on the beach was a very black one. The other amazing thing was on the beach were two huge sea turtles sunning themselves on the sand. The quote of day came after admiring the turtles for about a half hour, Tally noticed one of them move their head. He jumped back and said surprised, "Oh my gosh, their alive!"

Day 2, Sunday 4 June

Not wanting to let such a perfect opportunity escape us, Chlöe, Tally and I decided to make the climb up the 13,796 ft high Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawaii. Some interesting facts about Mauna Kea, it is the highest in the Pacific, it is the world's highest mountain from base to summit it rises more than 33,000 feet from the ocean floor, and it is the most remote mountain in the world nearly 2,500 miles from the closest continent.

It was a long journey, driving through winding, bumpy back roads to the center of Hawaii. The drive alone was about 2.5 hours to get to a suitable starting point. The entire mountain from about 6000 ft up is completely barren, no trees, no bushes, nothing. This made for quite a monotonous hike, but we made it and can check that one of the list. Up at the top we saw the only snow in the entire Pacific, which was pretty keen.

Day 3, Monday 5 June
I need to say just a bit about the place we stayed. We found this place on Ebay and we were a bit trepidations because we didn't know anything about it. It ended up being such an incredible find. It was a huge two bedroom condo with a large dining porch. All of the interior and exterior was patterned to look like authentic Hawaiian houses. It was great!

We went out today looking for a nice beach to hangout at for the day. We ended up on a beach on the north side of Hapuna Bay behind a hotel coincidentally called the Mauna Kea. All the beaches on the Big Island are public but the access doesn't have to be. The resort had set aside about a dozen parking spots for people not staying hotel, this really kept the number of people on the beach at a minimum.

The beach was beautiful. It was a natural bay with two rocky reefs on either side. We spent the day building sand castles, playing in the water, and snorkeling in on the reefs. There were quite a few turtles swimming on the reef that we were able to look at. It was the perfect place to spend the day...and we did for about 6.5 hours.

Day 4, Tuesday 6 June
Well, we pay for our fun at the beach today with nice red roasted backs. It was a bit troubling that Tally sunburn started in the middle of his bottom. Why can't any thing say on his waist?

We took a day trip out to the east side of the island in the rainforest. There are amazing sights over here from towering waterfalls to an animal sanctuary to beautifully manicured gardens. We all had a great time hiking and playing today. There isn't much to say about this day that the pictures don't say better.

Day 5, Wednesday 7 June
Recovery Day! Pool & beach down the street.

Day 6, Thursday 8 June
Tally and I had a little adventure today. We heard about a local pastime up on the north side of the island where they would grab inner tubes and inflatable boats and go float down the irrigation canals. There is one long canal that runs 22 miles from the central part of the island where it rains 150 inches a year down to the sugar cane fields closer to the coast.

There is an outfit that rents kayaks and takes people on a ride down the canal so Tally and I gave it a try. The ride was great, flumming through the rainforest and going through the tunnels dug out through the mountains. We were in a boat with a local who had lots of stories about the island and growing up there in a tiny little village.

That afternoon we when out to Makalawena Beach. The beach was really rock with lava formations all around it. But the surf was great for the older two kids. The waves broke a bit harder on the shore making it more exiting to body surf and try to stand against the waves.

Day 7, Friday 9 June
We called an audible today and decided with the long flight back and Saturday being a entire day in the car, it wouldn't be very fun for Tenny or Truman. Rose decided to take them back that night. So we revisited our favorite beach on the island up at Hapuna Bay. It was just as good as the first time.

Then we spent the evening going through the markets and shops in Kona. It is a quant little town, only a couple of streets wide. We finished up the evening with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe right on the beach, watching the sunset. It was a perfect way to end the trip with the whole family.

Day 8, Saturday 10 June
Our last day in Hawaii, so we had to squeeze every last second out of the day. Chlöe, Tally and I went swimming for about an hour in the morning. Then we went to the condo and grabbed all of our stuff so we could check out.

Then we traveled down the coast. Along the way we found Pu uhonua O Honaunau, which was a little historical park that was quite out of the way and off of the main highway. It had the remains of an ancient Hawaiian temple and retreat area. It had some of the original walls and structures and then the rest was recreated to look like it did in the 16th century. Quite prodigious!

We then continued down the road to the most southern point in the entire USA, appropriately named South Point. The next body of land to the south was Antarctica, I think I could see it off in the distance. We had heard about a small hidden bay on the south side of the island that was covered in green sand. We talked to some people down on a ranch down there and found out it was a three mile hike from the end of the road. The kids agreed and we were on our way.

The hike was really amazing. We walked through sprawling grassland on a trail that was as gold as Mr. T's chest. We hiked for about 45min until we came to a bay with shear cliff walls on both sides. At the bottom was the greenest sand I have ever seen, it wasn't bright green but it more of a dark rich green. We had to scale the walls to go check it out.

On the way down the cliff I told the kids not to get wet because we had to get on the plane in about 5 hours and we had no way to get cleaned up. We got to the bottom and I sat down to take off my shoes but Tally headed straight for the water. I looked up just in time to see a towering 6 foot wave land squarely on top of him. At that point there was nothing else to to but enjoy the massive wave and scenery of Mahana Beach.

We made are way back to Kona and on our flight and eventually home. It is amazing, I feel like just a day or two ago I was sitting at the computer planning out the trip. Now I am back here and it is all over. I think it was the sagacious Faris Bueller that said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."