Hawaii: Episode 9 - The End of the Journey

Alas, this is where our journey in Hawaii ended. Luckily we didn't fly out until 7 pm so we pretty much had the whole day. We took half of the day packing again but then we went to 'Akaka waterfall, took a picture with the statue (the one that Andrew had wanted to take a picture with since day 1), ate our last loco moco, and spent the rest of the day/night at the airport.

The waterfall was beautiful! It falls 429' (I think. If I'm remembering correctly) straight down. We also learned about a fish that swims all the way back to the TOP of the waterfall from the ocean in order to mate. Crazy! It has a sucker on the bottom and it basically jumps rock to rock up the waterfall.

The funny story about this statue is that it is a gift from another island. See this King almost ruled all of Hawaii. Thus every island has a statue of him. However, he never ruled a certain island so instead of putting their statue on their island they donated it to the big island of Hawaii. So Hawaii has too statues of this guy.

The end! Thank you all who made it possible for us to go on this trip. It was amazing and so very memorable!

Hawaii: Episode 8 - Volcanos and Lava Tubes

To start the day off, we got to walk through a 42 mile long lava tube. Okay, we didn't walk nearly that far but that's how long the tube is. What happens is lava is flowing along and the lava on the outside cools from the air and the lava inside keeps flowing thus creating a lava tube. Later when all the lava inside has drained out it becomes giant caves. It was pitch black inside so we could take very few pictures but here's a few. The cave wasn't scary . . . unless you're climbing up a 16' ladder while a wolf spider crawls toward you. Yup, other than that it was cool.

The Volcano National Park: cool - literally. We waited for hours to see the glow of the lava. It was cold, but honestly worth it.

We also took the time to drive down to Green Sand Beach. The sand is actually green! There's olivine deposits in the rock and the water has worn them down and included them in the sand. Even cooler was the wicked ride down to it. It was a MAZE of 4 wheel driving. You drive in and you see 3+ trails you can take worn so deep into the sand that the walls would go up to the roof of the car. Each trail can split and sometimes you'll have to back up out of the trail because there's a deep ditch worn from previous cars at the end. It was super fun. When you finally get to the beach, you basically have to climb down a cliff to get to it. It's small, green, and steep. Great fun and worth the drive.

Hawaii: Episode 7 - Beaches

Ah! The whole reason people go to Hawaii right? We crammed all of the best beaches into this one day. Since Andrew has a ruddy complexion, he tends to burn. So we lathered him up with sunscreen all day. End result? Kenzie turns bright purple and Andrew doesn't burn at all. Ratcha-fratcha. 

Beach #1: Hapuna Beach

Beautiful but crowded. Ok, so it doesn't look crowded here but I'm selecting the pictures that show off the beach best. White smooth sand, clear warm water, and sea turtles! What fun! I tried to convince Andrew to let me bury him but he talked me out of it because I lacked a shovel. Lame. We swam, stared at some sea turtles, then wrote our name in the sand . . . then did it again . . . and again . . . and again. (Because the water kept washing it away.) We finally caught this photo below.

Beach #2: Kuki'o Beach

A cool looking name I'm sure. However, it actually means to stand and defecate. Honestly, I have no idea why that it's called that. It was beautiful, maybe a few too many rocks, but we sat behind this tree and were pretty secluded. Here we actually got to swim with a sea turtle for a long way. It was interesting snorkeling because although we could touch the bottom, we couldn't put our feet down because of how many sea urchins there were. Before we left, I took the shells I had collected from the sand and created a heart for Andrew. Naturally, he took a picture of it. :)

Beach #3: Makalawena Beach

Honestly, this was probably my favorite beach. 1st: there was a fun drive down - long and bumpy on lava rock. The road was so nasty, we kept passing people who decided to park and walk the rest of the way. Psh. Sissies. Although the shade was covered by pokey balls and pine needles (right pine needles in Hawaii?) the sand itself was the softest and whitest I had ever seen. There was a little pool of water created by lava rock with about a foot of crystal clear water. We also saw sea turtles here but the water was so full of sand it was hard to take pictures as we swam with it.

The drive home:

This is a beautiful sunset Andrew caught on the trip home.

All in all, a beautiful wonderful sunburny day on the beach.

Hawaii: Episode 6 - Tide Pools and Lava Trees

So there were several things we did this day: snorkeling at Champagne Pond, visiting the Kapoho Tide Pools and New Kaimu Beach, and wandering around The Lava Tree State Park.

These are some of my favorite pictures from Champagne Pond. None of our pictures of the fish really turned out. It was only an $8 underwater camera. But the ones of us are fun. The water was clear (mostly) and warm and best of all, we had it all to ourselves (almost). There were only 3 other people there when we showed up and they got out quickly to sun bathe so it was great!

New Kaimu Beach is interesting. It was previously known as the famous Black Sand Beach until lava came and wiped it out. Because the natives loved it so much they tried to reclaim it by planting palm trees, but honestly they haven't really taken to the barren land. To get to the small portion of 'beach' remaining you have to walk a trail of red sand spread over the lava plain. Pretty cool if you ask me.

After much turning around and bad directions (on my part) we finally arrived at the Lava Tree State Park. It was pretty cool too. Unfortunaltly it was raining so we (as in cold little me) weren't too interested in walking the whole thing. Nevertheless, we got some pretty cool pictures. What happens when hot lava hits a water filled tree? The lava climbs up the tree, burning and killing the tree, but cools around the dying tree, because of the water, and leaves these "lava trees". They can get pretty tall! There were also some deep cracks left from the volcanic activity here too.

When we went to these tide pools, we walked around for a bit and eventually decided that they weren't very interesting. It wasn't until we got home and mom and dad told us we had gone to the wrong place. We saw a few small fish, (a lot of fat swimmers), and dead crabs. If we had gone more the right, apparently there is an AMAZING snorkeling opportunity. Too bad we missed it. It's one of our few regrets and if we go back we'll do it then.

Now, one of my favorite places (mostly because of the drive down). If you drive out in the middle of the rainforest and take a random road you might see another little road carved into hemp bush - if you look closely. (We missed it the first time.) There's literally barely enough room through the bush for the car to fit. It arcs over the top of the car and completely encloses you. It's a 4WD trip down to a lava beach that is pretty much completely secluded. The road is so 4WD, we found a car crashed at the bottom. When we first got there, we shared the area with two little Hawaiian boys who were attempting to fish while snorkeling. They moved on pretty fast though. We were slightly disappointed because in our tourist book the place was advertised as a naturally heated lava pool. Unfortunately, the water was so cold I didn't want to swim in it. Nevertheless, we spent a good long time just sitting on the rock watching the waves crash into the pools contained by lava rocks. We watched the waves grow and only left when we worried it might become dangerous.

It was another fun day in Hawaii. Once again, I have way more pictures than I think Blogger will let me put up. Love you all,

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Hawaii: Episode 5 - The House

Now we had actually been staying at the house this whole time but this is the first chance we got to take pictures and just relax. We spent the whole day at the house just enjoying the fact that we lived in a rainforest. I'll try and show you the main parts of the house through video.

We loved staying at the house. It was beautiful and peaceful. Well, okay. Sometimes the rainforest sounds creeped me out at night.. Like rain dropping on the roof, fish jumping, the wooden house settling, or worst of all wilds pigs walking past the bedroom window. They walk heavy and sound like people and they breath really heavy. Heavy enough that you can hear them through the window. Now the house was really secure. It was out in the middle of nowhere, in a rainforest, with a gate and padlock blocking the trail that leads to the house. Nevertheless, at night my mind runs away with me.

Another thing about the house: geckos. I meant to take pictures of all the geckos around the house, but I forgot. There was a decorative gecko set on the wall or ceiling of every room. The reason I bring up these little critters is because Andrew and I had a funny story about them. So one morning Andrew and I are calmly eating breakfast. I've already poured my bowl and am taking my first bite and Andrew begins to pour his bowl when WHAM a gecko JUMPS OUT of his bowl and onto the floor. Needless to say Andrew and I were both startled. We have no idea if he was just hanging out in the bowls in the cupboard and we failed to see him when we got the bowls out or if he managed to get into the cereal box and Andrew just poured him out. Now that I think about it, the cereal box is probably more likely since he would have moved as we carried the bowls. Funny huh?

These are some beautiful Hawaiian flowers that Andrew's mom had the landlord leave for us:

She also left us some fresh papaya and pineapple. What a great welcoming to the house!

Anyway, we loved this day just because it was so relaxing.