Hawaii 2015 Recap

All-in-all I am happy we went back to Hawaii before we had out little one. I wish we would have stayed on Maui the whole time and seen more of what that island has to offer. We wanted to go back to the Big Island to do more hiking but since I haven't had the most active pregnancy it wasn't an option. But I am glad we slept in and truly relaxed. 

My highlights are the whale watching, watching the sunrise on Haleakala, visiting Molokai and seeing the recent lava flow.

{Molokai}

{flowers of Hawaii}

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Volcanoes and Lava!

On our last full day in Hawaii we headed all the way to the other side of the island to go to Volcanoes National Park and to Pahoa to see the latest lava flow (from November and December 2014). Once we got the national park and took some pictures of the crater we found out that you could actually go and see the freshest lava accessible by road. So off we went!

After viewing the lava (which is only open from 10am to 4pm and guarded by the National Guard) we headed to Hilo to check out their famous Farmers Market. I wasnt too impressed with it, it was the same as most others you'll see on the islands. But I did love the Filthy Farmgirl soaps and we picked up a few onesies for baby girl. 

To get back to the hotel we took Saddle Road which passes by Mauna Kea. We experienced some pretty weird weather on our way back...some sort of weird fog phenomena.  

When we got back to the hotel we watched the sun set and watched the 20+ foot waves crash against the lava cliffs that line the hotel. (unfortunately my husbands camera took all of these pictures and that is the SD card that got corrupted)

{good night Hawaii}

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Waipio Valley

While we were on the Big Island we woke up every day and had breakfast out by the water to watch the whales. After we had our relaxing morning we made our way to Waipio Valley. 

Waipio Valley, known as the 'Valley of Kings', is inhabited by 50 generations of Hawaiians for over a thousand years, The valley is of premiere importance in old Hawaiian legends and lore, this mystical place was once the political and religious center of Hawaii, the birthplace, home or burial grounds of Hawaiian royalty for a millennium. In the back of the valley is the 1200-foot Hi‘ilawe Falls, Hawaii's highest single-fall waterfalls, Which you can see in a post from our first trip here. 

{Waipio Valley}

After we viewed the valley from the lookout (I wanted to hike down but we thought better to play it safe being 22 weeks pregnant and all) we headed to a little art gallery near by and had the lunch we brought with us. And then it was back to the hotel for some pool time before we hit the spa for a couples massage!

{Snow capped Mauna Kea}

{tropical flowers}

{hotel pool}

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Hapuna and Relaxation

The plan on the Big Island (aka Hawaii Island) was to have no plan. Instead of our wake up go, go, go routine we do on most every vacation we slept in every day and didn’t really have a plan.

On our first day back on the Big Island we made our way to Hapuna Beach State Park ($5 entrance fee per car). There is a place to rent beach equipment and gear on site for $10 per item for the whole day – Matt rented a boogie board. While he played in the water I relaxed on the beach. After about an hour and half of that we went on our way. We stopped at the Queens’ Marketplace for lunch and on our way back we stopped in Kona for some shave ice and to walk around the shops.

{Hapuna Beach State Park, we did not see these signs the last time we were here}

{Hapuna Beach}

{more shave ice!}

After that we went back to the hotel to relax and freshen up before dinner. We ate at Bianelli's Pizza and Pasta and it was delicious! 

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Maui to the Big Island

This day our last on Maui so we slept in and then started to pack. After we were all packed I took some pictures of the beautiful garden and we headed on our way. We walked around Kihei and I found the juice shop I wanted to try, Wow Wow Lemonade. It was amazing and I got my aloha mason jar! We headed back to the Ho’okipa Beach Park overlook to see some of the huge waves and the surfers doing their thing. It’s amazing to watch!

{airbnb's host garden, beautiful}

{Wow Wow Lemonade} 

{Ho'okipa Beach Park}

After that we made our way to the airport. What was fun about island hopping is that when you are taking off and landing you can see the whales from the plane! It’s pretty cool!

We landed and had a hellish ordeal getting our rental car (part of it was my fault) but waiting over an hour at Dollar Rentals for our car was absurd! And there were only 4-5 people in front of us!

{hotel room view}

We finally made it to our hotel to check in but we were too late to see the sunset. So we just grabbed some food from the bar and relaxed for the evening.

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Saying Goodbye, Day 6

Well day 6 was our last day on Hawaii's Big Island :( We had to be out of the hotel by noon but our flight didn’t leave until 10pm! We had  A LOT of time to waste! We had a booked a submarine tour with Atlantis Submarines at 2pm so while we waited for that we had a few cocktails and just walked the streets in Kona looking at some Historic buildings and popping into stores. We both thought that after snorkeling the submarine ride was pretty lame! I would only recommend doing the sub to someone that is afraid to snorkel or doesn’t have 3-4 hours for snorkeling. Atlantis is really there for the cruise lines that come to shore. But now we can say that we have been in a submarine and not many people can say that. After that it was only 3 o'clock so we still had plenty of time to roam around before our dinner reservation at 5. So we walked around some more and headed in the direction of the restaurant. 

Once 5 hit we were ready for some dinner on the patio of Huggo's to watch the sunset (and to be perfectly honest, with nowhere to go we were ready to go home). The food was wonderful! We finished up there and just decided to head to the airport. Once our luggage went through the agricultural screening we went to check in, first question they asked, "would you like to upgrade to 1^st class?" Our response, "YES!!!" American Airlines was the cheapest airline to fly with but I have to say their seats were very uncomfortable! Glad we were able to bump up to 1^st. They didn’t seem to have their $h*t together at the airport (mostly to people bringing on too much or too big carry on items) and we ended up taking off almost an hour late! But we made it to LA in time and caught our flight to Houston without a hitch. We were so happy to be home but we missed the island life already. Can't wait to visit the other islands!

on the sub

crazy trees

Sunset at Huggo's

Hawaii, the Big Island, Day 1

The Whole Island Drive, Day 2

A View from the Top, Day 3

Waipio Valley, Day 4

Under the Sea, Day 5

Under the Sea, Day 5

The morning of our 5^th day in Hawaii was one of the best, at least I think! We started our morning with a drive down Alii Road and ended up at our meeting point for our snorkel adventure with Sea Quest. I was really scared to go because I have silly fear of the water (and not knowing what is in the deep blue) and sharks! When we got to our first snorkel spot at Honaunau Bay or Place of Refuge I told my husband to hold my hand and don’t let go! The tour director said, "you say that now but in 5 minutes you'll be off doing your own thing!" She was right! It was so awesome to see all these crazy cool colorful fish! Including the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, Hawaii's state fish! After only about 30 minutes in the water our waterproof camera broke!!! Thank goodness we had some waterproof disposable cameras with us! We spent about an hour here before we headed for Kealakekua Bay and Capitan Cook memorial. This area was very unique; the reef comes out about 50 feet from the shore (about 6-10 feet deep) before dropping off to 100 feet deep!!! Man I was kind of nervous! I felt like Bruce from Finding Nemo was going to just pop out and say, "hello!" All along the coast they showed us the old lava tubes and lava flows from over the years which was really neat. Apparently some you can even dive into! We got back to the dock but not before seeing a pod of dolphins that seemed to be sleeping (based on what our Capitan said).

"Hello, names Bruce!"

After this we drove into Kona and parked and went to the little farmers market and bought some homemade and home grown jelly and some local art. There were tons of tropical flowers there for sale too! Some I had never seen before! Check out our video on youtube you'll see the humuhumunukunukuapua'a!

colors not altered 

Hawaii, the Big Island, Day 1

The Whole Island Drive, Day 2

A View from the Top, Day 3

Waipio Valley, Day 4

Saying Goodbye, Day 6

Waipio Valley, Day 4

Today was our day to wake up and head to our ATV tour of Waipio Valley. I decided to play it safe, warm, and dry and ride in the mule with one of the tour guides while my husband took part in the muddy crazyness the trails had to offer. The views of the valley were beautiful and one of our guides was one of only 75 farmers that live and farm in the valley and had some great stories to tell. This valley is where a lot of movies have been filmed; movies such as Waterworld (where they find land) and most recently Predator. I do have to say I think we would have seen more of the valley if we had taken the horseback riding tour (I think we'll have to do that next time). After getting back into signal we got a call saying our sunset sail was canceled due to the high winds…boo. So we watched the sunset at the hotel and then headed all the way into Kona for dinner and beers at Kona Brewing Company. 

where the Kings children use to play

one of the largest waterfalls in the state

Hawaii, the Big Island, Day 1

The Whole Island Drive, Day 2

A View from the Top, Day 3

Under the Sea, Day 5

Saying Goodbye, Day 6

A View from the Top, Day 3

Hot Lava!

Today we took a helicopter ride around the island, talk about seeing some cool stuff. We took off from the Kona Airport and made our way to the other side of the island to view the volcano from above. Since it was spewing a lot of gas there was a 6 mile no fly zone around the crater…boo. But we headed on to see…LAVA!!! We started flying in the area north of where Chain of Craters Road ends and this is where we saw same trees on fire and some lava seeping out of the ground. We also got to see Jack's House, the last surviving house in the Royal Gardens subdivision that was taken over lava from Kilauea (75 homes were destroyed when the eruptions began in 1983). You can tell by the picture that the lava is getting dangerously close to his house. After we saw all this we headed towards Hilo and got to view the coastline and MANY waterfalls! It had rained the night before so the valleys and rivers were flowin'! We made our way to the Kohala Forest and we landed in one of the valleys (our pilot was quite inredible!). We got walk around here and pick some fresh fruit right off the trees. We got back in the helicopter and followed the coastline all the way back to airport, and we got to see our hotel along the way too!

this is Jack's house. The lava has gotten so close but its still standing  in March 2012 Pele destroyed his home

some trees on fire

After we were done with this we decided to rent some snorkel equipment from Snorkel Bob's and head to Kekaha Kai State Park…we drove our rented sports car on an "unimproved" lava road to get there! (Unimproved is the word they used on the sign…why not just say unpaved or something because it looked like there was never any maintenance done to this road.) We stayed there for a few minutes but the waves were pretty strong due to the VERY windy weather that day. So we opted to head to the Mauna Kea resort to see their beach. (Mauna Kea is the sister hotel to ours, Hapuna Prince.) Matt went snorkeling around the rocks while I just relaxed on the beach, I was a little nervous to snorkel without someone making sure we weren’t going too far or if there was a shark or something near..eeekk!) After that we cleaned up and got ready for dinner at Hapuna's Coast Grill. The food was amazing! But what was better was watching the sun set and then see a shooting star while we ate dinner; a truly wonderful night!

no room for error

Hawaii, the Big Island, Day 1

The Whole Island Drive, Day 2

Waipio Valley, Day 4

Under the Sea, Day 5

Saying Goodbye, Day 6

The Whole Island Drive, Day 2

On our second day we took a drive around the island to see EVERYTHING we possibly could. Our first stop was the Punalu'u Bake Shope (the southernmost bakery in the USA). After we got our treats we walked back to the car and nearby there was a mechanic working on a tour bus. Well for some reason the driver started backing up and ran over the guys leg! My husband ended up having to call 911; thank goodness the fire department was right across the street! After we were able to leave we headed on our way to Punalu'u Beach Park.

This park is famous for its black sands (much more accessible then Pololu) and for the sea turtles that come up on the sand to nap and sun bathe. While we were there we were able to see two turtles on the beach and many playing in the water bobbing their heads up and down. Next we headed to Volcano National Park and man was it cold! We drove around and saw some steam vents and saw lots of smoke coming from the crater. We walked through an old lava tube that was in the now rain forest which was pretty cool and then we drove all the way down to the end of Chain of Craters Road (which use to go all the way through but they stopped repairing it because lava kept covering it up!). While we were down there we saw a lava arch and some amazing cliffs.  After this we left the park and headed to Mauna Loa Macadamia nut factory and Big Island Candies to get some treats. As we continued our was around the island we also stopped at Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. After this we were ready to get back and we headed back to the hotel where we had the most beautiful sunset! what a day!

Lava tube

Sea arch

Rainbow Falls

Akaka Falls

breathtaking sunset

Hawaii, the Big Island, Day 1

A View from the Top, Day 3

Waipio Valley, Day 4

Under the Sea, Day 5

Saying Goodbye, Day 6