Our marriage descends into the pit of despair

Got up early as we had a big day planned. We were out the door by 7:30. Over the mountain again and off to the Volcano National Park. We had gotten up to brillant sunshine but on the descent to the other end of the island we struck cloud, the fog then rain. It cleared a bit near Hilo but drizzle kicked in again as we drove into the national park.

We oriented ourselves by getting a map and eating a danish. Balancing the intellectual and physical needs is important. We did this whilst watching the volcano smoke..

Having got that out of the way we decided to descend into the caldera. Well not the one above. That is closed. A bit dicey for all concerned. No, there is a lava lake connected to this one just to the left of picture.

Our descent commenced in rainforest. It was drizzling at times and just damp at other. We were about 1200 metres above sea level in a quite interesting forest that gets about 120 inches of rain a year. Lots of orchids here apparently. We only spotted this bamboo orchid.

The drizzle kept up all the way down and across the lava lake. Apparently this exploded around 1959 and solidified in 1992. It was what Mordor would look like. Quite eerie, but nature kept trying to find footholds. The little trees looked like hakeas with lovely red flowers.

We finally got to the base and it was the strangest landsacpe. Black undulating lava flows with cracks everywhere. Occasinal patches of lighter colour where steam vents bring up minerals and steam vents popping up here and there. That is steam coming out of a crack in the rocks behind us.

I kept having to take off my glasses because the drizzle kept coming in flurries. It is 2.4 miles across the lava lake and we eventually made it and started our ascent. When we looked back we could see the lighter coloured trail left by walkers. Off to the right you can see the lighter patch of the steam vent we visited (naughty us venturing off trail).

Well, back up into the rainforset we went. We got back to the car almost three hours after we left. So we headed to Volcan House for a feed of raw fish ...and chips.....I got s strange look when I ordered the chips to go with the poke stack.....but it was a hungry pair who sat down to a view not unlike the first photo.

When we were sufficiently recovered, we drove down to the coast to see the most recent lava flows. As we descended the weather improved and was quite warm and sunny and the sea blue. You can see the 1973 flow.

Well we finally made it to the end of the road and checked out the flows that have been happening since 1983. I tried to keep them off the road but did not succeed.

Weird shapes

Aftr a while,we headed back. To give this some context, that is like looking up at Mt Dandenong from around Kilsyth. The 1972 lava flow,is the dark patch....just a small one.

And this is the lava field around Mauna Ulu. A little volcano, but it created a nice arrangement of shapes around itself. The lump in the distance is the volcano 6 miles away.

Well we visited a couple of other places but by then we had been there for over seven hours. Back we drove to Hilo, where we stopped off to buy sneakers...at cheap prices...and a bite to eat.

Our plan was to head to Mauna Kea for the stargazing. However the cloud got thicker and on the mountain became impenetrable fog. So instead we had a hair raising drive in the dark through thick fog on unfamiliar roads. They say a little stress is good for you. We had our share tonight.

However all's well now. We are back, recoverd and heading to noddy land.

Bye from Marjan, who descended to hell with me and made it back!

Some of Hawai'i island's biosphere diversity

So I got  an early start today. Headed down and did some washing and got Marjan some breakfast treats. Even after doing the washing we still managed to get out before 9. We headed north and found a wonderful place to have our wake up swim. Like a few of the places along this coast there are big, forbidding gates. However we knew there was public beach access and they raised the gates for us. So we drove through the Manua Kea golf course and headed down to the beach. We had a nice swim and Marjan managed to get dumped by a wave on the way in. She was not happy.

We kept driving north through some amazingly contrasting scenery. Yellowish grass set off against a blue blue sea with the volcano on Maui in the distance. It was beautiful, but you will have to trust me. When Marjan drives she stops for no man. Anyway, I finally managed to get her to break when I offered her a break for a danish we had not consumed at breakfast. We found a nice spot to have morning tea.

As we drove north the countryside got greener. Obviously more rain up here. We were heading for Pololu Valley. As we got closer we were driving through jungle greenery. This little part of the big island is a little like the Na Pali Coast on Kaua'i where the mountains rise out of the sea. It looked good from above so down we went.

To a lovely black sand beach...

Backed by a gorgeous valley.

The walk was not overly strenuous, but the conditions were awful. High humidity and very little breeze meant that the walk back up produced buckets of sweat. One bloke who saw me on the way up asked if I was walking or swimming up the hill. 

We had spotted a likely lunch place on the way up. Hawi had looked like a really pretty little town. It was. We had some a burger each supplemented by smoothies (amazingly good) and as much iced water as we could get. We really needed to hydrate again. We then had a little wander around the artisan shops in the town. I loved some of the wooden bowls and plates being produced but they were too awkward to.......pay for. I would have paid for some beautiful necklaces for Marjan but she declined and shooed me out of the shop.

Eventually we had drunk as much as we could manage and moved on. From Hawi we drove up onto the Kohala Mountains. The road, as seems to be the way here, went straight up, and our little car struggled until we evened out. By then we were in rolling green hills. Cattle country. In looks not too dissimilar to South Gippsland....well apart from the temperature and the occasional volcanic mound. Some amazing views across the intervening lava field to Mount Hualalai. ( the forgotten mountain at only 8k feet). That dark patch in the middle of the lava plain is a town, Waikoloa. The dark is the trees.

We kept going and ended up at Waipi'o, which is the other end of the cliffs from Pololu, but a long drive around. We were not  up for the walk down and the shuttle had just taken off, so we settled for the view. You can just make out the waterfall dropping to the beach.

Of course along the way we saw lots of interesting things....

In shops

And some amazing churches

We got back to the resort in time for a swim and a beer before dinner. Lovely day again.

I may not get time for a blog tommorrow. It looks like being a lllloooonnnnggg day! In a good way though.

Aloha.

There is a cold breeze blowing up my.....

So up early to get to the airport for our flight to the big island. All quite uneventful apart from the confusion with the security staff. Marjan ended up being in the priority line and I was with the plebs. No major hassle but it seems a little less streamlined than in Oz. Oh by the way I was frisked...it tickled....and on entry they took our fingerprints, so I am now on some database somewhere. The flights were smooth and on time. The car people tried to upsell us again. They could not believe two people of our obvious intellectual, if not physical, stature could fit into such a small car.

Maui

So we asked the best way to get to Saddle Rd. And were told twice by different people that we did not really want to go that way. Being me, I of course pointed Marjan toward Saddle Rd.. We almost immediately regreted the route and car. Getting to where we were going seemed to involve going directly up a hill, or mountain by Melbourne standards. Within about a mile or so we were 700 metres or so above sea level. The little car really struggled. Anyway once we were up at that level it evened out and seemed pretty good. In fact the road seemed very new, very broad and the travel quite smooth.

We had decided that on our way to our accommodation on the other side of the island we would visit Mauna  Loa. It is one of five volcanoes on the island and at over 4k is a massive beast. Saddle Rd drives between it and Mauna Kea, another beast. The road itself gets to just shy of Mt. kosciuszko altitude.

Pretty soon we were driving thorugh obvious lava country. Initially grassy fields with quite obvious lava flow underpinning, some dry wall fences, nice rounded volcaning mounds.....sound like the western district of Victoria to anyone. It sure looked like it. In many  places, and particularly as we got along,  tthe landscape was harsher with just plain lava fields in all sorts of rough and grotesque formations. Amazing looking really.

Some hillocks at the base of Mauna Kea

We made it ot the turnoff to Mauna Loa and it looked quite uninviting. I am not sure they want tourists up here. The road start is broken up and rough for about a mile before it gets to be a quite dcent single lane road. At 20mph it was slow going but that was OK. The scenery was amazing. Great views back to Mauna Kea and amazing moonscapes...well really earthscapes. I have seen similar in Lanzarote but the extent here is huge.

The road back to the main road and Mauna Kea

We did not encounter many other cars, which is amazing considering how incredible this drive is. We eventually got up as high as the cloud base and got a bit of drizzle. We got to the scientific base car park and walked up to the base, which is well short of the top but at 3.3k still pretty high. Eventually we required and providentially found.....some rest rooms.

There were two side by side. Whilst concentrating on my own affairs, I hear....there is a cold breeze coming up my........well it was hard to concentrate after that.

Marjan had driven up and I drove down. Seeing it was me I was stopping at every second interesting lava flow. A photographer could spend months here doing lava abstracts.

It was interesting how the zero plant life at the top graduated to some small plants and ferns and then a few bushes and eventually a few trees. We also spooked three goats who were grazing at about the 2.5k mark, but they ran off, like....well goats when we approached.

The saddle under the cloud cover

We got back onto the main road and from this point the road was essentially downhill to Hilo, about 33 miles of needing to apply the brakes to keep the car from speeding up. Had lunch in Hilo and called Chad and Sue who own the place we were booked into. It turned out that the power had not been restored, they had no water and had no idea when it would be back. They knew it would be a couple of days at least. They offered to give us a pass to the retreat next door to them, so that we could use their bathroom and to heavily discount the accommodation. We though it would be just too incovenient.

So we called the young waitress over and asked her to bring us over many more drinks (coffee, water, coke....many of) and hit the internet. It was a little awkward as it was really slow response and some of the sites we had used in the past did not provide direct contact details for the accommodation. That meant we could not be guaranteed of a quick response, and given that the aftrenoon was well on its way we needed immediate responses.

Anyway, with great calm we managed to come to a common agreement, or at least detente, and settled for the Marriot. Perhaps not five star but at least four and rather nice and right on the beach. I managed to get their price down somewhat to frequent stayer levels by telling them our little tale of woe and stressing the Australian angle ( just for that I am registered as Rifiel Sinchez). The one downside was that of course, it was back on the other side of the island. Back over Saddle Rd. Without stopping this time. Not even for another goat that did not spook, nor for a flock/herd/gaggle of donkeys (they have donkey crossing signs). Got there In time to check in, have a swim, check out the sunset, go to the local village for some supplies....we may be staying here, but we can't afford to eat here as well! 

Got back to the room and had a roast beef and salad sandwich on the verandah with a mango for dessert. And finally to sleep in a huge king size.....I could not find Marjan for a spoon during the night.

What will tomorrow bring....stay tuned! It is bound to be fun.

And then there was another storm.......with apologies to Anna

Dinner last night with Dani and her delightful family and friends was lovely. We got to enjoy some poke which is raw fish in a range of sauces. Very yummy and a great accompaniment to an evening of friendly sharing of experiences. We have felt so welcome and cared for staying here: an experience that no hotel could duplicate. Even the surrounding plants are pretty and aromatic.

Half way through the night the storm hit its peak with a quite loud and extremely close thunder storm. We were both woken by a particlarly loud crack and then the light came on as Dani had braved the weather to hustle us into her home for the night. Again her concern and care was heart warming. We felt much more than guests. Especially as she insisted we have her king sized comfy bed. 

The storm dissipated overnight and we slept off the rest of it before waking to a rainy day. 

We got going a bit late but headed out anyway to see what we could see on our last day. A bit of shopping for some sandals....closing the stable door methinks.....another attempt to go to the wildlife sanctuary, which was apparently closed for our safety.........you can see how dangerous it looks around the lighthouse........we were so grateful. Still managed to see a couple of interesting birds.

So we just drove around and dropped in where we thought it might be interesting. A picnic by the water...a visit to a couple of the interesting looking churches....a revisit to Hanalei where even more waterfalls were visible and the clouds made interesting patterns. A sort of no pressure wander really.

So really there is not a lot for the blog, so I might just finish the Kaua'i visit with some random impressions.

Tailgating has different connotation here: you drive the truck to the beach or a picturesque spot drop the tailgate and enjoy life. We see lots of families doing this of an evening at beaches. Last night a couple of middle aged blokes kept us amused by the Waimea River as they tried to complete coherent sentences after perhaps one too many. They were quite pleasant though and the spot was beautiful.

Speaking of pleasant, we have found the locals to be invariably friendly, helpful and interested. We also love that their driving is generally so relaxed and non-aggressive. After Melbourne drivers it is a joy to drive with such courteous drivers.

I think I may have mentioned elections before. Well as they get closer we have seen groups of people with election placards waving at people as they drive past. Apparently this is a local thing and a must. If you don't have people out there waving you cannot really be serious about wanting to be elected.

I have also mentioned the chickens. I now want to get a little more gender specific...the roosters here are crazy or do not know the thing about dawn. They crow at any time of day or night, they wander across the roads at will, they even try to steal your picnic. There are so many here that it is a truly unique feature of at least this island.

Finally safety. I always thought of the USA as a fairly litigious society, I am now thinking that this may be due to the opportunities. As an example, 

I have yet to see a motorcycle driver with a helmet. On bicycles I have seen two young girls with helmets and one older bloke with a work site hat, apart from that helmetless. When we went out on the open ocean in a zodiac there were no safety vests and the bloke who ran it suggested that when we stopped for a snorkle was not a good time to learn to swim. This is not a criticism, I always felt perfectly safe, just another one of those odd differences you see. Australia has truly become the nanny state on some of this stuff.

We are off to Hawaii, the island, tomorrow morning so we got an early dinner and checked out the sunset before settling in to pack (Marjan) and blog (Raf). Excuse the phone photo quality here.

See you on the big island!

Rest day

We are having a bit of a rest day today. Partially on advice partially based on driving around a little and encountering plenty of rain and wind. So managed to get to the coffee plantation and have an iced cofee and then a little further on it was coming down hard so it was pointless to continue. The weather, whilst wet and windy is not expected to be too dangerous to those who take care. Our plan is to be among the sensible. Strange but true.

So todays blog will be a bit of a mish mash as no specific activity has clarified the internal mish mash.

Firstly a recap from yesterday. Marjan clearly stated that if she had looked at these photos closely she would not have gone on yesterday's walk. 

The waterfall

A close up of that ridge...look for the walkers...that is the slippey gravel we came down

But Marjan did get there

...and enjoyed looking at the other side, hard to get the perspective, but let me assure you, it is NOT the Werribee Gorge.

A couple from the local area. The Kekaha beach

And an itinerant tourist

And now I inflict a couple of attempts at minimalist photographic art. Presumptuous, pathetic, perfunctory, perverse, pitiful, prosaic, puerile.......perhaps. Perhaps...personally pleasing.

The final word. I hate...yes loathe US currency. It is quite hard to manage for strangers. The notes all look the same, the coins do not have clear values on them and I am sure I tipped someone $100 the other day. I do not have the presumption to say aussie currency is better. It is just easier for the short sighted and distracted.

Probably that will be all the activity from today. Nothing planned except to stay out of the wind and rain and have dinner with Dani and family.