the big island

We landed in the kona airport which is by far the best airport ive ever been to. Its tiny, and all open air. Everything. The baggage carousel and ticket counters, bar, everything. It looks very Polynesian. Good start.

Got over to the rental place and got my hands on our red mustang convertible. Yahoo! Never had a convertible before so that was super fun. We made our way to the hotel and got settled in, and went for eats. Met up with cara, whom i work with, and her brother. And we went out for a couple drinks while my mom went to bed.

Up early the next day, Sunday, to drive to hilo. Drove the north way around which was really pretty. Its nuts to see how the landscape changes as you go. Starts off as lava fields with basically nothing. Then there are grasslands, and then into lush forest/jungle. And back again.

Got to hilo and to the airport and got set up with our doors off helicopter ride over the live volcano, Pu’u. It was cold up there! But super fun. We landed at jacks place, which is a bed and breakfast that the flows seem to have gone around twice now. The last one in October 08 took out his only remaining neighbour, so now its just him there. The only way in is to either walk a long ways to where the roads start again (and that is over the dried lava)(and its still active in parts underneath!) or to fly in by helicopter. I cant believe he’s still there.

After that we drove south to complete the circuit of the island. It got dark pretty quick so we didn’t see much, but i do know that the stupid road had many curves.

Monday we got up and wandered a little bit in kona. There isn’t much to see really. Then went and met up with cara and her family and got ready for our tour up mauna kea. If anyone ever goes to the big island and wants to do this tour, don’t bother. Just rent your own car. Waste of money.

The dinner sucked and wasn’t what was advertised, our driver was super annoying and they blast the damn a/c. To top all that off, mauna kea had gotten snow the night before, and because they are at an elevation of 14,000 feet, the road freezes when the sun goes down, so they closed off the top part. Which meant that we weren’t able to get up and see the telescopes, which is essentially the point of the tour. My mom was soooo bummed cause she wanted to do that more than anything. It was basically the reason we went to the big island in the first place. But we did see the sunset and learned about some start constellations.

Tuesday i got up early and went to the airport to exchange the convertible for a 4x4 jeep so that we could go back up to try see the telescopes. Hoping that the road conditions were better during the day. After a long bumpy drive up there, we found that the road had been closed again, due to ice flurries. In freaking Hawaii. What the hell. My mom was bummed again, but at least we really tried. Boo.

We came back down to kona and grabbed lunch at a hotel far superior to the one we stayed in and then headed to the airport and off to oahu.