Aloha! Quite a mouth full-Humuhumunukunukuapua'a- it is the state fish of Hawaii. It was also the name of a restaurant at our resort. It took practice, but after a few days we learned how to say it and spell it! We enjoyed just saying for the fun of it throughout the trip.
For our honeymoon, we wanted to visit two of the eight Hawaiian Islands. The next task was to select which ones. I have always dreamed of visiting a volcano, so it was an easy decision to visit the Hawai'i The Big Island. For our second island, we did extensive research and took online quizzes based on our interests. By extensive research, I mean finding where the best spa in all of Hawaii is located. That's right we stayed at that the resort with the best spa in the state and boy was it AMAZING, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We selected Maui as our second destination.
We flew from Washington, DC to Kona, International Airport. We were scheduled to fly out at 11:30 am. We planned to get there with plenty of time to spare. While I was packing our carry on's and Nick was brushing his teeth, we got a phone call around 9:00 am from the airline saying our flight was canceled. The only way we could get to Hawaii that day was if we were able to make it on a flight boarding at 10:00 am. We rushed out the door! Nick left his backpack with all of our printed confirmations and his contacts, but nothing we couldn't live without. The best perk- we got upgraded on 4 of our 5 flights for free! :)
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| Finally landed in Hawaii |
On the Big Island we stayed at the Hilton Waikaloa Village. The Big Island is quite barren and not what you picture when you think of Hawaii. The HWV was a gorgeous piece of paradise set among the black lava fields. Nick had stayed at the HWV when he was younger and wanted to go back. This resort is the perfect location for families and young children. The resort is like a mini Disney World. There are different towers and pools with different themes. A monorail and a boat run along the towers for easy travel. Nick and I only used the monorail when we arrived with all of our luggage. We took the canal at sunset on our way to dinner. All other times we enjoyed walking around the resort and admiring the art work.
When we arrived after 14 hours of travel, we quickly picked up the rental car and drove to the resort and went to bed at 8 pm Hawaii time. The next morning, Nick and I were awake bright and early. We stopped by the coffee shop in our tower and hit the road to Volcano National Park. We drove around the North side of the island on the way to the park. We enjoyed the drive and took spontaneous detours! Like this scenic drive:
And the macadamia nut farm:
We finally arrived at the park. We picked up maps and planned out our hikes. Nick and I planned to hike the Pu‘u Huluhulu trail, a three mile hike out to the crater and back. We drove around Crater Rim Drive. There we passed numerous lava flows and craters. We stopped at every place possible. Shortly into the hike we reached the wide lava fields and our first lava tree. A lava tree is where lava flowed around a tree and
hardened. While the tree burned up, the lava maintains the shape of the tree.
The weather in the park changed rapidly from cold and rainy to sunny and warm. I was so happy to have changes of clothes, as you will notice in the pictures. We wandered around and finally reached the climb towards the end of the trail. There we could see the Mauna Ulu Shield and lava lake. A little higher up the trail we reached the Pu‘u Huluhulu Crater and had a good view of the Kilauea Caldera (the active crater) in the distance. The return hike was easy and fast!
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| Mauna Ulu lava shield |
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| Pu‘u Huluhulu Crater |
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| Kilauea Caldera in the distance |
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| Looking down into another crater along Crater Rim Drive |
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| Lots of the ohia lehua plant (red flowers). This plant is monumental in Hawaii becoming the gorgeous lush lands it is today. While other plants can't survive in the volcanic conditions, the ohia lehua plant has long dangling roots that collect moisture from the air instead of the soil. After the ohia lehua plants grow, die, and decompose, they leave the soil suitable for other plants to now survive. |
After hiking, we drove back up to the Kilauea Iki Trail. We walked across the street and visited the Thurston Lava Tube. Lava once flowed under ground to the sea. A large tunnel remains now that the lava is no longer flowing.
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| About to go into the Thurston Lava Tube. Notice the roots hanging down, those are the roots from the ohia lehua plant, which is how they are able to survive in the volcanic remains |
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| Inside the Thurston Lava Tube |
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| In the lush rain forest surrounding the volcano |
After crossing through the lava tube, we set out on the Kilauea Iki hike. A four mile hike where hikers hike around the rim of the crater before descending into the crater and crossing across the floor of the crater. Finally, making the steep climb (what the brochures claim the equivalent of climbing a 40 story building). Every minute was worth it!!!
We drove back to the resort around the south side of the island. We drove the circumference of the entire island by the end of the day. Nick slept on most of the drive home. The Big Island feels like you are traveling across large distances with the extreme changes in the landscape. We started out driving through barren black, lava fields. Around the northeast side, we reached lush cliffs and rain forests. On the way home, we hills of fields resembling the English countryside (which I didn't get any pictures of because Nick was sleeping).
When we arrived back at the resort, we showered and changed clothes and headed to a sunset dinner on the canal at a lovely Italian restaurant.
We had originally planned on spending the next day snorkeling, but changed our plans to spend our day exploring the resort. We woke up insanely early again (before 5 am). We walked around the resort at sunrise. It felt like we had the resort to ourselves. We went and visited the dolphins. Without the distractions of the people wandering around, the dolphins were very engaging and swam over to visit and say hi.
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| Hawaii at sunrise |
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| The dolphins at the resort were very playful |
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| One of the many pool areas |
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| On the grand steps at the entrance to the resort |
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast, went back to the room for a nap, and woke up in time to hit the pools when they opened at 8 am.
We spent the day reading and enjoying tropical drinks by the pool. The pool by our tower was open and had very few children running around. Around lunch time, Nick and I headed over to the more kid friendly pool to ride the slide Nick loved as a kid. Needless to say, it was not quite the same 20 years later!
We ate lunch at the cafe overlooking the dolphins and sharks at the resort. We continued lounging around before getting ready in time to catch our first Hawaiian sunset! We ate dinner at the fancy restaurant that night on the water. We should have thought to eat there at sunset, but it was still beautiful and delicious!
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| The Hawaiian Sunset |
The resort faces the west in the direction of the other islands. The whole time we were there, I was convinced I kept seeing Maui. It looked like a dark cloud that never moved. Nick kept telling me I was imagining things and it was just a cloud in the sky. When we finally flew across the ocean, it became clear the dark cloud was the tops of the mountains of Maui.
Stay tuned for details on the majority of our honeymoon-our visit to Maui!
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