On Saturday May 30th 2009 we took off on a milk run from Denver to the big island of Hawaii. In my 7 lifetime trips to Hawaii I have yet to see the Volcano during an eruption and hence we planned a one day detour from our normal Maui stay.

The direct airfare from Denver to Honolulu  was through the roof. With with 5  traveling, we decided to go the economy route which involved a layover in Los Angelos a second stop  in Honolulu.  All was on time until we arrived in Honolulu and realized are bags were not checked through to Hilo, so we had to pick them up and then scramble 1/2 mile across the airport to get to another terminal. We ran up to the ticket counter with about 15 minutes before our scheduled departure.  Fortunately in Hawaii the island hopping airlines don’t seem to have any real cut off time  for boarding or baggage. We made our connection and sailed off to Hilo.

Our accommodations in Hilo were labeled Banyan View .

This was budget 1960′s style, bare bones. The strip of hotels on the harbor in Hilo  airport looked like  collectors item with older Facades and very few people staying there.

We rented from Dollar rent a car, booked through our travel agent. I regretted not requesting having her tack on few hundred for another company. They first tried to put us in Dodge Chargeer, with 5 adults plus luggage, and then charged us an extra $75 to use a van that had a street value of perhaps the weekly rental cost. I wondered if just purchasing an old  beater van for the week would make more sense? The VAN had some serious back end damage, the rust around the gash  indicated that it had been there for a while. The ruptured rare panel along with  various nics and scratches required  about 10 minutes to fill out the damage slip.

Later in Maui, the Dollar car rental agent would use a full court press to get us to purchase their crappy insurance. We had a 2008 jeep Commander with 16,000 miles on it. The agent claimed if we did not take their insurance, we were responsible for a $72,000 car. (the actual street value for our standard equipped vehicle is about $18000) I told him my Insurance covered it, and then without hesitation, he informed us  that  our Colorado insurance was not good in Hawaii.  Amazing that he had such in depth knowledge of insurance law. This made my blood boil a little bit since his salesmanship had diverged into intimidating lies, most likely commission incented.

On our one full day in Hawaii (big Island) we rose for an early start to the National Volcano Park. Our initial goal was to get the latest information on where we would find the best viewing for the current lava flow. I had been checking before our trip and was well aware that the lava was currently flowing direct to the sea via underground tube, emerging only at the tide line, some 25 miles distant from the Volcano summit. Daytime viewing was limited to a cloud of steam as the Lava spilled into the Pacific ocean. Only under the cover of darkness would the red glow of lava be visible.

Even my reduced expectations were soon shattered.  There was a crowd of eager tourists at the information booth all with the same goal as mine, to see an actual lava flow. Ranger John, a young man with infinite patience went through his spiel for the millionth time  as I eavesdropped on  party several slots in front of me.  “The current lava flow is not contained within the park , the county restricts people out there to the hours of 5:00 to 8:00 pm.”  Well so much for viewing lava. With our flight to Maui leaving at 6:40 that evening, the time window was too tight  to see the lava and get to Maui before the airport closed down. The best laid plans did not account for a bureaucratic restriction on the lava viewing. I felt like Chevy Chase  at the closed gates of Wally world. The likely reason for the restriction was limited resources and safety. When  the lava hits the cool ocean water, toaster sized chunks  can explode and get hurled a couple hundred feet into the air and tourist have been injured. So the county does not want to patrol it all day to  keep the tourists back behind the barrier; hence the limited ours during the most popular viewing time.

We spent the better part of the day hiking through  Kilauea Iki, an older crater created by a 1959 eruption. The bottom of the crater was a rippled  pie crust of former lava that formed a lake 1/2 mile across. It was still steaming from many fissures that had heaved up in now frozen the lava.

Off in the distance , from our hike, in the main Kilauea crater, there was  a large plume of steam rising which at first I thought was nothing more than a vent like the ones we had seen in Kilauea Iki crater during our hike.

We took a drive over to the Kilauea  crater observation area and from this vantage point the large steam vent became more impressive.

Kilauea’s  primary  summit is a moonscape type crater about 2 miles wide.  In the middle of this larger crater is a depression from a 1970′s eruption and from within this depression there was a gaping hole perhaps 25 meters across where the steam steadily shot skyward . All the signage in the volcano museum indicated the Lava had retreated to 2 kilometers below the surface, but when I asked a park ranger about the source of the steam vent, he informed me that it started a little over a year ago and had become more intense just recently.  He also added that the vulcanologists  had, in just the last several days, witnessed lava just a few  feet below the rim of the mini eruption. What was spewing from the Kilaue summit  is hot volcanic gases not simple steam. By definition this is an eruption at the surface, so now I can chalk that one up.

Maui:

On Sunday night we took  a dusk twin prop island hopper plane over from Hilo to Maui. I guess this is a sign of the recession as there were 6 passengers on the flight our 5 plus some nice lady who lives on the islands.

The flight came into the usual turbulence landing in Kalului  which made things a bit exciting. The Maui airport lies in the valley between two prominent peaks and the trade winds funnel and swirl almost down to the runway.

We drove to our resort in Kanapali Alii and arrived at 9:00 pm which felt like 1 AM as we were still on Denver time. We were met by uber enthusiastic Chris . He could have played the part of bell hop in Disney movie without flinching.  He really was excited to see us and since the resort was barely 1/3 full, the arrival of the last guest of evening was a big event for him. He appeared from seemingly out of no where as we stepped out of car not even sure if we were at the right place. ” I was wondering when you guys would get in, we have the most beautiful ocean front condo reserved for you”. He was not kidding, the recession has its bounty and discounted ocean front condo’s on Kanapali beach are the spoils. From our balcony here at the Kanapali Alii we have 180 degree unobstructed views  of the Pacific. Across the channel the sun sets between the silloute of Molaki and Lanai on the horizon.

Our  morning routine from the Condo consisted of 3.5 mile run along the beach and golf course starting at 7:00 am. By the time the run terminated around 7:45 the heat gotten the best of me.  Although the sea level air when compared to Denver made it seem like I could run for ever, the humidity and heat countered any gains from the lower elevation as far as ability to run faster.

After our run it was off to one of our two favorite snorkel spots.

Black rock or Honolua bay.

Black rock was  a 10 minute walk down a beach path from our Hotel. The reef Coral at Black Rock is confined to the cliff face which extends from 8 to 30 feet of depth as you move out along the point. I like this vantage point because the water was clear and you could see different layers of creatures along the cliff face. The downside was a few teenagers attempting to speer fish like the locals, but not getting any where close to the fish because they had no idea what they were doing.  And above other teenagers were jumping from the cliff face rocks.

As we worked our way out along the point the human traffic thinned out as the families with kids tend to stay clear of the deeper waters. There were a couple of Sea turtles cruising around once the depth dropped off to about 25 feet.  I spotted a white tipped reef shark in about 30 feet of water. It seems he was sheltering under ledge and came out for a quick swim. By the time I tapped Sandy on the shoulder she was headed for shore at full speed having spotted it at about the same time I did. The shark was at most 5 feet long perhaps less.

I swam down to within in 10 feet of it and it scurried away in the same manner that other reef fish react when you encroach on their space.

At Honolua bay we did not see any reef sharks.  Honolua is a protected area where the fish are less skittish, and if you go slow and hang out, they will go about your business near your face. The fish also seem to be a notch larger on average than other snorkel spots around the Island.

My tip for this area is to get out away from the rocky beach where there is silt from a nearby stream. Follow the channel out to the right of center. There is a clear demarcation where the reef line drops off to a sandy bottom. If you stick to this precipice   you will likely come across a family of turtles about 200 yards from the beach. When you start to see the first  turtles, continue on another 50 yards or so to the turtle cleaning station on a shelf in about 20 feet of water. You can’t miss them if you stay to the right edge of the center channel.

Be warned it is a long swim out to the turtles and the water in this bay seems a couple of degrees colder than the water at Black rock.  Both my teenage kids got chilled;  we were 250 meters from shore and in 40+ feet of water.  I had to cut my snorkel day a bit short to follow them back in as a backup in case they got cramps or became too chilled . My 200 pound body mass would take another 30 minutes  at this temperature (approx 76 degrees farhenheight) just guessing.

The drop off near the turtles is significant near the mouth of the bay,  perhaps 40 feet or more. The sandy bottom melds into a gray blue abyss into the open Ocean. Compared to the cozy shallow near shore reefs of other bays, your mind may start to conjure up images of  Tiger sharks moving in from the deep to take a turtle. Factually, there have not been any sightings of Tigers at Honolua with the exception of a couple of years ago when Poachers left   a chum trail of dead fish.

The Turtles in Honolua  take on identities with the locals. We spotted Tripod (missing arm) and Gimpy  (missing leg) , both shark attack survivors. There was a also barnacle head, and he did not look comfortable and the other turtles seemed to shun him. (could not play in any turtle games)

Weconsidered a third snorkeling spot  mile marker 14 East of Lahaina. One of the volunteer biologist had mentioned this spot  as some of the best coral reefs on the Island. We did a little Internet research and found that divers have had numerous encounters with Tiger Sharks in this area.  The area is also rife with Turtles,  the Tiger sharks evidentally  ambush the turtles here. The turtles are vulnerable when they leave the protective reef as they must do periodically to catch a breath of air. There was a case of a Snorkel boat sighting a shark taking a 5 fooot sea turtle just as the boat moored along the reef at MM 14.

At black rock on the second day we spotted an Octopus scooting along the Sandy bottom away from cover, once the Octopus reached the rocks, it immediately camouflaged itself as a piece of coral. Had Sandy not seen it while moving, spotting it would have been next to impossible. I swam down near it, and it scrambled  off under a ledge releasing a cloud of ink in my direction.

Lindsay and Paige took a day of surfing lessons.  See Pictures below.

They had no trouble standing up with the help of an instructor.

Everywhere we went on the Island the talk was of how the surf would be coming up tomorrow. The summer favors the south facing beaches for surfing, with swells emanating from storms far off in the South Pacific or  southern Mexico. The big waves never came, and the surf as witnessed from our Lanai barely managed to break on the reef.

In between the small sets of waves, large groups of surfers would bob around as if tied up together for some sort of beer drinking party, only without the beer. And yet the Hawaiins are eternally optimistic that surf is coming . Any rumor of distance storms bringing waves tomorrow will remain alive and true until the next rumor.

On the flight home, a red eye. I was awakened about 2 hours in to the flight by the attendent paging for a doctor on board. Evidentally a gentlemen a couple rows ahead of me had become ill due to a diabetic complication. ( I could hear the attendents talking) In the end the gentlemen ended up settled back into his seat with the situation under control , and continued without any need for additional medical attention. I mention this because the point of the story was the novelty of a the attendent paging for a any random doctor.  Several doctors got up and I can only imagine a group of Orthepedic surgeons, Dermatologists and Uroligists breaking out their specialty instruments to work on this poor guy. The next page was for “are there any diabetics on board?”. Obviously the doctors assesed they needed somebody with insulin that they could use/borrow to treat this patient who most likely had his insulin taken away by the TSA protecting America.