Hawaii: Trip of a Lifetime!

Sunset from the Fairmont Orchid along the Kohala Coast

Over time the experiences you've had get better and the things or stuff you buy lose their luster and become less satisfying.  Speaking of which, I just returned from two weeks on the Big Island, Hawaii.  If you've never been but have always wanted to go, I highly recommend getting this trip to the top of your list.  Last year when my sister Diane and I were planning our annual trip together she asked me where I wanted to go and I said Hawaii.  I have wanted to go to Hawaii since Greg Brady had to put the tiki Bobby found back in the cave in order to stop all the bad luck they were having.  Of course, this desire was cemented when I watched Jeannie bring King Kamehameha back to life on "I Dream of Jeannie".

We decided to sign up for the Backroads multi-sport trip to the Big Island.  Multi-sport meant that the trip included quite a bit of biking as well as hiking and kayaking.  We had been on group trips before, most recently the Backroads hiking trip to Croatia's Dalmatian Coast.  Diane and I prefer an active vacation and when you go with a group it naturally self-selects for people who enjoy the same things you do.  I also think that you get to see things that others miss and from a perspective that most travelers don't take full advantage.  These trips also show people how to get off the beaten path so that when you are traveling on your own, you comfortably do that as well.

After several trips now where either one or both of us could only get away for a week at a time, we also decided we'd extend this trip.  We arrived on Hawaii a few days before our group trip started and then stayed a few days after it ended.  This gave us the opportunity to see and do even more.  The Concierge at the Hilton at Waikoloa Village left a message on our phone inviting us to an orientation, that pinky promised it was not about a time share, on the first morning we were there.  If you're someplace great and you get this offer, take it.  I think it made the first few days of our trip that much better.  We immediately signed up for three activities, Sunset on Mauna Kea, swimming with Manta rays and the Big Island Spectacular Helicopter tour.  All of these tours offer a money back guarantee if you don't see what you want to see.

Sunset at the summit of Mauna Kea

We went up to the summit of Mauna Kea on the first night.  The tallest mountain on the face of the earth - yes, that's right, it's taller than Everest, look it up - it gets mighty cold at the summit and the air is thin.  It's home to several large telescopes and as it's a dormant volcano they're safe for now. You're handed a pretty hardy, cover your buns, parka about halfway up the mountain and you don't wear shorts to this one - I was in jeans and hiking shoes with wool socks and another layer would not have been unwelcome.  It was totally worth it though as you watch the sun set.  I took way too many pictures and then hopped in the tiny bus that took us down the mountain a bit for some of the best star gazing ever.  I also learned that the North Star is not the brightest star in the night sky, it's Sirius.  Who knew?

The next night we rented a car for the drive to the dive shop hosting the night swim with the Manta rays.  They provided the wet suit, the mask and snorkel and a lot of information on the Manta rays.

Night Snorkel with the Manta ray

We hopped on a large, inflatable boat and headed out to a bay near the Kona airport.  Everyone hops in and hangs on to a raft that shines bright lights into the water to attract the plankton that the Manta rays love to eat.  You basically just float and watch as the Manta rays swim close enough beneath you to touch - but resist the urge.  You have bacteria on your skin that is harmful to them.  If they touch you, so be it, but you're not supposed to touch them.  They're like beautiful space ships under water, dark on top and white on the bottom, opening up their huge mouths to suck in as much plankton as possible.  They come really close to you as they dine and it can be a little awkward, but they're harmless.  They are used to the people being out there every night, and in fact expect it.  After all these years they look for the lights each night.  Our boat arrived just as the other boats were leaving the bay and so we had them all to ourselves for about 45 minutes.

We were scheduled for our helicopter trip early the next morning and the van picked us up right on time right outside our hotel entrance (many of the companies offering these adventures provide travel to their location from a hotel or other central location).  As we sat drinking bad coffee on an island known for great coffee, word came down that the conditions were not good for seeing the island from the air.  A rainy cold front had come to visit the island and was interfering with the views we were in search of.  We rescheduled for the end of our trip, but we could have rescheduled for later in the day if we had wished.  If we were unable to reschedule we'd have been given a full refund of our money.

At 8am the next day though we were scheduled to meet our Backroads guides in the lobby of our hotel for the start of our week with them.  We had been instructed to have our bike gear on and that there was a bit of a ride to the start of our ride up in cattle ranch country.  This included rain gear, because each of the Hawaiian Islands has a wet side and a dry side and there is a significant difference.  Also, as I had mentioned, a cold front had come to visit Hawaii while we were there.  The wet side of Hawaii gets 140 inches of rain annually, whereas the dry side gets 4.  Our first ride, in the pouring rain, was to Waipio Valley where it was completely socked in and we couldn't see a thing.  This happened to Diane and I once before on a vacation when we visited Mount Rushmore and couldn't see anything.  Still, you're in Hawaii and at the first break in the ride we arrived at Ahualoa Farms to the delicious aroma of roasting Macadamia nuts.  I can't get enough of them and now that I know I can buy them online I will never run out!

Rainbow over the Caldera in Volcanoes National Park

The beauty of a group trip is that all of your vacation work has now been taken over by someone else - typically with plenty of local knowledge and experience - who will see to your every want and need.  Plenty of snacks are available for hiking and biking - in fact Backroads has the nickname of "Snackroads".   They take care of your luggage, have made all your lunch and dinner reservations, and if you get too tired, have vans ready for you to ride in either to the next destination or to your hotel.  Additionally, you have built in friends.  Our group consisted of four couples, one person traveling alone and my sister and I.  This was an especially fun group with a great sense of humor which makes it not just a great trip for the group, but for the guides as well who have to spend quite a bit of time with all of us.  This was also one of the smaller groups to sign up for the trip.  It can get as large as 24 and as small as 4.  We had 2 guides and 1 support guide.

Our group on the floor of Kilauea Iki

On our second day with the group we hiked the Volcanoes National Park.  Backroads arranged for a local Volcanologist who also had a degree in Botany to hike with us and who shared some great information.  We hiked the 4.5 mile Kilauea Iki trail and it was incredible.  In some places it's still steaming. You can't hike into the Halema'uma'u Crater any longer as there are dangerous gases so you view that from afar or from up high (more on that later). At night, if it's not foggy, you can head into the park and see the glow from the fiery lava. Yeah, it was foggy when we went in there that night. Oh well.

Hilina Pali Overlook view of the black sand beach

After our hike and a lovely lunch back at our hotel, we all hopped on our bikes and rode into the park for a 21.2 mile ride to the Hilina Pali overlook. During the ride the sun came out which was wonderful. It meant stopping though to take off rain gear and apply sunscreen. It's a slight climb into the park, but not too taxing and the road to the overlook is a lot of fun. Mostly we had a tail wind which meant we were flying! Each ride comes with three options - short, medium and long. For those choosing the long option (not me) it meant riding back to the hotel the way we had just come in. We had a tail wind heading into the park which means some hard riding back out to me. We had some hardy riders though who took it on and did well.

Day three was a 31.3 mile bike ride down the side of Mauna Loa to the beautiful black sand beach, Punalu'u, where you can see the Sea Turtles resting on the beach and enjoy lovely views of the ocean. Another awesome ride as we had a tail wind again and we were losing elevation. At one point I was riding up hill, at speed, next to my sister and I wasn't even pedaling! How fun is that? Top that off with a lunch at the Punulu'u Bake Shop, the southern most bakery in the United States and you've had a fantastic day. Add a sugary donut known as a Malasada with Lilikoi and you've just reached heaven on earth.

On day four we kayaked Keauhou Bay on tandem sea kayaks. We added two local kayak guides to this trip who shared history and other information before we jumped in the water to snorkel.  On the way back to our starting point some Spinner Dolphins appeared and nearly everyone in our group hopped into

Diane in front of me as we kayak in Keauhou Bay

the water to swim with them.  Just a little wildlife warning here - the Spinner Dolphins have a reputation for being tame and friendly, unlike their larger Bottlenose cousins.  However, always take care to remember if you do this you're in their territory and you should give them respect because at the end of the day they are wild animals.  Don't put yourself or them in jeopardy.  The Dolphins managed to outmaneuver our group, but at one point a group of them leapt out of the water right in front of one of the kayaks.  

We spent a few hours on the water and we were well covered.  Nearly everyone in our group had on a long sleeve swim shirt, shorts and a hat.  We were also well covered in sunscreen.  Except for our two Backroads guides, everyone was over the age of 35.  We're beyond caring how we look, we just know we absolutely do not want a sunburn to spoil our vacation.  Sunscreen is readily available and there are a lot of cute swim shirts around so no more excuses when someone gets a bad burn, and I saw a few of them while I was in Hawaii.

After lunch we headed off to Greenwell Farms, the original coffee farm on the Big Island.  We tasted the coffee - without sugar and without half and half - while we took the tour.  Mainland brands that use the beans from this farm include Seattle's Best, Caribou and Green Mountain.

Day five brought the hardest day of biking we had experienced during the entire trip.  For most of us it was 33.3 miles that make up a portion of the Ironman Triathlon route.  

Polulu Valeey

This is the North Kohala Coast and we first biked to the Pololu Valley and then biked back towards Hawi and another fifteen miles past that point to a restaurant serving fish tacos.  Unlike our other rides this one did include some steep climbs where I wasn't able to gather enough speed on the way down to make it all the way up without hopping off my bike for a step or two.  There was a tail wind sometimes, but for the most part it was a head wind or a cross wind.  Even going downhill was difficult.  Once you pass Hawi you're mostly on highway.  To the right there's a beautiful ocean and to the left there's a desert.  Still, when I saw the vans waiting at the end of the road, I was really proud of myself.  All except one person completed this distance.  The truly hardy did another 10 miles afterward riding the highway all the way back to the hotel.  After 33 miles I'd had enough.  It was our last day of biking and as I got to the van and got off my bike I said to Darren the support guide, "Take this bike, I never want to see it again."  As I understand it, another one of the riders had wanted to take his bike down to the ocean and toss it in.  My sister said, "I think this is a good place for my bike and I to part ways." It was a good time even if we were exhausted and we all laughed at dinner that night, our final night as a group.

We, my sister and I, had now been in Hawaii for a total of 8 days and had already seen quite a bit of the Island and all its diversity.  The next morning Backroads arranged for us to go out on the water in an Outrigger canoe (two canoes connected to one another) to watch a sunrise.  The local guide said a Polu and blew the Conch and it was lovely.  

Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site

Afterwards we headed up to brunch before getting together with the group one last time to visit Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, the home of a King Kamehameha temple.  This was our final activity with Backroads before everyone went their separate ways.  Some folks were leaving that day and others stayed on or moved to another island.

Diane and I stayed put.  This was Sunday and our flight home wasn't until Wednesday afternoon.  We dined that Sunday at the hotel with one of the couples who wasn't leaving until the next day.  One of the benefits of these group trips is that you've made some good friends in such a short time and so conversation flows easily and dinner was very enjoyable.  

Honu - Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle

Diane and I spent the last few days of our trip at the Fairmont Orchid.  It's a beautiful hotel that offers a lot of amenities, one of which is snorkeling right off the beach every day and we took full advantage of this.  You pay a daily resort fee that gives you access to snorkels, masks, fins and towels whether you use them or not.  The hotel features a fancy spa but we did not choose to go there, preferring instead to spend our time in and around the water.  Snorkeling is one of the easiest and most interesting activities to take part in.  The water is fairly clear and you find beautiful tropical fish, sea urchins, eels and the Honu - the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle.  I have a little Olympus waterproof camera that I took out with me each day trying to capture the beauty of everything living under the water.  I now have quite a few nearly okay pictures of some very colorful fish.  

On our last full day in Hawaii we were finally going to take our helicopter tour of the Island.  Luckily

Waipio Valley from the helicopter

the weather was excellent and we got to see things that we couldn't from the ground.  We flew over the Waipio Valley and it's beautiful.  We flew over the Halema'uma'u Crater and could see the bright red of the lava. We saw a Manta ray when we flew over the water in Hilo. We were very happy that we didn't do this until the end of the trip. After having been over the entire island for the past 10 days, it was a perfect way to end. We did the first tour in the early morning and so we were back on the ground and returned to our hotel by 9:15 am, plenty of time to take advantage of the breakfast buffet and the lather up with sunscreen and head down to the water.

Since this was our last full day we splurged on the chairs at the beach that come with the canopy. It's like renting an umbrella at the beach, but it comes with a cooler of snacks! We spent the day snorkeling and reading and just enjoying relaxing. We had a nice dinner, watched a final sunset and headed up to our room to pack.

Our flight was scheduled to depart Kona at 1:30 pm the next day which gave us time for a final swim in the morning as well as a shower before we had to head to the airport. The water was super calm and I took another bunch of pictures.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a - Hawaiian State Fish

We'd been in Hawaii for almost two full weeks and I was ready to head home. I felt, and my sister agreed, that we had done and seen nearly everything while we were there and we've been referring to this as our best sister trip ever. We don't know how we can top it.

Some notes about what I've written here.  I've linked to a lot of extra information in this post in case you wish to do further reading on some of the things we saw and did.  Hopefully I've remembered everything correctly, if not, leave me a comment and I'll look through my notes again and correct the information.

Total flying time is between 10-11 hours from the East Coast and there's a time difference of -6 hours.  Adjusting to the time difference was a lot more difficult than we had anticipated.  We found ourselves waking up in the middle of the night on several occasions and heard other people having the same issues.  Additionally its warm there and everything is in bloom so bring allergy medication just in case.  

If you plan to rent a car also plan to drive the speed limit.  The police are very good at handing out speeding tickets.  

If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll respond as I see them.

Sunrise on the Kohala Coast