Day 10: Hawai'i and back to Oahu

Another great night's sleep in the rainforest! The cottage we stayed in was called the "Rainforest Cottage", which became an obvious label once I looked around and took some photos.


Here's the view out the kitchen window:


Behind the house is a large (about the diameter of a small above-ground pool, but taller) water tank with a black tarp-like cover over it. Upon further inspection, the gutters seem to run into this tank. It turns out that there is almost no municipal water here, and that every house (at least here, on the wet side) has a rainwater collection system.

We checked out and went down the road to the Lava Rock Cafe for a fairly decent breakfast. Then we basically drove back to Hilo to find a road that headed towards Mauna Loa. The GPS took us a dumb way, because the map data is from 2006 (at best), and they have since built a new highway.


This eventually led us to the road that crosses the island, traveling between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. This road is hilly, curvy, and fun. But, it turns out that some people don't care for that sort of driving, so we encountered the Saddle Road Relocation Project in action, which resulted in miles and miles of sometimes-paved, sometimes-gravel construction areas.

Up until we arrived at the four-way intersection of Saddle road, the road to Mauna Kea, and the road to Mauna Loa... I had been aiming for Mauna Loa. What none of the maps indicate, however, is that the road to the top of Mauna Loa barely qualifies as a road, starting at the bottom and (presumably) staying that way until the top.


So, I turned right instead of left, and we headed up the steep incline towards Mauna Kea. About 9200 feet up is the visitor center, and a bunch of warning signs that read "USE YOUR 4 WHEEL DRIVE" and "CAUTION: HAZARDOUS ROAD AHEAD" and other such nonsense. Of course, I just kept on going without stopping. Keep in mind that we're in a 2-liter 4 banger with front wheel drive.


Shortly after the visitor center, the pavement ended and the road turned to well-graded gravel. About 2.5 to 3 miles up from there, it turned into gravel with lots of golfball-sized rocks, and also got steeper. Every car coming down the mountain was either a jeep or an 18 wheeler, and eventually the car just didn't want to climb anymore. So, we turned around and descended to the visitor center.
The visitor center, of course, was full of useful information.


By this time, it was just after noon, so we headed for Hilo (as we had a 3:15 helicopter tour appointment). The "city" part of Hilo isn't much, but we parked and walked around for awhile. At about 2:30, we headed in the general direction of the airport, parked, and checked in with the helicopter tour company.


After watching a brief, FAA-required, safety video, we were issued fanny-pack-style PFDs, and shepherded to a helicopter.


The helicopter tour was amazing. I'd never ridden in a helicopter, so there was the novelty of that. I'd also never flown over a volcano, so that was a new experience as well. I learned that about 50% of the big island is conservation area, 47% is agricultural (macadamia nuts, coffee, exotic flowers), and only 3% is residential. I don't know that the lava fields count as, especially the parts that used to be residential...
We got to see the area that we had driven around yesterday, as well as some hot, flowing lava (and accompanying burning trees).


The tour included a view of the town that was swallowed by lava in 1990. Some of the buildings are still there, on little islands of non-lava, surrounded by acres and acres of black. See the O-12 and P-12 area. Note the footnote under "Kalapana" that reads "former site".
After flying several circles around the volcanos, we headed north and found some impressive waterfalls.


Then we buzzed the harbor and landed.


They video the entire tour from the helicopter, including soothing background music and pilot commentary, and sell it to you on DVD afterwards. The price of the DVD doesn't seem like much, compared to the cost of the tour itself, so we purchased the DVD.

Since we were already at the airport, we checked our bags (and that damned case of wine) and then headed out for dinner. After gassing up and returning the rental car, we flew back to Honolulu. The Hilo airport is hilariously tiny, and is stocked with couches and comfy chairs. For anyone that's been to the LVI / ABE airport... it's smaller than that. It only has 9 gates, and they're all in a row.


Tomorrow we hop in a rental and do a quick loop of Oahu, hopefully including the Dole pineapple facility and the North Shore, which is a world-renowned surfing location, complete with "huge waves".

Pictures start on the last row of page 110.