Friday

We woke up and were on the road by 7am. The drive to Hilo (on the opposite side of the island) is a 3+ hours trip by car…and we wanted to make a few stops along the way. Our helicopter ride was scheduled for 1pm, so we needed to be at the Hilo Airport by 12:15pm for check-in.

Our first stop was in Waimea for gas and breakfast. The concierge at the resort told us about a great café to stop at called Hawaiian Style Café. The food was good, and the portions were huge. The bacon was sadly overcooked, but everything else hit the spot.

It rained on us in Waimea, but it was mostly a drizzle. Waimea is colder than Kona (and Hilo), so the drizzle was chilly and looked like a light snow falling.

We took the scenic route just off the main highway, but the rain was pouring down so hard everything was hard to see…and no pictures in the rain. We passed a few waterfalls and the Tropical Botanical Garden we wanted to stop at, but it was still pouring down rain. We would have been soaked before we made it from the parking lot to the start of the garden trail. We were so sad to miss out on such beauty we had driven so far to see.

Along the way, we called the helicopter company to verify our flight was still going to happen…they told us at that time it was still scheduled. They said the weather can change very quickly, so the rain may have passed by the time our flight was scheduled.

We kept driving until we made it to Hilo. We didn’t even bother taking the rode to Akaka Falls or the Boiling Pots…there would have been no point in that much rain. We made a pit stop for more gas and at Walmart to buy flashlights for the lava excursion we were planning for after the helicopter.

We arrived at the airport a few minutes earlier than we planned, so we checked in and sat in the waiting area for instructions. A few minutes later, the girl that checked us in walked in and informed us that the 1pm flights were cancelled due to weather. Also, all other tours that day were full…if they weren’t cancelled. We were bummed.

We had planned to drive to Volcano National Park after the flight, so we just headed there ahead of schedule.  On the way there we stopped at an orchid garden.  IT was more of a giant green house, but the flowers were still beautiful!

 In the end, I think it all worked out for the best. We had more time to explore the Park before heading to watch the lava flowing into the ocean.

We found Jagger Museum and were able to see the Kiluea Caldera. There was a large eruption in 1983…and Kiluea has been erupting non-stop ever since. There is a constant flow of billowing smoke from the volcano. The smoke consists of sulfer, so the roadways were closed off if the air became too dangerous. Only a portion of the roadway was closed off the day we were there. (Obviously this is a lay man’s explanation…)

We also found the steam vents. There were many of these vents all around us while we were in the Park, but there were only a few that had been set-up for people to view up close. The steam was so hot! And if you stood in the steam, you were instantly wet.

We decided we did not have time to drive all the way down Chain of Craters Road, so we turned back around and found the Thurston Lava tubes. I have always been too chicken to hike into the lava tubes near Flagstaff, but these lava tubes were large and there were lights inside. No squeezing through anything in the dark. The lava tubes were fun...just a short hike/walk.

We left the park and as we drove through the pouring rain, the boys slept in the backseat, so Randi and I kept each other company…which is always a good time. Mike drove the majority of the time on the trip…Anthony drove the rest, except for this exceptionally long travel day…mixed with pouring rain. Randi was the lucky driver for the mid-section of our day and I was always a great passenger.

We drove and drove and drove until we finally came to the site of the most recent (and current) lava flow. The initial flow (from 2003…I think) was about eight miles from the current site…and it was back at the National Park at the end of the Chain of Craters Road. The flow we were expecting to see had destroyed neighborhoods that were in the lava’s path. The County had blocked off access to the lava flow, but had a small “viewing area” we hiked about 1.5 miles to.

From the small (okay- tiny) viewing area we could see the steam rising from the ocean where the lava entered. After the sun set, we were able to see a red glow from the lava. It was pretty cool, but I wanted to be a lot closer. Everything I read about the lava flow made it sound like we could get a lot closer to the action. I realize the County had all of our access blocked off for good reason, but I was bummed.

There was a tour company we could have hired (for $55 per person) to take us on a 1.5 hour hike to the lava, view the lava for an hour and then hike back out for 1.5 hours. We all wanted to do the excursion, but we were starving…and the thought of all the hiking, in the rain while starving to death made us say no.

I think we were all torn on what the right thing to do was…until we were soaking wet and freezing cold after a 10 minute hike back from the viewing area. It was not raining when we set out on the hike, but we got dumped on our hike back to the car. Mike and Randi had a change of clothes, but Anthony and I were not as lucky. We were soaked to the bone. We found one of the only restaurants open (Subway)…ate quickly and headed for Kona.

The Big Island is just that- Big. They say all the other islands would fit in one small part of the Big Island. Sounds unbelievable, but after spending a week on the Big Island, I believe it is the truth.

The roadways are narrow and winding through the mountains/volcanoes. The sign near our hotel said the volcanoes were less than 90 miles away, but it would have taken 3+ hours to drive directly to the volcanoes from Kona. The highest speed limit was 55 mph, but that stretch of roadway only lasted a few miles as the majority of the roads were no more that 35 mph.

There is one road that runs through the middle of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa (technically the two tallest mountains on earth). It’s called Saddle Road. We heard taking this road would take 20-30 minutes off the drive time from Kona to Hilo and vise versa. We took the scenic route on our way to Hilo, so we took Saddle Road back to Kona. We also heard Saddle Road was pitch black and just awful.  Mike braved the road and it was scary…even from the backseat.

There were a few houses and dim lights along Saddle Road near the Hilo side, but after the first few miles, the road became dark, windy and the rain poured down. It was so dark and we were driving between two mountains, so I assumed there were cliffs on both sides of the roadway. I saw a postcard a few days later with a picture of Saddle Road…in the picture it was a flat roadway with green grass on both sides. I think that is just one small portion of that crazy roadway.

We made it back to the hotel safely, but after midnight. Our day was at least 15 hours long…most of it spent in the car driving to and from. We were disappointed about the helicopter ride, but rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. We also decided to spend about $150 more per person to take the longer 2-hour flight that leaves out of Waikaloa (45 min from Kona instead of 3 hours each way).