Hawaii Day 8 - Maui -> Hilo

Our last morning on Maui we went to a little breakfast place called Cafe Cafe. They had a sign that said, "So good we name it twice." My coffee was beautiful and delicious. 

The Big Island is appropriately named. It is big. It seems a large portion of it looks like this. Definitely different than the constant ocean views in Maui. 

Since we planned this trip by first buying our plane tickets, then planning it (It never would have gotten planned any other way, we had flown into Kona. Then proceed to drive to Hilo, which has it's own airport. We tried to get all the out of the way sites in on the way there. 

This is Waipi'o Valley. Our original plan was to go horseback riding around the rim of the valley. However it was so hot and humid the thought of being on a horse outside was so much less appealing than being in the air conditioned car we drove to this look out. It was beautiful. 

Another scenic place on the way around the Big Island.

So for the first week of this trip we were crazy levels of active. Lifting heavy bags, walking around with heavy things strapped to our back, and throw in surfing which is using muscles I didn't know I had. For all of this I was perfectly fine. At the airport Steven dropped me off with the bags while he returned the rental car. I managed to carry two dive bags, a huge suitcase, two carry on suitcases, and my backpack. (This was even commented on by some ladies watching me trying to figure out how to do this, they were surprised I succeeded.) Even doing this I was fine. 

We stopped at Akaka Falls. It has a flat paved parking lot, with a view of the waterfall, and a mostly flat paved path to walk to the falls. Somehow walking across a flat even surface I managed to completely mess up my back. The walk to the falls was only about a quarter of a mile, but it took me over an hour. I probably should have just gone and rested, but I was too stubborn. 

After the falls we went straight to the hotel room. I iced my back and laid there being a grump until we were both hungry. We were very nearby a quick food place called Cafe 100. The guidebook and yelp both highly recommended it. I got a fascinating thing called a Loco Moco. Normally it consists of rice, gravy, a hamburger pattie, and an egg. All things I normally find to be delicious. This place had a special of rice, curry, salmon tempura, and an egg. We saw somewhere later that Cafe 100 was the inventor of the Loco Moco, so making weird ones fits right it. 

Hawaii Day 7 - Maui

When we decided to go to Hawaii I got it into my head that I wanted to learn to surf. It was hard to find a time to actually try it, since diving took up most of time. Given the success I had paddle boarding in Australia I expected to fail epically. Luckily I found a place that guarantees you stand on the board or your lesson is free. I scheduled this fully expecting it to be free. 

Our first photo is us posing by a surfboard. I think this picture makes me look really short. 

Next come the funny ones of us looking completely incompetent.  When you fall off a surfboard you are apparently supposed to land like a starfish. This helps minimize how far you go under the water. It wasn't very deep where we were, walking level not swimming. The ground was covered in dead coral and rocks, so not hitting that with your face is a plus. Belly flopping at high speed isn't much fun either, but it does make for a ridiculous picture. 

Despite the above pictures we were both very successful at this. We both stood up on our first try. It is surprisingly easy when you have momentum from the wave. The lesson included about 4 waves per person, we both managed to stand up on each wave. The pictures above are our failed attempts at ending gracefully. 

It was a lot of fun. If the water here wasn't 55F on a good day, I might want to try it again. 

Near the condo we were staying at was a restaurant called Slappy Cakes. I originally wanted to go there because the name was ridiculous. It also came recommended by our less busy travelling companions. We didn't have a chance to go until our last day. (Silly dive boats leaving before breakfast.) The idea of this place is you make your own pancakes at a griddle at your table. We chose the whole wheat mix, and added pineapple, banana, and macadamia nuts. It is probably for the best that we only had a chance to go here once...

Our afternoon was busy despite having no plans. We spent it running around the Front Street area doing all the things we kept saying we would come back to. As well as some dive shop errands. It was hot, so I got a delicious Hawaiian shaved ice. Mine was green tea, almond, and lychee flavored, all over a scoop of macadamia nut ice cream. Also probably for the best that this waited until the last day...

Hawaii Day 6 - Maui

This was our busiest day, 4 dives and a Luau. We opted for Nitrox today. In theory it is supposed to make you less tired, but we definitely needed the extra no decompression time. The first two dives of the day where the Cathedrals. The first one just had a small swim though. The second was Second Cathedrals. 

I find caves terrifying. They are dark and confining, and while they are cool looking they are not usually worth being in for me. I also find diving to be a little claustrophobia inducing. I mostly got over that, because diving is worth it. This dive had a swim through. Which is basically a small cave with openings on both sides. However, from my perspective this was an never ending tunnel. This is a picture of me coming out of it looking absolutely terrified. I'm very glad I had my fancy new light. It was very dark in there. 

Frog fish

Parrot fish eating coral

This is as close as I will likely ever get to cave diving. The Cathedrals are amazing underwater caves. They happen to have lots of openings to let in light and multiple escape routes. They are still dark and scary. This was a great dive, but I think that the boats need to be more careful of who they take in there. There are some fragile things in there. This was not listed as an advanced dive, so that means any certified diver can go in. Our dive had some very inexperienced divers, who clearly didn't listen to the briefing. There is a piece of rare Black Albino Coral hanging from the ceiling. It is know as the Chandelier. We were told very specifically not to swim directly under it, because our bubbles can damage it. Some really annoying lady not only swam under it but stayed there looking at it. The dive leaders did nothing about this. It really lowered my previously good opinion of them.

Fish in the cave

Me in the very very dark cave. It's completely black!

Black Albino Coral

Our third dive was the wreck dive, the Carthaginian. This dive was nice because unlike the other dives we didn't have to follow a guide. If we had a dive computer and a dive buddy we could go in whenever we wanted. I translated this as finally not having to wait. Normally we got a 10 min warning. Which we ignored, because everyone is so incredibly slow. It takes us about a minute to put on our gear. We can't figure out why but everyone else seems to take about 20 minutes. It's fin, fin, strap, strap, mask. Not that hard... The boat crew would nag us to hurry up, and then we'd end up waiting for a long time in the sun.  Or they would tell us to head down and then we'd waste 10 min of air. For this dive the boat stopped and 2 min later we were on our way down. 

Steven with the submarine tour in the background.

Shark under the boat. 

Starfish Cookie!

Boat with coral on it.

Rays swimming by the boat

Our 4th dive was annoying. I did not overly enjoy it, for various reasons that aren't worth remembering. Here is one picture from it. It is some type of nudibranch. 

When we booked the dives this day we specifically asked how often they arrived late. They answered almost never, usually they are 15 min early. So since Monday was the only day we could do the Luau, we figured it would work. However the boat didn't back until 5:25. Almost a half hour late. We managed to change on the boat, and grabbed our gear and ran as much as one could loaded down with scuba gear to the car. We got to the Luau, just as they were letting people in. 

We went to the Old Lahaina Luau. The food was delicious, we ate far too much of it. The show was themed on the history of the Luau. I didn't take many picture of it, because I was busy watching it. But I highly recommend it. 

Hawaii Day 5 - Maui (Today there are pictures in hats)

The Road to Hana: our first day of not diving. It was supposed to be a relaxing day, mostly driving. We did drive about 6 hours, but somehow I managed to beat my walking record for the day. This wasn't on normal terrain, a lot of it was practically rock climbing. Some actually was... We don't relax on vacations...

Our day started off getting lunch at the recommend getting lunch spot, that I've forgotten the name of. They had sandwiches. They were good. But the store had this gelato: goat cheese and passion fruit. To make it even stranger I had it with a shot of espresso. It was good. 

Our first real stop was Twin Falls. This was supposed to be an easy walk, see the waterfall, and leave. It was before 8am when we got there, but it was soooooo hot. The walk was awful because of that, and the falls weren't even that impressive. You couldn't get that close, unless you swam or were Tarzan.

On the way back we found this little path with mostly overgrown branches. Of course we had to follow it. At least it had shade.

When we got back the little food place was open. I got a pineapple popsicle on a sugarcane stick. It was tasty and cold, both were appreciated. I remember sugarcane being a thing you can sort of chew on, but being frozen that didn't work. I didn't feel like holding it while it thawed, so that didn't happen.

The next stop cool enough to mention was a botanical garden. We took so many pictures. It was even more miserably hot. My two favorites are the 100 year old mango tree. And the Koa tree, but only because that is what the Ukulele we got is made of. 

 We found a deserted waterfall. It was deserted because to get there you had to practically be a mountain goat. The path barely looked like a path. When we got there we had the whole place to ourselves for almost a half hour. We solved the being hot problem by swimming. The water was cold. Also being wet in a car with air conditioning is cold.

Our next stop was a quick park with a nice view. I think there were some waterfalls if you wanted to hike 4 hours. We took a selfie and a panorama, and left.

This is the waterfall that I had a postcard saying it was Twin Falls. Someone is confused, not sure who. This waterfall did involve some actual climbing. I'm not convinced there is an actual path. We had to climb down the side of the bridge, walk under it, and scramble over a trail that was mostly large rocks. It was nice when we got there. The leftmost waterfall had a rock behind it so you could sit and watch the waterfall from the other side. On the way back up we climbed up the other side of the bridge, which was basically a short vertical wall of rock.

Almost to Hana was a black sand beach. The blocked off the beach, and most of the park. We were still able to take some pictures. 

Luckily, black sand beaches are not rare. They sound really exotic and fancy, but they mostly look like wet dirt. This is Hana Bay. Proof that we made it all the way there.

We wanted to see a red sand beach. The guidebook, and the cd both had confusing directions. It seems you have to walk though a hotel that doesn't like you walking through it. Also the parking was difficult, due probably to the hotel. We gave up and found a reddish beach down the street.

A random view on the way back.

Banana bread seems to be a thing on the Road to Hana. We got a selection to try later.

When we were mostly back there was an amazing sunset. By the time we got to a place to take a picture it was a lot less amazing, but still really nice.