At 7:30AM or so on Thursday 23 July, we left Ottawa on a three-legged journey – to Denver, Honolulu, and then Hilo on Hawaii Island (Big Island). We arrived in Honolulu about 2:40PM, and this was our first view of the islands on the ground.
Hawaii Honolulu airport - first impressions
On landing in Hilo, when I asked about a rental upgrade, I was offered this beautiful red Dodge Charger without even asking for it (the Charger is the car I would buy if we were buying a car right now).
Fire-engine red Charger - riding in style
The house we rented was truly off the beaten path, up in the hills in sloping farmland with a spectacular view of the Pacific.
The house
The view ...
To get to it, we had to go through this beautiful section of road which we quickly dubbed our “Jurassic Road”.
"Jurassic Road"
Being on east coast time still, Cindy and I woke up early in the morning to this sunrise, which we enjoyed out on the pool patio with a cup of coffee, listening to the birds chattering and the cocks crowing. (It only takes one to get them all started.)
Sunrise in paradise
Hilo is a pretty little town, with a wonderful scruffy (in a good way) charm to it – more so than resort and tourist-infested Kona. It was twice heavily damaged by tsunamis with significant loss of life – in 1946 and then again in 1961. Most of the low areas along the shore front were (intelligently) not re-built, instead being turned into parks. There are still buildings in the designated flood zone, but these are commercial, with little if any residential. This town has learned. Depending on where you get an earthquake in the Pacific Rim, you can have up to 5 hours of warning, or as little as 10 minutes – but in the latter case the earthquake you feel IS your warning to evacuate to higher ground. And these evacuations are practiced.
Hilo - we had an excellent meal at Cronies on this corner near the waterfront
Hilo - with European influences
Hilo - its main growth spurt came from the sugar industry
In Hilo it was mostly locals, and the only place we really ran into other tourists in any kind of numbers was at the Volcanoes National Park. Here is a view of the main caldera of Kiluea, and some nearby steam vents on the rim.
Kiluea caldera
Steam vents at the rim of Kiluea
We also went to view the lava flowing into the ocean near a small town called Kalapana. You don’t see much during the day (the viewing area was at least 1/2 a mile away for safety reasons), but at night it was quite spectacular. The mountainside looked like a bed of coals, and where the lava was entering the ocean, you could see the steam plume lit up in red, and the occasional burst of lava as it angrily splattered upward. It did not give off enough light to photograph well in the dark, but some of the video I took came out quite nicely, with enough detail to see the lava bursts.
Huge steam plume where lava meets the ocean (lit up in red at night)
The texture of hardened lava
And that was just Day 1! That’s it for this little bit of the travelogue. More to come.
Cheers,
Allocator
a.k.a George Parkanyi
George,
Awesome, simply awesome.
Jeff
Hi George:
Great pictures. Hope you’re enjoying yourself.
The last time I was on Hawaii was nearly two decades ago — before the internet existed. I (fondly) remember that, due to the time zone difference, we would get the Wall Street Journal one-day-late. I also recall that getting the WSJ one-day-late was nearly as profitable as getting the WSJ one-day-early!
Enjoy!
Rocky
George – Great pictures! Thank you very much for posting. I remember having to make a phone call from a pay phone in Maui on the road to Hana. A downpour started so fast, I was completely soaked before I could even mention that I had to hang up. Do they still have pay phones in the middle of nowhere?
Jeff
Its an awesome place.
Rocky,
Never mind getting the newspaper late, you have to get up pretty early (3:30AM) to catch the opening in New York. You wouldn’t want to be trading a system that depends on you trading at the opening (which I am actually – I just wing it by using pre-loaded limit orders and/or trading later in the session and not worrying about catching the opening price range). The good part is, by 10AM your day – at least the trading part – is done. Then you can do other things like, oh, surf.
LD,
I haven’t looked out for payphones all that much, but I did notice one or two that were a bit out there. Know what you mean about the sudden downpours though.
Cheers,
George