Hawaii Honeymoon Experience
We're back from our honeymoon in Hawaii. Pictures are coming, but here's a description of what we did if you're interested:
After a week and a half of adventures, we're back to "real life." Hawaii was amazing---like a foreign land of beauty.
We started off on Big Island. Coming into Kona airport on the west side of the island was very odd to say the least. We expected to see palm trees and hula girls but instead saw just desolation with tons of lava rock and hardly any vegetation. We stayed in HIlo on the other side of the island (don't ask why we didn't fly into Hilo) which took us about 2 hours of driving to get to. Hilo is pretty much a rainforest with mosquitos abound.
In HIlo, we stayed in a Buddhist "B&B." I put that in quotes because the name implies a lot less rusticness than this ended up being. Our mango cottage consisted of a basically empty room with light screening on the wood door and "windows" and a mosquito net over the bed. This would not have appealed to many people, especially since at night the crickets, frogs, and other animals of the night were so loud it was hard to sleep. Also, our bathroom was outside which meant getting dressed as much as you could in the middle of the night when you had to pee so the mosquitos wouldn't eat you alive (needless to say, I had about 75 bites all over my body by the end of the trip).
However, it was very peaceful in the middle of the rainforest. We felt very close with nature (as it was literally sleeping with us and around us). And Akiko, the owner, was a happy little Buddhist woman who acted and looked like a teenager despite being in her 60's. She told us about her two thousand-mile spiritual journeys in Japan and guided us in meditation one morning. When we awoke, every morning we would take an hour walk around the jungle and meet her in the kitchen for a homemade breakfast of amazing oatmeal, fresh papaya from the tree, tea, and sometimes lilikoi smoothies and taro french toast. We hope to meet her again-she was quite the woman to learn from.
During our time in Hilo we took day trips around the area. One day we went south about an hour to Volcanoes National Park. We hiked some trails there, took some pictures. It was good to see once, but it had become very touristy...and honestly, there is only so much interesting about a bunch of holes in the earth. The coolest part of the park was the Holei Sea Arch and climbing around on all the lava rock at the very end of Crater Rd. You would look in one direction and see mountains, the other and see sea and the other and see desolation and plumes from the active flow of Kalapana. The lava tube was also awesome. We thankfully knew to bring headlamps per Karles McQuade and were thus able to go to the end in pitch dark. We turned off our light at the end and sat in silence. It's amazing how little time it takes to begin seeing visual aberrations when you have no visual stimulus.
We also spent some time in Hilo walking around the marts and such there. Farmer's markets in HI are not just known for their cheap and delicious fruits and veggies. People also bring home made crafts, gorgeous flowers from their gardens (especially orchids, anthureums, and birds of paradise), and clothing to sell. They had these cool jade pendants there which had different symbols on each side; the pendant could be broken in half and each half given to the people in a relationship.
We went to Akaka State Falls, which had also become very touristy. All we were able to hike was a half mile loop to the 2 waterfalls which were spectacular...but not so much with 50 people around you.
Our last day on Big Island, we went north to N Kohala and stayed at a guest house there. The guest house was cute; we loved the many dogs and cats roaming it. The north terrain is very much like out west, very mountainous and dry (but of course couldn't get away from the damn mosquitos). We attempted to find a white sand beach the owner directed us to but instead found a wind farm and an amazing sushi restaurant. :)
On to Kauai! When we walked off the plane this time, we were pleased to find *this* island was where they hid the "real" Hawaii! :) Kauai is very tropical and gorgeous with the backdrop of the Na Pali Coast from anywhere you go. Kauai gets the most rainfall of any island which is made obvious by the fact that every 1-2 hours, it rains for about 10-20 mins and then becomes beautiful again. Not a bad deal. Also, there are free-roaming chickens everywhere because of a hurricane a little while ago which ended up freeing cock-fighting chickens whom then reproduced all over the island.
The real reason for going to Kauai was to hike the Kalalau trail on the Na Pali Coast (rated a 9/10 in difficulty by the Sierra Hiking Club, 11 miles one way), but we found we also fell in love with the town around the trail called Hanalei. We stayed at Hanalei Inn, where we were happy to find A/C (1 out of 3 nights)! We packed the night we got there for the trail...we discovered later that we packed *way* too much. We stored our excess stuff at a kayaking store and went on our way the next morning. We started off a couple hours later than we planned as we didn't realize what people meant by "Hawaii time." If you've never been to Hawaii, let me explain. If a store says they will open at 6AM, they will likely open at 6:30....or possibly 7....or if it's a good surfing day maybe 7:30. Some stores don't say they will open until 11:30! (and don't bother to put a closed time because they close whenever they please).
The first mile of the Kalalau trail is so telling, as it is a 600 ft climb (literally) up a bunch of rocks. We were hoping this was just the "deterrent" of random tourists to hike the trail...but we were *so* wrong. The second mile is all downhill and leads you straight to Hanakapai beach which involves crossing a stream. This was the first fall of the hike...I ended up on my butt in the stream with my pants, boots, socks already thoroughly drenched. We didn't spend long at the beach, as we were already behind schedule. After the beach, it gets a few times worse. Not only are you (literally) climbing up rocks, fording rushing streams, and being bit my mosquitos along the way, but you are also traveling across some areas less than a foot wide with only a 500 ft fall down a rock cliff on one side of you. Needless to say, we got to mile 7 after plodding all day and looked down at the dirt path down a sheer rock face and decided we'd have to stop as we were running out of daylight and I was running out of sanity (7 miles of near-death is enough to lose that). We camped at mile 6 and decided on going all the way back the next day as I just couldn't see myself doing that last 4 miles to the beach only to hike 11 miles all the way back. Thankfully, the trek back was much quicker....but Dan slipped and fell about 3 feet down the cliff and caught himself on a root. He dragged himself back up onto the path and then shimmied his way down the cliff again to retrieve his trek pole which had fallen with him. Despite all of this, we are all in one piece.
Despite my harrowing description, the views were drop-dead gorgeous and the journey of these challenges was worth more than anything you could ever pay money for. I have never felt so close to nature; I have never felt so compelled to survive. One thing Hawaii teaches you is respect for your environment and respect for those around you. We plan to do this trail again...to the end when I've had a bit more experience under my belt and we have more time to take it in and travel with care. I can't stress enough the spiritual leaps you must make to endure this trail. If you go in thinking you are fine with heights, you will soon find you are actually terrified of heights....and then over the course of the trail must overcome it. If you go in afraid of heights, by the end you will be cured. If you go in thinking you can do anything, you will reconsider. If you go in with little confidence, however far you make it you will feel more able to survive anything. There are few places in the world where you truly need a survival instinct but we found one...and it is amazing how freeing (and terrifying) it is when you realize that nothing else in the world matters in this moment more than being able to pass the next rock without falling. We slept on rocks, we ate with mosquitoes, we were dirty from head to toe with scratches and bruises. But it didn't matter as long as we were still alive to see it.
This trail was a wonderful end to our trip, a true application of everything we learned from the people, the culture, and the beauty around us. As Akiko told us, we must appreciate every breath in and out. As long as we are alive, we must be thankful. I am a different and a better person for having gone to Hawaii ( I think Dan would say the same). It is the end of our honeymoon, but its effects will last through the rest of our marriage.
PS To give you an idea of the trail, see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLxj4K_te4M
After a week and a half of adventures, we're back to "real life." Hawaii was amazing---like a foreign land of beauty.
We started off on Big Island. Coming into Kona airport on the west side of the island was very odd to say the least. We expected to see palm trees and hula girls but instead saw just desolation with tons of lava rock and hardly any vegetation. We stayed in HIlo on the other side of the island (don't ask why we didn't fly into Hilo) which took us about 2 hours of driving to get to. Hilo is pretty much a rainforest with mosquitos abound.
In HIlo, we stayed in a Buddhist "B&B." I put that in quotes because the name implies a lot less rusticness than this ended up being. Our mango cottage consisted of a basically empty room with light screening on the wood door and "windows" and a mosquito net over the bed. This would not have appealed to many people, especially since at night the crickets, frogs, and other animals of the night were so loud it was hard to sleep. Also, our bathroom was outside which meant getting dressed as much as you could in the middle of the night when you had to pee so the mosquitos wouldn't eat you alive (needless to say, I had about 75 bites all over my body by the end of the trip).
However, it was very peaceful in the middle of the rainforest. We felt very close with nature (as it was literally sleeping with us and around us). And Akiko, the owner, was a happy little Buddhist woman who acted and looked like a teenager despite being in her 60's. She told us about her two thousand-mile spiritual journeys in Japan and guided us in meditation one morning. When we awoke, every morning we would take an hour walk around the jungle and meet her in the kitchen for a homemade breakfast of amazing oatmeal, fresh papaya from the tree, tea, and sometimes lilikoi smoothies and taro french toast. We hope to meet her again-she was quite the woman to learn from.
During our time in Hilo we took day trips around the area. One day we went south about an hour to Volcanoes National Park. We hiked some trails there, took some pictures. It was good to see once, but it had become very touristy...and honestly, there is only so much interesting about a bunch of holes in the earth. The coolest part of the park was the Holei Sea Arch and climbing around on all the lava rock at the very end of Crater Rd. You would look in one direction and see mountains, the other and see sea and the other and see desolation and plumes from the active flow of Kalapana. The lava tube was also awesome. We thankfully knew to bring headlamps per Karles McQuade and were thus able to go to the end in pitch dark. We turned off our light at the end and sat in silence. It's amazing how little time it takes to begin seeing visual aberrations when you have no visual stimulus.
We also spent some time in Hilo walking around the marts and such there. Farmer's markets in HI are not just known for their cheap and delicious fruits and veggies. People also bring home made crafts, gorgeous flowers from their gardens (especially orchids, anthureums, and birds of paradise), and clothing to sell. They had these cool jade pendants there which had different symbols on each side; the pendant could be broken in half and each half given to the people in a relationship.
We went to Akaka State Falls, which had also become very touristy. All we were able to hike was a half mile loop to the 2 waterfalls which were spectacular...but not so much with 50 people around you.
Our last day on Big Island, we went north to N Kohala and stayed at a guest house there. The guest house was cute; we loved the many dogs and cats roaming it. The north terrain is very much like out west, very mountainous and dry (but of course couldn't get away from the damn mosquitos). We attempted to find a white sand beach the owner directed us to but instead found a wind farm and an amazing sushi restaurant. :)
On to Kauai! When we walked off the plane this time, we were pleased to find *this* island was where they hid the "real" Hawaii! :) Kauai is very tropical and gorgeous with the backdrop of the Na Pali Coast from anywhere you go. Kauai gets the most rainfall of any island which is made obvious by the fact that every 1-2 hours, it rains for about 10-20 mins and then becomes beautiful again. Not a bad deal. Also, there are free-roaming chickens everywhere because of a hurricane a little while ago which ended up freeing cock-fighting chickens whom then reproduced all over the island.
The real reason for going to Kauai was to hike the Kalalau trail on the Na Pali Coast (rated a 9/10 in difficulty by the Sierra Hiking Club, 11 miles one way), but we found we also fell in love with the town around the trail called Hanalei. We stayed at Hanalei Inn, where we were happy to find A/C (1 out of 3 nights)! We packed the night we got there for the trail...we discovered later that we packed *way* too much. We stored our excess stuff at a kayaking store and went on our way the next morning. We started off a couple hours later than we planned as we didn't realize what people meant by "Hawaii time." If you've never been to Hawaii, let me explain. If a store says they will open at 6AM, they will likely open at 6:30....or possibly 7....or if it's a good surfing day maybe 7:30. Some stores don't say they will open until 11:30! (and don't bother to put a closed time because they close whenever they please).
The first mile of the Kalalau trail is so telling, as it is a 600 ft climb (literally) up a bunch of rocks. We were hoping this was just the "deterrent" of random tourists to hike the trail...but we were *so* wrong. The second mile is all downhill and leads you straight to Hanakapai beach which involves crossing a stream. This was the first fall of the hike...I ended up on my butt in the stream with my pants, boots, socks already thoroughly drenched. We didn't spend long at the beach, as we were already behind schedule. After the beach, it gets a few times worse. Not only are you (literally) climbing up rocks, fording rushing streams, and being bit my mosquitos along the way, but you are also traveling across some areas less than a foot wide with only a 500 ft fall down a rock cliff on one side of you. Needless to say, we got to mile 7 after plodding all day and looked down at the dirt path down a sheer rock face and decided we'd have to stop as we were running out of daylight and I was running out of sanity (7 miles of near-death is enough to lose that). We camped at mile 6 and decided on going all the way back the next day as I just couldn't see myself doing that last 4 miles to the beach only to hike 11 miles all the way back. Thankfully, the trek back was much quicker....but Dan slipped and fell about 3 feet down the cliff and caught himself on a root. He dragged himself back up onto the path and then shimmied his way down the cliff again to retrieve his trek pole which had fallen with him. Despite all of this, we are all in one piece.
Despite my harrowing description, the views were drop-dead gorgeous and the journey of these challenges was worth more than anything you could ever pay money for. I have never felt so close to nature; I have never felt so compelled to survive. One thing Hawaii teaches you is respect for your environment and respect for those around you. We plan to do this trail again...to the end when I've had a bit more experience under my belt and we have more time to take it in and travel with care. I can't stress enough the spiritual leaps you must make to endure this trail. If you go in thinking you are fine with heights, you will soon find you are actually terrified of heights....and then over the course of the trail must overcome it. If you go in afraid of heights, by the end you will be cured. If you go in thinking you can do anything, you will reconsider. If you go in with little confidence, however far you make it you will feel more able to survive anything. There are few places in the world where you truly need a survival instinct but we found one...and it is amazing how freeing (and terrifying) it is when you realize that nothing else in the world matters in this moment more than being able to pass the next rock without falling. We slept on rocks, we ate with mosquitoes, we were dirty from head to toe with scratches and bruises. But it didn't matter as long as we were still alive to see it.
This trail was a wonderful end to our trip, a true application of everything we learned from the people, the culture, and the beauty around us. As Akiko told us, we must appreciate every breath in and out. As long as we are alive, we must be thankful. I am a different and a better person for having gone to Hawaii ( I think Dan would say the same). It is the end of our honeymoon, but its effects will last through the rest of our marriage.
PS To give you an idea of the trail, see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLxj4K_te4M