Day 5—Unexpected hikes…and bugs.

Today was sort of unscheduled.  We put all of the “critical” things at the beginning of the week, and left the last two days open for rescheduling or “nothing”.  Today was about catching bits and pieces of whatever we chose.  So, in the morning, we sort of made a list of things on the north end of the island, and jumped in the car to drive.

Pololu Lookout.

We started at Pololu, where there was a lookout over a valley.  When we got there, we noticed there was a hiking trail down to the beach.  Not sure why we didn’t think of that, but neither of us had our hiking shoes, and Theresa was in flip flops.  A guy at the end selling coconuts told us it was about a half an hour.  I asked “Down, or down and back up?”  He looked at me dumb, and said it depends on how fast you are.  We decided I’d head at least partway down on my own. 

On the way down!

I more or less “ran” down, as it takes little energy to “lose altitude”, as long as one doesn’t misstep.  That was the trick!  At the bottom, there was a river, the ocean, trees, and scattered people.  I scurried around and touched the water, looked about, talked to two girls staring at some crustacean that washed in shore, and then headed back up.  I did stop for about 10-15 seconds for a rest, as it was an aggressive pace and climb.  Total time:  10 minutes down, 4 minutes at the bottom, 12 minutes back up.  26 minutes, beats the 30 he said.  Now, that’s at full “Geck Speed”, so do your own conversion!

Pololu Valley

The beach.

Back up!!

King Kamehameha Original Statue.

Back in the car, I put the A/C on full and off we went!  Our next stop was the “original” statue of King Kamehameha the Great (Ka Mayha Mayha).  Short history lesson.  This guy killed his cousin (1791) to secure the control of the whole island, then invaded and conquered the islands of Maui and Molokai, then O’ahu, and eventually signed a peaceful treaty with Kauai and Nii Hau (1810).  Thus he brought the entire island chain under one King.  In the late 1800s, the Hawaiians had a statue made for him, but it was being shipped from Europe, and the ship sunk in a storm.  They insured it, so a second one was promptly ordered.  Well, the first one was later found and brought up from the wreckage, and they put it at his birthplace Kapa’u.  There was a small community center where they had pictures of all of the people from that town that died in wars.

Opolu Point near the northernmost tip of the Big Island.

To Upolu Point, which is the Northern most tip of the Big Island, and at which sits an “airport”.  To be accurate, it is a runway with a fence and a building.  On the road to the airport, there was a windfarm on one side, and some hungry looking cows on the other.  The cows were giving us strange looks, so I put the window down to tell the one giving me an evil eye he looked more like jerky than roast.  This might not have been a great idea, since a few bugs (between the size of gnats and flies, and as annoying as both) flew in the window.  There is a little road along the outside of the airport fence, which we started down.  It was unpaved, and got pretty rough, and there was some debate about the ground clearance of our rental.  The debate ended in backing up the road and parking in the lot at the airport and walking to path (the second unexpected hike).  As we got out, the swarm was there to great us and join us in the car.  We spent the next several hours killing them and trying to get them out of the car.

A short swim to Maui...not shown.

We started down the road, admiring the very nice runway to our left, oh and the ocean beyond it.  That was the scenic part.  At the end of the airport, it was time to get out the cell phone and figure out which way was North and where the northern most point was.  We got pretty close before the terrain started getting …interesting.  At which point, I was off on my own.  I scurried over the rocks and like a crab and got as far as could without getting into the actual water.  I checked my map feature again, and according to the map ap, I was in the water!!  Since I was being splashed by the waves, I agreed and headed back.

Pu'ukohola Heiau (temple).

We headed further South, to Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic site.  This was the site where King Kamehameha had his palace, and built a temple to his “war god”.  It took over a year as they moved lava rocks from over 20 miles away.  To dedicate it, he had to make a sacrifice.  That’s where the cousin/rival came in.  But the whole thing solidified in the people’s minds that the prophesies about a new leader were true and were about him, and things went his way.  So, we walked around the remains of the temple.

Mauna Loa Beach.

Finally, we headed to our first “beach”.  Since we were in Hawaii, after all, it seemed like we ought to hit a beach.  Mauna Loa Beach was supposed to be one of the best white sand beaches in Hawaii.  I can’t vouch for that, but we did go.  We splashed, bobbed, and sat.  Theresa enjoyed the sounds of the wind and the crashing waves.  I cannot understand the hoopla for sitting on a beach.  But it was a pretty beach with the palm trees and everything.

Crashing waves.

More crashing waves.

Mini celebration!

This being our 25^th anniversary trip, when we checked in, we told them it was our 25^th, and they gave us a bottle of champagne.  So, we opened the champagne and are going to have a quiet evening.  Maybe!