Our Trip : Hawaii

My ideal vacation would follow closely to completing the Tour du Mont Blanc. His would be to sit by a pool and read a book. Hawaii ended being our perfect compromise.

This past May we decided to celebrate our five year anniversary and take some time off to travel around Hawaii.

Breakdown of trip

• Duration: May 20th — May 26th
• Destinations: Maui and Big Island

Vacay Goals

Thom was more into a vacation where he could achieve sleep, finish a book, and lounge under a hot sun. I was itching to get active, be in nature, and stay away from my computer. We had talked about a trip to Japan or Korea but neither of us had the energy to give towards new urban exploration. After spotting some discount airline tickets, we felt that we could enjoy the #resortLife and great wilderness of Hawaii. Vacation goals achieved. 😇

Airline

We flew Hawaiian Airline and again, that decision was based primarily on the heavy discounts that they advertised. Three flights total added up to about $461 a person.

I’m not sure I would take this airline again. Their flying experience is pretty outdated; Older planes, zero entertainment, and subpar food.

Accommodations

With tickets booked, we did the most logical thing any full-time working thirty-something does and book accommodations last minute. Thankfully Thom has been to Maui before and we opted to live that #resortLife at the Hyatt Regency for a few days.

Big Island was bit more difficult to figure out since neither of us had been. It is also just huge. There’s a lot of micro-environments and each with its own set of activity options. Because of that, we weren’t sure where to establish a central spot. After a bit of research, we opted to stay at a little cottage up in the rain forest near sleepy Volcano, Hawaii. Oh but wait,

did I mention that a volcano began erupting? 🌋

This completely spontaneous act of nature then caused us to cancel our Big Island plans for something a lot more coastal and a bit less lava-y near Kailua Kona.

Maui

Hyatt Regency

We spent three days on Maui and stayed around Lahaina which is located at the Northwestern part of the island. The entire area is built up for the benefit of these mega resort chains. Each are surprisingly located all next to each other. Our own Hyatt resort sat at the end of the long chain of others including the Marriot, Kaanapali Alii, Weston, and Sheraton. All of the resorts are settled along a stretch of beach and anyone can walk up and down the shared pathway which connects them all.

I worried that staying at the Hyatt would make me cynical. I have a low tolerance for large crowds and contrived environments. Before going, I had ideas of it being like a theme park — seeing rude people do whatever they want and then watch sad and lifeless hotel staff clean up after them. Because of that vision, I knew that I didn’t want to do anything like attend a hotel luau. Thankfully Thom did not want to do this as well.

So, while the bus load of people followed the lit path of tiki torches, we walked the other way, down to the empty beach and vacant pool sides.

Downtown Lahaina

A few evenings we ventured to downtown Lahaina. If you’ve ever been to Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco, you can imagine that but on an island. There are plenty of souvenir shops, restaurants, and art galleries. One gallery was showing some of Jim Carrey’s latest paintings and it was pretty cool to see his original electric Jesus up close.

One of my favorite parts of this area is getting to see the massive banyan tree at Banyan Tree Court. It really is amazing to see how this tree is able to create a forest of interconnected trees from just one plant.

Eats

We honestly didn’t come to Hawaii for the food. 🙈

I think that living in San Francisco has spoiled a lot of that for us since we can get most Californian/Asian fusion options. This to me is a lot of what Hawaiian food is…plus mac salad. Since our hotel room came with a refrigerator, we ended up buying and eating most of our breakfast/lunch items from a local grocery store.

The few times we did go out, we were fortunate enough to discover some really good eats. Seriously, we went and ate at the Lahaina Luna Cafe…twice. I’d recommend them for a decent Hawaiian plate and fish taco.

We also went to a small little sushi shop with a fun tongue-twister of a name called Shaka Sushi. Fresh rolls, fine fish, no fuss. 👌

Finally we found a sweet little pie shop along Route 30, where I literally cried into a plate of pie, completely overcome with emotions.

Everything about the place reminded me of my childhood home and of my father. I loved the sticky beat up tables, old coffee, and oh-so-many varieties of imperfect looking pie. The friendly chatter and Clapton softly playing in the background had a great calming effect on me. As I began taking it all in, I suddenly realized just how much I missed him. I knew that he would have loved this place. It was easy to imagine him coming on a typical Saturday morning, newspaper in hand, thinking his quiet thoughts over a piece of pie.

Cheers Dad.

🐉 Teeth

Fate would have it that the infamous road to Hana would be closed during the duration of our stay in Maui. I had ideas of hiking the Pipiwai Trail and being immersed in a giant bamboo forest…unfortunately that would not happen this time around. Instead, we ventured out around Lahaina and took a short hike to go see Dragons Teeth.

⭐️ Pro tip: Go at low tide and view the several tide pools found in the “mouth” while also seeing immense waves crash against the jagged “teeth”.

Big Island

We were truly excited to go to Big Island. The volcanoes were extremely active when we flew into Kona International Airport and ash was everywhere.

A month or so before the trip (and before the eruption), we had booked a helicopter tour of the island as being the one ultimate tourist thing to do while in Hawaii. With the recent volcanic activity and a newly purchased camera lens, I was more than ready to get a birds eye view of the lava flows.

🚁 Tour

So the next day, we woke early for the two hour drive to Hilo International Airport for our helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian. We arrived just in time for a brief safety talk before heading out on to the tarmac.

Before anyone boards, you have to provide your weight in order for the crew to safely distribute the load on the helicopter. We were all assigned a number, and when called, were pointed at which seat to occupy on the aircraft. I felt extremely lucky to find that I got to sit in the front middle, next to the pilot, with Thom on my right. We had great views during the entire flight.

The coast guard had called a strict no fly zone in the area near Volcano National Park. Because of that, we weren’t allowed fly near or over any of the volcanoes. Instead, we were allowed to view the two main fissures that had finally reached the end of the island and were entering the ocean.

The weather that day was very overcast with a lot of haze. This yielded low visibility. At the time, the media had a field day over the weather and loved to refer to this weather phenomena as “laze”, aka lava haze, or “vlog” , aka lava fog.

All in all, it was a once in a lifetime experience that I would do again should another volcano erupt.

Rainbow and Akaka Falls

After the helicopter tour we decided to check out two very close waterfall sites around Hilo. Both destinations can be reached easily by car so I wouldn’t say that we hiked to them. Nevertheless we still enjoyed the views.

Rainbow falls can be easily seen from a parking lot. It’s that close. At certain times of the day (not when we went) the sun hits the water causing a rainbow effect…thus the name.

Akaka Falls is a bit further out of Hilo, maybe half an hour from Rainbow Falls.

⭐ Pro tip: If you park just outside of the entrance, you only pay $5 (instead of the usual $10) to enter and walk a 1 mile paved loop (complete with stairs and railings!) to see the falls.

Like any typical rain forest environment, it began to spontaneously downpour by the time we reached the falls.

🗻 Mauna Kea

One trip highlight that Thom really wanted to experience was observing the stars from Mauna Kea — Hawaii’s highest peak at a little over 10,000 meters tall.

We set out one evening to catch a sunset and to hopefully see some stars at the summit. The entire time we drove we worried about visibility since the day was completely overcast and, as we drove up towards the dormant volcano, full of fog.

At about a mile before the reaching the summit, the weather did finally break. We found ourselves above the clouds looking out to a sweeping view of the island.

Hawaii is full of microclimates and when we left our Airbnb, it was hot and humid. The temperature was around 90 degrees. When we parked at the summit, it was around 50 degrees and dropping. We slowly stumbled our way through the elevation sickness to a point where we could catch the sun setting.

Mauna Kea views are clear nearly 300 days out of the year but unlucky for us, the sky remained stubbornly overcast and we missed our chance for a clear viewing that evening. Thankfully the Park service provides excellent programs that are free to the public. So while we did not see any stars, I did get to see the moon, up close and personal, using their nifty 🔭.

Accomodation

Our Airbnb was situated right on the West coast of the island which was also the complete opposite side of the eruptions. We enjoyed our stay after adjusting to the unsettling experience of our floors shaking due to the waves crashing against the shoreline.

There were tennis courts, a bbq area, pool, and jacuzzi on the grounds with plenty of walking routes along the coast.

☕️ Kona Joe

On our last day on Big Island, before our afternoon flight, we drove to Kona Joe, a local coffee plantation, to try some coffee and buy beans. I hadn’t realized that coffee could be grown on trellis’ and the plantation we visited was one of the first to do so. According to their website:

Growing coffee on wires opens the tree to sunshine and aeration. The coffee is uniquely sweet and flavorful.

We also tried some snorkeling where some of my deep fears got the best of me. Maybe it was the rented mask which kept filling with water or the sharp coral reef but I didn’t feel comfortable underwater. Instead I ended up clinging to Thom like a buoy. Sorry, no photos from that experience.

🌺 Summary

Overall, we had a great time in Hawaii. I felt that we made the most of some very unpredictable situations and we struck a good balance between both of our ideal vacations.

I would definitely come back to both Maui and Big Island again. Missing things like the road to Hana and hiking through Volcano National Park leave more opportunities for us to come back again. We also didn’t do too many water sports and I think it could be fun to try paddle boarding or surfing the next time around.

Having lived a brief time in Hawaii on Oahu and visiting these two islands, I’m glad to find that there still is so much to do and see. Thank you Hawaii for a great vacation, aloha!