For our 20th wedding anniversary my wife and I spent a week on Hawaii's big island. We slept at a resort in Kailua-Kona but really spent very little time there instead choosing to explore the island. We didn't make it to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park but still experienced plenty of what the big island has to offer.
Thursday - 23 June 2022
This was our first full day on the island. Since we'd just arrived, we wanted to give ourselves some time to adjust to the 6-hour time difference from Indiana. We planned nothing for the morning figuring we'd figure out what to do once we were both up and moving.
I was up before my wife so I decided to explore the waterfront near the hotel a bit. During that walk I made several of my favorite discoveries of the week.
It was raining quite hard when we stepped off the plane and ran across the tarmac to reach some shelter. Fortunately, it let up as we picked up our rental car, made our way to the hotel, and found some dinner. As "invigorating" as the downpour was after the long day of travel it along with more rain overnight did make for some nice imagery the next morning.
As I walked down the street I found that a large, still puddle was perfectly reflecting a bike rack and the surrounding scenery. The reflection was pristine, interrupted only by some floating road debris. The morning sun's orangish yellow glow added to the moment's magic so I set up my tripod at a low angle and captured a few frames for this HDR image.
By the time I made my way back to the hotel a bit later the restaurant next to the puddle (off frame) had set up a sump pump to drain it. Even with more rain later in the week I never saw this reflection again.
A short distance beyond the bicycle reflections Ali'i Drive runs right along the shoreline. The view there from the restaurants across the street was phenomenal and we enjoyed numerous meals with it during our stay. On this morning walk though I was more interested in the rocks at the bottom of the retaining wall.
There I saw too many black rock crabs ('A'ama) to count running and jumping across the rocks. Over the course of the week stopping at various spots along this stretch of road to watch the crabs would become one of our favorite activities.
It was amazing seeing how well they clung to the rocks as the waves crashed over them.
Along the same stretch of Ali'i Drive I saw some other creatures on the rocks. These shingle urchins (hāʻukeʻuke) were much easier to spot than the rock crabs since they were generally a dark purple against a lighter background. We usually saw them in small clusters but as expected, they were less interesting to watch than the crabs.
After returning to the hotel from my morning walk we found some breakfast then decided to drive south to Manini Beach. The drive was about 30 minutes and took us down some narrow, winding roads that are pretty common in the area. This particular beach wasn't particularly good for swimming since it was lined with sharp lava rocks. We found a spot that was a bit gentler but didn't stay in the water for long. I also ventured up the shoreline a bit.
We didn't stay at Manini beach for long because although we'd not planned much for the day, we did have our first scheduled activity that afternoon - a tour and roasting at Kona Farm Direct Coffee. This was a fantastic tour which I highly recommend. Our guide walked us through the entire process including picking, processing, and drying. She even showed us some of the plant grafting work they do on the farm and some of the newly established trees.
Roasting
This tour was one of our splurges. We love coffee and wanted the best so we bought 3 pounds of Kona Coffee for the roasting demonstration. Our guide selected the beans and asked us for our roasting preferences. We opted for a medium-dark under her guidance. Where things got fun for me was that the demonstration turned into a class where our guide instructed me through the roasting process!
Roasting the beans took a bit under 10 minutes. We checked the temperature every 30 seconds and adjusted the roaster per her guidance. Here the beans are cooling. It smelled so amazing!
Tasting
While the roaster was firing up we were treated to several samples including a medium-dark roast, some peaberry, and cascara (coffee cherry). We'd never had cascara before but loved it and bought a bag of it, too!
Friday - 24 June 2022
Our second day on the island was completely unscheduled until the evening when we attended a luau at the hotel. To fill the day we ventured north to Kiholo bay where we swam at a much more forgiving beach and walked along the shore.
The day wrapped up with a luau at the hotel. We were told they were quite an experience and this one didn't disappoint. The dinner buffet was definitely my favorite part!
Saturday - 25 June 2022
The weather forecast for Saturday was a bit suspect so we decided to spend the day driving around the north half of the island. We had no real plan other than a desire to stop at Akaka Falls. In all we spent about 7 hours exploring.
After filling the gas tank in Kona our first stop was the Kohala Coffee Mill in Hiwa, HI. We didn't stop there for any particular reason other than it looked like a cute shop and we felt like getting out of the car. As a bonus the Hiwa Farmer's Market was just around the corner.
From Hiwa we drove down a winding mountain road. According to the highway signs we climbed to about 3500 feet. The clouds were pretty low that day so a good chunk of that stretch was spent driving through them. We stopped at a handful of scenic turnoffs to take in the landscapes.
Eventually we made it to Akaka Falls State Park. The park isn't hard to get to and the looping trail is a pretty easy walk that takes visitors past both the Kahuna and Akaka falls with the later being the main attraction. I love waterfalls so seeing the Akaka falls was pretty exciting.
Once we finished with the Falls we made our way back to Kona via Hilo. This drive across the middle of the island gave us a nice preview of part of our adventure the next day - the Mauna Kea access road.
Driving around the island was a great time. We experienced such a variety of ecosystems and were astonished how so many of them coexist on the same chunk of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The weather was taking a turn for the worse and we were feeling pretty lazy after the day of driving so we grabbed a pizza at Kona Brewing Company before wrapping up the day at the nearby Regal Cinema to see Top Gun: Maverick.
SUNDAY - 26 JUNE 2022
On Sunday we had the morning free, but we still had an adventure ahead. We'd booked a Mauna Kea sunset & stargazing tour. We actually wrestled about taking this tour because of the expense but ultimately the idea of regretting not taking the tour while we were there won out.
The tour started at the Target parking lot at 3:00 PM. We didn't return to the hotel until about 11:30 PM. We made the obligatory stop at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station (9,000 ft elevation) a bit before 5:00 PM. The stop is necessary to help the body acclimate to the thinner atmosphere at the higher elevations. At the visitor center we ate a sandwich and I ventured into the ahinahina enclosure and snapped a few pics of the rare plant.
As we left the Target lot there was some concern about the weather conditions at the summit but our guide was monitoring them via the Mauna Kea Weather Center web site. This site is great not only for checking the current conditions but also linking to the webcams at the various observatories.
Shortly thereafter we continued up the mountain, ascending another 5,000 ft to approximately 13,700 ft. We broke through the lower cloud line at around 10,000 ft. Despite the clouds, the view was otherworldly. I'd read about feeling like being on another planet at the summit but, after having been up there, I can say it's completely accurate. The reddish hue in the volcanic rock triggers thoughts of Mars. That rock gets its color from the oxidized iron contained within. It turns out that the iron content is also high enough to stick to the magnetic clasp on my camera bag!
What attracted me to Mauna Kea is that it's said to be one of the single best spots for astronomy on the planet. At the summit there are 13 separate observatories. Our tour parked at the upper section where the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), Gemini North, and Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) sit. The lower section is home to the Subaru and W.M. Keck telescopes. I've read about these facilities and seen some pictures but standing among them really puts their scale into perspective.
UKIRT
Gemini North
UH88
As the sun set I turned my attention away from the observatories and toward the west horizon. It was surreal seeing the sunset not behind land but behind the clouds below our feet. It also felt strange having to look slightly down at the sunset due to our elevation.
Caltech Submillimeter, James Clark Maxwell, Submillimeter Array, Subaru, Keck, and NASA Infrared
Subaru, Keck 1, and Keck 2
Submillimeter Array and Subaru
Once the sun had set we migrated from the summit to a secluded parking lot about 1,000 ft down. This allowed us to stay on the mountain for stargazing while preventing the vehicle headlights from interfering with the observatories. Having planned for this experience I was sure to have one of my tripods with me. It wasn't feasible to bring my tracker but the sky was so clear that I didn't really need it. Armed with the tripod and my 10mm f/2.8 fisheye I was able to shoot some 10-15 second exposures of the Milky Way.
Milky Way Galaxy from Mauna Kea
Milky Way Galaxy from Mauna Kea
Taken about 100 ft apart, these are two of my favorite images I've ever captured. Due to the light pollution in the midwest I've never seen so many stars. Even when I've gone to more remote areas away from the city I've not been able to clearly see all that was visible from Mauna Kea, let alone the Milky Way. These exposures brought out so much more than I expected. I briefly considered switching away from the fisheye for the more standard field of view offered by my 28-70mm f/2.8 but after seeing how these came out I'm glad I stayed with the fisheye since it did such a great job capturing the Milky Way's vastness.
Upon processing the images I was especially excited about a few of the bonus details along the horizon. The yellowish glow on the horizon just left of center is the glow from Hilo's city lights. Just left of center on the horizon is the red glow from the erupting volcano (Halema‘uma‘u) at Kīlauea. Both of these sights are around 30 miles from where we were on the mountain.
Although we planned to visit the Volcanoes National Park we didn't actually make it due to weather concerns and being quite tired from the week. Capturing the glow from the volcano along with the Milky Way was a fantastic, probably once in my lifetime capture.
After about an hour at the observation site we made our way down the mountain and back to Kona. We finally made it back to Kona around 11:30 PM. In all it was time and money well spent. I'll likely never forget this experience.
MONDAY - 27 June 2022
Our final full, unscheduled day in Hawaii. We'd originally planned to use this day to see the volcano but as I mentioned above we were both pretty tired by this point and instead opted to take it a bit easier. South Point was a shorter drive along the same route and involved much less walking so we headed there instead.
This is the southernmost point not only on the island or state of Hawaii but in the US. There isn't really much to see here beyond a wind farm, some cliffs, and shrines but our timing couldn't have been better.
Shortly after arriving I was walking along the cliffs when I heard a nearby fishing party getting excited. They had something big on the line. About 6 people started running along the cliffs to control the line or scaling the cliffs with hooks to bring in their catch.
After what felt like an eternity but really lasted only about 10 minutes, they hauled in what looked to be about an 8-foot long sailfish. I'd never seen a fish that large outside of an aquarium let alone witnessed fishermen hauling one in. Their excitement filled the cliffside after they landed it.
As the celebration wound down we ventured a bit further down the coast to the actual southern point. There we watched giant waves crash over the rocks and contemplated the drive back to Kona to finish off our vacation.
Tuesday - 28 June 2022
Tuesday was our actual last day in Hawaii. We had nothing planned beyond the flight home. Our schedule was dictated mainly by when we needed to return the rental car so we drove about 30 miles north to the Queens' Marketplace at Waikoloa Beach to waste some time. From there we drove back to Kona, hung out at a coffee shop until they closed, then returned the car. From that point on all we could really do was wait to board for our trip home.
In all it was a fun trip filled with lots of memories. Hawaii's big island is a beautiful place and it would be nice to return someday, perhaps at a different time of year, but given that we aren't really the type of people who just want to hang out on a beach I think we'll look for other destinations first.
Fishermen celebrate catching a sailfish at Hawaii's South Point
Waves crashing ashore at Hawaii's South Point
