Hawaii - Big Island adventure

After a busy couple of weeks getting Badger ready to hand over to his new owners, packing up / selling off / giving away our personal belongings then schlepping around DC and the Smithsonian, it was nice to spend a week chilling out in Kona on the west side of the island. We rented a small apartment and this was the view from the lanai (balcony)

spent time at the beach and saw some local wildlife (Green sea turtles)

ate lots of fish and poke (raw ahi tuna/other fish mixed with soy sauce,  sesame oil and other ingredients - an Hawaiian specialty and very tasty),

drank with the locals

attended a luau and ate the pig (well, not the whole one) and saw some excellent sunsets

and wound right down.

We hired a car for the second week and drove to Hilo on the east coast.  The climate on this side of the island is completely different, has rainforests and is very green as the weather systems don't normally make it across the mountains. We saw rain for the first time since leaving Glacier National Park in August. Hilo is the wettest city in the US as it receives 128 inches of rain a year (but its warm rain). This was our base for visiting Mauna Kea and the observatories. As Mark has already commented on our visit, here are a few more photos

and he got to have a bit of snow (ice really)

We also spent a few days at Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea is still active and we could only see the steam during the day, although at dusk, the glow from the lava was visible.

Lava flowing into the sea ceased about two months ago, so we splurged on a "doors off" helicopter tour. We saw a few small flows and could feel the heat rising up from below.

and saw where the lava had previously flown into the sea

We also got to see some nice waterfalls too

We drove the Chain of Craters Road down as far as we could and decided to walk the rest of the way to where the lava had crossed the road in hope of seeing it flowing up close (a 12 mile hike, at least). We got 2 miles in and decided to turn back as everyone we met said they hadn't seen anything. The landscape was quite alien and very serene

The north Hamakua coast is wild and rugged

and leads to the Waipi'o Valley. At a 23% grade drive down to the valley below, we stayed at the top and took in the view

At the top of the island, this was the view from Pololu Valley lookout

Now we're off to Honolulu for a look at the island of Oahu. Flying with Hawaiian Airways Mark commented that he's never had a seat belt so large and it was at least a foot too long. I heard one chap say the bigger the Hawaiian, the happier the Hawaiian. Just goes to show some of the locals are rather large...