Before we decided to go to Hawaii, we were torn whether to go to the Big Island of Hawaii or to Maui. We talked to some friends and family who had been to Hawaii in the past and there wasn't really a consensus as to which island was better to visit. Cindy finally said, "Well, if we're going for a couple weeks, can't we go to both islands?" So, that solved the "Which island should we go to?" dilemma.
I was interested in going to the Big Island purely because of the diverse terrain and climates they have on the island. 11 of the Earth's 13 micro-climates can be found on Hawaii. They have a desert on the south part of the island, a rain forest on the eastern side, there's a temperate zone in the hills on the north side of the island, a segment of the western part of the island gets 350 days of sunshine a year. And on the top of Mauna Kea, a good portion of the year it's a tundra covered in snow.
Our hotel was about 20 miles up the coast from Kailua Kona in the sun-drenched Kohala Coast. It was rather interesting driving up into the hill area around Waimea and experiencing a 15 degree drop in temperature during the day. One day, it was sunny and 84 when we left our hotel and 20 minutes later when we pulled into Waimea it was still sunny, but 69 degrees. One evening, it was 59 and raining in Waimea. When we got to our hotel about 15 miles away down by the coast, it was clear overhead and 77 degrees.
That evening also marked the first time I'd ever seen a moonlight rainbow, or a "moonbow". As we were walking out to the car, it was raining overhead. However, the full moon was creeping above the clouds to the east. As I looked off toward the clear skies over the western coast of the island, I saw this faint white bow in the sky. As we got out of Waimea and started down the mountain, I had to pull over and see if my eyes were deceiving me. Sure enough, it was a moonbow. And reading up on moonbow's later on, we found out how fortunate we were to see one. The conditions have to be just right - full or nearly full moon, not more than 40 degrees above the horizon, with the person in between the moon at their back and the rain. We tried to get a picture of it, but it was so faint that we really couldn't capture it on Cindy's little point-and-shoot digital camera. Turns out that we really needed a time lapse picture to make it come out. We had a tripod, but we didn't have our good digital camera that has that capability. It was back in the room.
While the western part of the island gets only about 15 inches of annual rainfall, Hilo, on the eastern side, gets about 130 inches of rain a year. Some areas up about 2500 to 3000 feet on the island have recorded over 300 inches of precipitation in a year. While you would think Hilo and a good portion of the high precipitation areas on Hawaii would be outrageously humid, the prevailing winds on the windward side of the island act as a natural air-conditioner. Temperatures in the 90's are very rare on Hawaii. The highest temperature on record in Hilo is 94 degrees, set back in 1966.
The area around our hotel was an interesting mix of greenspace and black lava rock that went right down to the ocean. The black lava, understandably, could turn very hot under the warm sun, driving up surrounding temperatures into the mid-80's during the heat of the day. However, away from the lava rock, south of Kailua Kona, temperatures would be in the mid to upper 70's. You could easily drive 30 minutes in any direction and experience three to four distinctive types of weather on Hawaii.
One of the more interesting aspects of the black lava rock on the west side of Hawaii was how the locals used white pumice stones to make their own graffiti on the black lava. All along the highway north and south of our hotel, you'd see these little messages, memorials or odes of love spelled out with white stone on the black lava. It was actually kind of neat to see and realizing that you didn't have to use paint to get your message out in the open.
The Kilauea volcano on the south side of the island is still active and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Lava flows and sulfuric gases emanating from fissures in the earth are quite common. However, during our trip to Hawaii, the lava flows were minimal and to see them you had to walk quite a long way on the lava rock. And lava rock isn't fun to walk on unless you have some pretty heavy duty hiking boots. Or, you could take a helicopter for a bird's-eye view of the flows at night. But according to some locals we talked to, it wasn't really worth the nearly 100 mile drive to the volcano, considering most of what we would see down there was the same thing we were seeing as we drove along the highway either north or south of our hotel, minus the sulfuric smell.
Hawaii is also a hazy island, primarily due to a phenomenon known as "vog", or "volcanic fog". It's a combination of the sulfur dioxide coming from the volcanic fissures reacting with sunlight, oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere. Not only does vog make things pretty hazy at times, it can cause respiratory and flu-like symptoms in some people. People with high blood pressure, who have difficulty breathing after walking a short distance and children are advised to stay clear of areas of high vog. Thankfully, the vog dissipates during the evening hours leading to some spectacular star watching. But it also does help with some stunning sunsets on the island, too.
There are five volcanic regions on Hawaii - actually six, if you count the active Loihi volcano that is underwater just off the southern coast of the Big Island. Scientists believe that in 250,000 years the Loihi volcano will push up and create the ninth main Hawaiian Island. Three of the volcanoes on Hawaii are dormant or extinct, but Mauna Loa and Kilauea continue to have the capabilities of a major eruption at any time.
One of the best places on the earth to see out into space is on the summit of Mauna Kea - which is Hawaiian for "white mountain". As I said, Mauna Kea usually has snow on its top, but due to an exceptional drought they're experiencing this year all across Hawaii the mountain top is clear of snow. Earlier this winter, 49 of the 50 states had one day where there was measurable snow on the ground. The only state that didn't was Hawaii. And that was highly unusual for Mauna Kea.
There are a total of 13 observatories on the summit of Mauna Kea. The weather conditions at the top of the 13,803 foot dormant volcano are tremendous for star watching. The atmosphere around the mountain has an inversion layer that allows the summit to stay well above the vog or other clouds that can envelope the slopes. The skies are crystal clear nearly 300 nights a year. And the island of Hawaii has a law that limits the amount of light pollution that can be projected into the sky. The observatories are closed to the general public, but tours to the summit can be arranged through the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Center. They're usually nighttime tours that take about three hours. But you need to have heavy clothes (it's cold up there) and I wasn't too excited about getting cold on a vacation to Hawaii.
The summit and observatories on Mauna Kea were visible some days from the balcony of our hotel. To our south, the dormant Hualalai volcano was very visible each morning before the vog began to take over. It provided a wonderful view nearly every morning we woke up.
If you remember your days in school when the teacher talked about how Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands in 1779, this is the spot where Cook first came ashore - Kealakekua Bay. Cook was taken in by the Hawaiian natives and treated almost like a deity. Cook and his two ships left the bay after a couple weeks, but a storm caused damage to one of the ships and they had to go back to Kealakekua Bay for repairs. Upon his arrival back to the bay, the natives thought that since Cook's ships were not able to weather the storm that maybe he duped them into thinking he was a god. An ensuing struggle took place not far from where Cook first set foot on Hawaii, and he was struck on the head and stabbed. There's a memorial on the north end of the bay that we didn't go to that is actually deeded to the United Kingdom. The 25 foot white obelisk commemorates Cook's landing and his subsequent death in the Hawaiian Islands. After his death, Cook maintained a status among the natives that was usually only shown toward kings. The small town of Captain Cook is located just up the mountain from the bay.
All in all, the Big Island was a dichotomy of tradition and modern, primitive and elegance, cold and warmth. Portions of the island were like the "land that time forgot". Other parts were majestic and elegant. There's a large movement among the natives to preserve the natural beauty of the island and to slow down modern developments on some places of the island. While Hawaii tries to maintain a perfect balance between traditional culture and modernistic offerings, the bottom line is that tourism drives the economy of the state. And even the most fervent traditionalists are resigned to that fact. They have to move forward to keep Hawaii's economy from falling into the sea.
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