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Day on the beach.
Excursion to the « Pu’uhonua Park »
On our way we stop in a little bay and meet a canadian couple telling us about their exciting canoeing experience with dolphins.
They tell us the place and we go there immediately, hire a double seat canoe and paddle during 1h30 min…
Unfortunately, dolphins have gone and the only animal we saw was a turtle.
Bad luck ! but we did our today’s sport cession !
The " Pu’Uhonua Park " was known as a refuge for the hawaiin criminals in the old days.
This Park takes an important place in the Hawaiian history.
There you can find quiet a number of archeologic ruins : the Great Wall, the Royal Grounds and a sacred temple.
Real emblem of the hawaiin culture, the huge wooden sculptures ( Kii) are the guardians of this fortified place.
We do some more snorkeling in the afternoon before going back home and enjoying the sunset with an american couple from Sacramento.
We leave the east part of this island to go west.
The roads snakes along the coast at the foot of the volcano. 160 km of nice landscape.
Once in Kailua-Kona, the vegetation is completely different : it’s a tropical garden with multicoloured flowers.
Sun, blue sky, 30 degres.. We’re back to what we love.
We settle in our new appartment, by the ocean.
Close to our residency is a little black sand beach with a lagoon full of tropical fishes.
This afternoon schedule :
Snorkeling for Christophe
Sunbathing for Jean Pierre
Back to the residency just in time for the sunset.
Another rainy night… We understand why the environment is so luxuriant… a real paradise for flowers, especially orchids and anthuriums.
We start our day with the visit of Hilo.
This town is where the government sits.
It’s been rebuilt after the 1946 and 1960 earthquakes. Two third of the shops are closed, and there are a lot of homeless people in the streets .. Strange atmosphere.
We don’t stay long there and join the black sandy beaches in the south of the island.
Fantastic show of the surfers dancing on the huge waves.
Hawaii Vocanoes National Park
We spend the whole day in the park.
The weather is not the best. It’s been raining all night long, and today is a mix of rain, gusty winds, little sunshine and a lot of clouds
This park is Unesco classified and it’s major attraction is the " Kilauea volcano".
Calderas, tropical forests, deserts and petroglyphs are found in the park.
As there are a lot of closures due to the last eruption, we only can hike on some trails to see the fumaroles and the calderas (15 km in total)
Of course, we're very disapointed not to see the molten lava going into the ocean as it used to until last may.
It could have waited one more year !
We go back home under heavy rain.
Flying to another island today .
After a 25 min flight, we land on « Big Island ».
Much more than a paradise full of coconut trees, this island named « Hawaii » is an land of contrasts, from the primitive beauty of the volcanoes to the very chic seaside resorts.
Mother Nature, shows here it’s grandeur : subarctic summits, black lava deserts, white sandy beaches and turquoise water.
The two active volcanoes of the hawaiian archipelago, « Kilauea » and « Mauna Loa » are in the Volcanoes National Park which covers 330 000 acres.
These two volcanoes created Hawaii 400 000 years ago.
The last Mauna Loa eruption dates from 1984, but it stays an active volcano and can wake up anytime .
The situation is very different for the Kilauea which is younger and was in a permanent eruption until this year.
In may 2018, a number of earthquakes opened new cracks, causing new eruptions, the destruction of 700 hundred houses and the evacuation of thousands of people… Since then, eruptions have stopped.
We’ll stay 3 nights in a little cottage near the Park entrance.
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