Day 5, Sunday February 14, 2016
Up early again at around 6:00 a.m. we decided to put on our exercise gear and walk the deck. 6 laps around the ship on the deck 6 walking track (just beneath the life boats) equated to 2 miles. Neither of us had slept well. With me it wasn't so much motion sickness, but I'm a light sleeper and the constant bumping of the ship going over the waves kept waking me up and making it hard to fall back asleep. We got to see the sunrise coming up over the mountains of Maui as the ship steamed into the harbor of Kahului for a 7:00 a.m. mooring. We learned that the restaurant we'd eaten at the night before had a breakfast buffet that wasn't as crowded or chaotic as the regular ship buffet.
Since the primary attraction on Maui is the Road to Hana, we decided it would be just as affordable to rent a car for 2 days, do the Road to Hana on our own and have the car for the rest of the stay, rather than pay for a tour bus. The Enterprise shuttle picked us up at the pier and took us to the airport where we rented a Nissan Juke. We really hadn't prepared a lot for Maui- I guess it just seemed like there were so many choices that we didn't make any.
We spoke with one of the staff aboard the ship and I told him I was having second thoughts about getting stuck out on the Road to Hana for the day. He winced and said that there was much else to do on Maui and, yes it would be a shame to lose the whole day out there. He suggested we just drive out about halfway and return; after you've seen a few winding curves and waterfalls it gets to be redundant. So, with that it mind, we figured we could punt the Road to Hana into tomorrow and spend the day exploring the rest of the island.
Over breakfast we found that the town of Lahaina on the southwest side had the largest Banyan Tree in America. Being fans of the Banyans in Ft. Myers, we decided it was a good start to a road trip. So, we chose the route that cut directly south from Kahului and followed the coast road up to Lahaina.
On Maui, the north side of the island is lush and green while the south side is more arid & desert-like. This view is of the Western mountains as we cut across the center of the island.
Centuries old, red lava rock alongside the road. The rock turns orange due to the iron content. You can just make out a Windmill in the top center. There is a line of them along the lower ridge in the center of the island.
Although we passed several beaches along the way, Lahaina is coastal town that has a boat harbor, rather than a beach. There is definitely some history to the town as the town center has evidence of an old fort from centuries ago. We had a great lunch in town before walking down to the "Banyan Park" located at the Lahaina town hall.
"Banyan Park" is really just one tree, which grew up, spread out and (like Banyans do) dropped more suckers down into the soil as it spread out. Those suckers became trees unto themselves, so the center tree essentially gave birth to an entire park of "trees."
Panorama shot of the "mother tree" to the right and some of the offshoots coming off to the left.
While in Lahaina, I read about Iao Valley Park, which we drove past on our way and could visit on our drive back to the port. At this point, I should talk a little bit about King Kamehameha who is Hawaii's George Washington. He came to prominence around 1790 and set about unifying the Hawaiian Islands under one king. He was a large, intimidating man (estimated at around 6'9" at the time) and he conducted trade with the Colonial powers so that, when the time came, the native tribesmen with their spears and shields were confronted by Kamehameha's army of muskets and cannons.
The decisive battle on Maui took place at the Iao Valley where Kamehameha landed with 960 war canoes and 10,000 men.
The mouth of the Iao Valley; steep and narrow like it was cleaved by an axe of the gods.
The leader of the island on Maui decided to make a stand at the Iao Valley. The mountains go straight up on 3 sides, meaning they could move to the back of the valley (facing outward) and King Kamehameha's army could not outflank them.
"The way is shut. It was made by the Dead and the Dead keep it!"
It has a ghostly resemblance to the Dwimorberg from the Lord of the Rings.
With 3 sides blocked off, the warriors of Maui thought that they had the upper hand, but when Kamehameha's army showed up with muskets and cannons, the warriors of Maui found themselves trapped in the valley with nowhere to escape and they were massacred. It is said that the bodies piled so high and dense that they damned the river.
The Land of the Lost.
The Iao Valley traps whatever weather system passes the north side of the island, so we spent the whole time in shadow, with a mist falling off-and-on and low level white clouds swirling around. It really gave the place a haunted, creepy atmosphere. We parked and were only able to hike a little ways further into the valley to get a good look at the Iao Needle. This is the rocky outcrop jutting up from the valley.
Wild Lillies growing in the shadow of the Iao Valley.
While in town we picked up another 8-pack of Gatorade and Deb tried to smuggle a couple bottles of wine onto the ship to save some money. However, they picked them up going through security and we still had to pay the corkage fee on each bottle, so it wasn't that much of a savings. But hey, it was worth a try! Since we wouldn't be at sea tonight we both expected to sleep well and were in bed early, as usual, a little after 9:00 p.m. We were able to park our car in a lot by the pier for the night.
Day 6, Monday February 15, 2016
After the pleasant drive across the island, we weren't sure about spending a lot of time in the car for a second day. Every evening a bulletin of the following days' events was delivered to our room and we saw there was a Rain Forest & Water Falls Hike excursion and decided to opt for that. (Bear in mind that, since this was a Free Style Cruise, all of the excursions off of the ship cost extra).
We met at the gathering point on the pier by 7:00 along with about a dozen other folks and piled into 2 vans. It would be about a 45 minute drive toward Hana where we would debark at a farm where the tour company had an agreement. We'd hike about a half hour across the farmland and into the rain forest beyond. The total distance would be about 2 miles and we'd visit 3 different waterfalls along the way. We had an excellent guide who pointed out all of the flora along the route. We regularly passed fruit trees where he would reach up, pluck something, cut it up with his knife and pass it around. There were also several varieties of ginger plants along the way.
White Ginger
This fern has a defensive mechanism. If an animal attempts to eat it the plant shrivels up as soon as it gets touched.
"Louis!"
Aside from the Wild Boar (that used to be domesticated pigs) and rats, there are no predatory animals on the island (no snakes, etc.) They brought the Mongoose to the island to deal with the rats, except the rats are nocturnal animals while the Mongoose hunts during the day, so that didn't work out too well. We finally got to see several Mongoose at the National Cemetery on our last day.
Big Bamboo!
Midway across the farm property we began following an irrigation ditch that had been dug decades earlier for the farm. At one point, the path detoured around a steep hill while the trough cut through it. The guide asked, "Who's going to go through the tunnel?" When nobody answered, he seemed surprised, "Nobody?" So, I took him up on the challenge and waded into the ditch. I thought somebody would follow me (at least the guide) but I ended up going through myself and meeting everybody on the opposite side.
Not long after the adventure in the canal, we came to our first waterfall. Since I was already wet and the water didn't seem to be that cold, I immediately went in and swam over to the waterfall for a "Hawaiian shower." Several of the other party members followed.
The woman giving the Shakka sign used to be a gymnast, so she was just as adventurous as I was. The other couple in the water are Doug & Lori Sinclair from Toronto whom we befriended and saw off & on for the rest of the cruise. I'm off to the right.
About 20 minutes later we had hiked to the second waterfall. This one had a cave that ran around behind it that was worth exploring. This pool was completely covered in shadow, so I chose not to go in knowing that the water would be colder here.
At this waterfall the group stopped to have lunch, which we'd carried with us in our day-packs.
Snake-like roots from several trees reaching into the cave behind the waterfall.
Once we got underway again, the guide told us how the third waterfall had a ledge that you could jump from. I hadn't "ledge jumped" since we were in Nashville 5 years ago, so I figured I would give it a go. The ledge was about 12-feet above the water (not as high as the one in Nashville), which was encouraging, since all of my joints ached after hitting the water in Nashville.
The third waterfall. The ledge for jumping can be seen through the fork in the tree branch to the left.
I swam across to the opposite side with the tour guide from another group and their most adventurous member. We climbed the cliff and made our way out onto the ledge (which had rather precarious footing) before taking turns jumping in. Eventually, the gymnast from our group came over as well and jumped twice.
Although we were exhausted following the hike back and van ride back to our ship, we still had to take our rental car back to the airport and catch the Enterprise shuttle back to our ship before our scheduled departure at 6:00 p.m. We had dinner at the Japanese steak house on the ship where the service was, once again, exceptional.
Our ship docked in Maui. It's the highest building on the island when it is in port.
Day 7, Tuesday February 16, 2016
It was another restless night trying to sleep as the ship thumped it's way through the waves from Kahului, Maui to Hilo on the Big Island. I think I woke up 4 times.
Despite my lack of sleep, Hilo was expected to be one of the high points on the trip as I was booked to take a doors-off helicopter trip up over a volcanic crater and lava flow. At first, I thought we were going over Kilauea itself, but the volcano is over 10,000-feet high and I don't think it was ever part of the program.
The weather was overcast and there was a mist covering the port, which led me to believe that we'd probably be flying at a lower altitude and that the flying would be a little rough. Debbie remained behind relaxing by the pool on the top deck of the ship with her book while I headed out for my big adventure.
It didn't start off well. I was to meet my party on the pier at 8:30 and, according to my watch, I arrived there at 8:25 and followed a large group out to a bus before I was told it was the wrong group. I went back to the rendezvous point and waited another 15-minutes before I started flagging down staff and asking them where my group was. After about 10 minutes I was told that the girl had already come, picked up a couple people and left. When? How did she not account for one person missing? They called the airfield and the girl who missed me made a trip back to pick me up. She was very apologetic, said we had time before my time slot and explained that when a passenger weighs over 250-pounds they count them as two people. Of the couple who'd be joining me, the man was over the weight limit so the driver thought he was counted as 2 people when she was told to retrieve three. Never the less, I got a free T-shirt out of the deal.
At the airfield, we went through the standard safety briefing. We had to put our phones/camera's in a sealed bag around our necks to keep from dropping them out of the helicopter. We had a deflated life vest attached to the front and a headset with a mouthpiece. Since I'd flown open-door helicopters before, I was able to fly up front next to the pilot while the large couple sat in the back. We walked out to the flight line where I met Pete, the pilot who was a former Marine. Our bird was a civilian version of the OH-6 Cayuse (also called the Loach in Vietnam). Yes, I am a military geek. This chopper had set records for speed and rate of climb back in the 60s, so it should be a good ride.
Pete and I at the bird.
Once everybody was in, Pete checked the intercom: Push to talk, release to hear everybody else. He also had a soundtrack playing to coincide with the trip. Appropriately, we took off to Flight of the Valkyries. (If you didn't see Apocalypse Now you have no idea what I'm talking about). I told him a little bit about my aviation experience as we gained altitude and headed toward the high ground at the center of the island.
Strapped in and ready to go.
Once we got clear of the town of Hilo (population 17,000) and the Mauna Loa macadamia nut plantation, we quickly came upon the old lava flows, which covered the land in what looked like a thick, black molasses. It was hard to pick up the scale of it all with my camera, but Pete explained that "everyone of those trees down there that looks like a toothpick is 80-feet tall."
Toothpicks on Black Pudding.
This area had cooled several decades ago. It had been flowing toward Hilo, then miraculously stopped. The lava flows cool on the surface first, turning black, but underneath the outer crust they can still be flowing hot. Never the less, according to Pete, you could still be down walking on the black surface (as long as you avoided the cracks).
We continued up hill toward the mountain, but hit our first rain which cut down visibility significantly. We couldn't even see the mountain any more. Pete spent some time on the radio talking to air traffic control and we navigated our around that particular storm. From there, we found our way along a fresher lava flow that was in the process of "taking the forest."
Pete circled conservatively, but I was having trouble getting pictures of it out my side of the chopper, so I asked him for a "hard bank to the right" so I could get a better shot. He gladly obliged and tipped the chopper in a hard turn so that could get a clear shot.
Leaning out my side of the chopper I got this good shot of the damage below.
Various colors in hardened the lava flow represent the age of each different flow. That little speck of orange to the upper right is a fissure in the crust where you can see the hot lava beneath.
A closer view of the fissure.
With weather closing in over that area, we turned and headed further east across the lava flow further up slope where all of the trees were gone. Here there were a variety of colors showing the different flows over time:
By now it wasn't going to be possible to make it further up the mountainside, but we were able to skirt along the slope until we found a volcanic vent.
Once again leaning out over the side of the chopper to peer down into the vent.
This is the closest I was going to get to a live volcanic crater.
Miles of wasteland as we turned away from the mountain and headed for the coast where the lava had reached the sea. This is the area where a town had been overtaken just a few years ago.
Another hard turn with me hanging out the door.
By now we'd all but forgotten the couple in the back.
Skirting the edge of another rain shower, we picked up a beautiful rainbow. What was unique about this phenomenon was that the rainbow didn't have a beginning or end, it made a complete circle out in front of us. Still miles of black devastation on the ground below.
In the upper center of this photo you can see the wreckage of the last few houses taken by this lava flow.
Bummer!
Wide-ranging shot looking across the lava flow at the isolated pockets that were left untouched.
On the East side of the island, near where the lava flow meets the sea, they've already started constructing the new town on top of the cooled lava flow. No trees or soil, just black rock.
We finally reached the coastline where the lava had met the sea. If you look closely you can see an orange dirt road cutting from the left over to the ocean. We'll be down there this afternoon.
Making our way back to Hilo, I figured I'd take a picture of my precarious perch. There's a glass bubble under the foot rest to the left, open space to the right.
We attempted to reach Rainbow Falls, what as billed to be part of the ride, but heavy weather kept us away from there as well. As a last resort, we circled out over the city toward the cruise ship. I started texting Debbie frantically as we approached the ship so she could look up and see us circling before we headed back to the airfield.
Despite not being able to make it to the crater or Rainbow Falls, I was still one of the lucky ones. The flights right behind me had all been canceled due to poor visibility on account of the weather.
Returning to the ship, I met up with Debbie, we grabbed lunch and joined another small group in a van that was supposed to be the Volcano National Park tour. However, access to the park from this side of the island had been blocked by the lava flow, so instead the girl drove us around Hilo and to several local locations in what seemed to be a wasted afternoon.
Eventually we got to the rugged east side of the island and stopped at McKenzie State Park where the large Pacific waves crashed against the rugged shoreline.
Warning signs at McKenzie State Park.
Beautiful contrasting colors on the shore line (this is taken to my left).
Erosion (taken behind me to the left).
Great surf (taken to my right). I almost got wet!
From there we headed for Kalapana where there was supposed to be a "pristine" black sand beach. When we got there, the beach was gone, buried beneath the lava flow that I had flown over earlier in the day.
The orange gravel road I'd spotted from the air.
Lava ripples. My foot is included for scale.
The rain caught up to us as the van made its way back to the cruise ship. The ship shoved off at 6:00 pm and we were scheduled for dinner at the exclusive Cagney's steak house (since tomorrow was our anniversary and, technically, the purpose of the trip). Deb claimed it was one of the best steaks she ever had!
According to the route map, the cruise was to take us around the east side of the island past the lava flows and we thought we'd be able to see some of the lava or the volcano itself. But, upon asking, I was told "there was nothing to see" and we'd be sailing around the West side of the big island to Kona.
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