Hawaii Journal: Day 8

Edward and Jennifer's trip to the Islands

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Day 8 12/11
We flew back to the Big Island, but before that, we took a helicopter tour of the island. The main draw is the Hana area, and if you don't drive there, the helicopter is a great way to see it, otherwise it is an interesting, but expensive, trip. The tour took an hour and we went all the way around the island; there are other, shorter trips that go to specific parts.

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Rainbow over the mountains.

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The narrow part of Maui.

The helicopter seats six and I think we got the best seats, in the front, next to the pilot. You get to see the waterfalls and the crater from a different persective and you can really see the transition from the dry side to the rainy side. As a bonus, you see some really nice falls that you can't see from the ground; one canyon in particular has about 20 waterfalls in it, it is quite a site. I was too busy looking at it to get a picture. We got the video of the flight, which wasn't nearly as good as the flight itself. I guess that is good because if it were just as good, I would have felt like I wasted money on the flight instead of just buying the video.

Maui is made of two volcanos, one on each side of the island. Between them is a narrow bit of flat land that was formed when the lava flows from one volcano met the ones from the other volcano. You can tell its narrow by looking on the map, but from a helicopter, you can see just how narrow it is.

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Sunset at Old Airport Beach.

Day 9 12/12
The last couple of days we spent in Kailua-Kona. Nothing planned, just hanging out, doing some shopping, spending time on the beach. Most of the Kona coast is rocky, so finding a good beach is hard. We went to White Sands beach (the sand is normal brownish-grey, not white) which was small and crowded. There were lots of little shops that have interesting stuff. I was looking for christmas presents or I would have been bored after an hour. We also went to the Old Airport Beach north of town. This is a long stretch of mixed areas of sand and rock. I would recommend skipping the other beaches and going to this one instead if you find yourself in Kona. Quite a few local kids hang out there and the area has a wide paved airstrip, so I bet there is some drag racing there after dark.

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Southpoint.

Day 10 12/13
Our last day in Hawaii. We had almost a full day with nothing to do so we decided to drive to Southpoint. In case you are ever on Jeopardy! keep in mind Southpoint is the southernmost part of the U.S. This is really its only claim to fame.

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Windblown tree.

It is a long drive over lava flows and scrub forest, and when you get there it is a rocky, windswept point. There isn't much to do there. About two miles east of Southpoint is a green sand beach. The road to that beach is basically a track over lava, don't even think about taking a car over it. There isn't any water in the area either, so bring everything you need if you go there. At Southpoint there was a little bit of green sand. The sand is made of Olivine that is naturally in the volcanic rock, and it washes up there. It really is green, and you aren't likely to see it very often. There wasn't enough of it at Southpoint to get a good idea of how a whole beach would look, but I bet it looks pretty unique. The drive was about one and a half hours each way, so don't do it unless you have some time to kill and no kids to sit in the back seat. I don't think kids would appreciate it.

Time for the long, long trip home. We left the big Island at 5pm, flew to Honolulu, stayed there until 8pm (Hawaii time). The trip back to the mainland was long, I slept during most of it. We landed in Dallas-Ft. Worth at 7am (Texas time) then finally got into Baltimore at noon (Eastern time).

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