Heather and I did a bit of island hopping. We spent two days in Kona on the Big Island and one day in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. The flights are only about 35 minutes and I got to see the slightly funny departure gates at Lihue airport, where the weather is so good that you are basically sitting outside under a roof.
The good news was after we got our hire car I got to drive, for the first time in ages! The bad news was we covered nearly 400 miles in the two days!
It was barely 10am and because we couldn't check into our hotel until 4pm we set off straight away for one of the three main places we had planned for the short visit.
The City of Refuge was a sacred place where ancient Hawaiians could be absolved of crimes... if they could make it there. The weather was scorching but the restored site was pretty impressive.
A quick stop for food at a superb roadside BBQ place, thank goodness in this day and age for the phone maps and Yelp app. I don't know how you'd find places like that without a smartphone as they are not very visible from the road and at this point on the island there really wasn't much choice.
The next 80-odd miles round the south of the island had even less! One small town and a lot of volcanic rock.
The main tourist stop for today was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a World Heritage Site and sight of the world's most active volcano.
As you enter the park then drive round towards the main visitor centre you can see the hot steam just coming up from random areas alongside the road, but not too close to the road! It whets your appetite for what is to come.
Even though the weather had changed and was now a little cloudy and damp the site that greets you as you walk round the corner at the visitor centre was still pretty awesome.
You get to learn interesting snippets of Hawaiian history such as the Hawaiian volcanoes were considered sacred by the Hawiian people and the Halemaumau Crater pictured served as the site of Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay until the sun had set in order to see any glowing lava and the road further round was closed. There were also warnings to be careful about leaving your windows open especially if it gets windy as the sulphur smells pretty bad and there can be a lot of acid rain.
The landscape was real barren as you'd expect.
Out with the smartphone on the 100 mile drive back to find some food and then we finally checked in around 9.30pm, shattered.
The good news was after we got our hire car I got to drive, for the first time in ages! The bad news was we covered nearly 400 miles in the two days!
It was barely 10am and because we couldn't check into our hotel until 4pm we set off straight away for one of the three main places we had planned for the short visit.
The City of Refuge was a sacred place where ancient Hawaiians could be absolved of crimes... if they could make it there. The weather was scorching but the restored site was pretty impressive.
A quick stop for food at a superb roadside BBQ place, thank goodness in this day and age for the phone maps and Yelp app. I don't know how you'd find places like that without a smartphone as they are not very visible from the road and at this point on the island there really wasn't much choice.
The next 80-odd miles round the south of the island had even less! One small town and a lot of volcanic rock.
The main tourist stop for today was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a World Heritage Site and sight of the world's most active volcano.
As you enter the park then drive round towards the main visitor centre you can see the hot steam just coming up from random areas alongside the road, but not too close to the road! It whets your appetite for what is to come.
Even though the weather had changed and was now a little cloudy and damp the site that greets you as you walk round the corner at the visitor centre was still pretty awesome.
You get to learn interesting snippets of Hawaiian history such as the Hawaiian volcanoes were considered sacred by the Hawiian people and the Halemaumau Crater pictured served as the site of Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay until the sun had set in order to see any glowing lava and the road further round was closed. There were also warnings to be careful about leaving your windows open especially if it gets windy as the sulphur smells pretty bad and there can be a lot of acid rain.
The landscape was real barren as you'd expect.
But then after heading slightly further around the park drive you hit a more tropical area where you get access to the walk through the Thurston Lava Tube.
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