What’s There To Do? (Part 2)

Many people expressed surprise at the fact that we spent 2 whole weeks exploring the Hawaii. “What’s there to do? For 2 whole weeks?”

Plenty.

Five: Sample good food

Loads of yummy food to be found! Pity the price of the good stuff meant that we reluctantly tried to restrain ourselves from splurging all the time. But I think we still managed to eat rather well.

At Roy’s, a simply amazing restaurant with Hawaiian fusion food – i.e. Western food with Jap influence. Reeaally yummy.

The dish I’m staring intently at is the appetiser – Potstickers. Essentially dumplings? DD figured this one out first. In our lingo, these would be: Guo Tie! We were really horrified by the seemingly literal translation. But they were yummy though!

And below you have me with what turned out to be the find of the holiday – seared Ahi served with spicy soy mustard butter. The fish is sashimi quality, so it’s cooked on the outside, leaving the centre still red. Gosh, I’m almost drooling thinking about it. And I don’t even like tuna! Imagine my amazement to find that Ahi is yellow-fin tuna… Simply the best!

Another great restaurant: Mama’s Fish House at Paia, Maui.

This was also a really pretty place, by the beach, with coconut trees swaying and lighted torches “survivor style” by night 🙂 An old time favourite for a reason – the food’s fresh and good. More reasons to indulge! Pity it got dark a little early so we couldn’t get that good pics…

Anyway, here’s the appetiser I liked – some fish (probably Ono, I forget) with lime and coconut juice, onion, cucumber and tomatoes…

And below is us with all the yummy food! (Love the traditional Hawaiian Kalua Pig, wrapped in leaves and baked in an earth oven!)

Warning: Food is NOT CHEAP in Hawaii cos a lot of it is flown in. But on the plus side for folks like us, there’s a lot of seafood on the menu – YUMS. We’ll worry about the cholestrol later… 😛

Six: Explore the Road to Hana

Ok, this we didn’t actually manage to properly accomplish cos we were so happy in our lovely place out Huelo Point that we didn’t get out till almost 3pm! And with the sunset at around 6pm, it really didn’t leave us much time to complete the legendary 30 plus mile drive (one-way) of the 617 turns and 56 one-way bridges… And regrettably I don’t think our pics do justice to this hugely popular drive of the hidden waterfalls and scenic stops…

Seven: Sample Kona Coffee on Big Island, Hawaii

Trivia to file away: What we loosely term “Hawaii” really comprises a whole chain of islands. These make up the US State of Hawaii. The biggest island in that whole chain is actually also named Hawaii (vs. Maui, Kauai, Oahu, etc.). Due to the (obvious) confusion, it’s now also known as the Big Island.

So the Big Island is where they grow the world-famous Kona coffee. And of course we had to go kay-poh and see what it’s all about. I think DD covered most of this in his earlier post so I shan’t be too long about it. According to our guide on our mini coffee tour at Greenwell’s, Kona apparently grows the most amazing coffee due to it’s rich volcanic soil, the elevation and climate, and the predictable weather patterns. Weather in the area is like clockwork – the sun comes up around a particular time, the plants are bathed in sunlight for a fixed number of hours, then (and this was the most amazing bit), it would start to rain between 3-4pm. And true enough, it rained that very day, at 3pm. That was totally weird – predictable weather? A real oxymoron to me…

But whatever the case, the coffee plants love it. We’d arrived in harvest season so the trees were ripe with coffee cherry. Squeeze the cherry, and out pops the coffee bean(s) ala the pic in DD’s post. Then comes the removal of sugar, drying, and roasting… Lotsa work for a cuppa! Me thinks I’ll stick to drinking… which we will do, I suspect, given the packets of coffee we bought! Couldn’t help it – the scent was just too inviting.

Eight: Visit an active volcano on the Big Island, Hawaii

Kilauea Volcano, the world’s most active volcano, has been erupting since 1983 with no sign of stopping. Reportedly the only volcano in the world where news of a fresh eruption brings people running towards the volcano instead of away from it! Ha ha.

But this was what we came to Big Island to see.

Kilauea Caldera. Back in the late 1800s when Mark Twain visited Kilauea, the entire caldera was a lake of fire… that must have been quite a sight. I jokingly told DD that if I were a preacher, I’d preach right by the caldera – a real effective visual reminder of hell that would have been!

Halema’uma’u Crater, the crater within a crater.

Southwest Rift Zone, caused by the earthquake of 1868.

Thurston Lava Tube – a “tube” formed by lava flowing. The external surface of the lava cools on exposure to the external environment, but within the core the lava continues flowing, extending to form a tube. This one is really massive.

An interesting sight: Tilt meters at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Measuring the tilt of the earth can help predict the likelihood of an eruption or earthquake. This chart plots the movement of just prior to and after the Boxing Day Tsunami.

But the main show came on at night. So the next day, we zoomed all 200+ miles back to the park to see the lava flow by night. Apparently up to about 8 months ago, you could literally walk right up to the flow and see it goo-ing it’s way past. Sadly the area suroinding the flow has become unstable so you can only see it from afar.

It was still quite a sight – red glowing slopes and a red cloud where the plume hits the water… It was pitch black though, so a little difficult for shots…

Just behind DD is where the original Chain of Craters Road has been overwhelmed by lava. The rest of the way is only accessible by foot. We picked our way across, occsionally chancing on a single road sign, buried deep in the the lava rock, a lonely reminder of the original path and the unrelentless power of nature, and the exceedingly greatness of the creator…

Lava glowing on the slopes of Kilauea

[Yes, there’s more. To be continued again…]