Saturday, May 17, 2008

After the lunch two members of the rotary club of North Hawaii – Marty and Tom – took responsibility for the team. Marty filled up her car with our bags and Tom was our chauffeur and guide in another van. We stopped a few places on the way north to Waimea. One place was at a small beach with some old ruins where we saw three sea turtles close ot shore and another place was a Hilton resort. The latter looked so different from the surrounding volcanic landscape. It had its own water channels, train and dolphin tank where guest could swim with them. Afterwards we went to a nice relaxing and informal barbecue dinner hosted by the local rotary club. Where we btw. also were treated to Mai Tai’s which is a drink with a Polynesian origin.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

First order of business was to have a good solid diner breakfast at the Kawaihae Harbor Grill – the American style. Let us just say that we weren’t hungry after that .

The reason for this heavy breakfast soon became clear…we were going to have a nice day of playing tourists in the sun. But the advanced version with local guides. First stop was an area where old stone ruins evidenced how an old Hawaiian village was set up. We walked the trails and since there were no modern buildings we could kind of get a feel of how it would have been back then. One thing that can be said about these old settlements is that the landscape and views were spectacular. At this particular place there was a clear view to Maui.

We then saw the birthplace of King Kamehameha, a blacksand beach and one of only three King Kamehameha statues (the other two are placed in Honolulu close to the royal palace and the last is placed in Washington D.C.). We also drove through what could be called cowboy territory. Actually Hawaii is home to the biggest cattle ranch in the US! Who would have known that but that also says something about the size of the Big island (10,433 km2).

Before meeting up for dinner the team was allowed a few hours of free time at a resort were we saw the sunset and had some very good tropical drinks.

Monday, May 19, 2008

This morning was an early morning for the boys as they had agreed to go canoe paddling with the Kawaihae Canoe Club. So they had to get up at 5 a.m. to be at the harbor to get instructions and help getting the canoes in the water. It was a great way to start the day as we paddled along the shore, watched the sun go up and went for a swim at a small beach. On the way back we almost ran down a sea turtle but luckily we missed it. All in all it was good exercise and after helping clean the canoes we drove to meet up with the others at a diner for breakfast.

After lunch we set out for our last tour with this club which was to be one of the most amazing places on Hawaii – the Waipeo Valley. It is a large valley with steep cliffs on either side (so only 4×4’s are allowed to go there) starting with a very tall waterfall at the beginning and running all the way to the coast where there is a picturesque black sand beach. And of course there was also a waterfall right at the beach. That’s just Hawaii for you .

After spending an hour there we drove to the drop off spot where we would meet up with representatives from our next destination who were drinving us to Hilo. It was a two hour drive so yes the boys took a small nap . In Hilo we met up with our new hosts at a carpark and we spent the rest of the day with them at their homes.