Hawaiian Islands Tour
January 24 to February 5, 2020
P. Michael Henderson
I'm going to leave the map at the beginning of each page so you know where we are.
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1/28/2020 (Tuesday) Bag pull was at 7am this morning and departure from the hotel was at 8:30. We were up early and ready to go. Heidi briefed us in the lanai before we left.
The 30-minute flight to Hilo was uneventful. We were on a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717 - two seats on one side and three on the other.
There are two huge volcano cones in the middle of the big island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and they have a major impact on the precipitation on the island. Hilo is on the windward side of the island and Kona is on the lee side. As rain clouds blow over the island, the clouds are blocked by the volcanoes and all the rain falls on the windward side. Hilo has the highest amount of rainfall of any city in the United States - an average of 130 inches per year. But Kona, being on the lee side of the volcanoes, gets an average of just 10 inches per year. Here's a link to a web site describing the weather.
When we arrived in Hilo it was wet and cloudy, with very limited visibility. We boarded the bus, while a truck took our luggage to the hotel.
Here's our bus driver for the time we're on the big Island - Captain Bob.
We're heading to Volcanoes National Park in the southeast part of the Big Island.
We stopped for lunch at Kilauea Lodge and Restaurant.
A view of the group at lunch.
After lunch we broke into two groups, each boarding a smaller bus for the trip into the park.
After we entered the park we went to view the Kilauea caldera, but with the weather it was difficult to see much.
Here's a view of the caldera - in good weather - that I found on the web.
Around the parking area were a couple of nene birds (also called the Hawaiian goose). It's the official bird of the state of Hawaii.
Then we rode to a different location on the Kilauea caldera, a place where steam is seeping from the ground. The area under the caldera is still very hot. And this side of the Big Island gets a lot of rain. The rain seeps into the ground through cracks in the lava and is heated to steam, which then rises out of the cracks.
We still couldn't see much of the caldera.
That was about all we did at Volcanoes National Park. We stopped at the Visitors' Center, mostly to use the rest rooms.
Then we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge where we transferred to the big bus and began our trip to the hotel. It's a fairly long drive to the opposite side of the island.
As we neared Hilo we stopped at Big Island Candies, which specializes in chocolate.
As we were crossing the island, between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, we stopped for a photo op. Those white peaks in the upper left are Mauna Kea, the location of observatories that can take advantage of some of the clearest atmosphere in the world.
We arrived at the hotel just about sunset. We each received a lei.
This view greeted us as we entered the lobby. The far end of the lobby was open, which gave a view of the ocean and the setting sun. It was like a painting.
A better view of the sunset.
We got settled in the room and then met some of the rest of the group for dinner at Brown's Restaurant. Tomorrow, Judy and I play golf.
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1/29/2020 (Wednesday) I had made arrangements to rent golf clubs from the golf course, but we learned that the hotel had several sets of clubs that they would lend to guests on a first-come-first-served basis. So I was downstairs about 5:30am to get the clubs.
Our tee time was 8:20am so we were at the restaurant when they opened at 6:30.
The hotel shuttle took us to the Mauna Lani Golf Course and we checked in. Our reservation was for the south course - which was described as the more scenic course - but we were told that the course was very busy and we'd have to be paired with another couple (we prefer to play as a two-some). However, there was almost no one on the north course and we were offered that as an alternative. We took it.
Turned out, the course was beautiful - green, lush, very well kept.
Here's Judy teeing off on one of the holes.
Some of the holes went right out to the ocean. I can't imagine how more scenic the south course could be.
And just one more picture of the course from one of the holes at a higher elevation. There were other people on the course - in front of us and in back of us - but the people in front of us always were gone when we got to a hole, and the people in back of us never came up to us and had to wait. Really ideal play. One thing we discovered is that our hotel room faces out on the 9th hole of the North Course.
The hotel shuttle bus came and picked us up and we returned the clubs to the hotel. We were free until 4pm, when we met for a catamaran excursion.
We met in the hotel lobby.
And then took the bus to the Mauna Lani Beach Club where we'd meet the Winona (the catamaran). Here she is, riding at anchor in the bay.
We took a Zodiac type boat to get to the Winona.
The crew had drinks and appetizers available. We sailed out into the Pacific. There were some whales feeding in the area and we saw several breach the surface.
As the sun was setting we watched for the "green flash" but there were too many clouds on the horizon to see it, even if it occurred. It was a beautiful sunset.
I took this last shot as we were going back to shore in the zodiac.
That was the end of our day. We skipped dinner and went to bed early.
Our adventure continues here.