Coming to Hawaii

[bkrownd]

Originally Posted by yarisugi

So funny! Sorry, I don't know much about Hawaii, but lava is flowing like a second-day period - and onto paved roads so they moved the view area(s) further back to avoid any injuries.

Lava is good - we need the lava to keep flowing to clean up Puna... <ducking>

Injuries, no. It's fairly harmless until it comes into contact with water or vegetation. I've heard that since viewing moved from the national park to the county side there have been more lawyers...uh, restrictions involved in the lava viewing setup. I haven't been since the stream switched to the county side.

[bkrownd]

Originally Posted by Loren

Hey, here's a question for you... we're going to be on the island for 9 days, but only one weekend. What high-traffic areas should we try to hit on that weekend to avoid crowds as much as possible?

Well, I think of "high-traffic" as the morning and afternoon rush hours in Hilo. 3 blocks of mind-bendingly slow traffic. Since I don't do the "normal" things here, I never encounter crowds. Seriously, I get the hell out of town early in the morning and head up the mountainside where few others roam, returning after sunset when Hilo has already shut down. If there is more than one hunter per square mile it's a "crowded" day for me. I can tell you a lot about the remote wilderness, I really don't know much about what happens on the coast.

Kona is well outside of my experience. I haven't been there in years since unfortunately wilderness access is very difficult over there due to their land use history.

If you're at a B&B you might ask the owners for info, since they'll be in tune with that kind of thing. At hotels they have the usual hospitality people.

[Loren]

Yeah, we're at a B&B just mauka of Hilo. (that's one of like four Hawaiian words I've managed to remember...)

Only 4 days and 14 hours on a plane to go!

[LtNoogie]

Originally Posted by PETERPOOP

are you a boy or a girl? lol

Hey Peter, be a pal and loan Charles your Yaris while he's there. He's a cool dude. Besides, you still have your big truck to drive around.

[bkrownd]

Originally Posted by Loren

We've got a handful of "must do" things and a long list of possibilities for anywhere that we happen to find ourselves on the island, but we're mostly going to try to take a casual "island" approach and just take it as it comes. If you know of any really cool places inland that don't require 4WD to get to, lemme know. I think most of the inland stuff we're doing is waterfall-related except for a trek up to Mauna Kea.

I hesitate to recommend things to people because most would think my interests tend towards the extremely esoteric. Cool inland places to me are humble and mysterious wilderness, rather than grand vistas - they might not be your cup of tea, and the best are the kind of thing where you pull off the side of the road and duck through some bushes to follow an obscure hunting trail. There are some "official" public trails off of Saddle Road, but the unofficial ones are much better. (Beware there has been a rash of car break-ins on Saddle Road over the last year.) http://www.pbase.com/bkrownd/hawaii_wilderness

The highway through Ka'u from Volcano to Na'alehu has the most wide-open scenery on the island. You don't really stop anywhere - you just get big old eyefuls of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Saddle Road and Kohala Mountain Road are the other two big scenery roads. (All that grass you see along each of these roads is ranch pasture that was once forest, which is how Hawai'i got to be The Extinction Capitol of The World, yippee.)

The lower section of Mauna Loa Strip Road through Kipuka Puaulu (foot trail) and Kipuka Ki up to the cattleguard is nice. It has a tall (for Hawai'i) remnant koa-manele forest. The view from the top of Strip Road is "nice", but the time it takes to get there might be prohibitive and the weather doesn't always cooperate with the view.

I always thought that in good weather the view from the Mauna Loa Weather Observatory on the North slope of Mauna Loa was better than the summit of Mauna Kea, but since I work on Mauna Kea that's been same-old-same-old to me for many years. The actual summit of Mauna Loa blows the doors off of Mauna Kea, but you'd have to trek a few hours from the weather observatory to get there because they didn't bother to pave the road all the way to the summit. (Which reminds me, since I have a new car I can go up to the summit of Mauna Loa again...the old corolla doesn't start too well above 9500 feet these days)

IMO, the lookout over Pololu Valley is more interesting than that of Waipio Valley.

Before I moved here I liked Kohala Mountain Road, from Hawi to Waimea (in that particular direction). I used to like it in large part because it didn't look anything like Hawai'i. Anyhow, tourists like it because there are no trees to block the views - the cattle trampled and ate the forests away. (Since I became familiar with the real native wilderness here I now can only see it as a sad display of the desolation caused by cattle ranching...)

[bkrownd]

Originally Posted by Loren

Yeah, we're at a B&B just mauka of Hilo. (that's one of like four Hawaiian words I've managed to remember...)

The street names caused me problems for the first month or two I was here, until I got the hang of the smaller word parts the names are made of. I had a hard time remembering Kanoelehua or Lanikaula or Kalanianaole or Kawailani at first - I bet some new people run red lights and rear-end other cars just trying to read our street signs.

[Loren]

Great stuff, BK! Some of the stuff you mentioned is stuff we were already doing (like Pololu as well as Waipio) or had already heard of, but I'll review again and see what I need to add to the list.

I initially wanted to go to the summit of Mauna Loa "just because it's there" (went on a "high pointing" trip with my son about 5 years ago, hit the highest points in FL, AL, GA, TN and I think SC all on one 3-day road trip in a Miata... good times!), but I couldn't get my wife excited about the long crappy road, and then the long crappy hike at ~13,000 feet. Her adventurousness has limits!

[PETERPOOP]

Originally Posted by LtNoogie

Hey Peter, be a pal and loan Charles your Yaris while he's there. He's a cool dude. Besides, you still have your big truck to drive around.

lol

[yaris-me]

Originally Posted by LtNoogie

Hey Peter, be a pal and loan Charles your Yaris while he's there. He's a cool dude. Besides, you still have your big truck to drive around.

Long, where have you been? Haven't seen you in a While. I'm really enjoying my trip so far. Have visited with a lot family.

I can't believe how bkrownd and Loren have jacked this thread for there own selfish use. I guess that's Loren's style.

[Loren]

If you're not serious, you left out the smiley.

If you are serious... I'm terribly sorry to have offended you by discussing "coming to Hawaii" in a topic entitled "coming to Hawaii" among my Yaris friends on a public forum.

Glad you're enjoying your trip!

[yaris-me]

Originally Posted by Loren

If you're not serious, you left out the smiley.

If you are serious... I'm terribly sorry to have offended you by discussing "coming to Hawaii" in a topic entitled "coming to Hawaii" among my Yaris friends on a public forum.

Glad you're enjoying your trip!

You have no class and have shown it by assuming "coming to Hawaii" meant you. Be a man and own up instead of trying for an excuse. Here's your smiley.

[tomato]

Originally Posted by yaris-me

You have no class and have shown it by assuming "coming to Hawaii" meant you. Be a man and own up instead of trying for an excuse. Here's your smiley.

WTF?!!! Either there is an inside joke somewhere that I'm not getting, or this is a completely inappropriate comment.

If you wanted to have a private conversation about Hawaii with another member, why don't you msg them privately then? How rude.

Unbelievable. This better be some kind of inside joke or an apology is in order here.

subscribed!

[yarisugi]

WTF is right. Where's the Aloha? Geez.

Loren and yaris-me, I hope you both have a wonderful time in Hawaii.
No matter what island(s) you guys are on, lots of good food and looks like lots of sunshine for the days ahead.
Spend lots of money and help the economy!
Required attire: t-shirt, shorts and slippers (flip-flops, sandals - I don't know what you call it in the "mainland"). haha! j/k

[PETERPOOP]

yarisme MUST be a chick. lmao

[tomato]

^ gee thanks

another joke?

[OTA'sTOY]

Originally Posted by yaris-me

You have no class and have shown it by assuming "coming to Hawaii" meant you. Be a man and own up instead of trying for an excuse. Here's your smiley.

then you should have called this:

"yaris-me is coming home to OAHU"

cause that where your actually going
that way everyone else won't assume things

[bkrownd]

<threadjack>
<pile-on>
Loren brought us some nice weather! Thanks dude!
</pile-on>
</threadjack>

<edit>weather has been oscillating between nice and suck, actually...depends on the wind direction, I guess.</edit>

[Loren]

No inside joke, dunno what's up.

Had a fantastic time on the island of Hawaii. Aloha and mahalo to all!