Hawaii

Vacation to the Big Island

Over Thanksgiving, we went on a vacation to Hawaii with FeFe and friends. It was my first time visiting the islands after several previous plans were canceled due to COVID, so I was extremely excited!

Day 1

We landed at Kona International Airport around 2pm, feeling very hungry. The first we did (after changing into warm summer clothes) was to hit up a restaurant called the Fish Hopper in downtown Kona. As we would soon learn, Hawaii’s best food is its fresh poke, which is predominantly ahi tuna. The seafood is fresh and delicious, while almost everything else we had there was fairly ordinary. I did enjoy my cocktail, delivered in a whole pineapple!

It was nearly 4 when we finished lunch, and of course I could not give up the chance to see a Hawaiian sunset, so we headed over to A-Bay. It didn’t disappoint! And we even ran into a sea turtle who had hauled itself up onto the beach for a nap.

That was it for day 1. We were all quite jetlagged, and by 6pm it was already dark. We headed to our Airbnb and called it a night.

Day 2

Amazingly, everyone woke up at 5am this morning. Thanks jetlag!

Our first stop was Waipio Valley. The hike from the cliff tops to the valley floor is merely half a mile but descends over 1000 ft in elevation. We didn’t realize we could have rented a four-wheel drive to save us this effort, so we slowly made our way down this steep road on foot. Needless to say, that was rather painful in both directions. The effort was well worth it though - we saw Hiilawe Falls (tallest falls in Hawaii), one of many black sands beaches, and of course the lush green valley walls - and we arrived early in the morning before the crowds!

Climbing back up to the top of the cliff took some effort, but even so, it was just past 10am when we arrived back at the car. We drove into Hilo for lunch, then continued onwards to Volcanoes National Park.

I had made a long list of grand plans for things to do inside the park, but it quickly became apparent that if we wanted to see Kilauea erupting at sunset, we didn’t have much time. We spent most of it hiking into the caldera of Kilaeua Iki, a dormant volcano. That was cool! The caldera floor was covered in large formations of smooth bulging volcanic rock, probably formed by the heat of the lava beneath pushing up against the surface level lava which had already cooled and hardened.

We had strategically parked our car very early in the day at the lot closest to Keanankako Overlook, the only viewpoint in the park where the current erupting lava vent was visible. By mid afternoon, it was from the cloud cover that there’d be no sunset, so we didn’t push ourselves during the hike. We made sandwiches at the car, rested for a bit, then trekked a mile to the viewpoint.

The viewpoint was absolutely packed with people. Even with a relatively small vent, I was surprised how high the lava spray could go! Lava that sprayed out of the vent formed a huge glowing pool, which gave off large puffs of sulfuric smoke. With the dark blue sky in the background, it was a magnificent sight, and I really wish we were allowed closer. My 70-200mm lens got me pretty close, but low brush in front of the overlook blocked most of the direct lines of sight, so I had very few angles to work with. Also, I was standing shoulder to shoulder with other people the entire time, so I didn’t really have any other choices.

Day 3

After an intense second day of hiking, we decided to take it easy today, for the most part. But I wasn’t about to give up the chance to see a Haiwaiian sunrise! So at 6am, I dragged myself and two friends out of bed to Laupahoehoe Beach, about half an hour away from where we were staying. This beach’s most prominent features are the lava formations rising out of the seabed, upon which ocean waves pound.

The sun was hidden behind a thick cloud on the horizon that morning. That gave me more time to find some interesting angles and foregrounds, but the downside was that by the time the sun was visible, I had mere seconds to capture it as a sunstar before it overwhelmed the camera. Sadly, this time I missed my chance. But that’s okay! I actually liked the pre-sunrise, early dawn photos better.

This was taken as a 16 second exposure at 24mm, f/2.8, ISO 640.

You don’t always need super long exposures to get a dreamy ocean look! This was taken at just 1 second exposure, 24mm, f/4.0, ISO 100.

The others had only just gotten out of bed when the three of us returned from the beach. We had a quick breakfast and headed out.

Our first stop was Akaka State Falls. This park features a short loop trail that takes you to see two waterfalls. The first was barely visible as a small stream from probably 100 meters away, so it wasn’t much to write home about. The main Akaka Falls was very pretty though. It reminded me a lot of Fern Canyon in Oregon - water tumbling down tall rocky walls, blanketed in moss and lush green vines.

There were too many people around at the moment for me to squeeze in a portrait angle, which would have been much better.

Next, we stopped by Rainbow Falls. These falls featured a lot more water than Akaka, but it’s just the falls, no trails to walk through. We didn’t stay here for long, as there wasn’t much else to do.

With stomachs growling, we swung back out to downtown Hilo and found a large cafe serving lunch. Again, the poke was the best, made better by a dash of siracha sauce and seawood, while fried salmon and crispy chicken were average - too sweet and oily. We bought a coconut from the farmer’s market next door, and to our surprise, it was disappointingly bland. TIL there are several types of coconut. Apparently this is the not-so-sweet type!

We had a few hours to kill, so we headed over to Carlsmith Beach Park a few minutes away. Some of us decided to chill under the shade. I went for a swim in the shallow lagoon and (figuratively) bumped into a sea turtle! Now I’ve napped and swam with the turtles! The water was crystal clear, but the ocean floor was strewn with sharp volcanic rocks, making it rather dangerous to swim past various landmarks. Also, the water temperature could be quite warm for awhile, then suddenly turn frigid in a flash for a few seconds. It was weird.

Once we had our fill, we dried off, changed back into warm clothes, and headed for the summit of Mauna Kea. We initially had our doubts about the weather, as the base of the mountain was blanketed in dark clouds, and we drove through heavy rain and thick fog as we ascended the mountain. But about 30 minutes later, the fog cleared, revealing a beautiful blue sky over a sea of clouds below. It took about another 30 minutes to arrive at the visitor center.

The visitor center is located at 3,000m elevation, so we stayed at the visitor center for half an hour to acclimate before heading up to the summit. The next 5 miles were unpaved gravel roads and we drove in low gear the entire way, but it was really not that steep (nowhere close to Waipio Valley!), and the final three miles are paved leading to the observatories on top. It was a pretty smooth drive up.

As soon as I hopped out of the car, I could feel the effects of the high elevation. None of us got altitude sickness, but hiking up a few short hills took more exertion than we were used to, and it was quite cold as well. We arrived with an hour before sunset, so I had plenty of time to explore, find my spot, and take photos of my friends as the sun dropped lower and lower. Finally, it dipped below the hill in front of us and vanished beneath the clouds.

We carefully made our way back down to the visitor center and managed to snag a parking spot in the crush of incoming cars. We made some sandwiches for dinner, then bundled up even more and trekked up a nearby hill across from the visitor centers to stargaze. There is so little light pollution here that I’ve never seen the Milky Way so clearly with my naked eyes! We lost count of how many shooting stars we saw. I spent the entire time building a panorama of Mauna Kea beneath the arms of our galaxy. It took nearly an hour.

This was stitched together from 40+ exposures of 30 seconds each at f/2.8, ISO 100.

We wrapped up the night with a fun photo of us gazing at the galaxy :)

Day 4

Our final day was all about snorkeling! In the morning, we kayaked to Captain Cook Monument, which overlooks a beautiful coral reef about a mile away from the launch point. The kayak trip took about 25 minutes of gentle paddling. This is a very popular snorkeling destination. Since we were not part of an official boat tour, we could not anchor our kayaks to the shore, so the five of us took turns snorkeling and tending to the boats. I had brought a smartphone underwater housing to take photos of the coral reef and fish. I know basically nothing about fish, but I’m pretty sure I saw a few Dorys go by. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

This was my first time trying underwater photography, and it was extremely challenging. Underwater, it was impossible to control a touch screen to focus. Phones don’t offer much depth-of-field, and I was limited by my snorkel gear in how deep I could dive, so I mostly rattled off a bunch of shots with outstretched arms, not being able to see what I was actually photographing. Proper housings for DSLRs cost thousands of dollars, way outside my budget, so I had to make do with something simpler. Still, I managed to get a handful of good shots!

We hung out at the coral reefs for nearly two hours before heading back, changing, and getting a bite to eat for lunch. We had nothing else planned until the evening, so we visited a nearby coffee farm to learn about the world famous Kona coffee. TIL that coffee beans aren’t actually beans, but rather fruit of the coffee trees!

The final itinerary on our trip was snorkeling with the manta rays! We hopped onboard a boat for a very quick (5 minute) ride out to the viewing spot. There, the staff laid out floating lights to attract plankton, which would then attract the rays. Manta rays are gigantic, majestic filter feeders that literally look like they fly through the water. They circled beneath us constantly, and every few minutes, one would rise up from the depths and flip over onto its back, mere inches away from us floating on the surface, open its gaping mouth, and swallow a huge mouthful of plankton. We were instructed not to touch the rays, but sometimes they came so close that contact was inevitable. I could clearly see all the details of their red gills on ther underbellies as they skimmed by. This was a truly unique experience!

Again, I used an iPhone and took hundreds of photos, plus some videos, in the 1.5 hours we had with the rays, of which only a few were good.