26/11/06 - Volcano

Today was always gonna be a long day. It was a trip to The Big Island and look at one of the most active volcanoes in the world. We set the alarms for 3:50 in the morning in order to amble down to the lobby and hop onto our transfer to the airport. The first thing that hit us was that Waikiki doesn't sleep, it could of easily been nine at night. The Denny's restaurant was full up ! Anyway, after picking up another couple on a different tour of the Big Island we got to the airport and got checked in. Our suntan lotion was duly confiscated (never liked that one anyway) by security. Then we discovered that we had to wait around for ages because that couple that we picked up had a flight that was around an hour and a half earlier than ours! It's instances like this that really wind Andrea up...being required to get up early and then just hang around for an hour and a half when she could of been asleep in bed. I just took the opportunity to grab a Starbucks wakeup call. :)

Getting to the Big Island we were greeted by our tour guide called Hank. Hank was a native Hawaiian/Elvis look alike. He also grew up on The Big Island too, so had a lot of historical and childhood stories about it. The first part of the trip was to a little store to stock up on water and sun tan lotion. Outside this little unassuming hut, is a massive tree that was planted by a chap called Babe Ruth :) That was quite cool seeing that. Then a load of Japanese turned up on two coaches and swamped the tree with camera flashes. Then it was to a famous waterfall there that I'd never heard of. That was quite impressive. Again, those crazy Japanese turned up with their cameras and swamped the place. On both occasions though we'd managed to see and do everything that we needed. Andrea already noted this and congratulated Hank on the matter.

After that it was a wander through a lava tube which was a bit like a cavey kinda tunnel. Then it was off on a long drive over the volcano and down the other side to the coast to watch where the lava meets the sea. The drive there was very impressive, you would see jungle like vegetation and then all of a sudden it was disappear into a bald Mars like landscape with steam coming up from the ground. We reached the end of the road, literally as three years previous LOTS of lava poured over the side volcano and straight over the road. This lava is still coming out of the volcano and is hitting the sea 'causing massive plumes of steam. Unfortunately, we never had time to hike right up to this point and we could only see it from a far ;( Anyway, the place was amazing and pretty surreal too.

Next was a drive back up to the volcano museum to learn about, err, volcanoes. The drive there was really cool as there was loads of steam vents and fissures to see. Our only gripe was that we never got to stop off and see these vents.

Then it was a very late lunch at a restaurant on top of the volcano. It was another all you can eat buffet but the best thing about it was that the Japanese turned up at the buffet too, creating great mountains of food on their plates. It really wasn't uncommon to see some of the people coming out with a plate containing: lettuce, potatoes, rice, other veg, pineapple, other fruit, cake, and one bit of steak on top.

The last few stops of the day was basically to kill a bit time. One an Orchid nursery/garden centre, and the other a Macadamia nut factory! *sigh* Anyone that knows the two of us knows that Andrea can't stand nuts and i'm allergic to them. Luckily the factory itself was closed so it was off to the store to find out what was there...errmm...nuts, lots of them. However, there was one of these pearl shops like the one where Andrea got her earrings from earlier in the week. This time we watched as an American lady paid to open two oysters and each oyster contained two black pearls. Very impressive, but not for the husband as the wife's expectation went from a pair of $60 earrings to an entire $600 necklace! The husband just told her to not get carried away, that they needed to go soon, and then walked off rather briskly.

Hilo airport has the best departure lounge i've ever been too. It consists of a speaker system that constantly plays hula music and has that kind of outdoor wooden furniture (with cushions) that you might see for sale at garden centres. It all creates a rather relaxed atmosphere, which was lucky for us as we were about to have quite a wait (again). Another two hour wait at the airport and then it was delayed by 30 mins too. We got back to the hotel at around ten(ish). Exhausted, we just crashed out for the night.