The Big Island

I feel in love when we landed at the Kona International Airport.  It is the most charming airport I’ve ever been to. “Airport” and “Charming” – now that’s an oxymoron!

You step off the plane, down the stairs from the plane and onto the tarmac – like the good old days – it’s as if you’ve stepped into another world.

It almost made flying fun. I say almost, because by the time we arrived back home, we’d been on nine different flights, this was #5 of the nine.

But this particular airport, I could fly into and out of over and over. The relaxed attitude and the wonderful tiki hut-style buildings makes me smile.

Once we had our rental car, we began our drive on Highway 19 (Queen Kaahumanu Highway) from the west side of the island, up along the north side, and down to Hilo on the east side.

The first thing that you notice when you’ve left the airport is the desolate black lava landscape. I was amazed at how barren the land looked, almost nothing but lava flows. Most of the lava flows are from the last eruptions of Mt. Hualalai, in 1800 and 1801.

A few miles down the road you run into what I’d have to call lava graffiti. Thankfully, there is no paint involved.

Instead, white stones are used to write and make pictures on the roadside lava deposits. The white really stands against the dark black lava. At first I didn’t like it, but after several miles of more of the same, it began to grow on me.

From what we were told, this has been going on for decades. Locals, and now tourists, participate. I asked “Where do the white rocks come from?” and the answer was that they’re bits of white coral from the ocean. If you want to write a message in the lava, you’ve either got to haul up your own coral or you’ve got to use the coral that’s already out there. This means that no one’s message lasts for long. Apparently many local couples have a tradition of writing their names in the same spot on the lava fields every year on their anniversary. Kinda sweet!

Then there is this cool Tyrannosaurus Rex rock sculpture that someone constructed. In his younger days, Connor was obsessed with dinosaurs. Seven-year-old Connor would have loved this!

We drove on, and as we approched Waimea, at the top of Hwy 19, things began to “green up” considerably. Then around the area where Hwy 19 begins to curve to the south, we stopped at the most beautiful place, the Waipi’o Valley lookout. It’s funny because on our car rental map, big red letters read, “Do not go past this point in a rental car.” It was easy to see why. The road that lead down into the Valley, from the lookout, looked treacherous!

Plus, check out this map leading down to it… the pink labeled areas are Emergency Helipad Landing Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4. I’m not sure I want to go somewhere that needs four Emergency Helipad landings!

But the view out onto the Valley – wow!

Absolutely breathtaking!

As we got back in the car to head to our B&B, it began to rain, then it started to pour! A torrential downpour!

Boy, did that get the waterfalls running!

What a difference in climate and landscape in the course of about an hours drive. More on our B&B and Hilo in the next post.

I’m in San Francisco this weekend, visiting Marissa. So I’ve got to wrap this up and get out there to enjoy some cool San Fran weather… especially since, as I type this on Friday afternoon, it has gotten up to 111 degrees in AZ! Ouch.

Have a happy Saturday.