Wanderer Photography

Waiting for 3 months to write something is a really long time. I have experienced writer’s block sometimes before – writing my theses for B.Sc. and M.Sc. – luckily in those times I had a “ritual”: win a game of Solitaire (that can prove to be challenging) or solve a Rubik’s cube. Then everything would flow a bit easier and I would be able to write for quite some time. Still, this is not something mandatory and with a deadline and there’s always “I can do this tomorrow”. Still, I am committed, so let’s get back to the story. Don’t forget to click on the pics for the high resolution version.

Disclaimer: I did some mistakes in organizing this trip – I planned 2 full days (Volcanoes in day 1 and the second day) and then left a couple of consecutive days at the beach. Needless to say, like most Software Engineers, my skin becomes “frustrated” after sun exposure. Take-homes in organizing future trips: alternate resting activities with travelling / hiking activities for a good balance.

Day 2. Day 2 was a really long day, part of the reason I think about breaking it down in a couple of parts. Departure from Kailua-Kona, head North towards Waipio Valley Lookout, then head towards Akaka Falls, then the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, visit a bit in the town of Hilo, see Rainbow Falls and end up at the Mauna Kea Visitor Center before sunset (I should mention – Hawaii is pretty close to the Ecuator so the sun rises around 6AM and sets at 6PM). Optionally, stay there for after-sunset and see the Milky Way. Then head back to Kona. Here’s a map to make you understand better (credits to Google Maps again) – about 200 miles @ around 40mph average speed while driving … around 6h of driving.

We woke up around 7, and had some breakfast. At the hotel where we were staying, we had a pretty cool breakfast – every morning, fresh ripe papaya (this tasted very awesome for the first couple of days – caveat: eating only this for breakfast every day is the same thing as eating the same brand of cereals for me – gets pretty boring) and toast and sweets. I was still half-asleep, so dad drove (with a bit of help from me for navigating) to Waipio Valley. Remember how I told you about the climatic areas on the Big Island? This day made us experience quite a few. The trip starts in Kona which is pretty dry, but sometimes gets rain. Heading East, we get into an area that gets rain once a week – you can see forests. Meanwhile, all the Western side of the island North of Kona is pretty much a desert-like area where it almost never rains.

Waipio Valley is an oasis in this desert and is one of the places that are best for gardening. Waipio Valley is one of the wildest parts of the island, though – people move inside the valley for peace and relaxation and tourists are not welcome (up to the point they will get shot for trespassing). The last time I was here, I went on a horseback ride inside the valley. The access to the valley requires a 4×4 car – our tour guides had some really uncared for, old cars, but we made it safely down and back up in the car, so that was fun. Plus, they were extra nice – they allowed us to eat as many bananas and Macadamia nuts as we wanted before the trip (we were about 1h early). REAL BANANAS (not the “things” you buy in a supermarket) and unlimited Macadamia nuts. In the valley, you have a black sand beack (see picture below) and the actual horse ride. More adventurous people can choose to backpack across the valley to a camping site about 7 hours away from the outlook (from where the picture below is taken). The caveat: in case something bad does happen to you, there is no paved road, just a hiking trail, and there is no place for a helicopter to land – as I was saying, pretty adventurous people.

But the view at the lookout? Pretty amazing. I am sure everyone who has been there takes this picture, but I love it. I especially liked the colors of the ocean (a bit amplified by the polarizing filter) and the intense green that contrasted with the Kona side of the island where things were either desert yellow or pale green. We spent a couple of minutes at the outlook, admiring the nature, then headed towards Akaka falls. Just after leaving the outlook, we decided to take a stop near a farm and we observed how pomelo fruits, bananas and lemons grow in the trees  – pretty cool stuff. We continued our trip towards Akaka Falls. At Akaka Falls, there is a 30-40 minute roundtrip path through the forest to get to see the actual Falls.

Oh, and it rains quite a bit here, so the forest gets to pretty impressive sizes… But everything is green.

And you can pretend to be a character in TV series Lost, going around this forest, trying to avoid bamboo trees and running for your life. Or you can hold hands.

And in this rain forest, even flowers like to play “Night-time, day-time” (if you don’t know the movie clip).

But finally we got to the falls. Akaka falls is one of the tallest, while still easy to visit, falls on the island – at a bit over 100m tall. By comparison, Niagara falls is just 50m tall, but it has a much higher debit of water. The waterfall looks interesting and secluded. But the waterfall is not the most interesting thing about this area. Apparently, there is a fish that is able to “climb” the falls – I don’t see any documentation about it online, but I read about it there. This fish is pretty special – it is born upstream, falls through the waterfall, reaches the ocean when it’s mature and starts going back upstream. And then it faces a 100m waterfall – and it manages to go past it. How, you might ask? Well, it helps quite a bit when you have a sucker on your belly. So, apparently, they are able to jump from the base of the falls, attach themselves to the rocks, breathe (WTF?), fight against the power of the water hitting them AND after a while, attempt another jump “up the falls” at the end of which they need to attach themselves to the rocks and try again. Pretty crazy and science fiction, if you ask me. Read more for yourself here.

We finished our roundtrip and ended back in the parking lot, from where you can get one last glimpse at the falls again.

But people that come here are interesting – some of them, like the two owners with the dog below came from the mainland to just enjoy the Big Island for a month. Everybody seemed to enjoy the trip, especially the dog.

Over and out with day 2, part 1.

/cd