Aloha & Mahalo : my Hawaii trip Day 2

Day 2 started quite early since we had to catch a flight to the Big Island home to one of the few living volcanoes of the world.
& guess what : we went to the airport in a white STRETCH LIMO :-) man we were living it.. it looks like these limos are common taxis in Hawaii.
Anyways we landed at Hilo airport in the Big island took 2 rental cars (I was driving one... this was certainly the best place I have driven in..it was so green every where & very very scenic)

We went to the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park where I saw volcanic craters, Lava tubes and solidified lava for the first time in my life.




The first one was in front of an old crater.

The second one is the lava tube; a lava tube is a tunnel carved out by flowing lava. So i walked through a tunnel in which hot lava had flown through ;-)

The third is on a road surrounded on either side by solidified lava..it was all black around us. The road stretched around the whole volcano. & it also lead us to a dead end from where we have to trek about 2.5 miles to see the hot lava flowing into the sea, but we did a short .8 mile trek and just saw the steam coming out from the place the lava hits the water.

On the way there were several places that just stunned us, one such was this place.


It was amazing how the volcanic island and the sea have been fighting each other. You can see the jagged walls formed by erosion and the lava just keeps adding layers to the island. The water had carved out several small tunnels within the rock.

After the volcano park we went to a black sand beach, the beach sand was actually eroded lava..so the beach was all black. It was very different to hold the black beach sand in my hand..the texture was so different. They even had a Warning board which said we are not allowed to take the sand with us as souvenirs ;-).

Then we went to 2 falls Akaka Falls and Rainbow falls. The Akaka falls was a grand one of course not like Niagara but still it was a really tall one. & Rainbow falls was a smaller one. We trekked to the top of the Rainbow falls and while trekking back it started raining so you can imagine us slipping and falling over huge boulders.







Thats me on the top edge of the rainbow falls. man the trek was tiring since we had to jump from boulder to boulder and finally reached the peak ;-)





Finally on our way back to the airport we stopped by a park and took some snaps with the King who had unified Hawaii namma (our) Kamehameha (said like kamayhamayha) he is a cool guy ;-)


Long live King Kamehameha ... ;-)

end of day2 folks ..we returned to Honolulu and had dinner at Green Papaya a place which served Shabu shabu cuisine and then hit the sack awaiting another exciting day in Hawaii.

Aloha & Mahalo : 2 of the most often heard words in my Hawaii trip - Day 1

Ohhhhhhh boy I am still on a high from my 3 day trip to Hawaii (I know I should have spent more days but due to certain reasons I couldn't).

The climate was a lot like the hill stations in India , the sun was out and the wind had just the right amount of chill in it.

I landed at Honolulu on the OAHU island on Friday night and had a pleasant walk in Waikiki beach. The next day was a busy one.

We first went to the place which provoked America to get into the WW II.


It is a beautiful place & of course it is also quite controversial. They show a video of how Japan had attacked the Harbor and the Air Strips and had mercilessly killed the soldiers and civilians.

But they have quietly failed to mention their Nuclear bomb attacks on Japan's highly populated civilian cities which caused a whole lot more civilians to die and their future generations to suffer from radiation sickness.

Well they have certainly made it look very beautiful and there were actual survivors from that time who were volunteers in the USS Alabama memorial.

I also got to see 3 rainbows on my first day, here is the first one over Pearl Harbor:








Then we went to DOLE plantation, it has the worlds largest maze made of hedges, we are supposed to collect 6 different patterns and return to the starting point. Me, Bajji and Nithya finished it in 12 mins ;-) (but the record was 6 mins).

The plantations had acres and acres of Pineapples and Sugarcanes and several other fruits. You can see me eating fresh pineapple with pineapple ice cream at Dole ;-).

I got to see 2 more rainbows over the plantation.






After this we went to the North Shore ... this is the place where all surfers in the world love to surf. Apparently 2 days before there were 30 foot waves at Waimea beach at North shore.

I was lucky to catch the sunset at this beach, we could see 6 - 8 feet waves here.

A cheeky shot first :
Me wearing hawaii slippers in Hawaii :-)


Then some shots of the waves and the sunset over Waimea beach. It was breathtaking... you gotta see it to feel it.






To end the day we returned to Waikiki and had dinner in an Indian restaurant in Hawaii called Bombay.
This was the only thing I did not like because I like to try the local dishes..but my friends were the exact opposite. They want to try Indian food where ever they go :((((.


Well that covers day one folks ;-) ..
Day 2 & 3 to follow and believe me each day was better than the previous one :-)