Remember my last trip around the island? That it was very much a solo trip, I didn’t know where to go or what to see, missed a bunch of stuff, accidentally booked my second night at a tsunami memorial, got spooked and went home? This more recent trip around the island was just the opposite, a whole heap of very well planned out fun with my friends, two rambunctious babies, and very, very exhausting, as is any good adventure.
Monica and our bestie from 5th grade, Anastacia, flew in from San Diego last Tuesday night. We caught up over a beer and then all went to bed, because the next day we had rented cabins at Volcanoes National Park to stay the night. The next morning we packed up Monica’s new car and everything we three plus two toddlers would need for a three day excursion.
Our first stop, which I missed the first time around because I’m not a good planner or a big foodie, was the world famous Punalu’u Bakery, which sells the world’s best malasadas. We got lilikoi malasadas – donut-like sweetbread with passionfruit icing, which I admit, were worth the long line. After getting ourselves and the kids cracked out on sugar, we headed to the National Park, where we met up with Ryan who had to drive separately to come back a day early.
Ryan was nice enough to stay with the kids while Moinca, Anastacia and I hiked down, across and back up the Kilauea Iki crater. It was a beautiful and sunny day, but we didn’t linger too long. After the hike we met up with Ryan and the kids at the Volcano House and got food and drinks at the bar and made a big, loud mess but tipped well to make up for it. Volcano House is the Volcanoes National Park version of the Ahwahnee lodge in Yosemite, but not quite as grand. After food and drinks, we got the keys to our cabins, which are a slight upgrade from the campsite I stayed at right next door last time. I played on the fallen logs with Bodhi Kai (the ground is hot lava), and we had dinner and hung out until it got dark enough to go back into the park and see the lava flow.
The next morning I woke up to, “BODHI KAI, PINCH YOUR BUCKLE. YOU CAN DO IT. PINCH YOUR BUCKLE. I SEE YOU HAVE A BAGEL. THAT’S GREAT. SEE IF YOU CAN SLIDE OUT OF YOUR SEAT. PUT YOUR BAGEL DOWN. YOU CAN DO IT.”
Around 6:30 AM Monica had buckled the kids in their carseats and went to get in the driver's seat to go get breakfast for the crew, except that when she shut their door with the fob inside the car, the car automatically locked. It seemed as though the car was pulling a Hal and trying to kidnap the kids. We tried to get Bodhi Kai to unclip his car seat, but apparently carseats are specifically designed for kids not to be able to unclip them, so we ended up having to call 911, who sent out a park ranger to unlock the car. It took him about half an hour to get there, but the kids stayed remarkably calm, and mom and dad were ok too. It added a certain twist to the morning none of us were expecting, but I think it is a rite of passage for parents to lock their kids in a car, right? In any case, it was the car’s fault.
Kids freed, we had breakfast, packed up our camp and went back into the park for a nice little hike and bike ride for Bodhi Kai. After hiking a cinder cone and a few bike crashes, we headed out of the park and south-east to Puna, where we ate lunch and said goodbye to Ryan. Anastacia had booked us rooms at the Hawaiian Sanctuary in the town of Pahoa for the night, fortunately not at a grave site for children wiped out by a tsunami. She is an excellent planner and wrote out a list of interesting things for us to see and do on that side of the island for the day, which spent our time much more efficiently. After traveling with her, I have a greater appreciation for itineraries.
The Hawaiian Sanctuary was a trip. It sits on beautiful farm land full of tropical trees, fruits and vegetables, plants and animals. The architecture is open air with lots of communal spaces, think upscale Balinese hostel. Our farm tour guide told us about the ecstatic dance that happens every Friday night that gets “real fired up” in his words – too bad we were there on a Thursday. A lot of people work and live on the farm, so it’s not a typical tourist lodge… more of a hippie farming commune with rooms for tourists. We went to the Elixer Bar to get a drink but the people behind the bar were far more interested in making their own food than serving us. Cool, man, don’t want to harsh your mellow. But, the communal bathrooms really could use a cleaning, and you’re out of toilet paper.
After a nice dip in the spa, which was a beautiful space and clean enough, we set out to see the sights in Pahoa. We stopped at the Lava museum; small and unassuming, but had a lot of cool exhibits from the Jagger Museum at Volcanoes, which is closed due to its pending tumble into the volcano. The museum guy gave us lots of great information and didn’t mind the kids screaming and crawling all over the place.
The area around Pahoa is where Fissure 8 is located, which was the site of the 2018 eruption (when Bodhi Kai was conceived – no wonder he is such a firecracker). We drove up to a road that ends abruptly where it was covered by lava, and drove the newly built road which was built on top of the lava flow, so towns that were completely cut off by lava could be accessed. We pondered what it would be like to sit and wait while the molten core of the earth crept toward our houses and livelihoods, destroying and covering everything in its unpredictable path. It was wild to drive through lush, hundred year old jungle, and then onto stark lava-moonscape, and then back into the jungle with vines creating arches and tunnels across the tree lined roads. Beauty and destruction side by side.
The extent of the lava flow hit home for me when I tried to explain that, according to my guide book, the road looped around and we could drive back along the coast, see the champagne ponds and check out a few beaches. “No dude,” Anastacia explained, “that was all taken out by the 2018 eruption. All that shit was covered up. What year was that book published?” Ah, 2006. All the more reason to have an updated guide book, all the more respect to Mother Nature, and all the more reason to let someone else do the planning.
After our drive through the sites of Puna, we stopped at a grocery store and bought stuff to make an easy dinner at the Sanctuary. After the kids were in bed the three of us had fun chatting about life and laughing about the day, while the live/work folks listened to a podcast about UFOs in the background.
The Big Island is wild. The county of Puna (it’s a county, right?) is bigger than the island of Moloka’i. Every time I explore a new side of the island I absolutely love it, and want to spend more time poking around. And although I haven’t found a place that I like more than Kealakekua Bay (where I’m living), I haven’t found any place on the Big Island that I don’t like. And because nobody likes long, rambling blog posts (like these), I will save the last day of our adventure for a separate post.
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