Date: July 2015
Position: 19°49′40″N 155°28′05″W
Conditions: Dry and sunny on one side, warm and wet on the other
Chevy Sparks don’t fly
At 10000ft altitude, a Chevy Spark runs out of puff. So does the person driving it! That is because said driver realises that if she wants to get to the top of Mauna Kea, she will have to a) climb a further 4000 ft up a gravel road or b) hitch a lift. Guess that what happens when you take a rental car where it shouldn’t go. Thank god the rental company didn’t think to check instatwitface after the car was returned – hired by one careful lady driver on the wrong side of 40 – what could possibly go wrong!
As it was, poor wee Blueberry (the Chevy mentioned above ) got abandoned on the side of the road, while I contemplated my immediate future. I am all for adventure sports, but, getting older and lazier by the minute, climbing was not the favoured option. The lack of vehicles out for that particular scenic drive was disappointing. Following a contour line instead of gaining altitude, I found a wee knob to climb that looked back towards the Pacific Ocean.
An hour beforehand
Mauna Kea was a last-minute decision made while scoffing a late breakfast of fried rice in a rest area on the coast road, looking at Haleakala on the island of Maui, feeling pretty choice about where I was. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed there were no orographic clouds on the summits of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa that morning. Instant change of plans! My drive to see King Kamehameha’s statue was postponed while I went on a big trip! Kicking myself that I didn’t rent a 4×4 at this point, I thought I would see what Blueberry could do as we all know, rental cars are the best, and go everywhere – well almost everywhere!
Views
The views are spectacular. All the little hills you don’t pay much attention driving between these two massive volcanoes to turn out to be cinder cones. Mauna Loa dominated the view from rocky outcrop where I was sitting. Its height from the sea floor means that as a single entity, it stands higher than Mount Everest. In a cold winter, you can ski there! Crisscrossed with lava flows, the more recent look black, against a background of red dirt and yellow grass. Spinning back around, Mauna Kea rises behind a dark red rock. And Mauna Loa is higher. Visitors before me had left offering to Pele.
In for a penny, in for a pound, I decided. Blueberry should attempt the two highest peaks in Hawaii in one day. Looking across the valley to Mauna Loa, I figured the observatory I could see must be a similar altitude to my current situation – easily achievable, and if the road was sealed further, I should get higher.
Now a funny thing happens as you drive down Mona Kea. You notice lots of things you don’t see when driving up. Namely, all the lava flows crisscrossing the valley floor, and cinder cones that you just drove past without paying much attention too. I kept hearing my granddads voice in my head complaining about the water in the bottom paddock when the river flooded. In Hawaiian terms, the complaint would go along the lines of “god dang it Flo, gotta move the sheep cause the lavas back in the bottom paddock”.
Mauna Loa
There is a little hill beside the highway, surrounded by black lava flows, and it wasn’t too hard to imagine it as an island in a sea of lava. I headed around that to tackle the road up Mona Loa. I had a rare attack of the sensibilities when I looked at the way ahead. Unlike Mona Kea, which is a lovely two-lane road until it runs out of seal at 10000 ft, the drive up Mona Loa carves through lava flows – that reminded me of snow drifts. The sign said to be aware of oncoming traffic. Oncoming traffic would be looking out for other ridiculously oversized SUV’s driven by intrepid tourists, rather than a wee Chevy Spark, driven like it was stolen. Having pulled off a stellar three-point turn on about half a foot of roadway, I headed back on to Saddle Rd.
Ancient pathways
Now the whole point of the late start in the morning was to sleep in and have a cruisey day. Yesterday I had driven from Kona to the Volcanos National Park and back – another whole story, and I was tired. Being the sensible person that I am, I decided on a rapid circumnavigation of the Big Island. Saddle Road bisects one of the old Hawaiian pathways. When the paths crossed aa lava flows, they cleared tracks by moving the loose cinders aside. Where it was a pahoehoe flow, cairns were laid to mark the way. I walked a short way down the path through the scrub. Next time, the whole track!
Windward vs Leeward
There is a very cool demarcation between the windward and leeward sides of the islands. The leeward sides are all dry and barren scrublands. The windward sides are wet and juicy rainforest. There is almost a line across the island that one of the ancient Hawaiian pathways runs alongside for a bit. You are driving along in bright sunshine through grasslands, then splat, straight into the cloud, rain and forest.
The drop down into Hilo was punctuated by outbreaks of the sun, amid the tropical rain – all in the space of about 20 minutes. This means there are some serious waterfalls to check out and check most of them out I did. It is funny watching people walking around in tropical rain trying to keep dry. It is impossible. And it’s warm. Leave your towel handy for when you get back to the car to sit on. Don’t bother getting dried off because you are going to do it all again shortly. Or the sun might appear again!
The Coast
There is a charming scenic drive along the coast just north of Hilo – the old Mamalahoa Hwy. Being serious about sight-seeing, I thought this would be a good one to take. Against the advice of my GPS, I set off down a labyrinth of one-way bridges and jungle along a coastline I could hear but not see. Driving through tropical rainforests is otherworldly. My photos do not do it justice. The Greens are greener, the flowers scream “look at me”, and birds look like they have crashed into a rainbow. My photos need a whole lot of work in Lightroom to get everything looking like it does in my memory! Apologies for the sad examples of my work attached!
Rejoining the modern Mamalahoa Hwy, my return to Kona it was a blur of waterfalls, rain, more rain, coastal villages before dropping back into Kona and a well-earned beer!
