Postcard from the home of Pele

The island of Hawaii, being the youngest of the long archipelago to break the surface as the Pacific plate moves past a hot spot is the home to five volcanoes, all still classified as active, the smallest of them has been erupting for the last 26 years. The others also have a real likelihood of future activity, unlike their sister on Maui, which is highly unlikely to produce more lava as it has almost moved past the hotspot powering the production of the island chain in the middle of the Pacific plate....

Beginning by far the largest of the eight Hawaiian islands, twice the size of the other seven combined, a round island tour was always going to be a long day - add return flights from Oahu, and it was a 16+ hour tour from leaving the hotel to returning....

Landing at Kona means I've now collected the full set of the airports in these islands served by the major airlines. Kona airport is an airport of contrasts. It was built in the 1970s as an emergency landing strip for the yet to be finalised Space Shuttle programme - so the runway is one of the highest spec runways in the world, 11,000+ feet in length, and capable of withstanding the heaviest of landings... But the terminal is the most low key set of building, connected by covered walk ways I've seen make up a modern international airport, post 9/11 enhanced security checks have meant they've had to enclose the departure areas, but it was still wonderfully low key for a NASA space port.....

Kona itself is a rather small town, one of the few places outside Japan to suffer damage as a result of the tsunami earlier in the year, albeit on a minor scale compared to the devastation in Japan. Having said that on multiple occasions in living memory the island has suffered major tsunamis of its own - which makes the billions of dollars invested in the eight resort complexes just north of Kona remarkable investment with the twin risks from the sea and from the volcanoes on who's slopes they are built...

The volcano closest to the resorts has a regular pattern of major eruptions, every 200 years, and it is now 210 years since the last one, so those investments many not look so secure... Having said that these volcanoes are amongst the most closely monitor pieces of geology in the world and there will probably be years of warning if Haualalai starts to wake up, and unlike most volcanoes, the shield type, that occur at this hotspot aren't of the explosive type found on the edge of the pacific plate, some of which have some of the worlds largest cities within there range...

This was my third trip to pay homage to Pele and in particular the active Kilauea, and for the first time I'd been there she actually put on a show, albeit only of hot gases venting from the summit of Kilauea... About the time of my first visit, Kilauea had just switched from erupting from a vent on her slopes that was feeding red hot lava into the Pacific with dramatic effect, to a smaller eruption at a different location – which has been active on and off ever since. This may have been a prelude to the events, a few months later which culminated in an explosion at the summit which opened the vent in the summit caldera. By the time I returned 2 years later, that vent was relatively quiet with only a small volume of gas escaping....

That wasn't the case this time, the volume of gas being thrown into the atmosphere combined with the fickle trade winds had caused the evacuation of the National park on a number of occasion in the previous week because of the dangers the SO2 being vented represent. Luckily for us the was enough wind in a safe direction to allow us to marvel at the power of mother nature...

Another highlight of the tour was the chance to see close up Green Sea turtles on Punaluu beach, one of the many black sand beaches that occur on the coast of these islands. The sand, formed when hot lava meets the cold sea and explodes is rather more course than the more usual white/yellow sand found elsewhere – formed of small balls of glass resulting from explosions as the lava cools rather than grains of eroded stone/shell…

It was a very long day – but seeing Kilauea active and the turtles on the beach were highlights that made the effort worth it…. Having said that, any future tours I take on this island will focus on the volcano – while interesting the rest of the island is a little uniform – not having had the time to develop the character of the older islands north of it.

Post card from the House of the rising Sun

I’m really not a morning person – and with hindsight I should have booked this fly away trip to Maui in the first week of my stay – while jet lag was still waking me before sunrise across Waikiki… But I managed to surface for the 5am pick up for the short flight to Maui to join the Polynesian Adventure Tour to the summit of Haleakala, Central Maui and Iao Valley … oh for the days of walking straight onto planes without the delays and early check-ins of the post 9/11 era 

On my last tour of Maui, I’d taken the tour that circles the Haleakala National Park via the road to Hana and the cliff hugging track along the southern coast of Maui. While the feet of man building a road along the twisting coastline is impressive – it is nothing compared to the views of what nature has built from the top of the dormant volcano! There is another tour to the summit of the volcano that allows you to observe the sun rise – maybe on my next trip to these paradise Islands I’ll have to arrange a few days on Maui to be able to witness that sight – yet another early rise….

Haleakala has many unique species living and growing on its slopes – amongst them plants that have developed a covering of hairs that give the plants a gray/silver colour that gives them their English name – silversword –  the Hawaiian is ʻāhinahina – “very gray”, the Hawaiian culture had no metals – so no silver to match to the colour of the plants to themselves…

We were lucky with the weather, clear blue skies and views as far as the two volcanoes on Big Island – however the 10,000+ foot of altitude meant the advice to bring some warm clothes for this part of the tour was good – and at that altitude the air was definitely lacking the oxygen I’d enjoyed relaxing at sea level on Waikiki beach!

Leaving the peak behind there was a long down hill drive, with a short break for lunch in the village of Makawao – which has an incredibly laid back felling to it – it felt like a place with a wonderfully slow pace of life. It could have been straight out of a western – apart from the cars lining the streets! Then on to Iao Valley State Park, one of the many valleys of the smaller and older mount of Wailuku – which being on the windward side of the mountain was a green oasis complete with a micro climate that had us all scurrying for the tour bus as a heavy down pour filled the valley.

The tour ended in in Lahaina, and for those of us returning to Honolulu a chance to browse the local shops and enjoy the sunset over Lānaʻi, while those from local hotels were returned to them…

Random monetary questions from/about the US of A

Why is the dime half the weight, and smaller than the nickel – yet worth twice as much as a token of currency? Also, why are the dollar notes of all the denominations I’ve encountered hard to distinguish – being uniform in size and colour (or color)… Yes I know they all have their value printed on them – but that requires removing them from your wallet/purse to inspect them, which is avoided in other nations by knowing the larger ones are the higher value ones – and that they all have distinctive colours – so a “the larger, purple, drinking token” will normally cover all but the largest rounds….

What is it with the practice of pricing everything without tax? This inevitably leads to people, at least tourists, not really knowing how much things are actually going to be – which is a minor inconvenience but I’d also guess it has an real economic impact, as it inevitably leads to totals even of a small number of items which aren’t nice round numbers with a few cent, nickels or dimes of change being needed – adding to the number of coins that need to be in circulation – or no longer in circulation, because they are lost down the back of the nations sofas. Judging by the state of some of the cents I’ve been give in change for my uniformly sized and coloured notes, some have been in and out of circulation for a long time…

Are these quirks driven by a nation that has almost become a cashless society? Using cash to pay for something has lead to a few funny looks – with the possible exception of tipping at the bar – which is one area I assume escapes all taxes!!!!

Bright Eyes in Honolulu

21st November - Bright Eyes supported by Shopping List at Hawaii Theatre Center, Honolulu

Bright Eyes ended a year of touring with a final night in Honolulu – as I also happened to be in Honolulu and there appears to be a lack of well advertised live music in this tropical paradise, other than the clichéd performances that accompanies eating in hotels along the Waikiki strip, it gave me one of two opportunities while away from the onset of winter in London to feed my growing addiction to live music.

The Hawaii Theatre Center must have been the only venue of a suitable size available as it was far from ideal for the event; all seated venues just don’t allow the atmosphere that is possible when standing at a “rock concert”… Had they been able to remove the chairs from the stalls and make downstairs a standing area it would have worked well – but that didn’t look like it was an option. As a result the overly polite audience remained in their, admittedly very confortable, seats until cagouled into breaking out and standing at the close of the evening! The situation could have been assisted if the band had positioned themselves at the front of the enormous stage – rather than spreading themselves across the back…

From Bright Eyes 2011

The support act were the local band Shopping List. Given the small number of gigs, the opportunity to be the “local support to travelling big act” must be hard fought for – and Shopping List filled the roll well – their music matching the genre of the main act and being up beat so as to warm up an audience primarily there to support the headliners. It did appear, that beyond the usual friends and family, they also had a substantial number of their own fans in the auditorium, which was well deserved for a band that gave a polished performance.

When Bright Eyes took to the stage I was a little worried that the vast array of instruments, including two drum kits and two keyboard positions would lead them in to the trap I’ve heard others fall into of over complicating the performance with different instruments and distracting from the music itself – they neatly avoided that.

 

Their music had elements of two other bands from the US that I’ve recently heard live in London – Group Love and My Morning Jackets. For me the most successful parts of the evening were those where the music was stripped back to the primary members of Bright Eyes with voice, guitar, single synth and occasional brass contribution.

Included in the set where a number of anti-war songs, I’d suggest targeting the recent conflicts which the US has involved itself in in the middle east, rather that the campaigns in Asia that inspired a previous generation of song writers – war appears to inspire more musicians than most topics, possibly other than love, to write – I’ve yet to hear too many serious songs prompted by the other current trend of hating the investment banking industry – maybe because that is mainly stoked up by the political classes themselves to deflect from their duplicity in the current world wide finical troubles by pointing the finger at the investment bankers, but contrast the anti war songs were/are directed against the political elites risking the lives of the young for their own causes…

I’m sure if I hunted hard enough, I’d find the smaller venue in Hawaii where the likes of Shopping List are developing – and being 6 flying hours from anywhere must be a distinct downside to other bands adding Hawaii to their tours – but it is such a pleasant place to be that I’m surprised it isn’t on more round the world musical adventures – especially considering the place it is 6 hours flying from, LA, is such a mecha for musicals – and that so many of the most successful of musicians have made homes in the island state.

Post card from Waikiki

It is easy to forget that even in Hawaii’s tropical location in the middle of the Pacific, being north of the equator – and actually not as far south as some would think – it is only just further south, for instance than Miami – so it is only just the most southerly state of the USA, November is officially “winter”… as such most of Oahu has actually been overcast most of the time since I arrived – Waikiki appears to have been fortunate to avoid this fate, and has probably benefited from the slightly cloudy sky to moderate the temperature a little…

One of my primary reasons to travel 1/3 of the way round the world at this particular time of year was to enjoy, what has been, during my previous two visits, the spectacular photographic opportunity of the worlds best surfers taming the mountainous surf on the North Shore… I’ve not been so lucky this year – apparently because of a second year of the El Niño, the surf has so far been too small at the location of Reef Hawaiian Pro for competition to begin – but the forecast is that there will be sufficient swell for a compressed event in the last 3 days of the scheduled 12 day window before the Thanksgiving break… Hopefully the winter waves will be back after Thanksgiving for the second event of the Vans Triple Crown on Sunset beach.

The lack of surfing has meant days of soaking up the sun, and the slightly less sunny conditions have given my London skin a more gentle introduction than it might otherwise have had… I’ve almost adjusted to the 10 hour time difference – but it has given me the chance to listen to the ATP World Tour finals during the day rather than into the late evening, which I’d probably have be watching in live in person if I wasn’t so far away, via the wonders of the internet and an iPhone application that appears to overcome the restrictions on listening to Radio 5 Live Extra outside the UK!

Escape to the tropics

Cashing in the American Airlines air miles I'd spent the previous two years collecting – a small part of the 700 billion dollars worth that have been issued by airlines over the years – I travelled a 1/3 of the way round the world to escape the on set of winter in London – which appears to have finally arrived… I hope it remains a little know secret that for the relatively small number of 125K AA miles, you can get a return first class ticket to anywhere in the USA – which includes Hawaii! Down side is that there are very few seats available at that rate of that longest of long hauls – so you have to book as soon as the system allows – 300 days in advance – and be flexible! If you are careful when you purchase them, you can buy 60K AA miles most years – and closing the gap between what you can buy in two years and 125K for that seat at the front of the plane is relatively easy with a couple of hotel stays… The front of the an AA triple 7 isn’t the most luxurious of 1st class options – but there is always a reason why one service is less expensive than the others, even if the purchase is in air miles… And it is hard to be that critical when you get a five course meal with accompanying fine wines as the 10+ hours from LHR to LAX allows me to catch up with 3 films as I stretched out on a seat that would go completely flat if needed – I’ll be taking advantage of that on the overnight return journey…

Switching to an internal flight for the 5 1/2 hour fly over the pacific towards a number of dots in the middle of the ocean meant downsizing to a 757 – AA appears to be running some of the original 757s on this route – possibly one of the few places the in flight entertainment is displayed on a CRT rather than an LCD these days! But having left home almost a full day before – chasing the sun round the world, after my third in flight meal of the day served with an engaging aloha spirit – I was soon giving into sleep…

Landing in Honolulu I was meet by a wall of warm humid air in the open walk ways between the gates and the baggage reclaim – reassurance that I’d well and truly escaped the fog, rain and generally miserable weather almost 24 hours travelling behind me….

Round the dormant Maui Volcano

Feeling that I’d just finished fully adjusted to local Hawaiian time – no longer waking in the middle of the night – only when the sun rose above diamond head, I set my alarm for 4:30am local time, to catch an early morning 25 minute flight to Maui… With hindsight I could have declined the hotel pick up and got a taxi to the airport and had another 90 minutes sleep! On arrival at Kahului Airport, on Maui, it looked like the rain of my trip to Big Island might be repeated – but the sun soon broke through the clouds and the over night rain turned out to be a blessing as it caused the many waterfalls along side the road to be in full flood, rather than just potential falls – which is their normal state…

The drive along the Hana Highway was impressive - 600+ turns as the road wound its way along the coast clinging to the step north face of Haleakala. Due to the heavy over night rainfall there where plenty of newly fallen rocks littering the road, and in one place a work crew clearing a landslide from the road – including a couple of the trees that lined the road from start to finish… From the minibus it was impossible to take a picture to do the road justice – a helicopter would have been needed for that – the favoured form of transport for the celebrities that own most of the properties along the road – no two hour twisting ride for them to get to Hana!

The journey down the southern side of volcano was less twisty but equally impressive. The made up road disappeared and hire cars are prohibited from travelling the route… Driving on land formed when part of the volcano rim collapsed allowing lava to spill out, left a landscape similar to that on Big Island – but time and water had created four massive ravens which lead to some dramatic views from the road as it proceeded, sometime very precariously down the coast. The final stop of the day was a winery – one of the wines was an produced was an acceptable traditional Merlot, but the other two – know as Maui Splash and Maui Blanc – originated from pine apples rather than grapes – some how very sweet, yet dry at the same time – the Blanc would be a different desert wine, Splash was more of a alcoholic fruit juice…  The most amazing thing about the island, and what I’ll remember most,  was the amount and variety of vegetation, and in particular trees of all descriptions – below are just a small sample… The last a citrus tree planted by Captain Cook to be used as a mast should the need arise… The climate is just right for growing almost anything – from cactus to massive rainbow eucalyptus trees.  All on a lump of rock that appeared in the middle of the Pacific 150,000 years ago!

Surfing at North Shore

From Gidget Pro 2009

Those of you that know me will not be surprised that I was watching not taking part in the surfing – I left that to the professionals! My last visit to Sunset beach was only for the 10 minutes a guided circular tour of Oahu permitted. The surf was up that day – 30 foot plus and the surf event was unsurprisingly on hold for the day. This time I made my own way to the North Shore via route 52/55 on TheBus. While the surf was smaller than two years ago – it was still high enough to be left to those who really knew what they where doing. I was lucky to get to the beach after the 2 hour journey just as the quarter finals of the Gidget Pro women’s championship where beginning – I found a spot amongst the relatively small crowd watching to enjoy the sun, sand and spectacular. Judging by the number of cars parked along the road – I could have believe that those their had bought a car each some of them two!

I’ve yet to finish proofing the almost 1000 shots I took on a rather shutter happy afternoon… If you’ve got a 32GB memory card in the camera, it would be a shame not to use it and miss a shot! Once I get home I’ll pick out some more of the shots from the afternoon – edit a few and upload them. Hard to do that on a laptop – especially now I’ve broken the screen and have a lovely crack running across it and a small circle of dead pixels in the middle – I assume where my toe landed as I tripped over it, having left it on the floor next to my bed in jet lag induced sleepiness/carelessness…  If the surf is up and the surfing is still on, I may revisit the north shore next week - $4.50 for a round trip is great value for a 4 hour bus journey broken up with the chance to view such a spectacular sport…

Waikiki Thanksgiving Parade

From Waikiki Thanksgiving Parade 2009

It is again strange to have such a strong show of Christmas both in such a non-Christmas climate and so early in the year… It only snows in Hawaii on top of the active volcanoes, to keep the needles on the Christmas trees they import they’re kept refrigerated for as long as possible! Yet there where snow references everywhere from the motorised snow sledge to reindeer…  It is probably a sign of the changes in the economy since I was here two years ago, that the parade was much smaller this year – three or four marching bands, Pearl harbour survivors, two fire engines and most bizarrely a couple of concrete pumping trucks – from all the building work currently going on – maybe that is the only industry on the up at the moment… Hotels and shops appear to be taking advantage of the lower number of visitors to renovate…

Return to Big Island

From Big Island Flying Tour

Since last paying homage to pelehonuamea she has woken up – so a return trip was in order. I’d chosen to opt for a flight in a smaller plane that offer the possibility of a fly past of the now active caldera – but unfortunately the weather didn’t co-operate and a low cloud base made any attempt to over fly the volcano impossible. I did however get a great view of Waikiki and my hotel as the smallest plane I’ve flown in took off along Waikiki beach. For added value, we stopped to pick up additional passengers in Maui – four perfect take offs and landing in one day – despite the inclement weather. The extra stop in Maui did mean we got to see more of the Islands than the clouds would have liked us to have done from high in the air!

Once we arrived on Big Island, we boarded the bus for the drive from the airport to the caldera, via the obligatory stops at various shops to give us the opportunity of purchasing local produce… Despite the best efforts of Big Islands typically cloudy weather – at least on the windward side of the island – we where allowed good views of the column of gases now rising from the new opening in the floor of the crater. At one point while at the steam vends on the bluff above the crater the sun even made a brief appearance – raising everyone’s hopes – which where quickly dashed by the return of the rain and the requirement for me to resort to my “camera coat” to allow the photography to continue…. Apparently there are cracks forming in the floor of the crater that with one last reasonably large earth quake might cause the crater floor to collapse into the magma currently hidden below. If that should happen I’m sure I’ll be back – health and safety permitting to view the spectacle.

Sunshine bound…

From Outbound Flight

After a weekend of watching rugby and tennis, it was an early start on Monday morning to escape the damp weather in London for a second air miles induced very long haul trip to Hawaii. Luckily I appear to be back in the favour of the long haul travel – and unlike the last time, the journey was uneventful. A travel day that started at 7am in London and didn’t finish until 9pm Hawaiian time – 7am London… wasn’t too taxing. Sitting back and catching up on four movies at the front of the plane to LAX, then enjoying an evening meal on the long hop to Honolulu – all first class and paid for by the wonder of air miles!

Paying Homage to Pelehonuamea

I couldn't fly all this way without paying a visit to the worlds most active volcano - although all visible activity had stopped a few months earlier. Having said that a new eruption had started on Thanksgiving Eve - the VOG we drove through was evidence of that!

There have of course been many visitors before me - some more famous than others! When Mark Twain visited the caldera was a lake of molten lava - that must have been quite a sight. Enough to inspire an entire mythology amongst the original Hawaiian population!

Some remarkable views above and below the lava fields.

Aloha from Waikiki

The sun is out and all is very relaxing - the view from my balcony is great. From what I'd read, I was expecting Waikiki to be more commercial and built up - but there is lots of green around - even the pink of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel next door, in front of me, seams to fit. Given that more than half the view is the wonderfully blue Pacific Ocean - it would be hard to build hotels on! It is too shallow for anything bigger than the couple of catamarans that do short trips from the beach to navigate - so no cruise liners moored too close - having said that the occasional large freighter does cross the near horizon. The current headline news here in Hawaii is about containers on one of these visitors to the islands that have brought unwanted visitors to the state in the form of yellow backed wasps in a shipment of Christmas trees! The fact that that is headline news indicates how worry free the atmosphere is!

Flight from LHR

My winter escape of the British winter has arrived - after many months of anticipation. The plan to maximise the return on my air miles did mean it was going to be the start of a long day of travel... with a planned arrival in Honolulu almost 24 hours after I'd left home. An 8am departure from home, to make sure I could clear the security checks at Heathrow and any possible other delays before my 11:40 first flight of the day to LAX. The ten hour time difference, meant that should be at the hotel before 10pm local time.

I made use of the time they insist you spend at the airport and enrolled in the iris recognition immigration scheme - hopefully winning some of the time back when travelling back to the UK. The technology was very impressive - at least in the comfort of the enrollment center - recording my iris pattern took a couple of minutes, and then testing it simply took me looking very briefly in the right place! Lets see what the reality is when I get back to London. With the one bag rule being relaxed next year, I could be out of Gatwick or Heathrow very quickly in future - no queues at all!

After iris registration, I made my way to AA's first class lounge - I did say I was making the most of my miles - 125K for a first class return to anywhere in the USA - and Hawaii counted - 35K more than the same business class ticket. I have to say I was not overly impressed - there just wasn't enough room - I'd have been better off in the much more spacious business class lounge - but that was just the prelude... next stop a first class seat for 11 1/2 hours.

What a pleasant way to travel. First class wasn't even half full - so lots of attention from the cabin crew - a half empty glass didn't last very long. Video on demand - so a maximised ability to catch up on the latest DVD releases - and lots and lots of choice. I'm really looking forward to the lie flat bed on the return flight - hopefully a good sleep will be possible to kill the jet lag!

Arrival at LAX was ahead of schedule, and even the slow US immigration process wasn't too onerous. My bag was waiting for me to re-check for the onward flight to Honolulu... Quickly locating the AA first class lounge I was much more impressed - as much space at the business class version I'd just walked through - but many fewer people!

Then a short walk to the next plane and my preselected seat at the front... Then my luck when travelling, that has been with me since a very unpleasant long delay on the runway at Toulouse airport ran out.... "we are just waiting for the log book to arrive and we'll be on our way"..."unfortunately this plane has been taken out of service!".

3 hours later the flight crew and ground staff welcomed us all aboard the replacement plane. New seating plan - and it was a very old 767 with a projector for in flight entertainment - and much larger first/business class section - so my nice quiet seat at the front was gone. I gave into the inevitable - and slept - it was 5 in the morning according to my body clock! After four hours sleep I arrived in Honolulu at 1:30am local time, 11:30am back in London!

The travel gods hadn't deserted me completely - my bag had arrived in-tacked and was one of he first in the luggage hall. A short taxi journey and a rapid check-in to my junior suite - a very nice upgrade and possible pay back from the travel gods...

So now to wind down and enjoy the fine weather - even at 2am in the morning it was 24°C - very nice...