10 days on two islands: Maui and Big Island.

General Tips:

1. Make sure you bring sunscreen, sunburn jelly and insect repellent spray. And USE them!
2. Book car rental, hotel and tours as early as you can.
3. Road trips are hard, try more relaxing options next time.

Maui

Beach park

We rented a condo in Kihei by the beach. The first thing that surprised us was that all the batteries in AC remote controls were dead. But soon enough we discovered why they were not needed. As long as you open the windows and let the wind in your room, it’s very cool most of the time. The wind was almost magical, always at the right temperature and pressure on your skin. Perhaps even more soothing than your wife’s loving hands rubbing your shoulders. I guess half of our rent was for the wind. Because the weather was so great and beach was within walking distance, we went to the beach park as often as we could.

Snorkeling

Serendipity stroke. As we settled in Kihei, my wife found that a friend’s Instagram updated with a photo in Maui and then discovered our trips had one day overlap in Maui. After a year of pandemic shutdown, we accidentally met on vacation. Friend and I went snorkeling together at Black Rock Beach and almost had an accident. When we got there, the beach was already crowded. With so many people snorkeling there, I was thinking to myself: if I were a smart fish, I would stay further from the crowd. Surely most fish turned out to be smart that day. As we were heads down chasing the few fish underwater and dodging other people nearby, we gradually moved away from each other. After a while, I got water in my tube and swam towards the beach so that I could stand up and clean the tube. I looked around and could’t find my friend. As I was about to get back into the water, I saw two big guys, each holding one arm of a person, walking him out of water. That was my friend! His leg cramped and struggled a bit underwater, people nearby quickly came to his aid. He rested a bit on the beach and recovered soon. Had there been fewer people snorkeling we might have seen more fish that day, but could we have avoided the accident with fewer people nearby? I can’t imagine the alternative. We were lucky!

We also booked a snorkeling tour for another day and it was a different adventure. The boat took us to several different locations in search of clear water and sea animals. We were very excited but very soon we felt the challenge: seasickness. The boat was pretty small and it rocked quite a lot when it stopped at sea. My son was lying down in the boat for most of the tour and my wife threw up at the first stop. I threw up at the second stop. If the tour ended there, it would have been a total disaster. It didn’t. At the third stop, we saw sea turtles. As people sighted the turtles, I swam as quickly as I could towards them. When the giant turtle swam beneath me so freely and effortlessly, I wondered whether I could ride on its back, if I were still a small kid. For the close encounter with turtles, the tour was totally worth it.

Parasail

Parasail was one of those effortless but enjoyable tours. We just showed up, sat down and had fun. It was also an adventure for my son. We actually tried to get him on the parasail when he was four. Back then, he was so scared and refused to participate. Now he was 9 years old and finally made it. But not without worries. Since we started driving to the parasail site, he kept popping up questions, such as where the site was, how far it was and how big the boat was…, etc. When we were on the boat and he saw the parachutes, he started questioning if the rope would break, whether we would drop into waster. Everything turned to be fine for him and he enjoyed the ride. I wish I had recorded all his concerning questions so that I could play it back to him when he grew older, just for laughs.

My first surfing class

My wife booked a surfing class for herself but not for me. Her excuse was that I would be too lazy to get up early in the morning. Unfortunately she got an unexpected meeting that day and had to stay in hotel video conferencing. Whoever scheduled the meeting, thank you, I said to myself and took the opportunity. The trainer came on time that morning in his beat-up Nissan SUV. That SUV was something. I couldn’t tell which model it was because its year probably predated me and the model name was no where to find on its back. The passenger door had no handle and had to be opened inside. The radio and cassette player was yanked out leaving a big hole in center dash. It had a manual transmission which worked just fine. The gauges in the dashboard were covered by a layer of dust and dirt but all the important markings were visible thanks to cleanup with fingers. The trainer’s name was Eric, who had a big beard and was very conversational. I quickly learned that he graduated from University of Hawaii, stayed on the island for over 30 years, also worked as a musician and a minister for weddings… There is something in the way he talked. He spoke loud and clear but the logic stream sometimes took unexpected turns. The kind of turn that I could make after a tall glass of IPA. While we dived into his world view, life experience and political philosophy, we drove by the nearby beach. It was too crowded, then we moved onto the highway and toward a better location for the class. The window was half open, wind blew harder as speed picked up. Quickly the wind noise filled the cabin and Eric’s voice faded into the background. I looked at his face: sunburn and wrinkled. The big beard was half gray and grew like wild weeds. Eric told me that it was the impact of the pandemic on him. But the beard looked so natural on his face, it could have been his good companion for a decade.

We arrived at the perfect spot: good waves but few people. Eric was good. But I wasn’t ready. My rarely used muscles were failing me. After several failed attempts, I was exhausted. I had a taste of how demanding surfing actually was, although everybody else’ move looked cool and effortless.

When I got back, I couldn’t help asking my wife: how did you find Eric?

Road to Hana

It took us 10+ hours to drive 100 miles. How come? Winding mountain roads, 60 one lane bridges, and some of the roads are even unpaved.
My friend had been to Maui seven times, contemplated it but still hasn’t done the trip. If we did homework and knew what was ahead of us, we probably would chicken out, or only did it half way. But ignorance was bliss. The journey turned out interesting.

Climate change in a few miles

We started in the Kahului airport area, drove to Hana and finally back to Kihei. Along the way, the landscape changed from desert to rain forest and turned back to desert. It’s all because of the different amount of rain drops. On the main continent, you would have to drive thousands of miles to see such climate change, but here Maui condenses it into one short trip.

Carsickness and a wild cat

The winding mountain road got my son sick. He managed to warn me and I pulled the car over at a fruit stand. Once he got out of the car, he poured all the lunch and breakfast on the grass. A wild cat, domestic short hair, which looked so similar to Feynman (our cat at home), came close. I was convinced it was a wild cat, because it’s so much leaner and more agile than our home pet. The way it moved reminded me of Cheetah in San Diego Zoo. The cat seemed very interested in us and stayed a few feet away. We called upon it, then it just came over and rubbed its head on each of us: my wife, me and my son. Maybe it’s Feynman’s cousin and it wanted us to say hello to Feynman.
I thought my son’s stomach was empty after the vomit, but I was wrong. A few miles later, he sounded the alarm again. This time, it was urgent and there’s no turnout in sight. I rolled down the window for him. He sticked his head out of the window and blasted off. In the rear view mirror, the Jeep that followed us for a few miles suddenly stopped. I almost felt sorry for them, pulled over in the next turnout and let them pass. Luckily my son felt much better after the second vomit and regained his spirits soon.

Numb hand and shattered butt

At the end of trip, my wife told me that it was the first that she felt her hand numb on a road trip. She rested her arm on the armrest and the car shoot all the way on the unpaved road. After a couple of hours, her hand became numb. My hands were holding the wheel tight all the time and I was too focused on not letting the car fall off the cliff or into the ocean, I didn’t feel numb in my hands. But at the end of the trip, I did spend 15 minutes searching on the carpet and below the seat for the pieces from my shattered butt, and putting them back together.
The verdict? The Cadillac XT4 we rented wasn’t really very comfortable and didn’t handle the winding mountain road very well. But we were glad that we didn’t rent a Jeep for this trip, otherwise my wife’s hand and my butt would become casualties.

Big Island

Kulaniapia Falls

We stayed at a bed & breakfast style Inn at Kulaniapia Falls. Probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I’ll let the pictures speak for it.

Photo taken from the dining porch

Walking to the water fall

Video shot using DJI Maverick

Watchdog

The hostess had a cat who always hung out in the front office and seemd not afraid of strangers at all. She called it watchdog. My son quickly made friends with it.

Birds Late Night Concert

I forgot to record the bird concert at night but here is one I recorded at the airport. Loud and beautiful sound. But imagine there are hundreds of them singing in your back yard! Because there was no AC, we had to keep the windows open. The first night, it was incredibly loud! Almost as if the birds are having a concert in the back yard all night long.

Helicopter Tour

Mauna Kea Summit

7 years ago, my wife and I drove a Dodge to the top without feeling any altitude sickness. Or maybe we simply forgot about it. This time, it was just myself driving a Jeep up. My wife was staying at the visitor center with my son. As I climbed up and got closer to the top, the feeling of dizziness and heavy chest became more acute. The thought of getting really sick all by myself at the 14000 feet summit wasn’t very pleasant. I quickly took a few pictures and rushed down hill. As I went down, all the syndromes of altitude sickness disappeared.

There was one funny episode on my way up. On the only road up hill parked a ranger’s car. The ranger was inspecting all the vehicles going up. He stopped my white Jeep and pointed at the passenger’s side: you got mud on your jeep, you have to clean up before you go up. I was caught by surprise. The ranger noticed my hesitation and insisted: this is our rules. Looking his Hawaiian face, I still felt puzzled but turned back. Using toilet papers, I wiped the mud off. Then he let me pass and said thank you. Initially I thought it might have something to do with local mythology and culture. Maybe the summit was considered sacred and mud on a white Jeep might be seen as disrespectful. Just like showing up in the court room wearing shorts. Later I learned that it was actually for environment protection.

We stayed at visitor center for stargazing. At dusk we saw people climbing a small hill nearby but decided not to join them because it’s getting cold and we would prefer staying inside our car. That was the mistake No.1. After the stars emerged in the sky, we opened the roof of our Jeep and sat on top. My son was quite excited when he saw the sky full of stars. Sometimes, he burst out some Greek names that completely evaded me when he was staring at the constellations. Most likely he learned it at school or from some documentaries he watched. We tried to take photos using iPhone12 Mini. That was the mistake No.2. I mounted my iPhone12 Mini on a tiny tripod and placed them on the roof. While I was experimenting with the exposure seconds in the night mode. Mistake No.1 brought serious problems. Someone in the parking lot started their car! They are leaving! Jesus Christ! The amount of light pollution from their car made me a fool, hopelessly turning the mini iPhone away from their headlight and then tail light. We stayed until past 9 and waited for most people in the parking lot to leave. Finally, I was able to take some photo without interruptions.

As shown in the photo of the Milky Way below, iPhone can do it but you only get what you paid for. If you are serious about taking pictures of the night sky at Mauna Kea, you need to avoid my mistakes. Bring thick blankets, expensive cameras and climb that hill.

Observatory on the top

On the roof of Jeep with my son

Photo taken by iPhone12 Mini

Volcanoes National Park

Watching Waves

Lava Tube

Cross island road trip

On Sunday, before leaving for LAX, we wanted to drive to the west side of the island and try out some nice seafood. Shockingly, many of those restaurants were either only open for dinner or not open until next Tuesday. We were forced to pick an Asian fusion restaurant that was open all day. When we arrived, we found a fast food style place operated by Mexicans. The food wasn’t too bad but I had fancy fish on my mind. I was still missing the fish I had in Kyoto a few years ago.

Well, the saving grace was that the driving wasn’t boring at all. We were running into sunshine and rain within a few miles. Landscape changed quite a lot and wild animals showed up here and there. For a small portion of the road, we ran into clouds literally. As shown in the video below, it wasn’t fog. We first saw the clouds hanging on the horizon and later drove right into them. And my Spotify just happened to be playing The Ride of Valkyries at that moment. Enjoy!