Over the Trees and Along the Coast

Friday morning we were finally able to sleep in a bit.  Taryn and I had our third attempt at a Volcano and Rivers helicopter ride scheduled for 9:30am.  We repeated our drill of driving to the airport, checking in at the desk, walking around for 15 minutes, and then heading to the briefing room.  This time, when they called our names, they told us that while they were running a few minutes late, everything was a “go”.

Taryn and I were paired with a newlywed couple from England that were touring various parts of the US for their honeymoon.  The small helicopter seated only 5 people:  3 in the front (including the pilot) and 2 in the back.  I personally have a fear of heights, and a bit of a fear of flying.  However, in planning the trip, Taryn was very excited to elect the “doors off” option for the trip, and I hesitantly agreed.   We climbed in equipped with headsets so that we could all talk to each other while in flight.  Once we were buckled in, the helicopter began to lift off.  I watched the ground quickly fall away, as my toes stuck out over the edge of the cabin.  I looked over at Taryn, who had the biggest grin of excitement on her face that I’ve ever seen. 

Immediately one of the things I noticed would be a bit of a detraction from the experience was that the continual whoomp-whoomp-whoomp of the helicopter blades came with pulses of air that seemed to shoot directly in my eyes, and felt like they were trying to tear off my contacts.  I tried to find a way to shield my eyes, but couldn’t find an effective place to put my hand that would truly help.  This annoyance was quickly forgotten though, as we flew into the sky, and were able to look almost straight down at the island below us.  Fortunately my acrophobia did not kick in too strongly, and I was able to enjoy the experience. 

Macadamia Nut Farms

We immediately flew to the southern end of the island and over an active lava flow.  Some large areas of lava rock had been deposited just over the last 2 weeks, according to our pilot.  At one point, the
lava rock opened up to a section of rainforest where smoke was billowing up from the ground as the trees and shrubs were burning from the heat of the lava slowly creeping in around them.  During our discussion with our Volcanoes National Park tour guide the day before, we learned that many of these lava flows progress at very slow rates.  Often when there is a flow such as this, it is known several weeks in advance when and where the flow will be headed.  So in this case we did not necessarily see red lava overtaking trees, we simply saw the trees smoldering and burning from the heat.  We flew over to the Pu’u O’o crater, and here we COULD see a little bit of bright red lava splashing around in the back of it.

We continued over the 45 square miles of land covered in lava rock, and our guide pointed out a few other sites.  At two separate areas, there were “islands” within the lava where the original landscape peaked out.  Each of these had a section of road visible.  It was surreal to see the post-apocalyptic looking section of land peeking out from under the lava.

Next we flew back a bit over the lava tube that was transporting the molten lava to the burning section of forest we had seen earlier.  Every now and then, you could see a hole in the ground, where bright orange lava was visibly glowing underneath the surface. 

After 30-40 minutes over the lava fields, we flew back towards Hilo, spending some time over the Wailuku River looking at the falls from above.  This was the same river on which our house was located.  This river has many breathtakingly beautiful parts of it, with many waterfalls along its length.  At the same time, this creates a treacherous river which is infamous for causing 25% of the river drowning deaths in the state.  The name Wailuku means River of Destruction.

After our one hour tour, we returned to Hilo airport, both of us pumped up on the adrenaline of the awesome ride we had just had.  It was definitely worth the wait and persistence with all the cancellations of the previous flights.  

From here, we jumped in the car and drove to South Point, which is the southernmost part of the entire United States (and was the same location that Jason and Michelle spent some time the day before.)  This required a long drive of almost 2 hours around to the southern end of the island.  We made a quick stop to snap a picture of the Monkey Pod Tree that Mark Twain planted in 1866.  

Mark Twain Monkey Pod Tree (Planted 1866)

As we continued towards south point, once we got off the main road, we drove down a single lane road for another 5 miles.  There were a few small orchards and other business close to the intersection of this road and the main highway, but the last half had nothing around it but open fields of green.  We finally got to South Point itself, parked the car, and walked to the edge of the cliffs.  The cliff dropped straight down to crystal clear water, probably about 40-50 feet.  As we stood there, someone came climbing up the ladder who had likely made the plunge down into the ocean below minutes earlier.  Though it was tempting, neither of us attempted the leap. 

Just to the northeast of South Point is the green sand beach.  This is a remote location however that is not accessible by regular car.  There is a parking lot 3 miles away, and you can either hike to the beach, or locals will drive off-road vehicles back and forth for $10/per person round trip.  Taryn and I hiked the distance in about 45 minutes.  As is the case everywhere in Hawaii the scenery throughout the hike was captivating.  We followed the coast with waves breaking lavarock to one side.  To the other side and in front of us, were lush green fields  with ruts carved in them from the constant back and forth traffic of the vehicles carrying people back and forth to the beach.  These ruts exposed the bright orange dirt of which this area was made.  When we finally approached the beach, it began to drizzle again.  The beach was a very interesting landscape.  It was at the back of a horseshoe shaped bay, and lay at the bottom of 75 foot cliffs around it.  To enter the beach, one had to snake down the natural shelves along this wall. 

Today there were constant large waves coming into the shore that dozens of people were enjoying.  The beach was fairly small though, and couldn’t really hold a lot of people.  We spent about 45 minutes here, and decided to hitch a ride back to the parking lot, as we were quickly running out of time to get back to our house for a preplanned “final” dinner.

On the way back, we texted the rest of our party, and fortunately found that they were running behind the planned meeting time of 4:00 by at least an hour.  That was good news as we also were about an hour behind.   We jumped in the car and started heading back, though we were distracted by a roadside macadamia nut and honey orchard where we stopped and did a little shopping, after which we jumped back on the road and finished the long ride home.  We ended up arriving at the same time as Ryan, Amy, Michelle, and Jason. 

Jason had been planning a dinner for all of us, and made a delicious marinated Ahi Poke which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, except for Taryn of course.  For her, he made a vegan alternative of veggies in the same marinade in which the Ahi was prepared.  After dinner, a birthday cake was brought out for RJ.  Since my birthday is also in a few days, the celebration was expanded to both us, and RJ and I were serenaded with “Happy Birthday, two Ryans.  Happy Birthday, two Ryans...”

The remainder of the evening was filled with some more Cards Against Humanity, a bit of drinking, conversation, and good company which finally petered out at about 3:00am Hawaii time, completing our final full day on the island.