When our English course finished, we decided for advice to our host family Cynthia. We said her we want to go to Yosemite Park but she surprised and she said "what are you doing there in this bad weather? Do you have chain in your car? There is heavy snow in this season and may be many roads are closed. Let you go to Hawai'i, in good weather, swim in the clear and warm sea, visit many waterfalls, volcanoes." And we started laughing. Because this was enough for hearded to name of Hawai'i. We were excited. We came up San Diego and we have more time and money. We were convinced. Cynthia show us a helpful site is named priceline.com. We never used this and if you take combine airplane ticket+hotel+ rent a car, cheaper than buying seperately. We were searched quickly and bought 7 nights hotel+airplane ticket+rent a car to
740 $ per person and we prepared our luggage. By the way, we chat our friend in Istanbul called Derya, we were going to Hawai'i and our crazy friend came to us in 2 days and we went to Hawai'i together.
This paradise islands, which 50th province of The U.S.A. with referendum and takes six hours by plane from San Diego. The only state on the flag with the United Kingdom flag. The biggest island in the 8 islands and the name is Big Island which we want to see all property. The airport is the west coast and our hotel is the east coast in the Hilo town. As soon as we get off the plane, the humidity of the tropical air surrounds our body. Actually we liked San Diego's dry air but he have some little problems but first, we notice the air so clean and lot of oxigen in here.
Local time is 2 hours back from San Diego and we arrived at 14:00 local time than we decided go to swim. We drove 30 miles to south side and we entered the first beach we saw. In Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park which is the name said difficulty, there are Hawaiian Kings' tomb and their protect sculpture. Also some protected sea turtles lie down on the beach. Actually Park entering price is $15.- per person but this week the old president Father Bush is death and box-office was closed and we are gradeful to president. We saw a small bay to near the park and many car parking there. Some people swimming, some people lie down on the volcanic rocks. We are going to sea too. So we didn't forget our mask and snorkels couse lot of tropic colourfull fishes in the sea. The island volcanic and salty sea water and fresh water mixed in here and fresh water is very cold and we didn't swim long time. But 15 min. is enough for relaxing and here is sun goes down at 6.00 PM also this is perfect sunset wiews.
We watched sunset and ate some snakes after went to the hotel. We arrived to hotel after 2 hours and we rested.
At the morning we discovered a closed beach Carlsmith Park. The volcanic rocks was natural breakwater and we went to swim through the big trees. When I step in the sea, three giant sea turtles welcome to me suddenly and we swam together in to the calm sea.
We swam with turtles untill morning to 2.00PM. Sea mix with fresh water too. We understood slowly, how can be the volcanic island. Volcanoes never jokes. They eruptions suddenly and it can be a disaster. At the same the flora is amazing. Giant trees are unbelievabe size. The Banyan trees in the Banyan Way behind the hotel are bigger than what we saw in the far east. Another very interesting thing, we heard lot of whistle all evening till morning. We ask some people and learned that the whistle sound of Coqui frogs from Porto Rico. They are 3-5 cm length and we could never see. In the evening, male frogs are making such high-tone sounds to attract the female frogs attention so that the real estate market has been halting to Hilo City for 10 years. There is no buy a house or rental.
We decided to go to Akaka falls in the afternoon to north of the hotel. We went on the coast road 10 minute after turn to left. After going across the fields with great views, we reached the parking area at the end of the road. You can start to walk here by parking here and giving $3 to the officer at the beginning of the walkway. We take pictures of endemic plants and flowers that we have never seen as we pass through huge trees and bamboo through the road in the forest. At the end of the trail, the beautiful waterfall flows down to about 30 meters in front of us.
We leave this beautiful view behind and go to the point where we come from the other end of the road. In the evening, and before returning to the hotel, we find a restaurant in the city center called Pineapples and have a nice feast full of seafood.
We decide to spend our next day swimming in a beautiful beach, but finding white beaches with palm trees is not that easy. Generally all over the island are volcanic rocky and stony. We crawled Google maps every day and found several white beaches in the west side of the island. It is impossible to go there without a car. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the hotel's location is well. Some 5-star hotels have their own small beaches and can be entered from the outside. Hapuna Beach in the north west looks like the widest beach from the map and we have our breakfast in the morning and reach the beach via the westbound highway. Meanwhile, the speed limit on the highway is so variable that it takes some time to get used to it. While we pass by the second biggest volcano of the island, Mauna Kea, and at certain points, the speed limit goes 60 miles but suddenly goes down to 25 miles. Again, we went up to 60 miles limit again, and in the military zone the speed limit goes down to 40 miles. If you don't, the police have no joke. Anyway, we passed through the military area with 57 miles, the policeman immediately stopped us over and gave a ticket.
Let's talk about the Mauna Kea mountain. The highest mountain in the world is known as Everest Hill (8848 mt) in the Himalayas, but when Mount Mauna Kea (10,100mt) was measured below sea level, it turned out to be higher than Everest and was exactly 1 million years old. The observatory is also on the top of the mountain and star observation tours are organized at night. But when we stay on the island, the observatory went into maintenence and we could not do this kind of activity.
We swam and sunbathe for several hours at Hapuna Beach and in the afternoon we went to the central town of Kailua Kona. Unlike Hilo, where we stay, here is exactly touristic. It is full of restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops. We have a dinner here in a restaurant and decided what to do next day. We went to the Sheraton hotel, for reservation to swim with manta rays, that can only be done on this island in the world. Because this is only 10-15 meters from the Sheraton hotel, in the sea.There are twice a day, 6.30PM and 9.00PM.
We could not find ticket for the same day and we booked for the next day and returned to the hotel.
In the morning, after feasting with papaya at the hotel, we jumped to the car and went to Waialea Beach where on the north-west side of the island. To reach there, we turned from end of the highway; we went 10 min on the pathway between the frozen lavas. Turquoise water get all our tiredness at once. The island has such a clean and soft air that we felt that our skin was getting younger.
We spent time there until the evening and arrived at the Sheraton hotel at 6 PM. We found our boat quickly and tour was started. We went about 5 minutes and after we stopped than they throwed a surfboard to the sea. Two big spotlights in the middle of the board, brighten to the deep. We begin to wait for the giants by holding the handles on both sides of the board and wearing our snorkels and masks. Meanwhile, they throw small bait into the sea. Mantas are seacreatures that feed only plankton. Their height is 2-3 meters and their wings are 5-6 meters. They are spectacular creatures in which wings move like underwater. During the
15-minute wait, sharks passed under us, but they did not take care of us, and the expected moment came. Manta rays begin to dance under us, they both eat the baits, and when they roll over, they come and touch us. Finally, the video became :
During this wonderful dance that lasts for 1 hour, 10 or 12 manta rays turned around us, they touched us, they shared their wonderful energy with us. We took our tiredness with the hot chocolate served when we got on the boat and returned to our hotel in Hilo.
After our morning papaya breakfast, we visited the active volcano park in the southern part of the island. Mount Mauna Loa is one of the five volcanoes that make up the Hawaiian Islands. Very close neighbor to Kilauea Volcano, the most active volcano of the Hawaiian islands. The volume of Mauna Loa was estimated to be 75,000 km³. It is stated that Mauna Loa is the biggest volcano in the world. This is the volcanoes national park and it takes many days to visit the trails anyway. Many trails were closed because the volcano was giving explosion signals and we were able to visit some of them. In some areas, sulfur smokes comes out of the bushes and breathing becomes difficult. By the way, the rain is pouring thinly, the flora around us is filled with bushes and endemic flowers. It doesn't look like anywhere else here. As we follow the route, we realized that we walked around the huge Kilauea crater. Sulfur smoke rise from the crater into the sky. When the volcano erupted, the lava flowed southward, causing the island to grow. In the meantime, it was possible to approach and view the hot lava flowing from the sea with boat tours, but we had no chance.
On the last day, we went to see Black Beach and Green Beach in the south of the island. As we travel south with a 1.5-hour journey, we pass through wonderful views.
First,we arrive at the black beach. The beach, created by waves that turn black volcanic rocks into sand over time, looks like a negative photo in front of us. Just behind the beach, a fresh water lake and the water lilies on it give a magnificent view. Nene ducks swimming in the lake are one of the endemic creatures of the island and are under protection.
At the end of the beach, a few giant green sea turtles out of the sea watch out without moving. In the sea, a local fisherman follows the fish over the sea, throws the net and fills the basket with fish. The time on the black beach is over and we have a long and difficult road to the green beach. The southernmost point of the island is also the southernmost point of the USA.
We came here in 1.5 hours by car. the most challenging part starts after that. We walked from the park point to the green beach for 2 hours. But walking was not easy at all because it was very hard for us to move in the strong wind between the rocky and dunes. The sand is so knocked that our sunglasses are scratched. We had to wrap our mouth, nose, and even our ears with towels to protect them from sand. But at the end of the torment, we were looking at the green little beach we had never seen before. It is also very painful to go down because the wind almost asked what you are doing here, and it smacks sand on our face. We went to down and jumped into the sea. The ocean never gave us the opportunity to swim in a milky sea. But we are satisfied. We left the sea and ate the papayas on the edge of a secluded rock and then started the hard return journey.
But the view we saw during this long walk really upset us. Around the rocks and the beach is filled with waste plastics, bins, fishing nets and garbage. We saw that the nature we watched in some documentaries was defeated by plastic waste. It is the duty of all of us, to stop the plastic garbage that spreads to the shores of these islands in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
Actually, it should be forbidden to produce plastic completely.
After a little rain on our way back, Hawaii showed us one of the landscapes we admire. The rainbow seems so clear and close that we thought we would pass under it.
Since our return plane is at 7 PM, we wanted to spend our last day swimming in the turquoise sea. A lady living on this island recommended it to us and we went to the Kua Bay beach near the airport. The view was perfect. We came to the end of this unforgettable trip by swimming in the turquoise sea on the white beach and eating our papayas that we bought from the hotel for the last time.
Short video about our trip:
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