Stop #15: Oahu & Big Island, Hawaii

Our last stop on this trip was Hawaii, which turned out to be the perfect transition back to “reality”.  I say this because Hawaii, to us, is considered half home and half vacation.  Lorenzo was born and raised on Oahu, so this is his homeland.  However, since it is now our home away from home, it is also one of our favorite vacation spots as well.  Transitioning from 13 international countries back to the US via this half home / half vacation destination helped us gently ease out of the intensive travel mindset.  We were both very excited to step onto that plane from Japan, knowing that we were going to a familiar and welcoming place!

We boarded the plan around 9:00pm in Japan on Lorenzo’s birthday (7/17), and arrive in Honolulu, Oahu around 9:00am on (7/17).  If you read my last blog on Japan, you’ll know that this was well planned!  We actually cut out Australia and New Zealand so that Lorenzo could make it back to Hawaii on his birthday.  It was a bummer to cut out those countries, but luckily I’ve already been to both, and Lorenzo has already been to Australia.  But now that most of my big travels are over, I don’t know when I’ll be able to dive the Great Barrier Reef!  It might become a bucket list item that I’ll never get to cross off.  But it’s ok, because Lorenzo’s birthday in Hawaii was fantastic.  Almost all his friends that he invited that evening to a house party showed up, with big, open arms.  Even though we were extremely exhausted from coming straight from Japan, we were on an adrenaline rush of happiness to see all these familiar faces.  The evening was filled with great food, drinks, friends, and endless stories.  It was the perfect birthday party, and welcome home party 😊

The first night in Hawaii, we stayed at Cory’s house (where the party was held).  We gladly slept in and took our sweet time to get ready in the morning.  It was the first time in a very long time that we didn’t feel like we had to be somewhere or do something.  We just wanted to exist, with no strict plans.  But of course it wasn’t long until we got restless and decided to head out to Byodo-In Temple.  This temple is a replica of a temple in Japan, which we thought was funny since we just came from there.  It was very pretty, quiet and relaxing.  In fact, it was almost a little too relaxing, so we decided to go for a hike.  The hike was a new one to Lorenzo, which I thought was cool, since I thought that he would have done every single activity there is to do on this island by now.  But no, there are still new things to discover.  And it was a really cool hike which had a trailhead that started right off the highway (ya kinda odd), and went straight up to a drop dead gorgeous viewpoint.  For such a short hike, the view was very rewarding!  Definitely a must-see when you visit Oahu next time…

The next day, we took out Lorenzo’s sister’s children, Keira and Bronson, for the day.  They always love it when we visit Hawaii because we love to take them out to new and adventurous places.  On this day, we took them to Ice Palace to ice skate.  It was Bronson’s very first time, and Keira’s 2nd time.  It was also Lorenzo and my first time ice skating together, which was pretty cool!  The kids (and Lorenzo) did a very good job, which impressed me quite a bit.  I don’t remember doing such a good job when I first started.  But shortly after an hour, we were off for our next activity – Beach Time!  Last time Lorenzo and I were in Hawaii, we taught the kids how to snorkel with a mask and fins.  They struggled a bit before, but they’ve been practicing a lot ever since.  And we were so pleased to see that they improved a lot and were enjoying themselves to the max 😊  Then our last activity was swimming at the pool at Lorenzo’s parents’ complex, where Lorenzo tried to teach them how to hold their breath as long as possible (for diving).  Watching him interact, help and teach the kids all day showed me how wonderful of a Dad I know he’ll be one day <3

The next day, we did another full day with the kiddos.  We took out Keira and Bronson, as well as two younger cousins.  If you don’t know Lorenzo, he has a big family!  Everyone on the island seems to be one of his aunties, uncles or cousins.  I’m still trying to memorize everyone’s names and relationship.  Anyhow, our first activity was Laser Tag, which was Lorenzo’s first time.  Finally, an activity that I’ve done and he hasn’t!  We had a great time with the kids, shooting each other.  Kind of a violent game, but I guess most games these days are quite violent.  Activity #2 was a hike to Moana Falls.  This hike was new for all 6 of us, which was a fun thing to experience together.  Even though this island seems very small, there’s actually a lot of hidden treasures to discover.  The hike was not very difficult, but it was very rewarding, as there is a beautiful waterfall you can (illegally) swim in at the end.  Since I didn’t get to swim in the previous waterfalls during our trip, due to my injuries, I was super excited to swim in this one.  Loved it!

The last activity was surfing.  Well, Lorenzo went surfing with one of his friends, while I hung out with the kiddos on the beach and in the water.  We had a great time jumping the waves, and meeting people along the way.  But the fun came to a screeching halt when I felt my foot slice on something under the water (likely broken glass).  I could feel the skin of my foot flapping in the current, and I knew I had to get out.  I asked everyone to get out of the water with me, and help me find Lorenzo surfing in the ocean.  As we were on the lookout, my foot kept bleeding and making puddles of blood.  I guess I cut my foot worse than expected and was hoping to go to a store to buy some bandages.  But unfortunately, I cut my right foot and couldn’t drive, and none of the kids were old enough to drive.  Hmmmm… what to do?  Right at that pondering moment, a surfer came out of the water and asked me if I wanted to bandage up my foot.  Um, yes please!  Also at the same time, one of Lorenzo’s friends (Vance) found us by the shoreline.  So Vance accompanied me to the surfer’s house to get bandaged up.  Turned out that Vance’s sister’s best friend lived right across the street from the surfer, and they’ve all met before.  Small world!  I guess that’s Oahu.  Once I was wrapped up, I hobbled back to the shoreline to wait for Lorenzo to come back to shore.  Shortly after, we all got to watch the dreamy sunset, as well as the Aloha Friday Fireworks.  The perfect ending to an (almost) perfect day!

That evening, we went to one of Lorenzo’s friend’s place (Tyler & Liz) for dinner and drinks.  The coolest thing about Lorenzo’s friends is that they all cook really well, and most of them are fishermen.  So there’s always delicious, fresh seafood to eat whenever we see them!  I must say that I’m pretty spoiled when it comes to Lorenzo, his friends and family’s cooking… everyone knows how to eat really well.  With that said, I am definitely over my average weight and I really can’t wait to start working out again.  One of the things I miss the most at home is exercising!  It’s not about being “skinny”, but I really do like to feel “clean” on the inside and “light”.  By over-eating, over-drinking, and not exercising for 3 months, I have to say that I might be in the worst shape of my life (or within the past 20 years).  It’s ok, I’ve already got a plan to get back into shape.  It’ll just take a lot of time and a lot of hard work.  Regardless, it was so worth it…

The next day, which was our last day in Oahu, was mostly a rest day.  My foot wasn’t looking good, and I couldn’t walk very well.  So I took the time to catch up on work and pack up for our flight the next day.  We did, however, manage to sneak over to Patagonia and buy tons of great clothing with a big (friend’s) discount!  Now that we were approaching the end of our trip, I allowed myself to buy some stuff.  And what did we do after that?  Have a huge family dinner of course!  Lorenzo’s mom cooked 3 different types of crab, fish, shrimp, chicken, all kinds of vegetables, and much more.  I think we sat and ate at the table for 6 straight hours, as relatives and friends kept coming in one by one.  Needless to say, we were very happy that evening (and extremely full).  The next day, Lorenzo’s parents dropped us off at the airport so we could board a flight to… Big Island!

We were so happy that we actually made it to Big Island, since there was a slight possibility we were going to cancel it due to the volcanic activity.  But after we researched what was going on with the volcano, not only did we decide to still go to the Big Island, but we decided to interact with that volcano as much as possible!  This may be our first and last time to spend time around an active volcano and watch history in the making.  So as soon as we landed, we book a helicopter ride for our last day on the island.  We also booked a helicopter ride for Kai and Angie, who are two of Lorenzo’s friends that we were staying with for the duration of our stay.  This couple just moved to this island recently, and they happen to live very close to the volcano.  So close that if you step out onto their driveway, you can see the volcano fire and steam filling the sky with red at night!

After we dropped off our luggage and changed, we headed straight to the beach.  Well, it wasn’t really a beach, it was more like large bodies of brackish water on the coastline (fresh spring water mixed with ocean water).  It was a very beautiful place, and a lot of fun to swim in.  The water was pretty cold and it started to rain a bit, but then we were blessed with a colorful rainbow 😊 That evening, we made a nice pork chop dinner and chitchatted the night away… at least until we decided to go spy on the volcano.  I just couldn’t believe that you could walk out of the front door and see volcanic action!  I was a bit scared at first, but the government has done a really good job blocking the roads and neighborhoods that should actually be concerned (which wasn’t us).  I have to say that, although witnessing this historical moment was both beautiful and amazing, I still felt really bad for all those people who lost their homes.  I believe they said about 700 houses have been lost at this time, and many more are still being destroyed.  Hundreds and hundreds of people are losing their homes, and insurance will not cover any of the expenses.  These people are now scrambling for a place to live, which is becoming extremely difficult with the rising prices.

The next day we went to the most stunning black sand beach.  I think I’ve only been to one in my life, when I visited Big Island about 20 years ago, so I was really excited to see this one.  The sand was blacker than I thought was possible, and the texture of the sand (which isn’t really sand) was very interesting.  The coolest part about the beach was that there were so many sea turtles swimming around.  Just within the first 5 minutes I was in the water, I saw 6 turtles!  And they aren’t even afraid of you.  They just do their thing, eating stuff off the rocks and floating around.  I’ve seen turtles while swimming at other places, but I’ve never seen so many at once.  It was a really cool experience!

The rest of that day entailed coffee tasting at Kua coffee plantation (yum!), cooking a delicious pork liver dinner (we were craving it), and further exploring the volcanic action.  We drove as close as we could to the volcano, which is basically up to the barricades.  It’s such a crazy experience – driving towards the volcano is like driving towards Hell.  The sky is on fire and the steam looks fierce and angry.  You could feel the furious tension in the air, as well as the havoc that the lava is causing.  It’s a mixed feeling of amazement, excitement, sadness and fear… It really forces you to respect Mother Nature, as no one, and nothing can stop her.

The next day on the Big Island was quite an adventure!  First, we traded our Nissan Versa for a 4-wheel drive Jeep.  Then, we drove to all the coolest spots on the island.  The first stop was a view point where you could watch the ocean crashing against the cliffs.  You could also walk down a path to view it even closer.  Watching the power of the ocean, again, makes me respect Mother Nature.  Us humans are nothing compared to her.  The next stop was ‘Akaka Falls Lookout', which is somewhere you must see if/when you come to this island.  This waterfall is 2.5 times higher than Niagra Falls, and approximately 442 feet tall.  We were not able to get very close to it, but there was a very nice lookout point in which we could see the whole waterfall, surrounded by lush greenery.  Very impressive indeed!  I think it was almost more impressive than the next waterfall we checked out.  I’ll have to get the name for you because it’s another must-see on this island.  You can see the waterfall in the distance, alongside a big, beautiful black beach and lots of greenery.  Our initial plan was to drive down to that beach in our 4-wheel drive vehicle, but then our plans changed when I got a hold of that tour book…

While the boys were buying beer, Angie and I were flipping through the tour book.  We came across a picture that had a gorgeous pure white sand beach, surrounded by black lava rocks and beautiful trees.  The contrast and colors made this place one that you could dream about!  So when the boys came back, we pointed at the picture and said “we want to go there”.  And there we went 😊  1 hour and 40 minutes later, we experienced one of the coolest adventures ever.  We turned off onto this non-marked road which was definitely for 4-wheel drive vehicles only.  It was the bumpiest and nastiest trail I’ve ever been on.  While I was stressing that the car would fall apart, Lorenzo and Kai were having a blast trying to figure their way through this crazy trail.  And in the end, it was so, so worth it!  We parked the car at the end of the trail, right on the beach next to the ocean.  Then we grabbed our stuff and walked about 10 minutes to one of the most secluded and prettiest beach I’ve ever seen.  I’m telling you, this beach directly competes with Maldives!  It’s called Makalawena Beach, located directly across the island from Hilo (opposite side).  Its powdery white sand, crystal clear blue water, interesting fallen trees and volcanic rocks will make your heart melt.  It definitely melted mine…

Needless to say, we had the time of our lives on that beach!  Not only was it the perfect beach, but we had to work hard to get there 😊  The sunset was stunning, and the ride back was a whole lot of fun.  Lorenzo was beaming with happiness since off-roading is one of his favorite things to do.  Good thing we were able to upgrade that car (for free), so we could do this.  Lesson Learned: Never come to Big Island without a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  I want to say that Makalawena Beach was my favorite part of our trip to the Big Island, but then the next day came and things got even better...

We got up around 8:00am, ate breakfast and headed to the airport.   But this time we weren’t going to fly to another country, this time we were going to fly around a volcano!  Helicopter rides on the Big Island have become so extremely popular, due to erupting volcano, so we were really lucky to even get a seat.  The catch is that Lorenzo and I had to take different flights since there was only 1 seat available on the 10:25am flight and 1 on the 11:25am flight.  It was a bummer not to go together, but we definitely didn’t want to miss it.  So up I went at 10:25am for an adventure of a lifetime!  I got to sit in the middle front row seat, which is the best seat in the house.  I could see everything on the left side and right side, and had no obstructions in front of me.  Our helicopter flew over the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farms, which was impressive to see, and several other interesting things.  One very remarkable scene was watching the lava flow right into the ocean!  You could witness the island coastline changing before your eyes… 

Yes, that is lava flowing into the ocean

But of course the best part was flying around Fisher 8, which is where the fresh lava was coming out from the Earth’s core.  I really couldn’t believe that I was watching a real volcano bubbling and spitting up red lava, it was nuts!  I didn’t even care to take pictures anymore, my eyes were glued on the action.  The lava in the volcano looked like a pot of extremely hot water, boiling and popping and spilling over on the sides, to create a long river to the ocean.  You could see the colors go from bright orange in the volcano, to bright red on the rim, to grey with streaks of red in the river, to black along the coastline.  I really felt like I was on National Geographic, it was truly unbelievable.  We also got to see Leilani Estates, which is a large neighborhood of homes that got completely covered by the lava.  It’s so weird to see a plot of homes with a river of lava running through it.  One on hand, it was a cool experience to see, but on the other hand, it was very sad to see.  All these people lost their homes and are struggling to get back on their feet.  A lot of these home owners were retired people who just wanted to live out their final years in a beautiful place.  Can you imagine being in their position?? The worst part (as mentioned) is that their insurance will not give them any money for this disaster.  A few organizations are helping these people, but it’s not enough.  When I get home, I plan to do a fundraiser for them… even though it may not turn out to be a whole lot of money, at least it will help.  I can’t stand witnessing a tragic disaster and not doing anything about it.

After that incredible experience, we jumped into another one.  We quickly stopped by the house, packed up warm clothing, and picked up Kai.  Then we headed straight to Mauna Kea, which is one of the tallest mountains I’ve ever been on.  It’s almost 14,000 feet at the top, and freezing cold.  At about 10,000 feet, we stopped at the visitors’ center to acclimate (and eat a cup-o-noodle, my weakness).  Then we made our way up the unpaved trail (yey Jeep!), to the very top.  At the top, there are 13 observatories, which is definitely more than I’ve ever seen.  I think I’ve only seen 1 or 2 at a time.  It looked pretty crazy, and felt pretty crazy.  I was wearing two pairs of pants, two jackets, gloves, a scarf, a beanie, and a hood… in the middle of Hawaii.  Whoever sees this picture would never think I’m in Hawaii lol

That night, the 4 of use went out to a super cool place called Uncle’s.  It’s funny because you drive pretty far in the darkness around the island, then down some dirt road, and end up at a huge, outdoor party and concert.  The place was completely packed with locals and tourists!  There were many large tents with all kinds of food and drinks to buy, as well as handmade goods.  Everything was organic, healthy, and carefully crafted… loved it!  It wasn’t long til we had a beer in our hands, and a pair of earrings in mine (I love to buy earrings when I’m traveling).  We were thoroughly enjoying the great Hawaiian music and all the festivities.  If you ever come to Big Island, you must come here!  The best place to go out, by far.  But our evening was not complete until we witnessed the volcanic action, one more time.  So we walked down to the beach, past the fire dancers, and almost to the water.  From there, we could see the volcano in the distance, spitting up fire and steam.  There’s something about that volcano that puts you in a hypnotic daze, and you can’t stop watching it… it just makes you feel something you’ve never felt before.  I was quite sad that it was the last time I was going to see it for a long time, or even for ever…

And that’s the end of AliZo Adventures!  We are now on a plane going back to San Jose, California.  I have to admit that we are both quite excited to go home.  Travelling has been absolutely incredible and life changing, but we do miss everything we have at home.  Our friends and family, our beautiful house, our BED, my office, Lorenzo’s favorite toilet, home-cooked meals, exercising, and much more.  I’m looking forward to not living out of luggage anymore, and switching up my wardrobe.  I’m also looking forward to not being hurt anymore, and getting healthy again.  I can’t wait to see my Mom, sisters, nieces and nephews, as well as my colleagues at work.  I’ve missed everyone.  It’s kind of funny that sometimes you have to go really far away from home to realize that home is your Home.  It’s the place you feel most comfortable, the most safe, and the most happy.  Like they say, there’s no place like home…

PHOTOS OF HAWAII