Halloween, Hawaii and holiday celebrations - the Hawaii section part 2 THIS SECTION COMPLETED 2/3 - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Love the wildlife you and Mark spotted. Lava, lava everywhere! It looks in some places like the beaches with black volcanic rock on Aruba. The mythology of the Islands interests me so I love seeing the carvings. Any petroglyphs around?
I'm sure I remember reading about some, but I don't remember where they were now. I know it wasn't anywhere we went this trip.
Just incredible that you managed to do all of that in one day - it seems as if you were in two different countries. I agree that the second park was just how I have pictured Hawaii in my mind and you captured it so well on film.
Just incredible that you managed to do all of that in one day - it seems as if you were in two different countries. I agree that the second park was just how I have pictured Hawaii in my mind and you captured it so well on film.
It did feel like that. You know on the subject of countries, I still can't quite get my head around that everything we saw in Hawai'i was part of America either....
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Wednesday 6 November – part nine: can we get an earlier flight?
We headed back to the car. We left the park a different way, and one that took us straight through a lava field on a single track. Thank goodness we only met two cars on that! The views were stunning though!
Soon we were back in civilisation…
… and found something very rare on this island – a traffic jam, although thankfully going the other way.
I was fascinated by the beautiful plants we passed in full bloom, and tried to get as many photos as I could of them, as this is just something we don’t have at home.
Soon we were coming into the outskirts of Kailua-Kona, which is the centre of a lot of the tourist trade on the island. It’s a massive sprawling place, and really did feel like civilisation after the places we’d visited today. It had shopping malls, and a McDonald’s, the first we’d seen on the island today since Hilo.
We also got to see the setting sun over the ocean as we drove along…
Now it’s worth saying here that it was maybe 5:15pm by this time. We hadn’t spent nearly as much time as I’d expected at the Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park, and our flight wasn’t for another four hours. We were both tired, Mark particularly so after all the driving he’d done today, so I’d suggested heading to the airport to see if we could catch an earlier flight back, as the one we were on wouldn’t see us getting back to Aulani until about 10:30pm tonight.
We headed to the airport, which was a heck of a lot bigger than Hilo. This was actually an international airport for starters.
We parked up in the short stay lot, and headed over to Hawaiian Airlines. They could get us on the 7:00pm flight, but it would be a $100 change fee, as we’d got a restricted fare when we booked it. We decided we could live with that, and went ahead and made the change. Armed with our new boarding passes, we headed back to the car, and returned it back to Avis. We’d asked at Hawaiian Airlines where the nearest gas station was, and were told it was about five miles away, towards the harbour. Now had we been on our original flight, that wouldn’t have been an issue, but our flight was now an hour and 20 minutes away, and we didn’t want to risk going to get gas, then not making it back for boarding in time. So we did something we’ve never done before. We didn’t fill up the car, and took the hit on our wallet for $7 something per gallon. As Mark said, we hadn’t even used quarter of a tank, so it probably wouldn’t be that much.
We had to get a shuttle bus back to the airport (you see, I told you this airport was a lot bigger ) and while waiting, I got some more photos of the beautiful sunset here tonight.
We walked up to security, with no-one else in line at all, and we were cleared in about two minutes. Now why can’t every airport in the world be like that?
When we got through, a very odd, but somehow very Hawaiian scene awaited us…
At each side you can see the amenities, like the gift shop, and restaurant, but in the middle, it’s all open air, and everywhere is open to the elements from the side, including the waiting areas for the gates. Even more surreal, there is literally a small wall and some shrubs separating you from the runway. It was unlike any other airport I’ve ever seen before, but it was very cute.
We had a quick browse of the gift shop, but found nothing we liked, so I got another shot of the sunset…
… then we settled down to wait for our flight.
Eventually we were called to board, and I was very impressed to see this. I’ve never boarded using one of these before, but it made perfect sense, as of course it’s accessible to everyone.
We were in the air on time, and back in Honolulu just after 7:45pm. I guess it’s a slightly shorter flight back from Kona than from Hilo. I wasn’t even going to try and get night-time shots, but again we saw Big Island from the air, caught glimpses of Maui on the way back, and saw Honolulu from the air, and got a grasp of just how big this place is.
When we got off the plane, we walked through the terminal, down to baggage claim, and literally out of a door, and there were the elevators up to the parking lot. Honestly, this is perfectly located.
We headed out of the car park, paying our $15 for the day, which I thought was very reasonable, and we left there at 8:00pm exactly. The GPS decided it didn’t want to play ball, and claimed it couldn’t find any satellites on the journey back, so it’s just as well it’s quite straightforward to find your way back to Aulani. We were back in the parking garage at exactly 8:30pm, so if there’s no traffic, it is literally a drive of 30 minutes door to door.
We dropped our stuff in the room, and headed down to the Ulu Café to get some food. We both opted for flatbreads, with me getting the lomilomi smoked salmon with herb ricotta, diced tomatoes, Maui onions and green onions:
Mark got the Kalua pork one with pineapple barbecue sauce, pulled pork, red onion, and cilantro:
While we were eating, Mark spotted something moving around, and managed to collar it under a glass. We weren’t sure what it was, apart from it was a huge bug, so we called front desk, and they sent someone up to remove it. We found the whole thing quite unnerving, but the Cast Member who came to deal with it was very calm about it. I didn’t get a photo of it, so I have no idea what it was.
We settled down to watch an episode of CSI, and during one of the ad breaks, I called front desk to see if we could get into the character breakfast at Makahiki in the morning. We’d planned it for Saturday, but we were now looking at having a whole day at the resort tomorrow, and then spending Saturday out, so I wanted to do the character breakfast tomorrow, rather than Saturday. We were in luck, and got a slot at 9:15am, which was the same time our booking at ‘Ama Ama had been for, so we cancelled that, and were sorted with Makahiki.
The weather today was a combination of some rain, some sun and some cloudy with temperatures in the high 80s. The best thing today was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park The worst thing today was how tired we both were Today we tried taking an open door helicopter flight And the result was it was a cool experience and we got some great photos, but it’s not something we’d do again. The most magical moment today was seeing the molten lava flow beneath us.
I can just imagine how tired you both were, and how nice it was to get the earlier flight back. Open Helicopters, Outdoor Airports, beautiful scenery, and a giant bug - you two had quite a day.
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Guess where we were headed??
I just could've done with it being a little cooler, considering there wasn't much shade.
The views were stunning though! 
We were both tired, Mark particularly so after all the driving he’d done today, so I’d suggested heading to the airport to see if we could catch an earlier flight back, as the one we were on wouldn’t see us getting back to Aulani until about 10:30pm tonight. 
I didn’t get a photo of it, so I have no idea what it was. 
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