Big Island Day 4

Today was a bit of a mess...but we managed to salvage it in the end.

After two really late nights watching lava, we got up later than planned, but still relatively early because today was the day Allan was going to take two days to hike Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa is a challenging, 20+ mile hike up difficult terrain. He had to apply for a hiking permit and to stay in a cabin nearby the top. We also had to arrange with a farm to access their property and make the drive to the trail head. Before we could drive to the trail head, we needed to stop back at Volcanoes National Park so Allan could pick up a hardcopy of his hiking permit from the Backcountry office.

When we finally arrived at the office around noon (again, that long drive there was killing us) and nobody was in the office. We called the number on the door that was listed to call if nobody was in, but a grumpy man answered saying someone would get there eventually and not to call that number unless it was an emergency. We waited and waited getting increasingly frustrated. Eventually someone showed up, but he was pretty useless and couldn't get the printer to work so Allan just had to take a picture of the permit he was supposed to have a hardcopy of.

Permit, sort of, in hand we finished the 15-20 minute drive further to the farm. We used the gate code to unlock the gate and then began the bumpy 8 mile journey to the start of the trail. Things were going ok at first, the "road" was somewhat obvious and while it was bumpy and we had to avoid cows occasionally, it seemed doable. This changed very quickly after about 10 minutes. The path forward was no longer obvious, there were huge rocks, dips, and hills. Things were getting scary and the estimate of an hour to go 8 miles from the farm people was looking more realistic. We went another 15 minutes making very slow and very bumpy progress. Then the fog and rain set in. Not only were we not even halfway through the drive, but Allan hadn't even started the double digit mile long hike to the top where his cabin to sleep for the night was. Alarm bells were going off for both of us: I was worried about doing this drive several more times without Allan as well as Allan doing a dangerous and unpredictable hike in what was now bad weather, and Allan was worried about hiking alone in the fog on an unmarked trail and me driving the horrible road alone. We parked, talked it over, and abandoned the plan.

With Allan's hike no longer going ahead, we needed to make new plans. Allan suggested doing Mauna Kea because we didn't do it yesterday, but I was dressed to go to the beach which was my plan after dropping him off for his hike. Mauna Kea was out. Allan then remembered reading about Kazamura Cave, the longest lava tube in the world. We weren't far from Volcanoes National Park and the lava tube was nearby there. He quickly looked online and managed to get a last minute cave tour. We raced there and got him to the cave just in time. Again, I was not dressed for this activity, so I went up to Hilo instead.

In Hilo I stopped by the Mauna Loa Macadamia Factory, once a bustling and thriving shop and factory with a tour. When I arrived I thought it was closed because the place was dead. Covid must have really impacted factory and shop visits. I walked in and there was very little stock of nuts. Nothing special on the shelves either like there used to be. There wasn't even any music on! It was really disappointing and a little bit sad. I wandered around the shop trying to find anything special to buy, but in the end left empty handed.

Having not spent much time at the nut shop like I expected to, I went back to Ola Brewing. I had an orange vanilla hard seltzer and read a book for 20 minutes before I had to head back to pick up Allan from his cave. He had a private tour, and it was basically an entrance in this guy's backyard. He learned a lot about how the lava tubes are formed and about different colors and shapes of lava. I think not being able to climb the world's tallest active volcano was made less sad because he got to visit the world's largest lava tube instead. You can't have it all as they say!

After the crazy day, we made the long drive, yet again, back to the hotel. This time we didn't get back at stupid o'clock and went for a walk around the resort. The more we walked across all the bridges and past all the buildings and pools, it all came back to me. It was nice to share the stories and memories with Allan. We walked past the dolphin pool too on our way to the waterfall and saw the dolphins swimming. It was nice and quiet around the resort at this time, even at the main pool area, which was great for a relaxing nighttime walk.

We made a loop around the whole resort back to our room. It was nice to be in the room and getting into bed before midnight. It has been a pretty busy few days!Læs mere