The Big Island

Since we were on the Big Island first, and we had planned to be on the Aggressor, we just didn't do any shore diving. The aggressor had a total of 27 dives available (I did 23 of them), so that was going to be more than enough for Kona diving.

see the fish?

(video, click me)

(video, click me)

cleaning shrimp

slipper lobster, so easy to catch and yummy :)

(video, click me)

plancton

my first hammerhead shark

nice turtle video

same turtle going to the surface to breathe

killing a crown of thorns, they are a pest that eat coral

nice octopus

little eel trying to swim away from us

nice scorpionfish flying

see the fish?

it was a scorpion fish

The diving was pretty good, but the two Manta Ray night dives were specifically impressive. Those do count as a "something you have to do in your life" if you are a diver or snorkler.
The bad news however is that on our second Manta Ray night dive, we had a some current and I got pushed from the rock I was landed on. End result, due to my boyancy being heavily set to make me sink so that I could stay at the bottom while both my hands were busy, I fell on a sea urchin and got about 20 spines in my right leg just 3mn into the dive (one hand was busy holding the diving light and the other hand was taking pictures, so it was hard to hang on). The short story is that it did hurt like a bitch during the entire dive, but the second night Manta Ray dive was still incredible. As for the sea urchin spines, they broke off and stayed in my leg, but after applying bleach on them I was better about 3-4 days later.

one of the mantas from mantaville

and back during the manta ray night dive

20 sea urchin spikes in my leg, that did hurt like a bitch

The Aggressor was a good boat, and their staff was fantastic. The only downside of course is that it's not cheap.

Patty gave us nicely folded fresh towels every day

cocktail party with our friendly staff

See all pictures from the Kona Aggressor

Maui

Maui was next. I organized dives with Ed Robinson for all days but one, and Pro Divers for the remaining dive. Pro Divers was good, but since they only have one boat with 6 divers, you do get stuck with the other divers on your boat, which could be a problem if there is a big difference in skill level (although they try to avoid that).
Ed Robinson however was even better. They knew their fish too, but they have 2 boats which can take 2 groups each, so you're more likely to end up in the level just for you (which also matters if you dive deep with nitrox since you can stay at the bottom longer). We also really enjoyed the 3 dive days and the special "dive with Ed" day. Ed is the owner for more than 20 years and knows everything that's in the water. It was well worth it.

nice cleaner shrimp (video, click me)

(video, click me)

Manta Ray with two remoras attached

(video, click me)

Very nice Eagle Ray

(video, click me)

Octopuses are fun to play with

birdies came after each dive for some snaky cakes

See all pictures from Maui

Kauai

Kauai was last (but not least). We went with Fathom Five for diving, as recomended by our book. They were quite good, the other thing I did not care for was the mandatory briefing at their shop and basically throwing an hour away on any subsequent day of diving instead of being able to meet them directly at the boat. For the rest, they were quite professional and knew their stuff.
We however did one other dive with Kauai Scuba aka Mana Divers, to try a DPV (underwater propulsion vehicle) and I cannot recommend them for their policies and front desk staff. See my More interested in your money than your safety review on google maps for details as to why I would avoid them.

During the dives, I found a place filled with lobsters, and waited patiently for our last day which was just when lobster season had opened. Unfortunately, the one I plucked was both a female and a tad too small, so we had to thrown it back in the water. Bummer :)

2 frogfish

dinner, although just 2 days before lobster season was opened

Monk seal

caught dinner :)

but had to put it back, it was a female and too small

trip to Niihau

Monk Seal in Niihau

See all pictures from Kawaii

Conclusion

See all diving pictures

Hawaii aka The Big Island is to the Hawaii islands what Tahiti is to French Polynesia: one Island in a chain. In this case however, one flies to Honolulu in Ohahu since it has a bunch of big ass runways, some now unused by the military.
Ohahu seemed to be the least exciting of the 4 main Islands, so I focussed on the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai.

Months later, with expert help from Lei from Value Vacations/Boutique Travel, we had a trip lined up:

I also recorded a GPS track of our trip including the dives and flights, showing a good visual overview of the trip:

But let's go back to the beginning

The Big Island

Volcano Park

The day we arrived in Volcano Park, the visibility was quite poor and we just couldn't see anything from the rim edge. That however didn't get in the way of visiting the Thurston Lava Tube since it's pitch dark inside anyway :)

Next day, the weather was good enough to have a slightly better view, do a few hikes on lava, and drive down Chain of Craters drive to the old 130 highway that got overtaken by flowing lava. Walking on the road up to where it's filled with lava is actually a cool sight.

Oh crap, I'm going to have to make a U turn then :)

The bad news however is that to get anywhere close to the lava flowing into the sea that you can see in a distance, you now have to drive 90mn all the way around to get there. This is what we did and we arrived there just after sunset where you can see the glow of the lava reflecting in the water vapour smoke (during the day, all you can see is the smoke).

Volcano rock can be very porous and light

Hilo/East Coast

Except for the stupid mosquitoes, Naali Plantation was great

Ants hard at work

After a night at a nice Bed and Breakfast, Naali Plantation, we drove up the East side of the island to visit a few points along the way.

Among those was the very nice botanical garden.

Cat whiskers

The majestic Akaka Falls

As far north as we got

Waipio Lookout

At the end the plan was to drive down to waipio valley and make use of the 4WD jeep we had, but the weather was just poor the steep road down was wet and slippery, and Jennifer was just very tired so we turned back towards our next room for the night.
We stayed at a nice Chinese decorated hotel by Kulaniapia Falls with a view of the nice falls from our window.

great decors

nice view for a hotel window

Saddle Road/Mauna Kea

The next morning was time to drive Saddle Road towards Mauna Kea and drive up to the peak, which is almost at 14,000ft.

little cave that was on the way

the famous sinuous Saddle Road

weather was not good

this is probably the best view we got that day

the road up to Mauna Kea

after not seeing so much at the top, back on the sinuous road

It's almost like driving from the beach in California to the very top of Mt Whitney, the highest peak on the continental US, in less than 2H. Because of the speed of the ascent and the limited oxygen up there, visitors are strongly encouraged to stay at the lower visitor center for a while to acclimatize to the altitude, which we did. Unfortunately by the time we got to the top, the weather hadn't improved much and we weren't able to see much of anything from up there.

a few hundred warnings

half of the Keck observatory

it works in pairs

many radio telescopes up there

We did have a quick visit of the Keck observatory and by sticking around a bit longer the rain soon subsided and we were able to get just a little bit of a view before heading down. Now is a time to mention that I was not impressed with the Jeep Rubicon we had rented: its 5.8L gas guzzling engine (5.8L! it's bigger than my 400HP (5.0L) and 490HP (4.9L) cars and properly barely delivered 300HP it seems) was not able to get us to the top in 2nd gear. At the end we had to climb in first gear due to the reduced manifold air pressure at 13,000ft, but still it was a pityful engine and whoever designed the stupid doors that never close deserves to be fired and not bailed out.

But eh, since we had paid for the thing, and weren't able to use the 4WD to get to Waipio (while it was barely useful to get up to Mauna Kea), I decided to have a little fun on an ATV track off Saddle road recommended by our book

This made the jeep a bit more useful and at home

Although the road was ultimately a one way up a dicey trail to the top of a peak so I turned around before pushing our luck too much :)

Kona

After that, we arrived in Kona in time for a sunset dinner.

Dolpinquest

The next morning we drove north to Waikoloa for the Dolphinquest encounter we were signed up for. Playing with the dolphins was definitely a lot of fun.

Waikoloa Village is likely totally overpriced, but quite nice

Big Island Flight

Link to Kona Flight Blog Entry.

We had planned on doing a flight around the island when we were on the Hilo side, but the weather was just so poor that I had cancelled it. Thankfully 3 days later on the Kona side things were looking a bit better, so instead of visiting around Kona further, we headed for the airport and did a flight around the island. It ended up being well worth it and even if visibility was marginal for sightseeing in my book (we never saw the mountains in the middle of the island), it was apparently about as good as it gets. Touring the Island in about 2H by plane gave us a much better view of things and allowed us to see the lava flow from the top (although even from there it was mostly just the smoke from the steam generated by lava flowing in the ocean). That said, we saw some other cool spots in Volcano NP that we wouldn't have seen from the road. Incidently I also got a good shot from the pool we were in for our Dolphin Encounter a few hours prior.

road across an older lava flow

a couple of craters

the 130 hwy stops where lava took over

lava flow falling in the ocean

actual hot lava seen through a hole

you can see the lava flow through 2 roads and a forest

Waipio Valley, with a shot of the road down we didn't take

can you say waterfalls?

the local grand canyon :)

Waikoloa Resorts

Dolphinquest in action

The Aggressor

Maui

When we got off the plane, we went directly to Laihana to see a doctor for Jennifer who had had some vertigo problems which must have been diving induced (just a tiny bit of anything in the wrong place in your ear can cause that). We didn't get a silver bullet answer (never got one), but at least she didn't have a bad ear infection and it eventually cleared up by itself (although it was only fully gone after we got home).
The plan for Maui was to do the smaller west loop on the first day and end back up in Kahului for the next early morning activity. After driving a bit quickly through the fairly nice Laihana, we continued the loop north beyond the allowed or recommended driving zone for rental cars (hard to tell because the rental lady went as far as lying to us about the road being closed in somewhere, apparently because she was tired of tourists with the "Maui revealed" book going to see all the nice spots on the Island that she deemed should be for locals only). The guide books point out that the road is sinuous and not so well paved (if paved at all) in some places on Maui. It's true that the portion of road north of Laihana eventually became unpaved, one lane only, with many blind turns and occasional fallen rocks. For the average driver this would likely have been scary, but I found it fun :)

Dragon's Teeth

Blowhole

This was nothing, there were some nice sized rocks in the middle of the road

Haleakala

03:00, way too early

still night

and cold

light is...

... slowly ...

... coming up

there ...

... it ...

.. .is

cute pet piggy we saw on the road

North Maui loop drive to Hana

local ducks

the road to Hana

Maui has many mongooses

We had for a nice home cooked dinner in a fully equipped hut. Watching the sunset from the long chairs outside was however not a great plan due to hungry killer mosquitoes outside (those bloodsuckers were all over the islands and much of a pain in the ass, or whether they bit you).

South Maui loop drive to Kilei

red sand beach

seven sacred pools

The road past the national park indeed became unpaved and not always very wide, but I had no trouble keeping a good pace on it even with the no too great PT cruiser rental we ended up with. On the way to our hotel we stopped by an ER to have Jennifer checked out again as we weren't sure whether she'd be ok to dive the following days as per our schedule and reservations. They found nothing wrong with her but indeed advised that she take it easy until her vertigo mostly subsided.

pavement wasn't too good, but the nets on the mountain catch fallen rocks

road builders were a bit drunk, but it made the road fun to drive

We caught a nice sunset while driving to Kilei

sunset from the side hills of Haleakala

Once we got in Kilei, we scored a nice free upgrade to a dual unit condo which was way too big for us, eh, who's complaining :).
The next 4 days were scheduled for diving in the morning and resting/beach time in the afternoon, which worked out just fine for Jennifer who did need the rest (we also had some time to do some visiting around Kilei, which has quite a row of shops and restaurants). Jennifer was understandably happy that we could stay in one place for a while and cook at home after having filled the fridge.

Maui Diving

Laihana, Warren and Annabelle Magic Show

All that said, we had a good time, and walking around downtown Laihana before the show while enjoying yummy shaved ice, was enjoyable too.

Laihana

Kauai

On the way:

nice south coastline of Molokai

Last, but not least, was time for Kauai. The Island was much smaller so we were able to just stay at one spot and visit the Island from there (besides there is no road that loops the Island, so when you've reached the end on one side, you have to go all the way around for the other side anyway).

The first day, after we arrived, we were able to see a hike by a nice waterfall, and attend a local fair with cute animals and overgrown vegetables and fruits that made Jennifer's mouth water :)

petting zoo at the fair

kauai is overrun by chicken

fruit and vegetable contest

nearby Wailua Falls

we hiked down to it

did I mention Kauai was overrun by chicken? :)

this was indeed the best shaved ice on the island

I found a nice place, Kauai Cottages, close to where we were going to dive most days. We were also able to eat there thanks to a nice kitchen.

Kauai Diving

West Coast of Kauai

finding an Enzo on a small island which even lacks a road that circles the island ...

... was unexpected, especially when many of the roads aren't all good and would scrape the front

finally, we got to see a Néné north of the Island

the northmost point of all the Hawaii Islands

Birds of Paradise

Waimea Canyon

this shows how the Islands, mountains and volcanoes were formed: the plate was on a north western conveyor belt while magma was coming to the surface

chickens everywhere, remember?

I managed to grab one, although it wasn't too happy about it :)

the trail we hiked

the vantage point at the end of the trail

That's all folks

After a bit more than 3 weeks, it was time to go home. What we learned from the trip was

We had planned on doing a flight around the island when we were on the Hilo side, but the weather was just so poor that I had cancelled it. Thankfully 3 days later on the Kona side things were looking a bit better, so instead of visiting around Kona further, we headed for the airport and did a flight around the island. It ended up being well worth it and even if visibility was marginal for sightseeing in my book (we never saw the mountains in the middle of the island), it was apparently about as good as it gets. Touring the Island in about 2H by plane gave us a much better view of things and allowed us to see the lava flow from the top (although even from there it was mostly just the smoke from the steam generated by lava flowing in the ocean). That said, we saw some other cool spots in Volcano NP that we wouldn't have seen from the road. Incidently I also got a good shot from the pool we were in for our Dolphin Encounter a few hours prior.

I ended up going with a CFI because it was both faster and cheaper than getting checked out first, and it was very useful to have someone who could take us to the cool spots to overfly and take the plane when I was just too busy with taking pictures (like when we flew several times around the current lava flow in the ocean).

road across an older lava flow

a couple of craters

the 130 hwy stops where lava took over

lava flow falling in the ocean

actual hot lava seen through a hole

you can see the lava flow through 2 roads and a forest

Waipio Valley, with a shot of the road down we didn't take

can you say waterfalls?

the local grand canyon :)

Waikoloa Resorts

DolphinQuest in action

When we were in Kauai, I signed us up for a flight in 2 trikes, each of us flying one with a CFI.

This was our first time in a trike

Flying the trike was interesting, but from the back seat it was very tiring to extend your arms so far forward to control it. The other bummer was that for safety reasons, they did not allow us to take a camera due to the risk of it flying off into the prop in the back, which would be a problem if it were to happen.

Unfortunately, the flight was underwhelming because of high winds and too many clouds to see the ground (you can see on the map above that despite 1H of flight, we didn't get far). We had groundspeeds of barely 25kts (i.e. slower than our driving on the road there) and didn't get very good views outside of a few places, due to the cloud cover.

This could have been quite nice, but it turned out to be fairly disappointing unfortunately, especially when we were charged full price for their pictures and we only got a few good ones, the others were pointless or bad due to a fogged in lens :-

Here's a quick overview:

Kahului

We went to the pretty but overpriced Mama's Fish House by the beach for lunch:

MC Escher was here :)

Road to Hana

1H09, maybe if I floor it with no one on the road :)

waterfall trail by the garden of eden

By the time we got to Hana, it was of course raining

Luana Spa

some great meals, with fresh fish I had just bought :)

Hahanu Gardens

there were lots of dead lobsters that got washed on the 'beach'. Too bad none were fresh :)

Waianapanapa Beach and Coastline

Warning, warning signs are dangerous! :)

Venus Pool

Seven Sacred Pools

Then, we finally went for the entire Pipiwai trail with its very nice waterfall at the end

very nice bamboo forest

South Maui

nice roads :)

they also have nets to catch fallings rocks, which is good (the north west side is missing those)

fun 'straight' road

we were able to see Molokini from the road

and we then finished the evening Upcountry Bed and Breakfast for a nice sunset in a jaccuzi :)

Kula Enchanting Floral Garden

Surfing Goat Dairy

Haleakala

on the way up, we saw the Pu'uo we were going to hike to

at the top of a bit over 10,000ft, there were a lot of observatories

Haleakala Sliding Sands Trail

you could get a horse ride to the bottom and back

our target, the Pu'uo

the trail goes much farther if you have time

Haleakala Sunset

Kaluhui Airport/Maui Flight

Kihei Keawakapu Condo

the ocean view was decent :)

Maui Diving

Iao Needle

Waihee Plantation

our first stream crossing

and this was our target

La Perouse Bay

lava rocks

this looked like a water pipe going to a few houses, apparently it wasn't worth digging the conduits in :)

Big Beach and Black Sand Beach

Old Lahaina Luau

the giant tree is still unbelievable

end we then went to the Old Lahaina Luau:

after dinner, they had a nice show for us:

Kaanapali_Zipline

A couple of videos:

the road is nice at the beginning :)

the blowhole

and the Olivine Pools

full of life

After that, was the 5mph one lane road full of blind turns back to Kahului. Thankfully everyone we caught up with was nice enough to pull over and let us pass: my strategy was to gun it in the straights and be very careful on the blind turns. This got us out of it in record time.

That's all Folks

If you wish, here is a link to a big georeferenced map of our Maui trip.

(If you do not see any track on the map, click on '07 Day 05: Maui Flight' in the upper right corner twice).

As part of our vacation in Maui, I figured a good way to have another view of everything we visited, and a peek at what we couldn't visit like the neighbouring islands). It was nice to see the coastlines we had driven on, and especially the long sliding sands trail that we didn't hike all the way to the end :)
You can see many more pictures of our Maui Trip here.

Just like Hawaii last year, it made sense to rent a plane with a CFI and just do the scenic flight without the need to be checked out. On Maui, Maui Aviators was the place to go for renting a GA aircraft with a CFI if you don't get checked out. At a few times, it was also nice to hand out the controls to the CFI and let him fly while I was too busy taking pictures of a waterfall while we were in a steep turn close to the rocks :)

The flight started with the north of Maui, and its crappy one lane dirt road :)

the 'fun' one lane dirt road full of blind turns portion of Hwy 340

We then flew towards Molokai Island:

Molokai waterfalls

Molokai's Kalaupapa Airport

Molokai Leper Colony

Molokai Airport

Molokai reef

After that, we headed for the coast of Lanai:

The non pretty side of Lanai

Before heading back towards the main island of Maui on the Lahaina side:

Lahaina

Jet Skis

and transitionned to the other half of Maui, starting with the Kihei coast:

North Kihei

South Kihei

Kamaole Beach Park

South Kihei Boat Ramp we go diving from

Wailea

Wailea

Makena

Little Beach, just north of Big Beach

Big Beach

We then did a little side step to Molokini which has such incredibly clear waters and good diving:

Molokini

and back to South Maui:

Big Beach

The other 'fun' dirt road, south Maui. At least this one is a 2 way road

We then 'climbed' to the top Haleakala a bit quicker than it takes to drive and hike :) and had a look at

The observatories at the top of Haleakala

Sliding Sands Trail

The Pu'uo we spent 1H to hike down to

The ambitious hiker can actually hike all the way down to the beach from 10,000ft

After that, we flew from South Maui (through the seven sacred pools), to West Maui/Hana, and Hana Airport (including the trike from Hand Gliding Maui), and back to Kahului:

yes, they have nice waterfalls

The big waterfall is the end of Pipiwai trail

Seven Sacred Pools

Hamoa Beach south of Hana

Hana's Red Sand Beach

Luana Spa where we stayed in Hana

Hana Airport with its Hand Gliding Trike Base

The Winding Road to Hana

More Wining Road to Hana

Back to Kahului Airport

The flight was just around 3H, a good way to see Maui and the nearby islands.

If you wish, here is a link to a big georeferenced map of the Maui Flight (you can turn on display of other gps tracks by clicking on their name in the upper right corner twice).

This was the first day, including a wreck dive:

Molokini

Second day:

nice frogfish

wrecked plane

grr...

Third day:

Molokini Birds

Molokini Birds

amphibious vehicle

we finally found an octopus

once it's found, it sticks to you for protection from other predators

Our first day, we went with Hawaiian Diving Adventures, met them at 07:15, and were lucky enough to be the only divers that day (just after thanksgiving weekend). Our first dive was the sea tiger, a nice boat sunk on purpose:

Our second dive was "the pipe", minimal life, but a bit more fun with the octopus our guide found:

Two days later, I chose Reef Pirates, because they had a 3 tank dive that was more geared towards experienced divers. Sadly we did not luck out that day as they made us go there by 06:30 (getting up at 05:40), and then left 45mn late while they were sorting out whether they would allow a diver with medical conditions, join us, or not.
Once diving the Coraair plane wreck, they forced us to go back up after barely 10mn down there, even though I still had 12mn of bottom time left on my computer. I'm not impressed by such forced babysitting :(

The next dive was Angler's Reef, where our guide found another reef octopus:

Last was Koko crater, with two underwater Buddhas and lots of turtles (more than 7 different ones, one of which sadly had a piece bitten off, probably by a shark):

And that was it for diving in Oahu, not super impressive, but not terrible either. At least the water was still reasonably warm during the winter (25C or better).

we then did 5 dives on 2 different days (on this separate page, and the rest of the time was used to visit the Island a bit:

The first day, we did morning dives and then stayed in the Waikiki area:

yeah, bring your phone and selfie stick to the infinity pool, makes sense...

diamonhead crater

I tried to surf a bit, but there were barely any waves, so I only got the chance to go up once

On the 2nd day, we spent the entire day in Pearl Harbour

Our 3rd day, we did 3 morning dives, then checked out Oahu Sealife Park and spent the rest of the day checking out the East Coast and walked to a few viewpoints:

Our 4th day, we started with the Diamondhead hike, which turned out to already be pretty packed. The parking lot was full, but we were able to find a parking spot just outside the crater tunnel (yes, there is a tunnel through the volcano crater):

cars are in line waiting for parking spots to free up inside

hike up

the top had stairs to where the artillery used to be

once at the top, nice view of course

Waikiki where we spent monday afternoon

Koko crater hike, didn't have time to do it that trip. Maybe next time.

lava tube with access to the ocean

we found a rare solitary monk seal, sunbathing

Once done with the blowhole, lava tube, and arch, I drove around to the other side of Koko crater and its small botanical garden

the viewsonic bird!

Then, we went to check out another coast access with a spitting cave you can hike to:

15mn hike around the coast

and here is the spitting cave

From there, I drove up to Lyon Arboretum, which sadly was more jungle than botanical garden in places and then the quick-ish 45mn hike to the MAnoa Falls:

We then had just enough time to drive to Tantalus Lookout for sunset:

For our last day, we went to check out Waikiki Aquarium, and then spent 1h30 at the US Army Museum of Hawaii:

And last was Iolani Palace, the former Royal Palace:

With a quick drive by the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and the Japanese Garden in the airport:

a bit of early morning rain

ship that took us to the Arizona Memorial (currently being renovated)

Mighty Missouri

rainbow over the location of struck ships

Back on land, onto the museums:

suicide torpedoes, ugh...

it is still an active military base

The Bowfin is a nice typical submarine visit:

Then onto Ford island, by bus, onto the mighty Missouri where we took the 90mn private engineering tour

they have their own private neighborhoods there

the guns are big

our private tour guide

big guns

Then, we had to hurry on to the Pacific Aviation Msseum to see what we could before it closed:

More pictures of the Pearl Harbour Pacific Aviation Museum

And that was it for our Pearl Harbour visit. I now agree that it's hard to see it all in one day :)

nice background

There were a couple of shows, one with Sea Lions and one with dolpins:

This is the 2nd aquarium we go to that has a nice little birdie collection. Those were very friendly and hungry :)

first one

then more :)

Day1

Next to the airport was a commercial seahorse farm. They had a very overpriced tour, but you got to hold a seahorse at the end :) No, the price is not really worth the tour, but I didn't have enough time to research it to that level of detail, oh well. It was still fun:

algea they are growing

sea horses they are growing

we were able to put our hands in a tank and have a seahorse attach to us

Nextdoor was a Salt Farm, also worth a visit:

nice selection of salts

The rest of the day was spent doing an afternoon and manta ray night dive, and a chill dinner:

sorting pictures :)

Day2

Day3

`

Going at altitude just 2h afer my last dive was potentialy tricky, but thankfully one of my 3 dive computers was able to give me the maximum altitude that was safe to ascend to, and it was high enough to where I was going:

by then I could already go to 10,000ft

Across the road to the observatory, there was a short altitude hike with view:

Unfortunately, the lava flow towards Saddle road had already stopped fee days prior, and the road to Mauna Kea was closed due to snow, so we didn't get to go to the peak, either:

visitor center at 9000ft was open, though

After that, the road was drenched in rain, so there was no point in stopping until just before Hilo. Kaumana Caves was a nice stop on the way, a real lava tube that you can explore for a really long distance:

one direction had a hole and exit, but kept going on for a long way

The other direction in the lava tube was inteesting too, including a tube that splits in two:

Day4

After that, quick stop by Hilo farmer's market:

From Hilo, it was an easy drive to Volcano NP:

`

From the research and prior experience, I knew it was best to start with Kilauea Iki Trail, a beautiful hike in a crater that isn't 100 years old yet:

I love how this spot has layers you can simply take apart with one hand

When getting out Thurston Lava Tube is right there, but it's very underwhelming compared to the previous day's hike in Kaumana Caves:

my flashlights still came in handy

When it came time for the Steam Vents and the nice Sulphur Banks hike, pouring rain came down, that got all the way inside my socks and shoes since I only had my emergency umbrella and not a bigger one:

By the end, the Volcano Art Center Gallery was a good stop from the rain, which didn't stop:

I wish I could have seen that

I did a couple of other quick hikes, but it was not fun with the rain, but the good news was that the weather got better at the end of chains of craters road, but the ocean:

just in time for sunset

Day5

My plan was then to drive up around the coast back to Hilo, and stopped at Hawai'i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden which I independently re-discovered was the best botanical garden on the island (realized later it was the same one I went to in 2009, but no biggie, it was definitely worth going back to):

From there, finishing the island tour was technically possible, but not very safe time-wise, and there would not have been time to stop for anything, so it was safer to retreat and go back to Hilo through saddle road and make the flight with a good 15mn to spare :)

Quick stop to check out Kaulana Manu trail for birding another time:

Back to Kona, with airport in the background:

4.5 days might have been barely enough for the big island without diving, but with diving, the time was a bit short. Still, I feel like the itinerary worked out pretty well, considering.

On the first day, I did a couple of dives with Big Island Divers in the afternoon/evening to see the Manta Rays. The Manta Ray Night Dive is spectacular as always:

Short Video:

Long Video:

Water hovered between 27C and 25C even at night, which was borderline cold for my 3mm wetsuit, but thankfully I didn't get cold (I added a hood when not moving much).

The next days, I did 2 more dives with Big Island Divers in the morning:

Kona Shore Divers was super nice to take me last minute for 2 more dives in the afternoon just before the Luau I had that night:

The 3rd morning, for my last hours in Kona before driving to Hilo, 2 more dives with Big Island Divers:

Thank you to

I had to look up my last flight, it was in 2009: Flight Around Hawaii's Big Island

Here is the flight this time:

Anyway, I'm glad there was a single flight club left on the island with a single plane left able to take 3 people (C182):

I had to wait a bit before takeoff:

Kona is the main airport on the big island

finally taking off

Kona has boats, snorkling and diving

The full tour of the island takes time, even in a C182, it was 2.8H total. It was nice to see the stark contrast between the different sides of the island:

my trusty copilot/CFI, who thankfully did all the radio and airspace work

even the kona side had older lava flows

beautiful waters too

more lava flow

stark altitude contrast

south tip of the island

After a while, we finally arrived to volcano national park:

crater road used to go around, but the volcano grew and took the road away

Jagger Museum is now closed because it's now on the edge of the crater and was damaged by earthquake

After a few loops, down chasins of crater road:

cool road to nowhere (after lava flow)

After that, got to Hilo and did the rest of the island loop:

lots of bridges

many waterfalls

Waipo valley

And finally back to Kona airport after 2.8h, also clearly built on top of a lava flow:

Not cheap, but it was fun to do this flight again after 13 years ;)

I mean beginners should be allowed to dive, but Dive Kauai sucks at handing them along with non beginners, which makes them a very poor choice for advanced divers. Of course they failed to admit that when I called and explicitely enquired about it, being happier to take my money at the expensive of a near guaranteed bad experience, but just for harboring Nick, the passive aggressive lying boat driver, that's a definitely a reason not to go with them as long as he works there.

Day1: 2 Boat Dives and 4 shore dives (downgraded to 2) with Dive Kauai

cleaning station for turtles, there were 6 or 7 sleeping there

Afternoon was supposed to have 2 shore dives and 2 night dives, but the complete beginners I was paired with ruined the first dive, and then the guide said he didn't think night dives would be so good due to silt (that, he may have been correct on). Diving from the jetty was not super easy, kind of rocky and not easy to navigate, but the turtles were happy to come up for a rest:

Day2: 2 Boat Dives with Dive Kauai

Oh yeah, now I remember that the dive guide seemed a bit green and got anxious when I got just a bit ahead of him or went to check a small hole within easy reach of him, when he only had 2 divers to keep track of. Sigh... But that confirms what I was saying that Dive Kauai is definitely not for advanced divers.

Day3: 2 DPV Shore Dives

Despite all the crap and bad feelings from Nick, the DPV dives were lots of fun, even if the DPVs themselves had worrisome failure modes, including no maser shutoff of wrist deadman switch. I was even told that sometimes they get stuck on, that's not good... Thankfully they did not for me and they were definitely fun.

Before the dives, a dive Kauai manager/coordinator also came to meet me that morning to apologize about the mess created the previous day, which was nice of him and honestly I was ok enough walking away after that and burrying the hatchet, except passive agressive backstabbing Nick felt it would be good to call the next company I was going with to badmouth me and try to convince them not to dive with me, oh nice... So yeah, after that Nick made sure I let everyone know on every medium available to avoid him and Dive Kauai. I hope he gets fired....

Day4: 6 Dives with Fathom Five

the guide was good and gave us a good briefing on what we could see

not hard to find turtles, they are literally everywhere

I finally found where the lobsters were hiding in Sheraton Caves, took me a while to find the spot again

For the dusk/night dives, we were 4 divers, plus the guide:

Then, I found this beautiful Stary Night Octopus, but that also ended the dive as it got a bit too friendly with us:

One other thing I also found out was that of course the Hawaii islands are not cheap anymore (only the flight is cheap), but Kauai especially seemed especially expensive. Some tours like a simple garden and chocolate tour, would ask for $140 per person (!).

Anyway, here is the map:

after landing, had a quick drive to Wailua Falls while waiting for the flight time:

walked around a bit to burn time

quickly found a friend :)

happiest cat in the world

Day 1: Partial Island Flight

rode copilot

same waterfall

Smith Family Luau

pretty almost viewsonic birds

yummy drinks

Day 2: Diving and sunset dinner

Day 3: Diving and kayaking to hidden waterfall

The kayaking was all fun and good until it started pissing rain :) then again the waterfall was wet too :)

that was me at the bottom :)

I look happy :)

I then had to deal with the dive Kauai and their lying passive aggressive boat driver, Nick, who did his best to ruin my diving by showing how much of an lying p. he could be. Dive Kauai, only barely worthwhile for beginners, was totally not worth it. At least I'm making proper notes this time to make sure I never go back to those people (turns out I had old notes from 2008 saying I also picked them and regretted it, sigh...)

Despite the time wasted by them, had a bit of time to check out an evening art festival at Hanapepe:

Day 4: Diving, McBryde+Allterton Gardens, Koloa Zipline

McBryde+Allterton Gardens were nice, but you could only see one of them as part of a timed tour, which was not available every day, making the visit not as easy as it should have been. It was a very nice tour, though:

happy ducks :)

hungry, even :)

After the park, spouting horn was right there:

Day 4: Koloa Zipline

Then, almost a sunset:

Day 5: Full Day of Diving (6 dives)

This was all nice and good until I let an octopus climb on my hand while it was feeding at night, and it decided to cut my finger, inject me with its paralysing poison. Ended up in not the best ER on a sunday night while they tried to figure out whether I had pieces of octopus beak left in my finger that had to be dug out, or not. Not the best night (was over around 03:00).

Day 6: Waimea Canyon

then it was time to drive up to Waimea Canyon:

the famous red dirt

beautiful scenery

After an mostly unimpeded quick drive down, and rental car brakes that didn't fade, and time for a few quick stops before the 2nd Luau:

Day 6: Aulii Beach Luau

how to open coconuts

yum

Day 7: North Island Tour to Road's End: Princeville Botanical Gardens

Day 7: Princeville Botanical Gardens

Day 7: Limuhali Botanical Gardens

After that, there was some time for a slower drive back and stop at a few places on the way:

more shaved ice with ice cream

Day 7: Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and Nenes

babies!

unfortunately the tip is now open only certain days with advance tickets, WTF?

one used to be able to just drive there :(

boobie!

Day 8: Kauai Museum

Day 8: Kauai Plantation Railway and Rhum Tasting

And that was it, time to fly home

we went to see if it wanted to be friendly (divemaster hand in that picture)

I let it climb on my hand (I did not grab it, it just climbed calmly). But what happened is that while it was on me, it decided I tasted good and cut my hand open to try and start to eat me. It was pretty clear what happened, so I passed the octopus to the dive guide and other divers pet it, not knowing what happened (I never pet octopus, not sure if they like it, but I love to touch their suckers which they use to smell you and decide what you are):

it was calm and friendly and happily climbed on other people's hands after mine

It used its beak to cut my finger open and injected me with its poison meant to paralyse preys. And yes, it did hurt:

doesn't quite show but the finger was much bigger due to inflammation

way too many hours waiting in a small ER in the middle of a sunday night to clean the wound

In the end, the ER folks were pretty inept and thought I still had a piece of beak in my hand:

But it turns out the dot is actually on the correct finger but wrong part of it (off by one knuckle), after going to a proper medical facility at home, they confirmed I had nothing left in my hand. However, I had to take antibiotics for almost a month as I had persistent tingling and "this is not right" feelings in that hand for almost a month. While that octopus thankfully did not have venom that was fatal to humans, whatever it injected me still made my body unhappy for quite a while. I did contact DAN at the time and there is very little info on octopus poison effect on humans outside of the blue ring octopus which is known to be fatal. I guess this is one entry for the database that it's not fatal, but definitely has toxins and causes issues for up to a month after the bite (I used doxycycline 200mg daily for about 2 weeks to help clear the infection).

So while I did not tease or poke the octopus, but it was hunting for food, and after being curious about me, it decided that I could be food after it climbed on my arm to explore (yes, I did let it, it's usually fine and safe). So there you go, beware about octopus contact when they are feeding, especially if your hand smells good to them :)

It had been a while since I had been to Maui. My 2nd trip was around 10 days and had plenty of time to see everything around Hana, do the upcountry, hike Halekala, and plenty of diving around Kihei, but while I had been to Lahaina, which was beautiful at the time, I never stayed there. Updates for this trip:

With that out of the way, let's go through the pictures. We arrived later in the evening:

Day 1 & 2: Hana Loop

glad to be back

peacocks are the local chickens

Did I mention the ducks were hungry, hilarious how they wag their tail when they are happy

the mini doves were parked on the bird seed box :)

plenty :)

Then the garden tour:

After a good time there, back on the road:

triple waterfall

they were ready for tourists :)

Then I went back to Kahanu Gardens which do close early (15:00):

But unfortunately the Hana lava tube next door was closed:

So there was a bit of leftover time to check out the airport and nearby chocolate places:

And finally was able to go back to black sand beach which is now a bitch to go to as they require timed reservations that have to be done the day before and you can't get in before your timeslot. Sigh...

very nice lava hike by the beach

beautiful beam of light

Lots of cats on the trail going south:

Then there was enough time to check out red sand beach, which thankfully still had its access path intact:

monk seal sleeping

Then there was just enough time to check in the Hyatt Hana, which was beautiful:

The next morning, we continued the loop, starting with a few beaches:

I went to venus pools, but they "nicely" blocked all the legal parking spots and I was warned that the water may not be clean or save anymore (Bacteria):

A few more nice views on the way:

Until seven sacred pools:

sadly it was forbidden to go down now :-/

and forbidden to go in the pools, sigh...

From there, I did the Pipiwai trail again, which is beautiful, but now you were not supposed to do the end bit. I still did, but it's sad...

Bamboo forest again:

And then after all the hiking, this... WTF?!?

from far

and close once you go past the sign

Then back on the road to finish the south loop:

straight road :)

haha

The drive took a bit more than 1h, enough time to go see Maui Wine:

And still just enough time to get to Kula Botanical Garden which closes early:

And then it was time to drive up to Haleakala to enjoy it a bit before sunset: