Aloha Hawaii!!

Our arrival in Hawaii was perfect!  Our first port was Hilo, Hawaii.  Hilo is a small, residential town that does not usually have visitors so I was really excited.  Julieanne and I had packed our backpacks the night before so we could wake up, go through immigration (because we came from Mexico), eat breakfast, and GO!  We were the 6^th and 7^th people to get off which was awesome!  We headed straight for the free shuttle that took us to a nearby black sand beach.  Hilo is not known for its beaches; in fact it doesn’t really have any.  Its beaches are mostly composed of small amounts of sand and crushed shells with large amounts of rocks.  The rocks were cool because you could walk out on them.  Some people near us saw sea turtles.  It was cool to see black sand.  And to know it came from volcanoes was even cooler.  I have already been to volcano national park so I decided on not going there any exploring other areas.  We walked back from the beach because we knew of a great, cheap Hilo homemade ice cream place that had “Kona Coffee” flavored ice cream.  We passed several beaches along the way and 2 miles later reached the ice cream place.  The lady that owns the store had a beautiful garden in the back.  I had really wanted to go a Hawaiian garden because I love, LOVE flowers but they’re so expensive to go to!  So I was really excited that she let us wander back there with our ice cream.  It was awesome!  Turns out my camera has a “flower” mode so that worked out.

We caught the shuttle back to the ship from there to grab some lunch so we didn’t have to spend money on food.  Julieanne had to pick up patches for seasickness that she had delivered to a nearby Wal-Mart so we headed that way to get it over with.  I also wanted to grab a waterproof watch and some other things I forgot to bring before leaving America.  Conveniently, next door was Bank of Hawaii where we ordered Chinese Yuan to the Waikiki branch for Julieanne.  We headed back to the ship because we had signed up to go to a lu’au.  I guess they are uncommon for this area of Hawaii so it was even a big deal for the locals, which was cool.  Upon arriving at the lu’au, we were taught how to make tea leaf leis and we had a traditional lu’au feast with the pig roasted in the pit and all.  I attempted to eat Poi but it tasted like glue…

The following day we headed downtown to check out the farmers market.  We bought a papaya because neither of us has ever tried one.  It was 6 for $1 so we tried to buy 1 for $1 but the lady refused and insisted that we take all 6.  So we gave them to a family that was browsing the market.  After some browsing, we ran into friends who directed us to a Kava shop down the street.  Kava is the root of a plant that was used to treat minor wounds in ancient Polynesia.  It is extracted and put into drinks and food for a calming feeling.  We were told the Kava brownies were good so we tried one of those.  Because we were the only ones in the shop, the owner let us see how he extracts the Kava by hand.  He then showed us a traditional Kava ceremony.  He pulled out 3 hollowed out coconut shells and poured a mixture of Kava and water into them.  After some traditional clapping and a brief history we drank from the coconut cups.  It was definitely better than I thought, Julieanne thought otherwise.  We asked him of things to do in the area and told us a few blocks down there is an area where you could see lots of sea turtles.  He let us walk his dog Rufio down to see them.  Rufio seemed to know where he was going and led the way.  After returning the dog, the shop owner gave us walking directions to Rainbow Falls.  In the middle of telling us “Coconut Boy”, as he called him, walked in and told us if you climb the side of the falls, there are natural pools at the top you can swim in and even cliff jumps.  Coconut Boy delivers a fresh coconut to the shop daily.  So we set off for the falls and climbed the side up to the top.  There was several other Semester at Sea kids who were also directed there by locals.  Because it had been a while since Hawaii had rain, the waterfall was not running so you could walk to the very edge of where the waterfall would normally drop off.  The view is unexplainable.  Next to the drop off was a natural pool.  It was about 5 feet deep and so clear you could see every last small rock on the bottom.  We jumped in to cool off and dried off sitting in the sun at the edge of the waterfall.  It was a perfect way to end our time in Hilo.

The following morning we arrived in Honolulu.  We set out for Diamond Head in the morning and had great weather for the hike.  The top of Diamond Head had an old bunker and lookout tower from the war, it was awesome.  After descending and eating shaved ice, we headed over to Waikiki beach.  Our friend who we had hiked with had rented a moped so he shuttled us over one by one.  We ended up running into lots of SAS people which was nice.  We spent the rest of the day exploring Honolulu.

For our last day in Hawaii, we woke up early to rent mopeds.  We hunted until we found the cheapest place.  After a short moped lesson and brief explanation of directions, we set out for the north shore.  A local in Hilo had told us about a huge pipeline surf tournament that was happening on the north shore where all the world’s pro surfers were coming to compete.  The ride up there was incredible.  I have never seen Hawaii so pretty.  After a 2 hour drive, we reached the north shore and sure enough found the pipeline.  The waves were unbelievable, some as high as 3-4 story buildings!  The whole thing was really cool and it was nice because it was all locals that attended it.  We left around 2 because we had to be back in time for the boat…which we made just in time.

We stayed on the observation deck as we sailed away from Hawaii until it vanished in the distance.  Our next leg is the longest one of the whole voyage.  It was described to us as this…”Sailing from Honolulu to Japan is like driving from northern Maine to San Diego at 15 mph”.  At least it leaves us plenty of time to plan for Japan!