Hawaii: Day 3- Driving Across the Big Island

Sunday, April 22, 2012

We woke up at 6:30 this morning...thanks Ethan!  We got up, packed up our stuff, and headed down to the breakfast buffet to eat.  Great food again- a few different choices but mostly the same.  I took the kids swimming for awhile while Chris finished packing and brought everything down to the van.  We headed out on our journey across the Big Island of Hawaii.

We decided to take the Southern driving route because I wanted to do a few historical stops along the way.  Our first stop was at Kealakekua Bay to kayak to the Captain Cook Monument.  As we pulled into the parking lot, we were greeted by some locals who offered to help us go Kayaking. They were very nice and we got our stuff together and took 2 double kayaks out into the bay. The kids were so excited because we had so much fun kayaking in Morro Bay last summer. Chris had Ethan and Ryan with him, and Logan and I were together. About 1/2 way across the bay, Logan and I both got horribly motion sick. He was complaining and complaining and I was right along with him!  We finally made it across the bay and reached the monument.  I was so happy to hit land!  We tied the kayaks up to some rocks and climbed out.  

The water is so clear here and we could see schools and schools of yellow and black fish.  The coral was so beautiful.  We got all geared up to go snorkeling here. 

 Ethan was so eager and excited to go!  He was the first one in the water and went out without the rest of us.  I was helping Ryan when I see and hear Ethan screaming from about 30 feet out!  He was freaking out and yelling "EEL!!!"  He was so terrified!  I started to swim out to him and another lady reached him before me.  I was able to grab hold and drag him back to the rocky coastline.  He said that an eel had swam right toward him and he was so scared!  That was pretty much the end of snorkeling for Ethan.  He refused to go back in the water that day!  I ended up hanging with him around the monument while Chris took Ryan and Logan out snorkeling.  I didn't mind as I was still feeling slightly queasy.

Captain Cook Monument

Captain Cook was a British explorer who discovered the Hawaiian Islands and explored many of the Pacific Islands.  He died here at this site in a skirmish over a stolen rowboat.  This monument was erected in his honor.  

Chris snorkeling

Logan snorkeling

Ryan

Logan

Ethan

 Facing the ocean

Facing the monument- Kealakekua Bay behind us.  We kayaked from those little white buildings on the shoreline there!

We had our fill of exploring and snorkeling and headed back across the bay.  I kayaked with Ryan this time so I didn't have the added misery of listening to Logan's rant about seasickness again.  

About halfway, right when I was starting to feel seasick, a whole pod of spinner dolphins crossed right in front of us!  They were literally 10-20 feet from our Kayaks!  There were probably 10-12 of them and I actually saw one jump up into the air.  It was amazing!

We finished our journey back across the bay and back into our minivan.  It was about 3:00pm and we hsdn't eaten anything for lunch.  We decided we would stop wherever we saw someplace to eat.

Our next stop was at this cool church I had read about called "The Painted Church".  It was originally on the other side of the island, but was moved in 1990 to keep it away from a lava flow.  The murals were painted in the late 1800's and are really amazing to look at.  The kids were actually scared of the "Hell" painting and talked about it for awhile after we left.  There is a beautiful graveyard adjacent to the church.  The flowers and church made for a beautiful stop.

We left this beautiful little place and headed just down the road to visit Pu`uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. This is also known as the "Place of Refuge".  It is one of the few remaining heaius in Hawaii and was a place of refuge from certain death if a commoner broke the "kapu" or laws that regulated the ancient Hawaiian's everyday life. If a law was broken and the guilty party could swim to a pu'uhonua, a ceremony of absolution was performed and that individual was allowed to return home safely. No blood could be shed on a pu'uhonua.  This is a very interesting place to visit.  We did the self guided tour with all the stops along the trail.  

This was a 15 feet deep wall that was used to separate the Royal Grounds from the Place of Refuge

Check out this guy!

We finished up here around 5:00pm.  We decided to head back about 8 miles and get McDonald's Drive-thru for dinner because we were so starving!  It was truly the best McDonald's I have ever eaten!

We continued on the road heading towards the east side of the island.  We stopped at a little local fruit stand and I bought some exotic fruits!  As we came close to Volcano, it was raining.  We could see an orange glow through the dark and at first Chris thought it was a forest fire!  I assured him that it was the volcano glow!  It was really cool to see!  

We arrived at our house in the rain-forest and explored it for a bit.  We unpacked and settled in for the night.  Chris and I had a bedroom downstairs and the boys all slept in the loft upstairs. It was nice to have a house to spread out in. Pictures of our house in the jungle: