With it being very hectic at my work-place, I haven’t had the time to travel at leisure nor write about past travels, for quite some time. This weekend though, I had the rare day when time and my writing mood were in sync, so decided to reminisce about a lovely trip I took during my time in Honolulu, back in 2012.

Over Thanksgiving break, some of my friends and I had decided to take a trip over to the Big Island and found a lovely bed and breakfast place by the beach.

These were my special six experiences on that island trip.

(1) Relaxing at Hale Maukele:

Hale Maukele was a lovely, laidback bed and breakfast place, right on the black beach in Pahoa, and close to the volcanoes national park. We enjoyed long morning and evening walks on the beach, long cosy chats over delicious home-made breakfasts on the patio, overlooking the garden and the beach. The host, and her friend, was very welcoming and even treated us to beautiful Hawai’ian songs in the evening

(2) Exploring the Thurston lava tubes:

Walking through the lava tube, formed centuries ago, as red lava flowed through was a unique experience.

(3) Chain of Craters trail drive:

The chain of craters trail drive, recommended by the volcanoes national park visitor center, had lots of interesting scenic lookout points all the way down to the sea. The Lua Manu crater, Mauna Ulu and the Hōlei sea arch were special points along this drive.

(4) Thanksgiving dinner at the Crater Rim Café and a night view of Halema’uma’u

It was a memorable thanksgiving dinner, at the Kilauea military camp dining facility, followed by a visit to the overlook at Jaggar museum, to see the Halema’uma’u crater, at one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

(5) A drive through forest roads and a dip in a thermal spring

As one of my friends had an international driving license and I was a pretty good navigator, we had fun exploring new roads that took us into forest paths. I remember we decided to turn off into a farm road that said there was a waterfall, if we took a path through that road. However, our car got stuck in the muddy trail and some of us had to walk all the way back to the farm to get help.

After the muddy adventure, we took the coastal road back and came across some thermal pools and decided to take a dip.

(6) Memories at Mauna Kea:

Mauna Kea is renowned for its observatory and I had been keen to visit the place, during our stay at the Big Island. Mark, a friend of our host, offered to drive us to Mauna Kea as it was quite some distance from where we stayed and the little car we had rented out would not do for the mountain roads, besides our not being familiar with the route. It was one of the best and most memorable excursion of the trip, even though we didn’t get to go to the summit as the authorities had decided to close off access, due to bad weather conditions and low visibility. We did go up to the visitor center, watched some of the information videos there and walked around the center a bit, before driving back down.

It was still a beautiful, scenic drive into the heart of the Big Island. Our special moment occurred when we drove back down the mountain and reached the highway. There was a vehicle parking area and we decided to take a break there, before the long drive back to our bed and breakfast. The skies seemed to have cleared and there was a full moon shining down on us. There were no other vehicles in the parking spot, though there was the occasional vehicle zipping past on the highway. One of my extrovert friends, decided that it was the right place and time to dance under the moon. She turned up the truck radio and coaxed us all into dancing. It was a wild, impromptu and fun moment, especially for an introvert like me.

The trip to Big Island was one of my favourite adventures during my time in Hawai’i. I felt a connection with the rugged and scenic landscape, more so than other islands I had visited in Hawai’i, and I do hope to revisit the beautiful island some day soon.

[Linking this to Faraway Files #51Faraway Files #51]