08/07/2019

A 0600 AM wake up for us because I was paranoid about oversleeping and missing the flight. On the drive to the airport, we listened to a local radio station where they were talking about a “tarantula wasp” that stung a woman in Maui that paralyzed her in minutes. I’m really glad we didn’t encounter one of those!

After the flight from Maui (and another Cran-grape juice and pretzel bag served by the all male flight attendant staff), we arrived back in Honolulu to grab the connecting flight. Why you have to fly north to Honorable then back south to Hawaii’s Kona airport is beyond me. Unfortunately, there was a slight delay in our flight departure, so we had about 4 hours to kill and grabbed a snack at these cool looking tables. While sitting there, we watched a channel that was showing the Electricians National Championship games. Yes, this is a thing.

The announcers for the boarding flights were hilarious calling for passengers, sounding like auctioneers and cracking jokes. At one point they made an announcement for a kid that lost her parents. They put the kid on the PA system and she said in a plaintive, sad voice: “Mommy? Where are you?” The entire waiting area awwwwed. But seriously people, hang on to your kids at the airport! Soon, the soft Hawaiian ukulele music playing lulled me to sleep on the chairs, and I drifted off for a bit before we flew out.

It’s around 5 PM and we finally made it to Kona. When you land, the first thing you notice is the landscape; it’s rocky and looks like molten, dried lava.

This small airport definitely has a more tropical, exotic feel to it. The baggage claim, waiting gates: everything is sorta outdoors and looks like you’re waiting in huts.

I was scared when I saw this baggage claim for our airline, but it was from the flight that was canceled earlier and rerouted there. Ours came on an actual carousel, though it was small.

We found our bag quick and had to pick a shuttle by company to the car rental area away from the terminal. I chose Alamo car because Alamo = home.

And I got lucky there! The plan here was to camp at Volcanoes National Park the first 2 nights with our equipment that we brought. I rented a sedan and when we went to the back to pick it up, they upgraded us to a Nissan truck-our choice of which one! I chose the one with my badge number on the plate: totally a good sign. I’m now convinced that people who rent cars online ahead of time and pay full price for them are chumps. 🙂

Volcanoes National Park is a 2 hour drive from Kona airport, going east completely from one side of the island to the other. As I drive, it’s nice to have cruise control for once and I notice that the elevation goes up; your ears are constantly popping. The streets and roads can go from steep to flat pretty quickly. At one point, a sign says we are at 2590 feet elevation, and if you touch the window, it’s cold! But you get great views like this:

We come to where the traffic suddenly slows down and there’s rows of tents at an intersection. My GPS says we are by the Mauna Kea volcano. I had heard that there were protesters blocking the entrance road to the volcano, but there were lots of cars and tents and lots of law enforcement present. The protesters are there because the volcano is sacred to them, and they oppose the building of new telescope and scientific equipment there. The observatories are closed: so much for going up to stargaze. But I respect and understand the Hawaiian point of view also; being here for a week has opened my eyes to their history, legends, and culture.

The first stop of civilization you come to after driving across the island is the town of Hilo, and we stopped to pick up a meal before heading to the campsite. It’s in a shady area, and again, lots of homeless people roaming around nearby.

It gets dark early here; the sun sets around 7 PM. Now it’s about 830 PM, and we make it to the Park, where it’s very dark and our elevation is now 3000 feet. I get to the campsite, Nāmakanipaio, where it’s first com, first serve for drive-in camping, and get the last open spot. Yay! There’s no envelopes to self pay, so I call the Volcano Hotel, which is actually in the park and the lady on the line gives me the number to reserve the spot over the phone with my credit card: so easy! The park employee then drives over and had me sign the paperwork and the spot is mine for the next 2 nights.

It was too cold and late to set up the tent so we decided to sleep in the truck overnight. My daughter took the backseat, and I squeezed into the floor. I took out our handy dandy camping light, attached it to the hook above the passenger door handle, and we watched some shows on the iPad until we fell asleep. Sleeping bags did come out to be used for warmth, because the temperature drops in this part of the island at night. But I got a good glimpse of the stars in the beautiful clear night before drifting off. Tomorrow we explore the park, and I’m super excited!

Aloha ahiahi (good night) 🙂