Mother Nature herself,' says George Applegate, who hasaccompanied us on this tour to watch the Kilauea lava flow.
We (there are eight of us) stand awestruck at the sight. Aboveus, vast numbers of stars twinkle in the night sky; in front of us,great folds of cold lava glisten in the moonlight. And there is thatboiling ribbon of orange ...
'This is,' says a fellow lava-watcher, 'the most surrealexperience I have ever had.'
Amen, brother.
Watching the Kilauea lava flow is one of the most amazingexperiences on the Big Island, one that is enjoyed by tourists andresidents alike (the volcano is, in fact, the island's top touristattraction). When darkness falls, folks drive out as far as they canon Chain of Craters Road leading to the flow, park their cars alongthe roadside and train binoculars and cameras on the orange sliverand the explosion of fire in the sea.
Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano - Earth's most active volcano - erupteda dozen years ago, yet the lava still flows. It has gobbled uphousing tracts - about 200 structures to date - the village ofKalapana and 4-1/2 miles of this road on which we are standing.
It is a keen reminder that we mere mortals are not in chargehere. But while Mother Nature taketh away, she also giveth. Newblack-sand beaches are being created as the hot lava meets the coldwater and is pounded into granules.
'We are 500 acres larger now (since the lava began flowing),'says Applegate, of the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, Big Island Chapter.
In other words, you may have seen Hawaii, the Big Island, butyou won't have seen the new and bigger Big Island.
This 4,038-square-mile island - which could easily accommodateall the other Hawaiian islands and thus is nicknamed the Big Island -is indeed a place of wonders. It could take more than a week to seethem all.
Here, you can sit on a sultry beach on a winter day and studythe snow-capped Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. You can loseyourself in a rain forest, visit a macadamia nut farm or an orchidgarden, tour one of America's three royal palaces, pluck a mango offa roadside tree or count rainbows in some of the island's hundreds ofwaterfalls. You can wonder at its numerous microclimates (everythingfrom desert to rain forest) and see Mauna Loa, the world's mostmassive mountain - more than 100 times the breadth of Mount Rainierin Washington - and the second-highest mountain in the world (itrises only 13,677 feet above sea level but is rooted 18,000 feetbelow).
Want to see the highest mountain in the world? I know, youthought it was Mount Everest in the Himalayas; but really, it's onthe Big Island. You just can't see it all. Mauna Kea is 13,796 feetabove sea level, but 18,000 feet below. It's total 31,796 feetdwarfs Mount Everest's 29,108.
You can also discover the world of the ancient Hawaiians inmuseums, temples and the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National HistoricalPark, stroll the friendly town of Hilo with its several nurseries andgardens and boulevard of banyan trees planted by famous people, andsee the southernmost village in America - sleepy little Naalehu. Andyou can go sport fishing, golfing, hiking, snorkeling, scuba diving,hunting and - believe it or not - skiing.
You can also move around here easily (only 133,000 people liveon the island) and the residents are warm and welcoming.
So why isn't the Big Island the travelers' choice over, say,Oahu and Maui? Beats me. Oahu draws 4.7 million visitors per year,Maui nearly 2.3 million, while the Big Island attracts about 1.1million. Maybe it's the lack of glitz and glamour, although it doeshave the chic town of Kailua-Kona and some lush, plush resorts suchas the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, the Ritz-Carlton and the Mauna LaniBay Hotel.
'We are not flashy, but we are real,' says Applegate.
And in my two days here, I do indeed find slices of the realHawaii:
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, located on the southeasterncoast of the island about 28 miles southwest of Hilo, with oneentrance off Route 11: Steaming bluffs, gigantic calderas (collapsedsummits), lunarlike landscapes, yellow soil and lava-covered trees -this is a fantastical world.
'It looks like the devil's handiwork,' says one man as we peerinto the vast, barren fire pit called the Halema'uma'u Crater - acrater inside Kilauea.
Smells like it, too. The pungent aroma of sulphur wafts out ofthe steaming fissures in the crater, one of several in the400-square-mile park that stretches from the sea to the summit ofMauna Loa. Pele - the fire goddess who, according to legend, createdthe Hawaiian Islands by causing volcanic eruptions - is said to livehere. As we are studying the massive hole, a group brings offeringsto her. They step to the edge of the crater and pull flowers,pineapple, grapes, poi and wine from their bags. These they willdrop into the crater. It takes much to appease this fiery creature(gin will do nicely - it's her favorite drink) and you only bringthings; you don't take. (It is considered bad luck to take homechunks of lava; each year, several packages of the basalt rock arereturned to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau).
But there's more to see here than just the craters. There arehiking trails, a fern forest, campgrounds, petroglyphs and otherwonders.
I walk through a rain-forest trail into the Thurston Lava Tube,a 400-foot long tunnel where tiny ferns sprout out of the cold lavawalls. It was created when the surface of a lava flow cooled and themolten lava flowed out, leaving the tube. At the small Thomas A.Jagger Museum where volcanoes are explained via graphics and videos,I peer in wonder at the remains of a park ranger's uniform. In 1985,while taking an Italian tourist around the Kilauea lava flow, GeorgeUlrich fell through a lava blister - a thin crust over molten lava.His pant-leg was burned away, his boot charred, his heat-resistantgloves stripped, his hatchet encrusted with lava. Pulled out by thejournalist, he survived.
At the Kilauea Visitor Center, where information and smalldisplays on volcanoes are featured, there's a visitor's register from1894. 'I came, I saw, but I failed to conquer,' wrote one.
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park, off State Route 160about 19 miles south of Kailua-Kona: Some 400 years ago, thispeaceful place by the sea welcomed those who needed a second chance.At this old Hawaiian place of refuge, people who broke the sacredlaws (called kapu) could come for absolution. Defeated warriors orthose who refused to fight the frequent wars were also welcomed.
It was a sanctuary, and that sense of tranquility still pervadesthe area, which has been restored to its appearance in the 1700s. Adocent gives a brief orientation talk in the small amphitheater,telling us about the days when it was forbidden for women to eat withmen and a commoner could not let his shadow fall on the rulingchief's palace grounds nearby. Seasons for fishing, gathering woodand hunting animals were strictly observed, lest the gods becomeangry and let loose with volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, famine orearthquakes.
You can come here now and swim in the ocean, but I wander thegrounds instead, viewing the thatched-roof examples of the ohi'a woodhouses, the canoe built in the way of the ancient Hawaiians (koa woodwith coconut-fiber lashings), heiau (temples) and a halau, an A-framestructure where ancient Hawaiians worked and stored items.
Visitors crack open coconuts that free-fall from the trees, andthere are native Hawaiian plants in profusion. But perhaps the mostfascinating link to the ancient Hawaiians is the original wall thatseparated the palace grounds from the sanctuary and which stillstands. Built of black rock about 1550, it is a masterfulaccomplishment. No mortar holds this jigsaw-puzzle wall in place.
'This is just fascinating,' says one woman. 'I'd like to spenda lot more time here.'
So would I.
Pu'u O'o Ranch Rainforest, off remote Saddle Road on the Konaside of the island: Early on a cool Monday morning, I am bouncingalong in the back seat of a four-wheel-drive van navigating rough,roller coaster-like roads leading to one of Hawaii's best, butleast-known, rain forests. We pass piles of red and black lava,buckwheat and mustard. This is a weird world where some lava wearswhite lichen, giving it a whiskered look; where koa trees and swordferns grow out of the lava; Monterey pines flourish; and lava rocktakes fantastical formations. And that's just going there.
'This rain forest is as fine an intact natural forest as wehave,' says Rob Pacheco, the guide for our five-person group, as heparks the van in a clearing bordered by rough lava rock called 'a'a.The backdrop for this scene is the lush green of the forest that,Pacheco says, is full of native plants, birds and insects.
('There's nothing in here that's going to bite you or attackyou; but if anything gets on you, don't brush it off. Let me know;it could be something good,' he says with all the relish of a truenaturalist.)
Armed with walking sticks, we clamber over the lava rock to theentrance. Pacheco carved out these trails himself, keeping themnarrow so as to cause a minimum of damage. He discovered the forestone day when he got lost on a hiking expedition. Now, the propertyowner allows him to bring visitors to the forest.
Everything here, Pacheco tells us, is native to Hawaii; sometrees and shrubs are found nowhere else in the world. Rare birdslike the I'iwi and the Akiapola'au wear vibrant colors and theircalls are the only sound in this silent place.
The rain forest is growing on a 2,000-year-old lava flow. Hugekoa trees dwarf a vast variety of ferns; it smells loamy here and inplaces, the earth is slippery muck. We use our walking staffs toraise the ferns and make our way on the trail. Sometimes, only ourheads are visible in a shroud of green.
'The species in other rain forests are in the canopy,' Pachecosays. 'In Hawaii, it's in the understory because there were nopredators to send them high.'
Pacheco introduces us to khalij pheasant chicks, wildblackberries, orangey-red Hawaiian raspberries, and oakwood ferns; henotes the peculiar sight of a fallen tree now hosting other treesgrowing on it and tells us that in Hawaii, there are mintless mint,thornless raspberries and flies that don't fly. Before Captain JamesCook came to the place he called the Sandwich Islands with his waterbarrels full of mosquito larvae, there were no mosquitoes, no nativeants, amphibians or termites, Pacheco says.
And he tells us the bad news: Seventy-five percent of theextinct birds in the United States are native to Hawaii. More than250 Hawaiian species of plants and animals are on the EndangeredSpecies List; several hundred more are candidates.
By allowing a limited number of visitors to see this rain forest- and paying the property owner for the privilege - the survival ofthis special place is ensured,he says.
Hulihee Palace, Kona: Just across Alii Drive from restaurantsand the lava-and-coral Mokuaikaua Church built in 1837 by theisland's first Christians, is the humble royal abode called HuliheePalace. It, too, is built of lava and coral, with koa and o'hiatimbers, but it backs up to a sea wall (part of which was battereddown in a storm a few weeks before my visit). From 1838 until 1916,it was the royal version of a beach house - and there is a coveredveranda where the royals could sit and enjoy the lovely view ofNiumalu Bay.
Now, it's a museum run by the Daughters of Hawaii. And, whilethe two-story, Georgian-style palace seems rather modest on theoutside, there are real treasures inside. Fabulous hand-carved koawood sideboards, inlaid wood tables and a giant lead-lined woodentrunk are among the sights - and most are original to the house, ourguide says. The one sideboard took four years to create; the trunk,one of six, belonged to Queen Kapiolani, he tells us. He points to aphoto of her. Attired in Victorian dress, she is quite large - morethan six feet tall and 400 pounds, he notes.
Not, apparently, unusual for the day.
'The average Hawaiian was over six feet,' he informs us.
So, her bed upstairs is seven feet long and it's not a rope bedas was customary; instead, it's got wooden slats.
It becomes apparent as we tour the house that what we are seeingis a freeze-frame of a metamorphosis, when Hawaiians began sheddingtheir old ways and adopting the dress and manner of the Victorians.
But it is places like this that guarantee the old Hawaii willnever die.On location
The best way to see the island of Hawaii is to take your time -and plan to stay on both the Hilo and Kona-Kohala Coast sides of theisland. Otherwise, you'll spend too much time driving from place toplace. Hilo, which is the rainy side of the island (it gets about136 inches a year), is about 96 miles from the town of Kailua-Kona.
One way to see the most and make the most of your time is to flyinto Hilo and spend a few days exploring the city and HawaiiVolcanoes National Park. It's best to stay at least one night on thevolcano because Hilo is a long, 28-mile, winding trip away, and thebest time to see the volcano is at night, when the fiery orange lavashows up the best. I stayed at Kilauea Lodge, Old Volcano Road,Volcano Village, Hawaii 96785; (808) 967-7366. It's a rustic, cozybed-and-breakfast inn with rooms ranging from $95 to $120 per night,double occupancy. The lodge, a former YMCA camp, houses aNrestaurant that serves not only breakfast, but dinner, as well.
From here, you can easily explore Hawaii Volcanoes NationalPark. Cost is $3 per person or $5 per vehicle per week. It's open24 hours a day year round. For information on the activity of MaunaLoa and Kilauea volcanoes (the lava flow is not always visible), call(808) 967-7977. For park information, call (808) 967-7311.
On the Kona-Kohala Coast side of the island, you'll find lots ofhistorical sights, chic shopping, and beaches. There are plenty ofplaces to stay here, from modest hotels to lavish resorts. I stayedat the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, 62-100 Kauna'oa Drive, Kamuela,Hawaii 96743; (808) 880-1111. It's a quietly elegant complex withrooms and suites ranging from $325 to $450 per night, single ordouble. If money is really no object, there's the $5,000-a-night,8,000-square-foot Hapuna Suite, a free-standing, three- orfour-bedroom home that comes complete with a butler, a swimming pooland a gourmet kitchen (Robert the butler can do the cooking if youdon't bring your own chef).
All hotel rooms face the ocean and have lanais; you can playtennis or golf, swim in the pool or the ocean or enjoy the sauna orexercise room.
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park is 19 miles south ofKailua-Kona near the village of Honaunau off State Route 160. Thevisitor center is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.Orientation talks are offered between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.Information: (808) 328-2288.
To go to the rain forest, visit the Hakalau Forest NationalWildlife Refuge, where birding is popular, or Hawaii VolcanoesNational Park, you can contact Forest & Trail, (808-329-1993).They'll pick you up and deliver you back to your hotel. Excursionsare $119 for adults, $95 for children ages 4 to 17; children 3 andunder are free. Group rates are available. All trips include pickup and drop off, continental breakfast, lunch, beverages, water,outewear such as rain ponchos, and day packs, binoculars and walkingsNticks. Plan on a full day for each excursion.
Hulihee Palace, 75-5718 Alii Drive, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740;(808) 329-1877, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 3p.m. weekends. Admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 students and50 cents for children under 12. Free outdoor concerts are offeredthe fourth Sunday of the month.
For more information on Hawaii, contact the Hawaii VisitorsBureau, (808) 961-5797.
