We didn't leave for our honeymoon until Monday morning. We were so exhausted from the wedding day and from opening gifts on Sunday that we decided we should go to Omaha and stay in a hotel in order to catch our 6 am flight.
We flew from Minneapolis to Honolulu, where we had a layover before taking our last flight to Kona. Kona, as we have explained to many people since our return, is on "the big island" (as Hawaiians really call it) named Hawaii. (Warning: Steve's physical geography explanation coming next!) The United States is in the Westerlies wind belt from roughly 30 to 60 degrees north latitude. Hawaii is in the Trade Winds wind belt from the equator to 30 degrees north latitude. This means that storms generally come from the west in the U.S., but the come from the northeast in Hawaii. This is why Hilo, the city on the east side of Hawaii, gets so much more rainfall and has the tropical rainforest vegetation and waterfalls. The mountains in the middle of the island (Moana Loa and Moana Kea) effectively block the weather from reaching the Kona on the western side of the island. Around noon, you start to see clouds building up above the mountains as you look toward the island. In early afternoon, the clouds are typically able to start streaming over the mountains and filter out the sun. This is why mornings are the best time for snorkeling and tanning, etc. on the west side of the island. This also means that the vegetation is different in that it is not a tropical rainforest. There are more trees and grasses, but still plenty of areas where no vegegation has been unable to grow on the black lava flows. Also because of the lack of rainfall, the ocean on the Kona side is extremely clear and BLUE! While on the snorkel boat, we could easily see the bottom in over 20 feet of water.
My first impression of Kona was that it was similar, in many ways to the Mainland (what Hawaiians call the United States). The vegetation and weather were certainly different, but we stopped for dinner at Burger King and picked up groceries at a Sack n Save. On the way, we passed a Wal-Mart and other familiar stores. I don't know what I expected - just thought it would be different from Lincoln.
Our condo was on Alii Drive (pronounced: ah lee' ee), which is the main drag close to the oceanfront. In the picture below, you can see it in the white building on the left. We found the condo and unpacked, bought dinner, and collapsed in bed after a long day of sitting.
Day 1
Hawaii is five hours behind Nebraska time, so the first couple of mornings we woke up at 7:00 and were surprised to see it so bright already. On the first day, our island adventure began by just walking down Alii Drive to see the sights and to get our bearings. We scoped out restaurants we wanted to try during our week-long stay. We stopped at a booth which sounded like it was for travel and tourist information. We found some good stuff, but were then informed we could get everything on the island for half-off if we went to a timeshare presentation at the Hilton, which was about 40 miles north of Kona. It seemed like a hassle, but half-off was going to be a lot of money for what we wanted to do, so we signed up. On our way back to get our car and to head to the Hilton, we were stopped by another "information" afficianado who informed us that the half-off deal was a scam and wasn't really a deal. Instead, he offered us two free events if we agreed to attend a timeshare presentation right there in Kona. This sounded like a much better deal, especially with no travel, so we signed up for that one instead. This was also the place where we got the picture taken with a parrot (I'm guessing...) which can be seen on the honeymoon pictures page.
We showed up at the place and were introduced to a man named Happy (no joke!) who detailed why a timeshare was such a good deal. To be honest, I have always wondered what a timeshare is, and it really did seem like a decent deal to me. But we had arranged before we went that I would sound like the interested husband and that my new, domineering wife would nix any deal. The condos were quite impressive, but after two additional salespeople (the first one was a lady who was the toughest, and the second was a man who was there to ask us to "survey how Happy did" in addition to asking us if we liked other deals) we walked out of there with a free snorkel cruise the next day and a free luau later in the week. All in all, a savings of $260 - not bad for 2 hours of time, even if we were on vacation.
Dinner was at Michaelangelo's, a seafood and Italian restaurant on the second story overlooking the ocean. Andrea was finally able to indulge in her seafood craving, and I had a good pasta and meat dish. While enjoying the meal, a rainbow appeared over the island. It was neat because we could see the entire rainbow, including where both sides hit land. For a few minutes there was a double rainbow - both were very crisp and bright.
Day 2 (As written in our journal by Andrea)
8:45 am. We met our snorkel boat captain at the pier - a short walk from the condo. We discovered that we were the only guests who had signed up, so we had a private cruise - how perfect for our honeymoon! Our captain's name was Kiko (Kee koh) and was a native of the island. His sidekick was Sean, a college student who was taking a break from classes for a while to take in some life. The first picture below shows all four of us. The two of them told us a lot about the island and the boat. The boat was a tri-maran sail schooner (second photo below). On the cruise to the snorkel spot, we saw a sea turtle close up and two groups of dolphins. One group of dolphins came so close to the boat (about 3 feet), we could see details of their bodies. The water is so clear - in many spots we could see straight to the bottom. At our snorkel spot, they showed us the tips and we jumped in. It took me a while to get used to the breathing, but once I did I thought it was amazing to see the ocean bottom with all its coral, plants, and fish. Steve swam like a fish along with the small ocean fish, diving deep and taking several pictures with our underwater camera. They grilled hamburgers on-board and had a full slate of fixin's, including fresh pineapple (yum!). After getting back to Kona, we spent the rest of the day laying out at the condo pool. We made dinner in the condo and went out to watch the sunset while sitting on the rocks at the beach.
Day 3 (By Steve)
Another adventure day! After breakfast, we set off for Volcanoes National Park at 8:30. We were surprised at how long it took to get out of Kona. Kona is more of a region than a city like on the mainland - North Kona and South Kona stretch out along the coast for miles and miles. The road was also very windy and hilly, so progress seemed slow enough though Volcanoes was only 93 miles away. There were also many small shops along the way mostly for coffee, but also for pies and fruit. We decided to take the 12-mile detour down to South Point an were glad we did. The road narrowed and narrowed to the point where there was only one lane. We went past a wind turbine farm that looked in pretty poor shape. It made sense that they were there because we both commented on how windy it was. In fact, in several places the vegetation was even growing sideways! The wind coming around the south of the island, it is nearly constant. Down at the Point, we were able to see some very clear water and several vistas of plateaus jutting out into the ocean (see honeymoon photo page). Words cannot do the beauty justice. There was also a heimau (ancient Hawaiian building foundation) down there. After enjoying the straighter roads and much higher speed limits, we finally arrived at Volcanoes. We took a picture of me by the National Park sign, then started to run into light rain on the ascent up to the park area (11 miles). We stopped at the visitor's center, then started our tour around the volcano - named Kilauea (Kill oo way uh). At the museum we crashed a tour bus presentation and I was excited that I knew the answers to the geological questions the tour leader was asking. :) Andrea was particularly impressed with the steam vents and smell of sulfur - I need to get her to Yellowstone! We took a few short hikes, but especially liked the Thurston lava tube. We back-tracked a bit and took the Chain of Craters Road to try and see where the active flows were taking place. It was interesting to note the temperature change and that we drove out of the rain half-way down the mountain. After 20 miles, we finally reached the coastline an drove to the end of the road... literally - lava had covered the road in 1995 (second picture below). The last time Andrea was here was 1994, so this was new to her, too! We hiked a little ways out on the lava because the weather was pleasant and a little cloudy, so the sun didn't bake us on the black rock. We were disappointed to learn that to see the lava, we would need to take an 8-hour hike and be there at night to see the glow. That was all we wanted to see, and we made it back to the condo a little after 7:00. We ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant, which was decorated in a very fun theme of the movie Forrest Gump. The service was slow, but the food good and the atmosphere fun.
Day 4
(By Andrea) Day at the beach! We went to a beach on Alii Drive near the condo. It was packed with people snorkeling, which was fun to watch. We also saw 4 sea turtles either sunning on the beach or feeding on the algae on the rocks near the shore. On the way back we stopped at the local open-air market and bought some oranges and mangoes.
(By Steve) Tonight was the luau! It was the Royal Kona Hotel and was very enjoyable. We saw two locals in Polynesian dress cracking and scraping coconuts. One even let me take a sip of the milk (which, as he informed me, is just water) before cracking it open. There was a band which played Hawaiian music and Hawaiian versions of classic songs. Then came dinner - we saw how they made kahlua pua'a (kahlua meaning "smoked" and pua'a meaning "pig") in the traditional earthen oven. We had so many choices! Most everything was delicious and we both piled the food on our wooden leaf-shaped bowls. I tried the poi and didn't care for it too much, which puts me in the majority of white-folk as I understand it. But I went back for seconds and enjoyed anything with coconut in it. After dinner, it was show time! They put on a "Dance of the Ancestors" show of different dances and costumes of the different Polynesian islands. They had all the newlyweds come up front, then asked where we were all from and how long we had been married. We have been married for 6 days - there were probably five other couples up there. We danced to the Hawaiian wedding song. Afterward, I this picture taken with a few of my closest fans.
Day 5 (By Steve)
This was another big adventure day! We left early, set out to hike the Waipio (why-ee pee-oh) Valley on the north side of the island. It is a gorgeous, lush valley which has waterfalls and is by the ocean at one end (first photo below). There are taro fields (the taro root is used to make poi), and the people who live down there are rumored to be loners who don't like visitors. One catch of hiking the valley is that the trail is extremely steep! Although the trail is paved and has places where there are two lanes for vehicles, you are not allowed to take anything other than a four-wheel drive vehicle down in low gear. The descent was hard on my knees, so I turned and hiked down backwards and that helped. Once at the bottom, we decided to hike up the valley first - this took us to the only waterfall we saw, which was breath-taking (second photo). (Note: if you look closely at the picture, you'll see a second channel with no running water. This is because a sugar cane company blocked off the water for its use. This company has gone out of business, but for some reason the water has not been "turned back on.") Our hike took us past some houses and the people seemed nice enough, but they weren't the type you'd bring home to mommy. After several minutes of deliberating where the trail went after it ran into a stream, we finally walked up the stream as a part of the trail (we read about it in our guide book). We found the land trail again and were passed by two horseback tours. We eventually turned around after finding out that it would be a much longer hike to the waterfall than we originally thought. We hiked down to the coast and were surprised at how windy it was! The salt spray quickly covered my glasses. We ate lunch in a protected area and hiked back out of the valley. We timed it and it took 27 minutes - it started to rain on the way up, too. The hike gave me sore calf muscles and Andrea sore posterior muscles. My calves were sore for 2 or 3 days after getting back to Nebraska.
With the afternoon still reasonably young, we decided to go see some waterfalls. We crossed Hawaii's northern shore (and windy) to Akaka Falls. It was worth the trip - very pretty (see photo). We stopped at a nearby town to look for woodworking gifts, then enjoyed an incredible ahi (fresh tuna) sandwich and coconut ice cream. Since we were only 17 miles from Hilo, we decided to go there. We saw the ocean-front park which was has remained clear in memory of the victims of a tsunami (tidal wave) back in the 1950's. Then we saw the huge banyan trees by the city's big hotels, then went to see the famous Rainbow Falls (see honeymoon photo page). We made the 2-hour trip back to Kona and got there at 7:00. We took much-needed showers and took off shoes and socks which were still damp from hiking in the stream that morning, then went out to eat at Huggo's on the beach. They had a Hawaiian trio of guitar players and a hula dancer. Once again, good food, but relatively poor service. What a packed, fun day!
Day 6 (By Steve)
All week we looked forward to going to church today at the First Christian Church on Alii Drive. It is the oldest church in Hawaii and has been there for over 170 years. It was a nice church and all the people were extremely friendly. I sat next to a Kona resident who was white, but there were a lot of native-born Hawaiians there, too. The pastor, Brian, was a Hawaiian who looked like NU football coach Ron Brown. He was a very charismatic man and enjoyed letting us take a picture with him on the church steps. We talked for several minutes. He told us that churches are doing well along Alii Drive and that one in particular ministers to the homeless. The church service reminded me of Lincoln Berean except that the pastor didn't go through the Bible verse-by-verse. Still, it was touching to see that even though we were so far from home, the Word of God and His peole stay the same, and that the body of Christ is full of brothers and sisters who may have a different skin tone or language. After stopping at an outdoor market (they were in a hurry to set up for the huge Carnival cruise ship which got in overnight) for Andrea to buy some necklaces, we changed into our swimming suits and hit the beach one last time. This time, we went to the closer beach on Alii Drive because it had white sand. The tide came in and went back to the condo to tan at the pool for the rst of the afternoon. Then we finally hit the Thai restaurant next door which Andrea's aunt Elsa recommended to us. We had been trying to eat there all week, but it was closed part of the week or we were out of town. It was good! Before going back to the condo, we used a coupon for a free dessert at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Day 7 (By Steve)
Our last day here and it was the only rainy one! Good thing. We left for the airport at noon, did some last-minute shopping for souvenirs and gifts at Wal-Mart, then went to the airport. Imagine our shock to find out that our tickets back home were for this time yesterday!!! The Hawaiian Airline representative was very helpful, and we were able to have Northwest get us on a flight out of Honolulu at 8:45 that night. As it turned out, we were able to fly standby to Minneapolis on a 2:00 flight, then hopped right on another standby flight to Omaha, so it was almost a non-event. I wasn't nervous because I knew the Lord was working with us - after my heart came back up to its normal place upon hearing the news we were a day late, those quick prayers were answered. As I told Andrea, it was just one last adventure! I pray that we will be able to stay as calm as that when life deals us surprises in the future. We got back to Omaha at 10:00 am on Tuesday and were in Lincoln by 11. I took care of my broken-down car and went to work because we got back a day later than I had asked for vacation. Andrea stayed home and napped. I had enough energy to go to Bible Study that night - I wouldn't have gone, but Merrill was leading it and I missed the guys. I think I was up close to 36 hours because I can't sleep on anything moving. It will take a few days to get back in a routine, but it was all worth it because the honeymoon was spectacular, a continuation of a great wedding.
In case you missed the wedding page, you can take this link to read about it or
Click here for details about the reception, or
Click here for pictures from the ceremony, reception, and honeymoon.