When I left the house in Kona, Steve and Laura hugged me and stood in the doorway waving me goodbye as I drove through the gate. I was very sad to leave. Kona was sunny that day and it was supposed to rain in Hilo. After a nice breakfast and some contemplation while staring into the ocean, I made my way over saddle road to Hilo. T he street is nicely paved and has a more generous speed limit. It leads through the lava fields, which is very pretty. I always forget, that Big Island has quite an altitude, so my ears popped now and then. As I told you before, my nose-ear-connection is kind of non existant, so sometimes I have to force my ears to pop. I was thankful for those straight streets, because you have to close yours eyes for this, to prevent them from popping out (very likely a myth, like the whole „spinach has a lot of iron“ tale or „don’t swallow chewing gum“).
After fifty miles, it started to pour, leaving the street with big puddles of water and some aquaplaning. I made it to Hilo, an other not so pretty city. The Airbnb was in not such a nice area. When I got out of the car, the neighbours big dogs went crazy barking and all I could see were some car wracks. Donna’s house is small and nice. I hade the whole upper floor to myself – my bedroom, a lounge with a dinner table and a bathroom. The air was hot and humid, like in the jungle. Donna welcomed me with a big smile and my package from my hostel in Wailuku. When I had arrived at the airport a couple of days before, I had noticed, that my hiking water bottle was still in the hostel. As this bottle is from New Zealand and accompanied me on many travels, it has some emotional value. The staff was super nice and sent it to Donna’s house.
When the rain stopped, Donna took me on a bike tour through Hilo and told me about the history of the place. I couldn’t sleep that or any of the nights in Hilo, because of the noisy tree frogs outside and somehow I was unrelaxed and didn’t quite know why. In the morning I found a fruit breakfast in my lounge with freshly made coffee. Sweet sweet Donna.
On the next day, there was rain. No way me and my leaky rain jacket would jump on a bike, so I took the car downtown to get some food. When I walked by the guitar shop, I couldn’t resist to go inside and try some Ukuleles. I know it is a cheesy touristy thing to do, but I ended up buying a cheap one and I have no idea how to get it home on my Wow Air flight from San Francisco to Berlin, where I won’t get any food, nor am I allowed to take a backpack AND an instrument aboard. I will figure it out somehow. Every night when I had my shower, I heard Donna sing and play the Ukulele. She is in a group with other retired people to learn how to play. Although she was ashamed, when I told her that I was able to hear her sing, it sounded great.
As it was still raining I spent some hours in the Center of Astronomy and even made it through a show in the planetarium, awake. Last time I went in Jena, I fell asleep instantly. Afterwards I drove to the Rainbow Falls. They are a little outside of Hilo. When it is sunny, there is a rainbow where the water from the waterfall meets the river. When I went there, there was no rainbow and because of the heavy rainfall the water was all shades of yellow. It still was impressing. Next to it is a forest with huge old trees that you can crawl into.
On the next day, Donna and I decided to get out of the city, hoping that the weather would be better back on saddle road. On my way to Hilo I had seen some trails that I wanted to check out and Donna was keen, too. After half an hour drive we found the place and pulled over. There is was only drizzling, something my shitty jacket could even handle. The trails was beautiful. All around us were the greenest green and black lava stones. Now and then, it started to rain, but never too heavy. At some point some deer crossed our way, something according to Donna, is quite unusual. We talked about all kinds of stuff and totally forgot about time. After I took Donna back to Hilo, I had to go back again and even further than to the trail.
I had two hikes planned – one up Mauna Kea, the highest peak of Hawaii and one to the glowing lava in Volcano National Park. At the beginning of my journey, I was convinced, that I will hike up Mauna Kea, because I am so crazy fit. Well I am not thaaat fit. I still ride my bike to work every morning, but that is only 8 km return every day. I don’t run outside in the winter time, because it is always dark and let’s be honest… I like being wrapped up in a blanket on my couch in winter and switch on Netflix. Nevertheless, I would never admit that I am at my limit and somehow I can ignore the exhaustion, when there is some pretty nature around me. I had already checked the daily updates on the weather up the summit, when I was still in Kona, but it just would not get better. As the website adviced against walking up to the summit alone, I booked a tour. It sounded pretty sweet, because the guide would have a telescope with him and would show some star constellation after sunset. But the tour was canceled on the afternoon. Anyway, I was hoping to see the sunset from the visitor center as well, because it is above the clouds too. So after I dropped off Donna, I drove to the visitor center of Mauna Kea to see… nothing. It was raining and it was cloudy. Nothing was above the clouds, but everything right inside the clouds. I felt pity for the poor people that had rented a SUV to drive up to the summit. But the street was closed due to the weather. After a stroll through the gift shop, I drove back home and decided, I would pack my stuff and move out one night earlier than planned, because I‘ve had enough of this weather. So before I went to bed to hear the tree frogs sing all night, I hugged Donna and said good bye. I went to bed early that night, because I had to get up at 2:30 a.m. to drive to the Volcano National Park and meet my lava hike group at 4 a.m.
März 4, 2018
Cool, gefäält mir:-)!