This article is written by Manoj Radhakrishnan, an engineer and a travel photographer & writer based in Pune
The destination for my thanksgiving trip was a foregone conclusion given the fact that my wife is spending (more out of circumstances than any personal choice) the initial period of our married life pursuing her studies in Hawai’i while my life continues in Southern California. Having to choose from the half a dozen travel friendly islands, I picked the largest one, for no particular reason, as our official post marriage vacation.
After a boring day long flight I along with my wife (who happened to join me during my layover in Oahu) spent rest of the first evening searching for a campsite at the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. The park is located about 30 miles from Hilo, our landing point. Despite the new moon and the winter fog, we managed to finally locate the Kulanaokuaiki campground one of the two camp sites in the Park.
The following morning, to our great disappointment, we learnt that there was no lava flow in park, at least nothing that is reachable with a reasonable effort. The Puu Oo volcano, the most active one in the park, had gone flat for the past three months. Luckily, the news turned out to be the only disappointment for the entire trip. We decided to spend the rest of the day driving around and day hiking in the park.
Despite the lack of lava flow, the park still had enough to keep us occupied and interested for the day. The Thurston lava tube, especially the last unlighted section, Pu’u Huluhulu crater hike, Holei sea arch and the breathtaking Halema’uma’u crater are all definitely worth a visit. Our day was however cut short by the evening winter fog which seem to arrive in these parts with an unfailing regularity cutting the visibility to a few feet. Luckily, we had an early start and hence weren’t too unhappy to retire early to our camp.
Our next day started with a picture perfect sunrise over Kilauea crater before we drove off to Hilo. We spent the morning travelling the beaten path: rainbow falls, peepee falls, peepeekeo scenic drive including the overpriced tourist trap of the tropical garden. The pick of the circuit was easily the stunning 420 ft Akaka falls, located about 15 mts N of Hilo. We had to rush through all these attractions in the morning in order to give us enough time to return to Hilo to join a tour group to go up Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the Pacific. My altitude sickness and the state of the road had ruled out the possibility of us doing the trip all by ourselves.
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