DAY 4 (b) - BIG ISLAND : Saddle Road

to get to Mauna Kea, one has to go thru the Saddle Road.

Wikipedia extract: Saddle road is considered one of the most dangerous paved roads in the state, with many one-lane bridges and areas of marginally maintained pavement. It reaches a maximum height of 6,632 feet (2,021 metres) and is subject to fog and low visibility. Many rental car companies explicitly prohibit use of their cars on Saddle Road. Nevertheless, it provides the shortest route from Hilo to Kailua-Kona and the only access to the slopes of Mauna Loa and the observatories atop Mauna Kea.

Indeed there were lots of bumps, dips and also, we were driving with the top down so it was cold too! We had to buckle up at the back just in case we were flung off during the drive.

as we neared Mauna Kea

DAY 4 (a) - BIG ISLAND : Captain Cook bay

Ok so we rented 2 jeeps on the Big Island, mainly because we were advised to use 4WDs for the journey to and up Mauna Kea. The jeeps are freaking expensive tho! Like 120 bucks per day for one jeep. But in any case, i got to ride in a red jeep hohoho.

And so on Monday morning we set off first to this Captain Cook area which is on the western part of the Big Island. If i'm not wrong, Captain Cook came to Hawaii but because he mistreated them the Hawaiians killed them. And so that area where he was killed was named after him.

the red jeep!

Tony took the top of our jeep down. I swore i could have killed him coz it was FREEZING. Ok i exaggerate but you get the point. It was about 15 degrees C and as we drove down to the west the elevation got higher so it became cooler.

Nicole's and Noah's jeep

on the way to captain cook's bay we passed by the volcanoes national park. The crater which i visited in March has a new vent, and it's spouting sulphuric gas and all... check out the image of the volcanic plume! So cooL!

oh yes, the captain cook bay has a name as you can see above. The reason why we decided to go here was that this place is renowned for snorkelling, and DOLPHINS! But anyways the dolphins come real early in the morning at around 7am...and by the time we came it was 1015am and we were told that the dolphins had already left.

this is a picture of the bay. Near my thumb, if u zoom in you can see a monument of Captain Cook. We decided not to snorkel here cos the waves were real rough.

and so we head on to the nearby scary statues place to snorkel!

ok it was real cool and the water was deep and everything but most of us got cut all over coz it was real hard to get out of the water cos there were mini sea urchins hiding in the lava flats.

after an hour of snorkelling..

seeriously??
haha i asked yoshina why she had to do that and she said..
'oh because i am japanese...'
-__-

DAY 3 (d) - MAUI : off to Big Island!

and so it was time to leave Maui for the Big Island...

at Kahalui Airport to return the minivan and board our plane

this was the rubbish accumulated over the three days... ok there was more lah

oh and i learnt that if you're under 21 in Japan, you get a dark blue passport and if you're above it you get a red one. I thought that the colours represented the gender coz yuuki's was dark blue and yoshina's was red.

the plane was real small! and i must say the steward was impressive.

and after an appx 30 minute flight we arrived at the Hilo Airport. It does look like an old fashioned lounge.

And we checked in to the same hostel we did when we came here in Feb! The girls shared the double bed while the guys slept on the bunk bed.

DAY 3 (c) - MAUI : Big beach and Little Beach

what's Maui without the beaches! And so before we left for the Big Island we drove Makena to the Little Beach and Big Beach. They are side by side to each other, separated by a headland.

Oh and the Little Beach is, by the way, a nude beach! haha, it was funny to see surfers with tops on but nothing below. We swam here for awhile, but the waves were very strong and rough here. Nicole and I got caught offguard and were dragged out to the shore by the waves, we both got spun around and scratched by the sand.

And this is the Big Beach... waves were slightly less rough...slightly only...

sand, sun and the sea ...roxxx

we had lunch at this restaurant where service was real bad. Ha, we tipped them like 3/4 of what we were supposed to. horrigible. twas my first time experiencing bad service here in hawaii haha