We woke up in crack dawn and got all or things packed down and luckily it fit in Johns tiny convertible. Then we cuddled down in the back seat, or packed ourselves in? It was no leg room for what so ever, thank the gods I'm short! some of us still trying to wake up but that part didn't take too long. As soon as we hit the big road it hit us back! I'm just giving ya all one tip; IF SITTING IN THE BACK SEAT IN A CONVERTIBLE CAR, EVEN IF IN HAWAII, BUNDLE UP WITH JACKETS AND BLANKETS!!! Not to forget about wearing sunglasses! Omg, it was so freaking freezing COLD! and girls, put your hair up! (I had already done that miss once on the scooter, my poor poor hair...) Well now, we shouldn't complain tho, right Corey? We did get a free ride, with amazing company, around the whole island! We got good views and great shoots on; volcanoes, mountains, valleys, the ocean, beaches (green, white and black) and the endless lava fields. They were pretty cool actually. Nothing but black rock as long as you could see. And people had brought out white rocks to write their names and short messages. It really was awesome, but not as awesome as I thought it would be. I thought the Big Islands scenery would be more breath taking. It was great to see everything in speed once, knowing that we would have a lot more time to explore it later on. (Though, it was super de dooooper cold in the back seat guys, you all should have gotten a price cut for them not having a 'real' car for you! ;)
As the day went on the temperature changed. A LOT! To my delight! It felt so good to hit the 'Kona side', you have no idea! Finally the clouds and the overcast was gone: Aloha Sunshine! (We arrived and lived on 'Hilo side' for during our first part of our stay)
The high lights for me
- The temperature going up !!!
- Waipio Valley look out. It looked really nice, and it really made me wanna camp there. And hike! It was very green and had a black beach which looked empty.
- The City of Refuge. It is the most famous and best preserved of Hawaii's ancient places of refuge and have a lots of old wooden statues. It is also next to the water and you have a big chance to see sea turtles - which we did! Way smaller then 'our' turtles though. A sunset here would have been really cool with all the statues.
- The black sand beach, was nice and worth a stop. The sand was like Black Russian Caviar! It was beautiful and we got some really nice shoots. Listening to the legends, of course we didn't bring any "bad-luck-black-sand" with us... though, I really wanted too. A sunset here would have been AMAZING, and amazing doesn't cut it. I wish we would have had time to swim. THAT would have been cool.
- The Volcano Park. On our way back we paid to drive around in the volcano park. It was also nice, but we were way to rushed. We missed the lava tubes, which we learned later were really cool stuff, so that kinda sucks.
After having Chinese food and giving our good byes, we got dropped of at 'our spot' again. Guess? Other families trespassed our (trespassed) spot! How rude! So we got nervous about leaving or stuff there - or putting our camp up. We decided to call Del and Jake and see what they were up to, after Corey had made som PBJ's at our new temporary spot, which would be right on the street..
Del and his friend was headed for dinner, so we joined them and had a few drinks. Ahhhh, I had a well earned mudslide and a even more well earned Strawberry Daiquiri, I can't explain how tasty they were! Unbelievable! Mmm, like a kid empty a bag of candy I made sure to get every drop of this.
Del told us about Cava (Ava in Hawaiian) and when we left the restaurant we ended up stumbling on to the bar keeper of an Ava bar. We had to try!
There is no taboo in Hawaii when it comes to all the strong beverages, tobacco, and, like Corey chose to refer to it, funny smelling cigarettes, that appears every where around you on the islands. I really mean everywhere and around everybody at any time of the day (in public, around kids, pregnant women, old people and so on). At first I was skeptic to what Ava actually was and for it's consequences, I'll try to explain what it is and our experience.
The bar keeper gave us a long, funny, interesting speech about Ava and it's history. Ava is a cold herbal drink made out of a root from a pepper plant. It numbs your mouth and your tongue and make you feel relaxed. Ava is really common and popular in Hawaii and in the Pacific. It's always been popular here, but it didn't get known to us in the 'western' world until later through Captain James Cook and his crew. It is the most sold intoxicating drink after alcohol. A big difference is that Ava doesn't really get you drunk. You can still drive etc. The bar keeper let us try a shell (coconut shell) of Ava each, then we got to try out different extracts, cause I asked if you couldn't mix it with something. He said there is different types of extracts and Ava, for example a grape extract. We tried of course and that was a little bit stronger since it wasn't 'watered' down. He said that these other extracts only were for the royalties back in the day. "No joke! Of course they would keep the better tasting stuff to themselves." I said while debating with myself whether my tongue was getting number or not. It was fun and very interesting. Ava itself, hmm, it doesnt taste good - and it doesn't taste bad. I guess, it kind of have a muddy taste to it. Like something you just pulled in your garden? I guess it sounds pretty bad.. I don't know it's hard to explain. TRY! :) We also got to try a spiky interesting fruit. It was chewy, soft, slimy and super tasty! It was so funny to chew on! I will not describe what if felt like to chew this interesting thing! I already tried to explain to Corey once and some things better just be said once. Haha, but if you see spiky fruit when you hit up an Ava bar - TRY it! While drinking the Ava we had to greet it and each other, splash it, clap our hands and stuff. It was fun! I was so in to it, so when I later asked for the rest room the bar keeper almost had me greeting the rest room as well. Silly people. Silly me.
We got invited to come back on Monday when they would have $3 shells instead of $5 and a live band. Sounded great to me. We thanked and said Aloha.
It was a great day and a great evening. We got dropped off at our old site and all the families were gone since long. And no one had destroyed or occupied our spot. That would have sucked, cause we had nowhere else to go and it was really dark outside with only the moon to guide us. We set camp in the dark and then it was time to sleep after a long eventful day.
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