Hawaii: Chapter 6 - Hilo & Beyond

Hilo, once hoped to be the "Honolulu of the Big Island" is now a little town trying to fill a big cities shoes. It's actually a gorgeous location. Very different from Kona. If Kona is built into the slopes of Mauna Loa dropping into the sea, then Hilo is built into the rainforests on the flatter slopes of Mauna Kea. I believe the statistic is roughly 175 inches of rainfall a year...
Despite all this rainfall, the Big Island is still in a draught, as seen in these photographs taken of Rainbow Falls, just on the outskirts of Hilo. A once roaring falls is now just a trickle. Originally named because you could see the full spectrum of light in the misty rainbows this falls would create....

One of the gorgeous parts of Hilo was the way life was intertwined with the forest. This park within town had some amazing Banyan Trees.

I love the way the branches reach in all directions. For scale to the enormousness of these tree's, you can see Gretchen in the foreground near the "trunk".

Ok, so sometimes we choose to do the doorky tourist thing; but hey, when in Hawaii, why not stop and check out the Macadamia Nut factory, right?
This picture was taken for Beth. We found an awesome NOAA Underwater Ecology museum in Hilo.

Hilo, as seen from "Pineapple Island".

Gorgeous Hibiscus Flower.
The best beach on the Big Island (according to the guide book).

Sea turtles.

Doing my best Don Johnson impression chillin in the open air airport lounge.
We were sad to say goodbye to the big island, but the nonstop travelers we are, ready to check out another one of the Hawaiian Island. On to Oahu.

Bye bye Kona Coast.

Hawaii: Chapter 5 - Volcano National Park

Volcano National Park, a unique place where you can witness first hand land being created by active Volcano's.

Kilauea Crater; we were able to hike across a portion of this crater. Most of the crater is closed due to current volcanic activity.

It rained a lot here, especially at elevations above 4,000ft.

But "duh" we're in the rainforest...Thurston Lava Tube. This old lava tube was broken up into two portions, one lit, one unlit. We walked down the unlit portion with just one headlamp for nearly 400 meters before turning back, it was really dark.

I had some fun playing with my D80 and longer shutter speeds (Sam kneeling on left, Gretchen spinning the light on right).Beware, Sulfur Dioxide venting EVERYWHERE...

Old lava flow running across the coastal road.

Cool volcanic rock arch going into the sea

Hawaii: Chapter 4 - South Point

After spending an amazing 4 days in Kona, we headed south out of town with Volcano National Park as our Destination. In order to reach the far windward side coming from the leeward side you must drive around the southern tip of the big island, which also happens to be the southern most point in the United States! So of course I had to drive there, its roughly 15 miles off the main road to the lighthouse at the tip of the Big Island.
Our guidebook mentioned a Green Sand Beach, after the Black Sand Beach, so we left the jeep and began hiking, unfortunately we arrived too close to sunset and were turned back before finding either beach...
South Point as its called on the map; this was probably the best sunset we saw our entire time in Hawaii.

Gorgeous colors in the setting sun over a rocky volcanic cove.

Unlike some geographical landmarks, there was no bright fancy plaque or memorial dedicating this as the southern most point, so I just got a snap shot by the jeep and figured this one could count for any....

Hawaii: Chapter 3 - Anybody Wana SCUBA?

Diving the Kona Coast was amazing. The coastline is mostly made up of volcanic cliffs dropping strait into the Pacific Ocean. Reaching depths of 30-60 feet within less than 100 meters of shore, after that, it can drop to depths of 2000 feet not more than a 1/4 mile from shore. This allows some awesome shallow dives minutes from the harbor. The coastline here is infamous for underwater volcanic rock formations. The supercooled lava has formed amazing arches some only large enough for one diver to swim through, others are large enough to drive a VW bus through. Also at various dive sites along the coast caves, caverns, and lava tubes can be dove. Gretchen's favorite site was called "Suck Em' Up". This was a large lava tube in 30 feet of water running parallel to the shore. With sun lights in the roof providing visibility inside the cavern and waves crashing through over your head.


Diving Kona was different from other sites Gretchen and I have dove in Jamaica and the Bahamas in that only Hard Coral grew on the volcanic rock, not the Soft Coral and Sponges we're used to seeing in the Caribbean Sea. This Hard Coral still provides home to some amazing underwater creatures. My favorite dive site was called "Pa' Wai' Bay". This was actually one of only two marine sanctuary's along the Kona Coast. Since it was an underwater sanctuary I thought you could see more fish here than any other site we dove.

Gretchen leaving the water after one of eight dives along the Kona Coast.Happy Divers

We used four underwater disposable camera's, unfortunately we went old school film which takes longer to develop than digital, so this post is a work in progress, I will throw up some underwater shots after the shots get back!

Hawaii: Chapter 2 - KONA COAST

Our first 7 days in Hawaii were spent on the Big Island. Of those 7 days, we spent 4 days in the seaside town of Kona.

This town is built into the slopes of Mauna Loa, one of the big Islands largest Volcanoes topping 13,000ft (there is a total of 5 Volcano's on the Big Island)

I would say Kona is infamous for four things;

1) Diving, there is some amazing volcanic rock underwater formations, everything from walls to arches to caves and lava tubes, and an assortment of hard coral growing on the rock with an abundance of aquatic life living here (more to follow on that once the underwater photographs arrive)

2) Kona Coffee, personally not my favorite type of coffee (I'm a sucker for Sumatra), BUT the only coffee actually grown in the United States, so we must represent and endorse. Gretchen and I actually toured a couple coffee plantations and learned the process from seedling to tree to fruit to processing to bean to roasting to my cup in the morning.

3) Beer, home to Kona Brewing Company, southern most brewery in the United States!

4) The world Ironman Triathlon Championships every October, need I say more, much respect...

Hawaii: Chapter 1 - Seattle Layover

Upon booking our tickets for Hawaii we realized a layover in Seattle was unavoidable. Thankfully our best friend from college days, Amelia, now living in Vancouver, came down and spent an awesome 10 hours with us hanging out in Seattle!

Arriving at 10pm, we grabbed a pizza and headed to this park in west Seattle with an awesome view of the city at night.

We then headed for a 24hr diner; grabbed some breakfast, shared stories, memories, and drank coffee.
The "gang" saying goodbye at the Airport. Amelia, Thanks for a great time!!!

(That's my happy face after being awake like 30 hours)

TURKEYPALOOZA 2008

Here are some photo's from Thanksgiving 2008 at Eagle River Base Camp. Just a bunch of friends far from family gathering to celebrate Gods grace over the past year.

Table for 12.Gretchen and Meg checking the Turkey! Meg making gravy with a little help from Jasper, he's the official sniffer, letting us know when its done.

Matt hungry from a full day of skiing, patiently waiting for dinner.
Jasper totally on guard, waiting for the first chance to kamikaze dive bomb some turkey and stuffing!

Jacks first Thanksgiving with the family, totally confused.

"Why is this big table in my living room? Why are all these People in my house? Why does this place smell soooo good, but you're not letting me try any?"

Kurt filling up his third helping.

Ginger, Gretchen, and Dexter (not yet pictured) going through the buffet line.
Friends eating dinner and fellowshiping with friends.
Snow in my backyard.

Blacktail Rocks Recon

A cold November saturday morning Kurt and I did a little recon hike of Blacktail Rocks and surrounding slopes for some fresh pow.This could be a nice shoot once it gets deep enough, slope, humm 45 degrees? Maybe more...