Monday, September 12, 2011

Our taxi cab driver to the airport was a gentleman who happened to live on Oahu for a couple of years while sailing. It was fun to chat with him. At the airport, security freaked me out: I took off all my items and placed them in the container, walked through the scanner when the x-ray machine beeped at my bag. They ensured that the nylon sack stuffed into the outer pocket of my backpack was really only full of guidebooks. But then they had me step aside while they swabbed my sandals for residue. They wouldn’t tell me what was going on so it made me really nervous. I tried to calm myself down, I know I’m not guilty of any terrorist plot, what’s the worse that could happen? But then I still felt awkward, like I was trying to play it cool. Aw to hell with it, I’m just gonna feel freaked out until I know exactly what’s going on. Just as I decided it was OK to freak out, my sandals cleared the swab test and I was free to go on my way.. sheesh. I guess that’s what I get for airline traveling the day after the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Our flight departed PDX at 8:45 AM. It was a smooth flight. Our seats were in the middle row but it was only the 2 of us to stretch out over 3 seats so not bad at all. We landed in Maui at 11:25 AM for a quick layover before boarding a 50-seat quick-plane to Kona. It was a gain-elevation-drop-elevation, only-time-for-juice kind of flight, departing at 12:36 PM and landing at 1:08 PM. What a different island Hawaii is from Maui! Maui is very green & lush, Hawaii is covered in lava rock so no lush greenery, at least next to the highway. We picked up our rental car from Enterprise. They were offering a deal to upgrade our rental to a 4WD 2011 jeep for $50 extra. What the hell, we thought, so a jeep is what we got!!

We hit up Kona to gather supplies before heading out to our camping spot. First stop was Costco were we proceeded to buy beach towels, a cooler bag, and snacks. Next, we stopped at Jack’s Dive Locker to rent two sets of fins and a set of water shoes for the week. That turned out to be $90! Way more than the $13/week rental we thought we would get. I wonder if it’s because we rented diver’s fins instead of regular snorkeling fins. Or maybe it was the week-long water shoe rental. We drove south about 40 miles to our first campground: Ho’okena Beach Park, two miles from the main highway down a beautiful, curvy road. We spotted our first mongoose, a weasel/ferret type critter, blond in color. The road ended in an awkward split, with the private drive to residences going straight and the drive leading to the beach park splitting off the left.

Ho'okena Beach

It’s not the prettiest of beaches with its rather dark sand and steepish bank. But it has camping with picnic tables, bathrooms, running water, public sinks, and rinse off showers (no soap allowed) for $6 per person per night. There was no one around to check in with regarding our camping reservation so we picked the southernmost spot at the far end of the beach and proceeded to set up camp. Before long, a young man was in the area sweeping off the BBQ walkways. We asked him about our reservation, he informed us that a woman would be by at 6:00 PM to check on everyone.

Our campsite

View from our campsite

We struggled for a bit as to whether or not we should leave for the afternoon to hit up a better swimming beach. We decided to just stay put, being very tired from the day of travel. We busted out some food and watched the local kids boogie board in the surf as the sun displayed our first Hawaiian sunset. Mat, of course, had to float a little in the ocean. Eventually, a gentleman came around after 6:00 PM to check reservations. We had made our reservation online and paid with paypal so we didn’t have any papers to show we made the reservation. But the gentleman had a list on his clipboard and located our names without any difficulty. We were given a permit number to pin to the outside of our tent. Phew, legit camping is always a good thing. We took note of times for sunset & onset of darkness around here: 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM respectively. Good thing to know for hiking/camping.

Mat enjoying the warm ocean

First Hawaiian sunset

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