On Thursday, Scott and I made a wonderful trip to Volcanoes National Park. We hiked on some of the many trails there. Our hikes went along the edges of craters, through the rainforest, and across mysterious stretches of sulfurous steam vents, some of which bubbled up through the bizarre wholes in the ground right along the trails' sides.
It was a lovely to and from the park. Our route took us from the west toward the south and back, cutting across mountains, valleys, and lava fields. You can see where along the highway where has added to the landscape over the past decades.
Thursday evening, we got back to our hotel, freshened up, and went out for dinner on Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona, a small city right on the western coast. Little did we know what was in store for the coastal restaurants, hotels, and shops along Alii that very night.
We got back to the hotel, and I happened to turn on the TV to CNN to see the shocking picture from Japan. Condolences to the Japanese in this time of tremendous suffering. A tsunami watch was in place Hawaii. Soon enough, that was upgraded to a warning. Watch this little video I made.
Even though tsunami travel about 500 miles per hour, we had hours to evacuate. There is over three thousand miles between Hawaii and Japan.
At around 11:30, a hotel employee banged on our hotel door and then opened it, telling us we needed to leave. We went down to the lobby and got a map. We drove our rental car to a designated evacuation area, a Walmart parking lot. There we would wait out the waves.
The parking lot was nearly full with other cars. The atmosphere among the people there was interesting. They were mainly tourists like us. There was a mixture of worry, excitement, fear, and disappointment in the air.
We managed a bit of sleep in our rental car that night. We listened to reporting on the radio on and off throughout the night. Initially, there were few damage reports, but by morning it was clear the most damage in Hawaii was along the western coast of the big island centered on Kailua-Kona, right where we had been staying.
Scott and I, as well as our refugees, didn't know what to do in the morning. Should we stay or go? Can we return to our hotels or not? Eventually we found out that Alii Drive had been hit hard. We decided to return to the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, north of the city. We were able to get a room there luckily.
In all, it was a memorable experience, but one that I hope no reader of this blog ever needs to go through. Here are some links for more information about the event.
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2011/03/12/video-eyewitness-to-kona-tsunami-aftermath-has-crazy-week/
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2011/03/12/video-kona-man-braves-tsunami-surge-to-save-fish-on-alii-drive/
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2011/03/11/hawaii-county-surveys-tsunami-damage-kona-hit-hard/
Finally, thank you all for your concern. Enjoy some pictures of our trip so far! FYI, there will be one more post about Hawaii when we return and Scott is able to download the spectacular pictures from the black sand beach and ancient Native Hawaiian place of worship that we visited.
Hapuna Beach, Big Island
the tropical sun feels much more intense than anything you ever get in Minnesota
we had lots and lots of sun
Lava is ever-present in Hawaii's varied landscapes, West Coast Desert
One of thousands of white stone decorations made by motorists on black lava along the highway
our handy GPS
Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel
lanai, shared with semi-wild kitty cats
Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway
Lava tube at Volcanoes National Park
Scott and I walked through this tube, including a pitch black section with our own flashlights
View from hotel in Oahu
Hawaii has many odd native plants
Scott in front of a lava field (formed 1974)
Sulphuric steam vents above the Kilauea's main crater, Sulphur Banks Trail
Kalaueaiki Crater, Scott and I hiked down to it
One of the rainforest trails in Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiian quilting displayed at one of our hotels
